Rodney (Balls) Grinter

BTW, some good resources and suggestions for how to go about R U ok conversations on their website https://www.ruok.org.au/

Thanks all for the kind words of sympathy. I'm really hoping for the fairy tale ending for the MFC this season and then next for all our sakes, not just mine. As I said in my previous post, it will be bitter sweet for me, but if it happens, I'll be absolutely stoked, as I'm determined to move forward enjoying life. An old friend of mine who worked in a somewhat mundane insurance administration job once emphised the importance of having hobbies and interests as a way of keeping realitively sane and having something to look forward to in life. I'd go further and say that when you can do this in a comunity setting with good social connections, it's even better. Even at the lower points of our season when things were looking kind of bumpy after losses to the Crows, Pies, Hawks and Giants, following the mighty Demons this season has been a welcome distraction from life and something to look forward to at the end of the week. If we don't pull it off this year, there will always be next few seasons, when our list should be right in it's prime window (as I said right through the 90s!!).

Today is R U ok day, so I thought it an appropriate time to give this thread a bump. I read this thread at the time it was first started for 'Spud's Game' , but wasn't quite ready to respond at that time. Late in 2020, sadly my wife took her own life after a long and painful struggle with depression and lack of self worth. Somethings which struck me about this thread were two pretty polarised views of either talking to your freinds/mates/colleagues Vs seeking professional help. It also seemed as if posters were exchanging these opposing views in a way which somewhat lacked the care and sensitivity the subject deserves. For what it's worth, here are a few of My own first hand observations and oppinions: The R U ok / have a chat to your mates is a good message worth elevating. There are times (and there were several throughout my late wife's journey through life) when friends and colleagues may be more attune to something being a miss and / or could be someone the person requiring help is more likely to respond to and connect with in that moment than a medical professional. I am truely greatful for the caring and courageous conversations which a number of my late wife's freinds and colleagues had with her at various stages, without which she may not have been with us as long as she was. Not contradictory at all to the important role which trusted freinds and family can play, I would also strongly encourage and implore for anyone with mental health issues to seek the right professional help through their GP or a professional counselor to address their issues at the root cause. Here in part lies a catch 22 where good support from genuinly caring friends family and colleagues is of high value - from first hand experience, professional counselling is practically challenging to access at the times when it's most needed due to the high demand and a severe lack of trained professionals. It can take weeks and months to access a psychologist right now in 2021 and I dare say it's been that way for a while (That isn't to discourage anyone from persisting to get access to one, it's just the harsh reality right now). I am genuinely greatful to Majak Daw for the honest and open way in which he shared his experiences with depression and near brush with suicide as part of the ongoing efforts to de-stigmatise mental health and suicidal thoughts. Having lived with someone with severe depression for almost 20 years, I have some understanding and empathy for those suffering from this horrible pain and debilitating illness, but can't say that I truely know what it feels like to be in that place myself. What I can say though, if anyone is at a point of desperation, please know that there are people who would deeply care if you were not here. Right now one of the main things keeping me going is trying desperately to look after the welfare and mental health of our beutiful kids who deeply grieve their mother and the lifetime they will be without her. Even if you have no immediate family, I'm sure there is someone who cares, but it's also the sad irony that even those who do have people who do care feel as if no one does care about them and I see that as part of the need for professional assistance to help cut through those deep feelings of lack of self worth. On matters closer to this forum, the season the mighty Demons are having has bought some joy to my life and that of my youngest son, who is now also a mad Demons supporter (for life I reckon) and No.1 BBB fan. It could be a very bitter sweet moment if we can pull it off and win the flag this year, in multiple ways whether we can make it in person or not, but whatever happens it's a matter of perspective. Take care of those around you and yourself. For what it's worth, I genuinely enjoy the banter and sense of community from all online here at Demonland.

Demonland goes into meltdown at sniff of injury to Jaden Hunt and ANB - wow, the world really has gone mad in 2021!!

As it's turned out, I think finishing on top was a big advantage to us as well. I expect the other prelim to be between Port or the Bulldogs and both of them look far more formidable in the current circumstances than Geelong or GWS. If we make it through to the GF, our opponent will have had to work far harder than us to get their, which I think is an advantage this time of year as so many MFC teams have found getting to the GF in a dilapidated state though having to fight every inch of the way there. One game at a time, but I really do think we have set ourselves up in a great position to this point.

That's generally my view too. My main hope is that GWS can still be compeditive enough against Geelong that they give them the hardest game possible and pummel the absolute crap out of each other. A few more pulled hammies etc for dad's army would be a great outcome as well.

Sorry if I'm repeating others here, but what's with the whole 'Toby Tax' BS. I saw a stat that Toby had been charged 22 times prior to this and only been suspended for a total of 8 weeks. ANB, Viney and a few others at the MFC would be pretty happy if the got taxed at the Toby rate. It's like the AFL are rewarding him for being a total [censored]. Either that or the love GWS and hate the MFC.

Pretty gross watching Jessie spitting like that over and over again too.

I really love this headline: Let the Bummers feel more of the pain we have endured over the years.

6. Clarry 5. Patracca 4. Gawn 3. Fritta 2. Lever 1. Gus Brayshaw

Add me to the list of modern day Demons fanatics that originate from the Norwood connection. My grandma use to follow them when she lived in Adelaide and then latter followed Melbourne when she moved to Vic/Melbourne because the colours were the same as Norwood. Probably helped that Melbourne had a bit of sucess around the time as well. Three generations of somewhat tortured and downtrodden, but also loyal, diehard Demons supporters have been spawned from that connection since.

I'd rather the GF was played there.

Tell em their dreaming. Since when do players in their 30s command 1st round or even mid second round draft picks? Maybe if included within a pick swap, which in effect sees the team picking him up only slip back a few places, but even then it would be a dud deal in my eyes. The only club that has traded away high picks for aging, injured players of late is Hawthorn and just look at where that has got them. If we could pick him up for a pick in the 50s like we did Lewis, then I'd say go for it absolutely. But I'm not sure that Hawthorn are in the same position to be wanting to do that now. To be honest, I'd have thought they would want to hang onto him pretty badly to help develop some of their own youth around.

Better than a BT commentary. Give her the gig to call the Friday night game already.

The flip side to this is also that another 3 years age hasn't benifited many of the main opposition rivals from 2018, who even at that point were running around with aging lists. Collingwood, West Coast, Geelong and Richmond being the main culprits in this respects. Also think it's a key reason why our realitve performance has been so much better 2021 Vs 2020, with the longer games this season, it has benefited our list age profile.

On a related tangent, got to love the contrast in how the MFC and CFC management have gone about their respective coaching/football department reviews. The context for this is last season everyone was saying what a great build Carlton were going through, they were a team on the rise and had surpassed everything Melbourne had put together since 2018. We were having a somewhat below average 2020, but probably not that dissimilar to what Carlton had in the first half of 2021, where were compeditive with all the good teams, but just couldn't chalk up the wins on the board. If I recall correctly, mid 2020 there was a short sharp football department review, from which a few coaching positions were shuffled around, but hardly any mass leaks, haemorrhaging and disgruntlement within the club. In fact, post that reveiw the team actually seemed to come closer together, even though we suffered the horror Cairns capitulation. If you hear our playing group talk, they all pretty much unanimously will state that we built on the foundations our current game style and culture throughout the back half of 2020. Contrast that to the drawn out mid season review process that has occurred at Carlton and the affect that has had on their season and position as a footy club. Hats off to Garry Pert and Co, Allan Richardson and Goody for the way they negotiated those challenging times for our club. Similarly, the transition from Glen Bartlett to Kate Roffey has been smooth and undisruptive compared to what's going on at Collingwood. If you look at where we have come from in the past, its amazing to look at what a professionally managed club we have become. Due credit to Roosy and Peter Jackson as well for turning things around from where they were and setting up the foundations. It's often been said that good off feild management and stability is required to produce sucess on-feild and I think that's also a key part to what's playing out for us right now too.

2018 we just scrapped into the finals and from memory had hardly won a game against a team in the top 8. 2021 we hace finished top of the lot, not only had a finals birth secured early, but top 4 as well, which has ment we haven't had to cruel players carrying significant injuries into finals without being able to manage them throughout the season (on which note, we now also have a Burgo). 2021 we hace beaten every team in the top 8 during the regular season. I also think our maturity, disipline to play to team structures and belief as team is poles apart 2018 to 2021.

Nice work Zephyr. Understand you were just making good on a request, however, personally I'm a bit over the whole Titanic thing (so 2018). I think the respective clips from that final kick of Rd 1, 2018 and Rd 23, 2021 would make some great bookends within a video collage of the team's journey over the past 5 or so years, but I think we need to wait so that the closing scene could be the cup being raised. This win in Saturday was such a great moment, but I really love how the players have expressed that the jobs not done yet. COME-ON DEMONS!!! Just another 3 more wins between now and the end of this season to make good on a lifetime of supporting the Red and Blue.

It's probably been stated multiple times in this thread already, but the deliberate out of bounds rule was applied extremely inconsistently in the favour of our opponent yet again against Geelong. There were also multiple other occations it cost us, not just in the dying minutes. Chris Scott doesn't have any leg to stand on questioning the validity of that 50m penalty, unless he's also brings the paid/not paid deliberate out of bounds into the conversation. Thankfully unlike against Adelaide, it didn't cost us the game this time, but it's a bit of a trend that we get such a rubbish rub of the green with these decisions compared to our opponents.

Great little video and characterises what happened at my place pretty well. What a rollercoaster. At half time I remember sitting there thinking FFS, they have thrown this one, because the one wood to our games this season has been never to let a team get more than ~20 points up on us. While I thought it was possible that we'd come over the top of the dad's army in the second half, to be honest, when we hadn't pegged back their lead to less than 20 points at 3/4 time I thought we were pretty stuffed and would just be playing the last quarter to regain a bit of form and pride. Once we got them back to within 14 points, with soo much time I thought F this is game on baby, but once Sparrow missed his shot on goal and they started to play keepings off in that last 2mins I thought, bloody hell, I think we've blown our chance here. When Maxy marked, weirdly I actually had reasonable confidence he would kick it, but not the sort of confidence as if it was a Salem or Big Ben Brown. Seeing that kick go through the two big sticks was just a moment of pure elation and I was screaming my head off, fist pumping and jumping all over the lounge in a mad flurry. Hope the players know how to put things back in the bag, because I'm still buzzing from this win.

6. Clarry 5. Lever 4. Gawn 3. Big Ben Brown 2. Kossie 1. Harmes

Not quite WJ. We win today and finish on top and it's like we've reached that last little peak before the final accent to the summit. As much as I'm itching for the game today and would love us to finish on top, in my mind, we are still only strong qualifiers for the ultimate prize. Really hope this team has the physical and mental toughness to clutch the oppertunity that awaits us in the comming month. Everything I've seen so far this year says we are watching the Melbourne team most likely to go on and claim that illusive flag. Really hope that everything comes together for team over this last month and we can totally dominate the opposition along the way and put it all beyond doubt - starting with today.

Melbourne supporter as a kid mainly. Is he kinda mates with Trac as well maybe?

Agree. The Brownlow has become tarnished over the years by some really shocking outcomes. Doesn't deserve to be the penultimate players award. Substituting the umpires votes for the coaches ones would bring back some much needed credibility.

I'm all for us targeting Maynard and Pendelbery. I think both have some great attributes that would complement what we need in the team. I know there's this theory that as captain, Pendles is untouchable, but I'm not convinced. Plenty of precedents of captains jumping ship late in their careers. Add to that the Collingwood board instability that Ross Lyon sited as the basis of his decision to snub the Pies. Both have a strong MFC connection and that we have such a strong list, well in the premiership window (which I think would be a huge motivator for most AFL players) and I think you can make a pretty strong case that they are well and truly gettable.