Rodney (Balls) Grinter

You may well be right and I wouldn't argue with taking the safe route with him either, as much as it is painful to do so as a supporter. There were a few times last night where he looked as if he was going to take the game by he scruff of the neck with his run, but just held back a bit. As he builds fitness and confidence in his body, he looks like he could explode and become a really damaging player for us. It would be such a bonus for us if he gets back to even close to his best, I really hope things continue on the upward trajectory. Certainly gives the impression that he has his personal life and attitude right, just needs his body to come to the party in the long term.

That one where we caught the GC red handed in a perfect tackle with plenty of prior 10m in front of our goals infuriated me, in much the same way as the unpaid Dusty dropping the ball last week. Reeked of gutless umpiring, yet it would have been paid every day of the week against us, particularly for one of their love child sides like Hawthorn, Richmond etc.

Asides from this thread being seriously derailed, I think whilst there was some validity to Garry Lyon's 'Red Mist' analogy, he seriously over did it last night to the point where I think he was obviously just trying to draw attention to himself rather than comment on the game. It was like every time we had a rushed kick under pressure "there's that red mist again" or his other favorite "you can see the tako revving up". Give us a break Garry last night you shaat me to tears.

Really hoping to see a post on the MFC website today that shows a wide eyed T Mac declaring that he will be fine to play next week against the Dorks. I think T Mac's form has been getting better and would really love to see him working in tandem with the Weid again. With the rest of the forward line starting to function around him, I think T Mac could make an impact. Surely we've had enough [censored] luck and are due a turn in fortune.

I think I'll actually love watching him play against everyone except us. Freakish talent, but definitely knows that as well. He was trying to on everyone last night and comming unstuck on a number of occasions, but I think he'll find his boundaries and adjust at the higher level very quickly and become a very dangerous player.

Was much happier with how we moved the ball away from centre bounces last night. I think all our mids played a role in this, but particularly liked Harmes and Brayshaw getting in amongst it. Actually made use of Gawn's dominance in the ruck. Oliver was getting heaps of attention at the centre bounces and should have been paid a heap more frees for holding the man. I think sometimes we just try to bomb it long out of the guts which can have mixed sucess. Harms long penetrating kick that cleared the pack resulted in a goal when we didn't let them have a sweeper and Bailey made good position to capitalize on it. So long as those kicks go long, I think it's a win for us as even if it does get turned over, at least it gives us an oppertunity to setup a d lock the ball in our forward half. Will be interesting to see if we are able to repeat this against Hawthorn's mids, who I think are better than the GC, but also somewhat overrated.

I actually thought Tomlinson was s bit stiff to be dropped. He's been one of our better players most of the season and think he would respond pretty well if given another oppertunity. His tank would test quite a lot of key backs who would match his height.

Melksham is a shadow of his former self at the moment, but I think he is too good a player to drop right at the moment as well. a) despite not racking up huge numbers, he still did a few handy things b) my observation was that he was being manned by Jarrod Harbrow last night, who I rate as one of Gold Coasts best defender's and Harbrow had little influence on the game. Also think it shows the respect that the opposition show him and if Harbrow doesn't take Melksham, he's taking one of our other forwards and making life harder for them. I'm actually wondering if we should throw Melksham onto the ball for periods as he has shown the ability to be quite effective there at times as a tagger and could help bring him into the game more.

Even if he did touch him it was such light contact. The umpires had as huge a hard on for Rankine as the commentators. That free kick he got for too high around the 50m line in the 3rd quarter after the down field free was total rubish as well, should have been paid holding the ball, because the original tackle was barely high, he took the man on the mark on and then ducked it - it reeked of arrogance and the umpires fed it. I can see Rankine becoming one of those players the umpires make untouchable.

Like pretty much most of his 2019, but I think it's pretty clear he was playing injured last year. Asides from his possessions, I thought his chase and tackle was pretty good last night. People decry that we don't have enough pace, but Hannan is deceptively fast and combined with his footy smarts make him best 22 in my book.

Loved Hannan's game, but that's a bit of a common theme. Thought Harmes was much more effective playing on the ball and in the forward line, so very glad to see we didn't waste a whole season with fitting a square peg in a round hole down back. Was also really impressed with Harley's game. Although he didn't tear the game apart, he always looked like he had time and space and used almost all of his disposals very effectively. Would have had quite a few score involvements and Iike Hannan, I think he makes our forward line function much better, because he kicks it to good spots to the advantage of his team mates. Didn't think Nev was outstanding, but I don't think we should write him off as a spent force just yet. Hibbard looked that way just a month or two ago and he has really turned it around. Particularly with O Mac back there, I think our backline gelled better and was more predictable to each other last night, which is very important.

6 - Maxy 5 - Viney 4 - Oliver 3 - Hannan 2 - Harley 1 - AVB

I was more so thinking about that 73 point win in 2016, which was a real scoring confidence booster for the team at the time and back at the Gabba in 2018 when our season was in danger of becoming irrelevant and we turned it on in the second half to beat them by 69 odd points - I recall Steven May kicking a 60m goal against us that game, we could do with one of those.

Games against Gold Coast have historically been positive turning points in our season, so I'm tipping that to continue. 2 and 3 with the team playing a more confident, connected brand of footy and things won't seem anything like as bad as they do right now.

So shiited off with these shortened 3/4 length games. Despite the melt down started by Oliver in the last 5 minutes, we were playing all over Richmond in the second half and almost looked like the 2018 edition MFC streaming through the centre of the ground. I know some will say that we were playing an undermanned Tigers down their ruckman and only one on the bench, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes and I recall the ANZAC game in 2017 when we lost Jake Spencer in the first 5 mins, had Jack Watts ruck the whole game and then were out on our feet in the last quarter, got over run an pipped at the post. Despite a few woeful plays and players today, I feel like we are actually not that far off playing some decent footy when we move it through the middle and take the game on more.

Agreed. There are times when moving the ball on quickly is important and really helps make the play, but just getting it on quickly is quite different to the hot potato effect of just moving it to someone else to make it there problem or put them under more pressure than you were and this seems to be Oliver's game right at the moment. When him and the team are on song, those quick fire hand passes are going to team mates streaming past into space on the outside.

I'm not necessarily putting it down to him being lazy and not really close enough to him to know if he's big headed, but his form and disposal option selection at the moment is absolute rubbish. Is not creating clearances, just creating team turnovers and having him in the side is stopping us from getting the ball moving to the outside. Needs to wear a collar that gives him an electric shock every time he handpasses less than 2m to a team mate under pressure or just slams it on his boot mongrel pun style randomly to no one. I wouldn't be against dropping him, sending Harmes back into the guts full time and bringing in Jordan or Tom Sparrow at this point, because I actually feel like Oliver is part of what is holding us back from playing a more free flowing brand of footy right now.

- 2 Oliver Not just the shocking turnover from the free kick, but also setup Smith with an absolute hospital handpass to the feet deep in defense. I hardly recall him having an effective possession all game. At his best he Oliver can be highly effective, but right now he is tottaly wasting it and turning it over all over the shop, if not directly, but setting up others for failure.

6 - Pratraca 5 - Hibbard 4 - Gawn 3 - Hannan 2 - May 1 - Brayshaw 1/2 - Smith

Finding it so hard to be excited about this rubbish season. Was starting get some interest back before the Carlton game, but since then we have had, our lackluster second half against the blues, the Essendon debacle and last week's rubbish against Geelong. I'm sure the lack of continuity has hurt us, as has the shortened games. For now I'm back to a position where I care little about the individual game results or where we finish in this near meaningless season overall. But I do hope to see progress on our system and ball movement, so if we can stitch together at least a few quarters of really good footy against the Tigers today and take in the game a bit more with some dare, I think I'll consider that a win. Would be good to see our boys get back some mojo as it seems like they are playing in a careful reserved maner, to scared to stuff up rather than playing with confidence in their ability right now.

Any normal season and other normal player and normal club and this guy would be suspended for a week by his own club for disciplinary reasons. ...Sorry I forgot this is Collingwood and for them getting mindlessly drunk is normal.

When the Bears were there around 1988, population of the Gold Coast was around 150,000 and the change rooms were tin sheds; it's now up around 700,000 and they have a world class stadium.

Don't agree with this. Unlike GWS, there is a genuine following and high standard grass roots competition for Aussie Rules on the Gold Coast. As much as the bleed of tallent has hurt us in particular, I think that GC are the surer money bet for sustainable growth of the game into Northern market's. If the are sucessful, they will regularly pack out Carrara, which is a great stadium to attend and watch footy from. Hoping to watch us beat Freo there in a few weeks.

One of my cousins in Melbourne was trying to get into the Sun's academy - they have long tentacles.

A bit of thread creep, but I couldn't believe so many of those marks were allowed against us. The kick practically went to a player 5m away from the man on the mark. Fffing ridiculous.