Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Not that an also rans finalist would be much of an achievement, but would represent a better result than last season in the circumstances. I've always felt our season was gone from about round 5 or 6 when we had nowhere near the runs or form on the board for a top 4 finish.

GC beating Collingwood tomorrow night would open our finals campaign right back up.

I agree with that balancing perspective, but I've still been disappointed with Kossie's unreliability around goals which should be his one wood for a goal sneak small forward. In hindsight he has probably been played in a lot of games this year that he didn't really deserve to be there, but was played for the sake of his development. Will we reap the benefits of that in years to come, I hope so.

He gets regularly bashed on here, but I thought Hunt was very good last night. Played with genuine courage, intensity and skill, which is a lot more than what I can say about a lot of our players. Deserves to be played for the rest of the year, to show if he's worth retaining for next year.

Some might say I'm looking for excuses (and they'd probably be right), but I honestly, I think the short turn arounds really hurt us this time around. I think we needed to make the numbers of changes that we did because of both fatigue and unplanned injuries. Not really even having an oppertunity to train between the Sydney debarkle and now would have made it hard to make corrections in our game plan and the players we bought it were mostly on the inexperienced side, so it was hard to expect them to come in and play to position/out of position. Also think that we played well below our par the last few weeks, playing without confidence, like we were scared to loose and not to win. Sydney and Freo had nothing to loose, so not so hard for them to show some late season form. Logically, I can't see it happening based on the form that we've displayed the last two weeks, but similarly, it wouldn't surprise me if we turn it around and beat GWS and Essendon in the next two games and miss making finals by half a game to Collingwood, unless GC can pull off a huge upset and knock them off tomorrow.

6. Viney 5. Oliver 4. Gawn 3. Langdon 2. Freitch 1. Hunt

Let's go the big Preuss!

Strapping in for another rollercoaster ride.

Simple equation, just win, win, win and we make it.

...but is Goodwin the right guy? Hint, if he can get everyone else playing as well as May, I'd say so. Of course, it take both parties to own their actions.

Saw that one and thought hmmmm.

A bit of lube would do wounders or maybe steer clear of the Surfers Paradise strippers.

@Better days ahead, BTW, I called you a bunch of loosers, because the title and objectives of this thread is such a loosing attitude.

More juvenile than trying to rank the losses we have had under a particular coach. Sorry, I was mistaken that this was actually a constructive thread. How's this for a constructive comment then - STOP CRYING OVER SPILT MILK.

I hate Trump with a passion, but one of his commonly used phrases sums up this thread "What a bunch of LOOoooSers". Go on look to the past and wither in misery. To me yes Thursday was disappointing, but far from totally disastrous. I don't think we needed to win 5 from 5 to make finals. Actually thought we were a 40/60 against the Saints and we got up, so we were actually ahead of the game somewhat. It now just means we need to win 2, most probably 3 of our last 4 to make finals. In my mind, GWS is the 8 point, must win game. Further Sydney actually beat GWS a few weeks back, so should they just roll out the white flag as well? While I'm annoyed about loosing to Sydney, it's not our season has hung off, so get over it.

Has done it the hard way after tearing that ACL in his first preseason and it's obvious it has taken real commitment to reach the level he's now at. As others have mentioned, it's scary when you think he probably still has another level to go to. His best this season has been pretty bloody good, but I do feel like the side in general, he does need to work a bit on consistency, which is hopefully both him and the side will develop over the next 25 - 50 games (I can't help but think that his personal consistency and that of the teams are interdependent). Asides from his obvious on feild talent, Christian has always given the impression that he'd be a rippa of a bloke to have around the club. Congratulations Christian - look forward game 100, 200 in the red & blue and beyond and hopefully a few premierships along the way.

Back on the Benny Gibson theme of this thread, one thing I certainly see comming through his interviews is that he seems to have both a genuine rapport with the players like he's part of the group, but also comes across as a passionate supporter, a professional reporter and seems to have the genuine respect of the players in all of these capacities, which I think is no mean feat. If he is actually a through and through MFC supporter, gee he's kind of living the dream of most of us here. Well done Benny, keep up the good work.

Seriously, you guys are picking the eyes out of Max's responses here. Having watched the interview, yes it was a bit lackluster. But what do you expect we'd just lost. To me the lackluster interview probably reflects Max's genuine disappointment in the loss. I think Max's response was honest enough, he acknoledged we were beaten in certain areas and wasn't making excuses due to the short break etc. And 'they were' sloppy at times as well (I recall in the first quarter they kicked it our on the full comming out of their backline two or three times in the space of about 3mins just for one example) so that wasn't an untrue call on Max's behalf and in a few words later he acknowledged they were generally cleaner in the first half.

I think a significant part of this is the way we kick big lollipops up in the air for the wind to take a hold of when passing. When we use it to switch the ball across the ground or into the centre in windy conditions it brings us way unstuck.

I'm not saying this is the sole factor, but a common denominator in three very winnable losses we have had this season is the inability to handle windy conditions. Not sure if it's skill execution, game style a failure to adapt or a combination of all three, but three games we lost that I think we could otherwise have won include: 1. Brisbane Lions (Metricon); 2. Western Bulldogs (Metricon); 3. Sydney; In all of these games our ability to hit targets by foot has been terrible, leading to horrendous turnovers and an inability to move the ball efficiently and numerous very gettable goals missed. I know in theses game we were also badly beaten around the ball and that's a different issue, but I really do think we need to address our ability to play in windy conditions as well. It should be under 12s stuff, but apparently not.

Then there was that hand off around the corner goal that Freitch gifted him where he made it look like shelling peas - that quality makes perseverance with Harley worth it. Given a lot of people didn't think he'd make it this far, I think it's been a good investment both footy wise and spiritually for the club and I'd certainly entertain keeping him on the list next year if Burgess thinks it's a reasonable chance his body can go to the next level with a proper preseason.

Bit of a mixed bag in that. Mostly pretty reasonable analysis, but there isn't a lot of consistency in how they think they will fair against us, with a whole binch thinking they are going to get belted and the others think they are a fair bet. To be honest, I could go either way from our perspective as well - think it could be close for a fair portion of the game, with us kicking away in the last like Adelaide/North, or we grind it out to the end for a modest win. But I do think we will win. We actually rarely loose to bottom sides these days.

We bundled out Geelong in 2018. We owe WC for 2018 and 1994 at least.

There are some big ifs and buts, but if the cards fell right, I'd love to play WC in an elimination final and bundle them out. Hate those [censored].

...So if it pans out like this, how do you determine who is the higher rank side when we finish on identical win/loss points and % as St Kilda?