Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Mmmmmm doughnuts. Hot jam doughnuts at the G after a win for the MFC are my favourite. ...and they only have a little hole where the jam goes in!

To temper that, I think Jackson spent a big part of the second quarter on the bench/in the rooms getting a shoulder complaint assessed and the Dockers had multiple injuries which hampered their ability to rotate players in the last quarter in particular. But agree that his mobility/agility for a big man is quite awsome. He does really seam to move with that basketball style 360 degree spatial awareness like Trac as well.

Lol I guess Kyle Dunkly and Kade Chandler also somewhat support this hypothesis!

Yeah, I did think of that as I was writing ;-) . ...but thanks for pointing it out. Along with the right to free speach is the right to be a hypocrite. There are alway shades of grey. I would suggest that the Melbourne Football Club doesn't use it's name in quite the same influence peddling way as the others I mentioned. The main grip I have with the Australian Family Association is the way they are always get their name dropped into news bulletins without qualification by news readers that are either lazy or have an agenda.

As an asides, I don't know why exclusive clubs like this are allowed to own such generic broad titles like "The Australian Club" in the first place and proport to represent a broader base of people than their rules allow. A bit like the Australian Family Association which proports to be a secular non partisan organisation, but is really a front for conservative Christian values to be represented as more mainstream societal best practice.

The timing of this is shocking and probably most of the reason it has become headline news, rather than an overlooked footnote in the AFL clubland social callendar. That doesn't change the fact that it's dumb and poor/weak leadership for club officials to accept the invite in the first place. That the likes of Pert and Bartlett didn't know of the venue organization's exclusive male only policy beggars belief. Smart and strong leaders would have politely refused the invite unless an alternate venue was offered on the grounds that it went against the clubs values. Forget the public perception issue, this kind of double standard is corrosive to club culture.

Love the drive, team first attitude and passion for sucess that Gawn expresses in this article. Maxy has come along way from eating pizzas and smoking durrys after training. Also love the quote in the MFC article “Free Agency – I don’t even know what it is really, I wouldn’t even know how it works,” Gawn said. In many ways the down to earth Gawn is culturally the anti $cully and vomiting on Tom was probably the first great thing that Maxy did at the MFC and which hopefully one day we will look on it as the preeminent turning point moment for the MFC.

No, not so much. The elite development of Patracca, Gawn, Oliver, Salem, go against that. We will have to wait and see if Oscar continues on an upward trajectory, but there are probably also some players like the great Nev Jetta that need to stand at the precipice of their AFL careers before something spurs them into action and they turn things around. Also similar to Nev, perhaps just a change of environment and someone showing some interest and faith in them may be what's required. For what it's worth, I think in fairness, Oscar has probably had alot of the tools to be a decient player and it wouldn't surprise me if he made a good show of things at the Blues.

That's a bit of an unnecessary slur on the bloke isn't it. I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get more out of Hannan given his best was pretty bloody good, but I'd personally put that down more to a bad rub with injuries than any lack of endeavor about the way he played.

Don't think it would be a bad thing at all if Max stays around for a few years at Casey while providing coaching to Luke Jackson if it comes to that. Hopefully Jackson can step it up (and sign up long term) over the next few years, sharing ruck duties with Big Maxy, which should help prolong the laters career as well.

Part of the other side benifit of this is that if we can rely on Lever and May to take more intercept marks and rebound out of the backline, it should also free up big Maxy to get involved and take marks further up the ground in our attacking half.

A draft pick we got very right. Clarry has turned out OK for a chubby pie eating red head from the Bush.

Unless I'm dyslexic, I can't see Daw's name listed anywhere there. Not a good sign for his hopes of making the list you'd think, or is he injured?

I actually think Tomlinson has potential to be one of the surprise packets. The return to longer quarters will help his game with his elite endurance as evidenced by his preseason games last season. I actually think the return to longer quarters will help others in our midfield like Harmes and Gus return to the fore and help us blow other teams who don't bat as deep in the midfield out of the water as the game goes on.

Looks like Jeff's made Don Scott angry again: ‘Insulting’: Scott slams Kennett over Hawthorn relocation remarks https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/insulting-scott-slams-kennett-over-hawthorn-relocation-remarks-20210214-p572by.html Wounder if it will be Don ripping the Tasmania logo off the Hawks jumper this time, or perhaps Don ripping Kennett out of the president's position? Just as an asides, I think Jeff is a good fit as Hawthorn president as he embodies the arrogance and crassness of so many of their supporters. It's like they deserve each other.

I wounder how well that 85,000 would hold up if Hawthorn have a 10 - 15 years like we did from 2007 - 2017, because there current list management decision-making puts them on that kind of trajectory.

Dee-molition leaves Tigers helpless https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/womens-afl/aflw-2021-scores-updates-results-aflw-pride-round-2-aflw-afl-womens-fox-footy/news-story/b95923c8535227caa7f6905a177c925e Didn't follow the game live yesterday, but what a great headline to wake up to this morning. Regardless of the opposition, it's a credit to the women's side to get off to a great start to the season. Something I feel both our women's and men's teams have struggled with in recent times is getting wins on the board early in the season. Sets up the rest of the season so much better when the team can bank the wins and consolidate a ladder position and conservatively manage injuries from there, rather than playing catch-up in the season half of the season, with every game becoming a must win just to make finals.

Similarly, I've long held that there is a significant double standard in the way society and the media treats sports people compared to other high profile celebrities, particularly in the area of substance abuse. The minute a sports person gets caught or is rumoured to have an illicit drugs issue, they become the subject of intense media pressure and public scorn, where as it pretty much seems to be a prerequisite in other industries like the performing arts and music.

It's not like it's just the pies we need to be worried about though. I haven't read most of it, but this thread is kinda stating the obvious though I think there would be 17 other clubs that would be into Trac. I'm not sure he'd be up for leaving us just on the basis of team performance though, I suspect it would be a bit more nuanced than that. Despite his exuberant persona, Trac seems like a fairly level headed, mature and I think he's also getting to an age where he would expect of himself to be contributing and thus owning some of the leadership and direction of the club. So if the team wasn't performing, I expect he might actually feel some degree of ownership for that and accept the challenge and responsibility to turn things around. I'd hope he'd only be seriously looking elsewhere if we were heading towards being an absolute basket case.

It would be a bit of a tall ask (pardon the pun) given his short tenure at the ckub, but I think Big Ben Brown would be someone worth considering. We could then have leaders at all major parts of the ground: May back Brown forward Max & Viney on ball Asides from Brown, the forward line is a bit devoid of experienced leadership. There is possibly Melksham, but he hasn't necessarily impressed on me as a leader from my observations in the stands. Jones is also the other obvious leader who could spend a lot of time forward, but he might not play all games and I think somewhat by virtue of the position, the full forward should carry the mantle that end of the ground.

I hear you brother. My 2020 started ok, but got progressively worse as the year went on. Living in Brisbane, working in a professional role and for a company moderately impacted, COVID wasn't a big thing for me. Missing finals was a 'very ordinary' way to end our, season, but was a pleasant experience compared to some of the personal hell I've been through over the past few months. Mate of mine suggested that instead of new years eve parties, everyone should have a f#@$ off 2020 party on Jan 1 and that sounds like a dam good idea to me.

MFC predictions Ladder position at the end of the H&A season: 2 Position at the end of the season (e.g. stage of finals): 1 B&F top 5 (1 point for correct inclusion, 1 point for correct place): 1. Trac 2. Gawn 3. Tomlinson 4. Harmes 5. Oliver Leading goalkicker: Bailey of the Fritsch variety Most marks: Hore Best first year player: Rosman Most improved player: Adam Tomlinson All Australian 40-man squad selections (1 point each): Trac, Gawn, Tomlinson, Harmes, Oliver, Langdon, Viney, May, Brown, Fritsch, Hore All Australian final 22 selections (1 point each): Trac, Gawn, Harmes, May, Fritsch, Tomlinson, Oliver Big Ben Brown will kick his biggest goal tally against: Hawthorn (who having no key defender of league standard available try an undersized James Sicily as their first option. However after Brown has 6 goals to his name by half time, make the switch to tall fellow Ben McEvoy, but who lacks the mobility and pace to stay with Brown on the lead. Just before 3/4 time, with Brown on 12 goals, a frustrated McEvoy gets nasty and attempts an Al Clackson special, drawing in Steven May who parked at CHF for the loose kick out promptly closes in and puts McEvoy on his [censored] with a powerful shove (like swatting a fly) and stands over McEvoy in a menacing manner. After 3/4 time with Fred Fanning's record looking under threat, Clarkson concedes the ruck and switches Ceglar onto Brown, but to no avail as the Melbourne team, having wiped out 186 and absent Ceglar in the ruck put on a Harlem Globetrotters like performance and now turn their intent to helping Brown surpass Fanning's record, with him ultimately finishing on 21 goals for the game, (which also incidently exceeds the total number of goals kicked by Hawthorn in the season to that point). Biggest winning margin (exact guess is 5 points, within 1 point margin is 4 points etc): 204 points Vs Hawthorn Biggest MFC story of the year (5 points): Asides from rewriting the record books Vs Hawthorn, the return to longer quarters and reduced interchange has the footy world in awe of the depth, endurance and toughness of the MFC midfeild, which has many drawing comparisons to the great Brisbane Lions teams of the early 2000s. Other MFC predictions (1 point each): James Harmes's partner to have a baby boy and name it Jon. AFL predictions Premier: Melbourne Runner-up: Bulldogs Wooden spoon: Hawthorn Biggest improver: Melbourne Biggest slider: Brisbane Brownlow medal: Patracca Coleman medal: Cameron Rising star: Hollands

(copy and paste below) MFC predictions Ladder position at the end of the H&A season: Position at the end of the season (e.g. stage of finals): B&F top 5 (1 point for correct inclusion, 1 point for correct place): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Leading goalkicker: Most marks: Best first year player: Most improved player: All Australian 40-man squad selections (1 point each): All Australian final 22 selections (1 point each): Big Ben Brown will kick his biggest goal tally against: Biggest winning margin (exact guess is 5 points, within 1 point margin is 4 points etc): Biggest MFC story of the year (5 points): Other MFC predictions (1 point each): AFL predictions Premier: Runner-up: Wooden spoon: Biggest improver: Biggest slider: Brownlow medal: Coleman medal: Rising star: Edited December 19 by P-man

Took me a little bit of head scratching before working out that it's Sam Mitchell being referred to in the above rather than Tom, whom (within being tottaly disrespectful) I can't see be held in the same category as most of the other guys on that list, even though he has a Brownlow medal to his name - that's saying something. Playing in premiership teams elevates a players status more than any individual award could.

Had we not lost Scott Thompson back to the Crows, it might have been a different story. He had a pretty short peak with us, but I loved watch Bernie Vince in his first few years with us. If his career was not beset by back problems, who knows the player to that Guy Rigoni might have been.