Rodney (Balls) Grinter

The way some MFC supporters have turned on N.Jones is a 'F'ing disgrace. Have a look at what Kossie has tattooed to one of his arms. Jonesy carried the team for so many games in his career, even if he's a bit off the pace, he has earnt the right to be carried through a few by his mates. For what its worth, I think Jonesy is still contributing significantly to the team's performance. Often distributes the ball well into clear space in our attacking goal scoring chains and still stands up strong when it counts. I recall a key moment against the Saints earlier ths season, when the game was in the ballance, with St Kilda attacking and threatening to get off the chain a bit and Jonesy stood his ground, put on a big tackle/ripped the ball away from them as if he was saying "you're not getting through me". Congratulations Jonesy on an awsome 300 games. GO JONESY and GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!! Tear the tigers a new one at the MCG on Saturday in front of the Melbourne faithful and the eyes of the AFL world.

And fight MND he does so well. If that doesn't inspire the MFC and N Jones to a win tomorrow night there's nothing that will.

So, a few of my takes are: The claws out for Melksham this week are pretty harsh. Bloke kicked 2.5 pretty good goals and setup the game turning Max bomb last week. Yes that's similar to M.Brown, but Milkshake has a bigger upside and is better embedded in the side; Weid has only averaged the same number of goals at VFL level over the past 2 weeks as our top goal scorers of last week and the same as B.Brown. How many people were singing the Weid's praise after his performance two weeks ago when he hardly touched it. I'm far happier to make bigger changes next week than this one. It's not like another run in the two's will do either of Sammy or BBB any real harm.

LET'S PLAY A GAME - I CALL IT CLICK BATE AFL Headline: "Dees Dump Three" MFC Headline: "Dees Receice Double Boost" ...you be the judge! Lol.

It probably helps when your media department has more $ to work with. High quality productions can cost money. Have a look at the difference in income/expenses between the MFC and Tigers about half way down this article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/how-afl-survived-a-big-hit-from-covid-19-coronavirus-football/100083470

I have personally found the clubs email IT to be pretty clunky and unreliable at times. When I've tried to switch my primary email address its often taken several attempts for it to come into effect. A bit disappointing, but that's the wounders of IT for you.

Member first email. A nice touch to make those supporters who take that further step of commitment to the club a little special. I like it.

Oooh yeah. Great news for the club to have locked away such a quality player and pillar of the team.

The other very worthy contributors to our backline are: 1. Max - his reading of the play and intercept marks are such an asset; 2. Angus Brayshaw - Although he's never going to be another Max, I've been similarly impressed with his ability to read the play and either mark or spoil to provide a bit of a chop-out for our defense in recent weeks. Think he has stated that defender is actually his second position at the moment.

Is it possible to be more tormented than we already are?

I'm still dreaming of a top 4 home and away finish. Quite happy that we are on the right track, but still a long way to go. Yes, it will be hard not to make finals from here, but just stumbling into the top 8 and making finals is the fools gold of premierships.

Be releaved that the side is finally starting to live up to its potential. To be honest, I won't be that surprised as we really should have beaten Richmond in at least one of our encounters in the last few years. Time we stop being intimidated by these sides. Richmond are good, but they are not invincible.

Spargo is more than 'just a player' at the moment. May not have stared yesterday, but still contributed and his year to date has been excellent. Just wish he'd start nailing a few more goals. People on this site seem to have some strange expectations at times. No team can have a list chock full of A graders, but premiership teams have sides chock full of compedent players committed and capable of playing their role for the team and I think guys like Spargo and ANB, Hunt and Tomlinson are doing that to a tea at the moment. We've also got enough genuine A graders to get the job done as well.

I like your optimism Killer.

Agree and that crowd murmur use to sort of reflect the mood of the game. A quite tension if things were close or an electric buzz if a team was getting on the front foot, which seemed to build as the game went on. I seem to recall my times watching in the 90s that you would still get things like Four and Twenty Pies adds, the iconic VB add and the like which played away in the background during breaks, but they seemed to be more in the background and less in your face, due to the somewhat less powerful sound systems used in that era.

I actually don't mind some of the music played pre-game and at appropriate times during the breaks. Without the reserves, there is a bit of a need for something to fill in the time if you arrive early for a big game. But the constant advertising and sponsored crowd involvement segments drives me bloody bonkers. That KFC thing today was abominable. On a related note, I know the closeup crowd shots on the scoreboard have probably been a feature since big screens became a thing at the footy, but I feel they have ramped it up to a ridiculous point in recent years, to the point it becomes an invasion of privacy. They seem to stop way too long on some people at times and I do think that if it were me I'd feel soo embarrassed to the point of being belittled being on the big screen in front of tens of thousands of people in an awkward moment, without asking for it or having any control over it. On a related note, I understood the need for the canned crowd sound effects at games last year when crowds were minimal and was actually pleasantly surprised how good they got at it and how much better it made the broadcast. I'm not sure I've picked it up in recent telecasts, but you'd hope it's not being used, as the genuine crowd noise does add a somewhat better, less repetitive/predictable and better atmosphere to games.

Interesting to see Daw being named at full back. A fairly obvious and prudent move given the riches of talent in the Casey forward line, but also be good to see if he can reconfigure to playing with a defensive mindset in case we need more cover for May. Understand that Daw has played well in defense before for North, so I'd be fairly confident he could get the job done. Quite happy to be getting senior games into Petty and hope he steps up and gets the job done for us in the seniors such that Daw isn't required, but it's alway good to have solid depth options. Similarly, it would be nice to see Daw given another go at AFL level at some point, because from all reports it sounds like he's approaching his involvement with the MFC with the right attitude and has some ability and weapons of his own to bring to the table at some point.

That could characterise a huge portion of the Hawthorn fan base (I wouldn't credit them with being actual supporters), but just watch them evaporate and scurry off like the filthy little cockroaches they are after a few more seasons of irrelevance from a washed up and poorly managed Hawthorn list. Really looking forward to Hawthorn having a long, stuttering and painful rebuild and era of poor performances.

One of the things I think T Mac has been doing, which has gone fairly unnoticed and unacknowledged is when he takes the ball around the wing, turns and is able to deliver the ball deep into an open forward 50m because he has a powerful, penetrating kick. Fritta was often the beneficiary of these kicks and I wouldn't mind betting it was a bit of a set play. I'd be looking for either M Brown or Jackson to be getting on the end of those today.

This made my morning. rofl

I somewhat agree, but I don't think these stats quite tell the full story. Many of Fritta's misses are from 30 - 40m out towards the boundary, where as Max's are often from 15 - 20m out straight in front. I love Max, but how I do wish Max could have slotted through just one of those goals Vs Geelong over the years.

Even Hawthorn's current away/clash jumper is too close to the geometric design of our jumper for my liking. I get that we have a great design and others would want to emulate it, but Hawthorn is a stretch too far for me. Don't want to be associated with those [email protected].

That's true, but they were still taking up list spots that Hawthorn desperately needed to be utilised by developing the next batch young kids, not some injury prone has beens. I can see the attraction to Patton, but to have both him and Scully was daft.

No.1 draft picks haven't exactly had the best run of late have they? Watts Scully Boyd McCartin Patton Just the ones that come to mind. Different reasons and nothing personal as a whole.

Well, I guess that makes 3 Liberal MPs in WA today. Seriously, that bloke makes me sick. Such a phoney. Wouldn't know what an Ausie rules ball is from a soccer ball. Sort of guy who would pretend to be interested in all the things you are just to try to look popular and hang with the cool kids.