Rodney (Balls) Grinter

So is there anything old mate Jeff isn't having a winge about. He's also cracking the sads about the Dorks not getting an AFLW side any time soon. Seems he's just cottened onto the importance of the female sponsorship/supporter growth market and now must have his (larger than deserved) piece of the pie, after not giving two shiiits about womens footy for the last however many, like forecer years. Again, in the words of our good freind Cards:

Personally, I quite enjoyed reading this article/aspect on the Dorks walking in our shoes: The Hawks took the wrong path at ‘a fork in the road’. It’ll take ‘a long time’ to recover https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/hawthorn-hawks/afl-2021-hawthorn-problems-rebuild-jordan-lewis-drafting-jeff-kennett-comments-analysis-afl-360-latest-news/news-story/75bb5bfdade971e552538f35f724d3e6 I won't be truely satisfied though, until they have gone 12+ years without making finals and then another 50 years without another premiership. Maybe they would be relocated and have become the Tassie Devils before that last part though. We might have our own version of the prison bars saga in that instance.

I quite like the attempt to analyse the reasons and factors behind our great start to the year, but: 1. I feel this thread is a bit premature. There is still a long way to go before we call it a truely successful season; 2. Without any public ownership by the supposed instigators of these inspired decisions, it's all just so speculative that it's of fairly low value to me. For all we know some of these moves could have been player driven. With respect to the second point, Tomlinson is on record of suggesting himself to Goody towards the end of last season that he be played at CHB where he played most his career with GWS. There was also that article earlier this year which quoted Max and went by the headline of "Demons to play angry" (or something of the like). I didn't read the whole Demonland thread, but I thought most of the D'land thread read only the headline and missed the key point made by Max in the article, which was that though initially the players were angry about missing out on finals last year and felt that gave them motivation to attack the preseason etc, importantly what they did after that was to calmly, critically and honesty review and reflect on the 2020 season to identify areas they could get better. To this point in 2021, I think it looks like Max and Co. have delivered well so far on their pledge to improve key parts of our game, but I'm always encouraged to hear how even after being 8 - 0, we still feel there is further improvement to be had and a strong desire to keep improving. Anyways, if we win the flag, then I look forward to the behind the scenes doco on who's brainchild the various brilliant changes can be attributed to. But until then, I'll just be happy to read little snippets quoted from the horse's mouth than to speculate on their origins.

As others have mentioned, great point. ...not just a pretty face! ?

Wish the AFL would just bring back the old reserves team format. Really don't understand the supposed cost savings/cost-benifit to having this whole separate second tier comp garbage.

A conservative approach is being taken with Viney that I'm not sure would have occurred in seasons past. In my view, this is both a sound approach and something that being in the strong ladder/win-loss position we are in affords.

Why not go the whole hog and state that we should trade him at the mid season draft if we don't start dominating centre clearances?

That's what we recruited Daw for preseason. I'd like us to recruit one more inside mid type, as it's an area where we look a bit skinny at the moment depth wise.

...And still won the game.

Only Spargo is not on the fringe, or if so, only as much as about 16 or so other players in the side at the moment. He was very much rated in his first season in 2018, had a bit of second year blues in 2019 and somewhat so in 2020, although had some good games towards the end of the season and possibly injured at other stages. However I'd say the way Spargo is playing now is pretty much exactly what we recruited him for, a pretty highly rated role by Goody and makes him just about a lock in the side.

We've got a Steven May. He'll be thought of as better than that Chris Langford bloke over the journey I recon.

Yup. I mean, I know players need to have a bit of confidence and spunk about them, but he comes across as a total cocky [censored].

100% The best things about him missing the past 2 games: 1. We didn't play an injured Viney and pulverise his foot for the rest of 2021; 2. We still won the game without him. It didn't come as much surprise to me that the dogs gave us a bit of a pantsing preseason without Viney and Clarry in the side. Jack will be a really important player come September I recon, so ultra important that we keep him in good nick throughout the season. ...meanwhile Tommy Mac's (did I say how much I love him) body, which was thought to be brittle and shot seems to be holding up pretty well this year - touch wood.

I love TOMMMYY MAAAACDONALD! GO YOU GOOD THING GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!! ??❤❤❤???

Big votes to the unfashionable Demons tonight: 6. Clarry 5. Tommmmy Maaac Donald 4. Harmes 3. #Positivelingers 2. Maysy 1. Spargs

How some statistical article can get excited comparing 7 game averages agains a 30 - 40 game average is beyond me. Wounder if you went cherry picking a 7 game streak from that first two seasons of Cryil if you'd find something where he's smashed Kossie in some stat or another. Don't get me wrong, I love Kossie and I don't even think we've seen the peak of what his 2021 season can produce yet, but comparing such dissimilar sample sizes of games is rather silly. The pole of who would you rather have is a bit silly too isn't it. So 53% of the footy public would rather have a player in their mid-late 30s with a busted up body that 19yo Kossie?

And quite possibly a good number of Demonlanders as well.

I concur with the previous posters. On the somewhat superficial level that you can judge someone after a single interview, Kate seems like a super impressive person for the role. Was always quite happy with the way Glen Bartlett spoke, the general progress and stability that has occurred at the MFC under his presidency, but I really do like that Kate is such a passionate Demons person/supporter at heart and seems very genuine in her desire to really connect with the average member/supporter.

If the Swans play it too cute with their travel arrangements and the game can't go ahead as scheduled, then the game should be cancelled and them forfeit the match day points. We shouldn't be disadvantaged by the compressed late season fixture that a delayed match would no doubt impose on us.

Might have to make use of that coverage and saturation to paint my boys bedroom in navy blue with red V's. My laundry needs a paint too, so might give that the same treatment. Heck, if we win a premiership, I'll paint the whole of [censored] Brisbane red and blue in quality Haymes paint. Making me think that Haymes should officially mix up and brand a MFC paint range of red and blue paints (they can forget about the white used in those pox clash strips consigned to the garbage).

Warning as good as Haymes is, this product is not for human consumption. It is also recommended to keep away from small children.

Yeah, I do recall sitting there at the game thinking "it's about bloody time M Brown does something". They were timely goals though which really broke the back of Hawthorn and at least he nailed his set shots. That lead and mark for the second goal was a beautiful play all around which just made it look so easy, like shooting fish in a barrel. Could do with more of those plays at the MFC!

And may there be many more reasons to be posting "good" in the weeks and months to come. All the goody goodness to the Demons.

At FF for Casey. Mind you, Brown was pretty handy in that last quarter against Hawthorn. I do think it's a great reflection of the depth and/or perhaps the realitive health of our list that a guy comes into the side, kicks 2 goals and then gets dropped the next game.

Yeah, like the same weeks Hawkins got rubbed out for breaking an eye socket. I can't imagine the equivalent "I reckon if he had a Melbourne kit on he’d get weeks for that" would ever feature on this forum though ???