Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I doubt it. Last year the GF crowd was a few hundred shy of 30,000 at the Gabba. Getting a crowd somewhere in the order of 50,000 at the MCG would be a big improvement over that and I can't see anyone, not least the AFLPA wanting to delay the big game by anything more than a couple of weeks, unless the whole of Australia was under strict lockdown.

The Gabba. McGowan would be too risk averse to let anyone but WA locals attend and the airfares would be horrendous. As someone living in South East Queensland, there is absolutely no self interest here at all. That all said, I'm really hoping it is played at the mighty MCG, in front of a sizable crowd. Anything else would be somewhat hollow. If by some chance Queensland gets locked out of Victoria, I'd give my GFG tickets to my MFC memeber sister and one of her kids. All predicted on the basis that the mighy Demons keep delivering on feild andactually make it of course.

Deva, the short version of my rant is that while I get where your comming from and admire you unbreakable commitment to the MFC, personally, loyalty is a mutual thing and I wouldn't take getting [censored] over by the club and the AFL and still continue my existing arrangements with them as if nothing had ever happened.

Look if the GF was capped at 20,000 And there were a total of 40,000 members from each team that had purchased the equivalent of a GFG membership, then I'd probably begrudgingly accept a lottery to redeem my entitlement. But in a scenario where the attendance was capped at say 60,000 and 30,000 of those tickets went to the 16 other non competing AFL teams, sponsors, Gillam's neighbors and the Australian PM, then I would be openly hostile towards the club if they didn't fight and somehow obtain enough tickets to honor their end of the bargain. I wouldn't see it as punishing the club, I would just see it as reciprocating the breaking of a contract of loyalty and finance. The clubs administrators and the AFL really do need to step up to the plate and ensure that a scenario like this doesn't play out. I know scenario like this seem to play out every year, but I think it's about time the AFL and clubs prioritise AFL club memebers over the big corporates etc. As it stands currently, I have little faith that these entities actually get it. I'm really not convinced that the AFL are putting enough energy and priority into looking after members right now during the season. My old man pays for MFC reserve seats. Has done for a number of years, including last season, when he got exactly nothing in return for them. This season when quite sizable crowds have generally been permitted at the MCG, the club, the AFL, the MCC and the ticketing companies haven't been able to get their act together a provide an allocation of seating accessible only to those with reserved seating within their ticketing system and he's had to randomly access tickets anywhere in the outer. It's not that the AFL and the clubs couldn't do something, it's that they can and they arn't. It's pretty much as if they've said "thanks for your on going loyalty, now we are going to take that for granted and on-sell your more valuable reserve seating spots for a second time at a premium price, so that we can pay for Gillam's yacht to be moored down at Sandrinham". It's a huge breach of trust and it's about time that these parties realise that if they don't pull their heads out of their dates, there are consequences.

I've been an interstate member for around the last 10 years (suffered through some putrid performances in that time as well). I've purchased a GFG membership with the MFC since early 2018 for myself and added another for my my youngest son around Rd 4 this season. Unless the GF was played in a closed stadium without crowds, if the above was to apply, I wouldn't purchase another membership of any kind from the MFC. Don't care if they refund the value of the GFG package, that's not what I paid up for. Seriously do hope this is all a total hypothetical worst case scenario that doesn't eventuate for anyone as playing a GF in front of a minimal capacity crowd wouldn't be a great outcome all round but right now, I guess anything is possible right.

We are back on top - YEAH BABY!!

I'd fair dinkum take a cricket bat to Gillam's Mercedes if that happened.

Just imagine if they kicked as accurately when going to the right! ?

I did a bit at the time, but given we essentially got Maysy in return and the way Hogans career subsequently went south, I almost couldn't be happier that Jessie went back to WA. The only better scenario that possibly could have eventuated was if we'd have picked up Steve May a season later as a FA and Jessie had pulled himself together a bit more and somehow gotten over his injuries better. But in hindsight those list management changes we made at the end of 2018 will go down as a master class in football department decision making.

One of the several clubs contending for the MFC's previous monopoly on that feat.

Jim, yeah I forgot about that and I agree it's pretty important. Two grand finals we have played in my lifetime I'm guessing we would have worn white shorts and lost both. It was more being on top of the ladder in Rd 17 that is ultimately pretty meaningless that I was referring to. But meh, I don't care. After all the years of putrid, frustrating and/or mediocre seasons we have had, just being on top of the ladder at the end of the round gives me a few warm fuzzies inside, so I'll take that for now.

I know it's kind of meaningless in the grand scheme of our season, but part of me would quite like to see the Swans knock the Bulldogs off today, so that I can bask in us sitting on top of the ladder again.

Gerrard Healy has also been pushing the shorter games barrow for a while this season too. Then there are those that suggest we should do away with the medical sub and just go to five on the bench. So many of these issues with the at times putrid look of the game style are because players aren't playing with high enough levels of fatigue. Our game has always been a battle between leg speed, speed of ball movement and endurance and it's one of the things that makes it so attractive in my oppinion. If the AFL were to capitulate to the likes of Heally and Scott and change the length of games in a season I would absolutely spit chips. I actually think the reduced game length unfairly took away an advantage from us last season and was probably a big part of the difference to us making finals or not. Really riles me. Just leave the bloody game alone.

Was looking at the fixture for our run home and thinking how some of our Geelong and the Western Bulldogs must be thinking they have a hard run home because they have to play Melbourne. As much as playing these teams represents challenge to us finishing top 2, it also represents an oppertunity, both to test our selves against the better teams and also to deny them the win and finish above them. Asides from Freo and the Saints, quite a few of our near ladder rivals like Brisbane, Port, Geelong etc, also play teams like Richmond, GWS and West Coast, which while the form of those teams has been fickle, they are also quite capable on their day and will all be scrapping to attempt to secure a finals birth. Makes me look back and think how normally that's the MFC's lot in life and what a great position we are currently in with half a dozen games to go. Beating Port on Thursday was such an important win.

Great first up effort kicking off the thread @Bimbo. I'm not sure the above Port person ever graduated from using crayons at primary school. Though I personally don't hate them the same way, what must be remembered is that Port Adelaide are regarded as being the Collingwood of South Australian football and from this thread, it's easy to see why.

This thread seems as an appropriate place as any - Ash Barty, women's Wimbledon champion. What a bloody legend she is.

Or if you look at our form since those Freo/Swans losses - a Melbourne of 2020?

Unfortunately for us, it could well work out that the lack of oppertunity for Bedford the to Kossie, ANB, Spargo etc could see him and perhaps Chandler end up at other AFL lists and thrive, without us getting much trade compo in return. I wouldn't begrudge either of those guys for doing that (unless they went to Collingwood, Carlton or Essendon) as it must be really frustrating to be so close to the mark, but denied oppertunity to develop and perform at the top level.

Love listening to Daisy Pearce commentate is such a breath of fresh air. Acutually understands the contemporary game and is able to offer some intelligent insight, compared to the usual drivel that comes out of some of the other has beens ex players and media announcer types. I imagine listening to Libby is is similar. It's about time some of the sub par comentators are put out to pasture. Seems like some of them get given a job for life based on who they are and the profile they establish for themselves rather than how well they actually perform.

Well, this is kind of ironic for me personally. I live in Brisbane and just yesterday I was looking at our fixture in terms of lining up dates against the games and realised that I'd double booked myself by committing to a boys camping weekend on Fraser Island for our Metricon Gold Coast game. Guess I don't feel so bad about it from that perspective now, but disapointed for all the other Demons fans this screws around. At least I got to see us thrash Hawthon and take care if Geelong at the MCG earlier this year. And bigger picture I also realised there is a public holiday in Queensland the Monday following what should be grand final weekend, should we make it.

If I thought Hunt would be a regular contributor to the team this year, it was as a quick forward (speed forwards in the new MFC lingo). That he has been able to adjust his game to playing back in defense where alot of people thought he had deficiencies and he hadn't played much for a few years, is a real credit to him. Would be great if he could up his game that little bit and kick us a few extra goals every now and there off a back flank. He had a fair crack at one from outside 50 on the boundary last night and nearly bought it home. He's really quite a good kick for goal, so I think providing a few goals here and there ought to be well within his capability. Would also be nice to see Goodwin shuffle the magnets every once in a while, when we are struggling to kick goals and throw a guy like Hunt or May forward to see if they can kick a few breakthrough goals, but I feel that our philosophy this year is more about prioritising predictability within the team and the players as individuals, so I'm not sure it's that likely to happen right now. It could be something which happens more frequently when the team has imbbeded the confidence/belief, knowledge of how each other plays to a really mature level, like what happened with the really good Hawthorn, Geelong and Richmond teams over the past few years. I think this actually represents another level our game could go to.

Are you talking about that handball over the top to Trac in the goal square? If not, that was another great example of top notch disposal to setup a player. Jimmy made it look easy, but I think it would have actually be quite a difficult hand pass to execute under pressure. I think it may well have been beyond some other lesser players in the past and we would have missed the target with Trac and he either fumbles the ball over the line or ends up getting tackled and we don't get the goal.

Let's hope so!

Awsome to see. If his body had held up Trenners could have been a good captain. But gee Big Maxy is a great one. Loved hearing him respond to a question from the Eddy or someone on the Fox Footy panel, when he was interviewed post match. The conversation was about how Kossie had seemingly pulled himself out of a form slump and got himself up to put in a great game against the Power and the question asked of Max was "What did you say to him as captain to get him up for the game?". Taking absolutely no self credit, Max deflected the premise of the question and proceeded to talk with words to the effect of what an incredible contributor Kossie was to the MFC and how great his performances were and how he had been so amazingly reslilant in the context of the family tragedy that he had been through at the start of the year and how it would be great for him to hopefully get to spend a bit of time with them over the weekend as well. In the same interview, Max had a bit of a laugh at himself for getting his head sat on in that screemer the Port bloke took on his head, then had a rye dig at Jake Lever for pushing the Port player up there and a laugh about it with Steven May. His work ethic and commitment on the track are elite, his onfield performances are amazing, his work with the media helps elevate the marketability of the MFC and his social and emotional connection with his teammates is sensational and his leadership has us playing the best, most disiplined team first footy that I've ever seen from the MFC. He totally respects the MFC history and great players and personalities. Hard to think of a better MFC captain that we've had in a long time. Another diamond in the rough. Congratulations on 150 games big Gawn dog.

[censored] I'm enjoying watching the big T Mac play this year. Clunking big marks all over the ground, kicking clutch goals at big moments in games left right and centre. Probably one of the most underrated and little noticed aspects of his game externally in the media is the drive he provides from wing-half forward and the connection then achieved with our other deep forwards. Just love the way he takes a big strong mark, then gets back quickly, brushes off the man on the mark and then drives it deep into an open forward line with a pretty much perfectly measured kick to the advantage of our other forwards pushing back. Fritta, Kossie and Trac must love it when they see him mark in these situations. He must have an insane metres gained and goal assists for a big bloke. How T Mac ever became so bemoaned riles me. I hardly think you could ever fault the desire, workrate, attitude and team ethos of big Tommy. Love the competitiveness, aggressiveness and passion he playes with. Getting in the face of Travis Boak after kicking that goal last night was gold. Would pay people to remember how he looked gone for all money over the last couple of seasons when they write off the likes of Weid and BBB.