Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Just 40? Nah, I want to destroy them by 80+ points.

21 Votes Clarry Don't know if this has already been pointed out, but Oliver lead pretty much every key stat for the game. Goals - Oliver Marks - Gawn Score involvements - Oliver Disposals - Oliver Tackles - Oliver & Jordon Contested possessions - Oliver Talk about a powerhouse. There are some games where I don't notice Oliver's workman like burrowing and dishing off as much, but this game he was phenomenal. If we had got up, it would have been due to Oliver. When we got belated by the Dogs pre-season, I think his absence was a key factor. Not scared of the Dogs on Friday night with Clarry in the guts. Such a key cog in our machine.

It was very ironic given that the Crows got awarded a free for deliberate out of bounds which they got a goal out of, which far less of a free kick in my eyes. In that instance out player (I think it was Lever) did a soft hand loopy handball out of a pack situation and the Adelaide player shephered the ball over the line, while appealing for the free kick. When the rule was first bought in, the free would have actually been paid against that Adelaide player, because he had pleanty of oppertunity to pickup the ball before it went out, but chose not to. The non paid free kick for holding the ball/incorrect disposal, which bobbled out to Tex was also a complete shocker. There should be bigger consequences for umpires that F it up this much and make howlers that change the result of games. The expectations on players in the professional era are huge and they should be on umpires too. Not enough for the league just to say, sorry we F that up. The responsible umpires should get substantial fines.

So, we played poorly, that's one thing, but something I think we really do need to get better at is putting a bigger break on lower sides early in games. We've been able to let sides stay with us and then kick away pleanty of times this season, but that does risk a side getting the wind in their sails and comming in over the top like Adelaide did tonight. Just think there are times when we need to really put the foot down on the throat a bit better when we kick away to a 3 or 4 goal lead at times. Not that it was necessary the dominant factor in tonight's loss.

The missed free kicks to us in the dying minutes were one thing, but gee didn't they give Adelaide a bucket full of BS marginal frees smack bang in front of goal. That 50m that got paid against Gawn - like how many times does that happen to us in a game and not get paid?

Can someone confirm who is our 5th indigenous lad? i.e. The guy second from the left next to Bedford.

A true tribute to your resilience as a MFC member/supporter. Booking trips at the ski lodge my [censored]!

You'd think the AFLPA has a role to play here with the reasonableness or not of the fines being issued. Yes, I know the AFLPA has an important interest in protecting players bodies, but I feel as if the arbitrariness with which the AFL hands our these fines is disgraceful. And where does the fine money go? Should go into some kind of long term player welfare or charitable fund (perhaps it does and hence why the AFLPA's lack of public criticism). If I was a player, I'd be super [censored] about this issue. Yes they earn alot but most of the only for a short time and $2k here and there would soon add up. Should also be based on % of player base salary so they hurt the Dusty and Co.s as much as a rookie.

Probably because he didn't top out any one particular statistic. But stats don't always tell the full story. Not to mention that he should have also been AA last year as well - I think someone has some kind of grudge with May.

Decient enough odds, depending on if you are a glass half full or empty sort of person.

Geelong is a modern refference point I like to look back on as a team that had a bit of an up and down, slow build of a premiership team and then went BANG. Just looking at the records from 2007, they went 3 losses from their first 5 games and then put together something like 15 wins on the trot, before loosing a sole game for the rest of the year in the second last H&A before winning the GF. If we could emulate something similar to them, I'd be stoked. I'm not sure we are as good as that team though and one other thing that Geelong side did that season (and in others thereafter) was totally dominate sides. I wish we'd do that a bit more. Winning the 4 points is great, but it would be nice if some of our games were under control from the get-go and I could just sit back and enjoy the show instead of stressing. Lost enough hair (and brain cells) following our team over the years.

So seriously, hands up, who thought we'd be in this position of 9 - 0. Since 2018, I've wanted us just to finish top 4 and thought we had a side capable of that, but never really thought that we would be without a loss up to this point in the season. No that we are here, I'm not sure why we couldn't beat either or both of the Bulldogs and Lions, although I'm equally not sure that we are playing at our best, so wouldn't be surprised if we went on and lost one or both games. I think it should help our form getting Viney back sometime in the next few weeks hopefully.

I recon the confidence from that mark to Weid almost as important as the goal to T Mac.

A beard bath. Lol. Loving the comedic light relief on D'land here this morning.

Lol. Funniest thing I've had all morning.

Surely not. Trac would be 'fine to play next week' according to Goody! (Using my best sarcastic voice for the above statement).

I was thinking the same way Re a Port win, but as it's panned out, I think it was better them loosing as it could put us 3 games clear inside the top 2, which is really more important. No real difference between finishing 1 or 2 come finals time, but 2 or 3 could mean a home Vs away final. The closeness of the end result last night has also helped bring the dogs % back down to earth a little.

Asides from Chandler, a few points of difference and things I'll be interested to watch today: 1. Do we fix our centre clearance issues from last week; 2. Can Harmes backup and/or improve on his form from last week - could make it interesting to eventually squeeze Viney back in (though I think that could end up as Chandler out, Harmes forward and Trac playing more forward time); 3. Functionality of the forward line - I see strengths in all positions and wounder how the heck Carlton contains that. Will be mainly up to us to make it gell, particularly when defense was a reall weakness for Carlton last week. Tommy Mac and BBB proved they could play forward together last week and I see Tommy as more contested compared to Weid, so they are not necessarily competing for the same space in that respects. 4. Last week Fritta was quite though. Was that a result of 3, or was it just that Sydney decided they needed to play a lockdown job on him after he kicked the bag the week before? 5. How does Weid go getting the third tall defender? He must internally love the prospect of that. If we get all of the above right, I could actually see this becoming a bloodbath for Carlton.

Really looking forward to seeing Kade Chandler play today and hope he makes the most of his oppertunity. Looked red hot in the preseason only to get squeezed out by a too hot to handle Kossie from Rd 1.

Agree this is a possibility. Everyone here keeps fearing us dropping a game to one of the lesser teams, but conversely I fell we haven't really clicked and dominated any team so far this year and that's also a possibility. I guess that's somewhat the reality of the competition being realitively tight, that it's difficult for even the better teams to have it on their terms for a full game. Getting off to a good lead in the first quarter and going on from there instead of wrestling with them all day would be a good start.

Yep

Maybe the club has been listening? Good little promo for Haymes by BBB published in the past couple of days:

Talking about clubs walking in our shoes. Suck it up Hawks supporters! For the third time in four seasons, the last remaining winless team records its first win of the year against Hawthorn. 2021: Kangaroos def Hawks, Rd 9 2020: Crows def Hawks, Rd 15 2019: Blues def Bulldogs, Rd 5 2018: Lions def Hawks, Rd 9 Credit, Max Laughton via Twitter.

So has that old chestnut of "Melbourne still haven't beaten anyone good yet" come up much in Lygon St? (I recon Royal parade isn't quite accurate. Just about every second Carlton supporter is of Italian or Greek decient).

I read an article where they recon his back is broken, but it's not that bad a thing and he can't do much more damage to it?! I can't figure that one out personally, but then I'm no doctor. Also sounds similar to when we played Jonesy for most of a season with a stuffed neck. Not sure that did him or us that much good over the journey.