Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Agreed that his performances this season were a bit all over the place. He played a few good games and probably several that weren't so good (a bit like the side in general). Also like the side in general, he certainly wasn't Robinson Crusoe in having rings run around him against Port though.

The thing that worries me about trading either McDonald is what happens if May, Lever or Weid get injured? Petty just spent the entirety of this season with groin problems. One of the things that T Mac in particular has going for him is his versatility in that he could play forward, back or pinch hit in the ruck. His endurance use to be elite, with him being one of the few players in the league that could go with Nick Riewoldt. Can he get that back? I'm not totally sure, but to me he's only played one ordanary season (this year) in the whole time we've had him, so give him a break. Certainly don't count me in the Oscar haters either. As pointed out by @Ungarie boy, he may not be the most fashionable player, but he gets the job done. I think it's notable that some of our players (I forget which ones) have called our Oscar for the good leadership that he brings to organising our backline behind the play. At the end of the day, we made a prelim final with a backline that comprised Oscar and Frost for most of the year, so he can get the job done (can't lay all the blame on Oscar for the bag Hawkins kicked on him at the Cattery in 18 with the laces out delivery Hawkins was getting straight out of the centre that night). One thing that does strike me as ironic is that while Tommy is the one with questionable kicking out of defense, but being a dead eye [censored] in front of goal, the complete opposite is true of Oscar from the evidence to date.

I'm wondering if old mate @Lampers mis-read Tmac for Trac?

Yeah, sure, that's why GWS rolled out grandpa Shane again this year.

While it's true he's not in our best 22, that's only because we have a Gawn and it's clear he would be in others best 22. Ready made ruckman are a bit of a rare breed and can also have a pretty influential impact on a sides performance, so that's got to put a reasonable premium on him to start with. Depending on his appetite for living in Sydney, I would think GWS should be his preferred destination and they seem to have an excess of players and draft picks of value at their disposal that should be able to provide us with good compensation.

Really hope that Carlton do have to pay through the nose for him after they basically got Jack Martin for free. I'd equally be ok with this all blowing up in the face of Essendon and Carlton, with something similar happening this year and Sadd walking basically free in the preseason draft to say someone like North or Hawthorn who could scoop him up with their first pick in the preseason draft.

I think you mean Sparrow. ...but I agree.

If we are still dealing with reduced lists in 2025/26 there is something wrong with the state of the game though. Picking how long to contract players at the back ends of their careers is always a bit of a guessing game (Nev Jetta potentialy as case in point), but you would expect most players of Jack's calibre to make it to 30 no problems and a reasonable portion making it to 31-33, so I don't see that last year as a huge issue. At the worst, he should make a good mentor at Casey. Perhaps Jordan Lewis's last season wasn't great, but I don't see it as a big issue in the scheme of things.

Well, this thread has definitely helped tip me over the edge of not visiting this site until there is definitely something actually news worthwhile to read/discuss.

Finals - meh.

Always did. Those wees and poos were so unbecoming of him.

Our new curiosity on Demonland - "who can we play on a wing" ?

Just re-reading what I wrote above, my stated logic is the wrong way around. Should read "I don't think Harley owes the MFC anything".

Though I haven't seen all the exchanges, I recon good on his mum for pushing back and not letting these jerks off the hook. If it helps even some of them realise and take stock that there are real people and real consequences of their mindless keyboard attacks and or they loose some social standing amoung their peers from their actions then that would be something of a positive. Bet many of these people wouldn't have the guts to speak their mind to Harely or his mum's face. But I also get the potential futility of his mum engaging some of them and hope she can separate herself from these mindless critics. Personally I don't think the MFC owes Harley anything. We picked him up as a rookie, didn't have to give up any draft picks or players to get the opportunity to have him on our list and he wasn't on big money by any means. He uprooted himself and his family to Melbourne and the hubs to give himself and us a chance at football sucess. From all that is reported he applied himself with the right kind of disipline and attitude. In many ways, I personally think the hub breach in it's self was a realitively minor indiscretion having occurred on the cusp of our season and his being pretty much over and him not returning so as not to jeopardise the rest of the team. It's may be difficult for people in Melbourne to understand and empathise right now, but up here in Qld, life is almost normal with very limited restrictions from COVID, so I could understand if Harley saw that and just wanted to go and do what everyone else up here is doing out of the hub bubbles. In retrospect perhaps the club and the AFL could have managed the COVID breach situation differently, as it seems to have tipped Harley over the edge, but that's easy to say without knowing the full story, having to be responsible for the rest of the team/league and in hindsight.

So disappointed with the situation, but not with Harley himself so much. I have a few family members with substance addiction problems (mainly alcohol) and have seen what a battle it is for them to stay on the straight and narrow and how quickly it can all turn pear shaped, so no judgement from me. Also feel for his mum and family. Watching and trying to help loved ones self destructing before your eyes is a disempowering, soul destroying situation at the best of times and not being able to be there with them to at least try to support them turn the situation around is gut wrenching. Similar to his reported situation of refusing help from the club since his hub breach, my experiences are that people in this mental state often reject a lot of the love and support that is extended to them in their darkest moments. I can only imagine that to have this playing out in the public eye only further complicates the situation and must compound the feeling of failure and despair for someone in Harley's situation. Loved what Harley bought to the MFC in his short time at it. Though his body wasn't quite up to it this season, but the skills and poise that he exhibited were exquisite and rarely if ever matched by any other player I've seen pull on the red and blue in my lifetime. It really was a joy watching some of those effortless side steps, back peddles and banana snaps around the body that always looked like going through 95% of the time. Kossie has some good dance moves, but Bennel just made it look like he had the ability to work in slow motion, such was his sense of where the players were around him and how to out step and out manouvoure them with utter control. Had he been able to operate at full physical fitness levels with us his class could have been a total game changer and missing peice to the puzzle for the MFC team. Really hope that his family and guys from the MFC like Steven May, big Maxy Gawn and/or whoever else he was close with at the club can provide him some sort of support and sense of worth over the next period. All the best Harley.

Playing coach at Casey maybe?

Per @Storm Boy- "Snakes"

West Coast facing weeks of quarantine even if they lose final due to Magpies’ ‘dirty club’ status https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-finals-2020-west-coast-eagles-in-quarantine-wa-border-rules-collingwood-elimination-final-dirty-club-latest-news/news-story/6d39178a8724706d067e96885b0e0707 Don't really have a sensible point to make here, only that is it only now that West Coast have worked out that Collingwood are filth? I would have thought that washing with pleanty of disinfectant was necessary pre-COVID, so quarantine does seem like a smart option after playing against Collingwood regardless of what the WA government requires.

I agree with the trust of this thread and though I don't have any great tactical insights I can offer, my loose thoughts are thus: I actually don't think we are that far off being a top side. We were totally compeditive against a number of top sides this season, including Richmond, Brisbane, Geelong. What I think we lacked was belief and as Goodwin articulated a ruthless attitude to grab games and sides by the scruff of the neck and put the foot down. We were probably rightly criticised for our chaotic ball movement at times earlier in the season, but then I think we somewhat overcorrected and didn't take the game on enough in the end and prevented ourselves from blowing games wide open with our ability to attack. Another thing I think that keeps killing us as a side is poor starts to the season. Puts us behind the eight ball making finals each and every year. Instead of solidifying our spot in the eight through the middle of the season and putting our selves into a position to finish top 4 come the end of the year, we are always scrapping just to get into or near the eight somewhere through the middle of the season, leaving ourselves no tolerance for dropping the odd game to a middle/lower ranked side at the back end to make finals and/or alway throwing the kitchen sink at the last 6 weeks and carrying too many injured players into finals. Just once I'd like to see us win the first 5 or so games of the season and see what a difference it makes. So sick of hearing this accepting mediocrity crap about round one being no or less important than any other after we have lost it. Loose any more than one or two games in the first five and it's season over for any chance at genuine success. Asides from that, I'd really like to see our mature guys in their prime like Harmes, Brayshaw, Fritsch, Weid, Lever, Spargo, ANB and Salem bite the bullet and go fully ballistic next season like Trac, May and Gawn have in recient seasons. All the aforementioned have too much talent to put out the kind of seasons they did in 2020 (mainly think of Harmes and Brayshaw here) or have an extra level they can go to on a consistent basis. Weid needs to clunck more big marks, Fritsch to kick strait from set shots, Lever have the confidence to mark it more often when he has the opportunity than punch it and Salem to really take the game on more than play safe all the time. Guys like ANB and Spargo just need to be more consistently at their best, but I think the team lifting around them would help their cause a fair bit too. All going well, we should also get some good 'natural development' out of our youngest bunch of players like Jacko, Kosie, Rivers and Sparrow with the right kind of mentoring and standards being set around them. Having established their personal performance at an elite level, it's time for guys like Trac and Clarry to lead the team, by better reading the flow of the game and changing of attacking or defensive setup around the ball in real time. I do think this is an area where Harmes needs to be used to far greater effect. The games we lost the handle on this year were those when our mostly attacking midfeild got badly beaten up for big periods like against Port, Brisbane, Bulldogs and to some extent Freo and Sydney.

Just watch Preuss master the dark arts of belting around opposition mids with immunity from umpires as the apprentice to the Sith lord Mumford should he end up at GWS.

The MFC has been a fertile ground for developing top line rucks for other clubs in the last few decades. Thinking mainly of Jolly, Stef Martin ?

Agreed. At his best, he's pretty close, but slightly different in football attributes to Fristch. Takes a good high mark, on the lead and reads the drop of the ball well with good timing to scoop up the crumbs and pounce on opportunistic goals. I think he is actually a pretty good set shot for goal and has Fristch covered in that area. His form has been incredibly patchy over the last 2 seasons, but IF he could recover that 2018 fittness/form, then I think he's better than depth as a half forward.

Have been saying for years that this highlights a huge flaw in the AFL's free agency system, while trying to maintain an fair and even competition through the draft. The high placed teams like Richmond and particularly Geelong have been able to constantly top up with free talent via free agency and able to pay them unders, because of the value players rightly put on sucess. Yes the club that looses the player gets somewhat compensated via draft picks, but the club that gains the free agent doesn't need to pay anything with respect to draft picks. In my veiw, they need to be made to give up a draft pick they have which is equivalent of the compensation pick received by the other club. It would still be free agency, because the club loosing the player can't prevent the trade. The giving up of equivalent compensation picks also needs to made retrospective to penalise the likes of Hawthorn, Geelong and Richmond for the beinfit of a more even competition going forward.

Couldn't agree more. So sick of this blame the coach mentality. Time more of our players started talking a leaf out of the book of guys like Gawn, Trac, Viney and Steven May and took ownership for their own and the teams predicament. I think it's great that Patracca his lifted his personal performance to an elite level, but I think the next step is for guys like him Oliver and the aforementioned guys to take some initiative and drag the teams performance along with them. I'm not saying that we necessarily have a bunch of selfish players who don't play a team game, I just think it's the got to be the next stage in our evolution from being an average team with talent to becoming a champion side. I'm also hoping that this years second tier of somewhat underperforming guys with talent like Harmes, Melksham, T Mac, Tomlinson, Weid, Fritsch, Hannan, Spargo, Smith, ANB, Brayshaw, Preuss, O Mac and Hunt can take a leaf out of the book of guys like Gawn, Trac and May to go or get back to the next level and lift them selves to the required standard on a regular basis. I think it's a poor excuse for us to keep blaming Harmes lack of performance this season on being played out of position. Perhaps he also needs to take a mature stance and have a difficult conversation with Goodwin about playing him as a back. Alot of us here, myself included love Fritsch, but his set shot goal kicking accuracy is a disgrace, has let us down on multiple occasions this season in big games and something he needs to fix or he will forever be just a good player, not a great one.

So your 'impeccable' source starts leaking his info to a bloke who posts it on a supporters blog site. Give me a break.