Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Regarding Harley, I get the impression that:

Just watching the way Harley caries himself in this interview, you can tell that he is a player that oozes confidence in his own ability as a footballer. Even after all this time out, he seems 100% ready to go about business and put his talents on show for all to see. Not in an arrogant cocky kind of way necessarily, but in a very self asured confident kind of way. We haven't had too many players like that at the MFC. So stoked that he has got this far, particularly given that some people thought the exercise was a complete waste of time. Really looking forward to seeing Harley play again and even better it being in the red and blue. Whether it's for 1 game or 100, I get the sense that it's going to be a great ride and as a supporter I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it without worrying how long it might last.

Not sure if there is sarcasim intended in your response Rjay, but I'm tired of hearing that excuse for the performance we put in. The team had just spent the whole summer apparently working their butts off to try and atone for 2019 and get back to being respected. They had pleanty to motivate them and play for. If we are going to be that mentally soft to get rattled by the COVID distraction (which I don't think they were), then how will we ever stand up in finals. That said, I'm not overly pessimistic about our whole season based on that one game. We were out played by a well organised, established top 4 team on their home deck and they got on top of us on the day, but I hardly think we were disgraced. Rectifying our own game style isn't necessarily something which can be fixed overnight during match simulation and a couple of practice games. I'm happy to see how we settle down over a decient block of games before I call curtains on our season. One thing is for certain though - we have a pretty darn fit list to pick from and take the feild, so if they don't perform, there can be no excuses in that regard, unlike 2019.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/703366/round-2-injury-update-three-dees-sidelined Reading between the lines of what Burgess has stated in his injury report and Goodwin's rap for him, I think Harley will be picked against Carlton.

Would be great if they did. Perhaps they could get the guys that did the Nth Melbourne practice match back in. That was a great little production really. Always like to see the reserves and I'm glad the AFL and the clubs have got together and enabled these games to happen. With a nearly completely fit list (for once) but also plenty of developing talent and depth, I think it's an advantage for the MFC for these games to be going ahead.

Now that we are within the last week before the restart of this season, I'm finally getting excited about footy again. It's definitely been a weird few months as a supporter. I was itching all summer for us to get back into the season proper and start to make amends for 2019 and despite the Rd 1 loss to WC, I'm still holding out hope that we can get it back together and have a decient 2020. But when the virus stoped games, I actually found it quite easy to almost completely lose interest in footy, until we were given a firm timetable for restarting games again. Asides from the increasingly promising signs from Harley Bennell and Max's hair cut, even the chatter on Demonland has mostly been a boring regurgitation of gripes about forward entries and reliving 1001 historical games, seasons and drafts. Not singling out anyone in particular about this, it's just amazing how difficult I've found it to find any of these conversations interesting or entertaining without having any current footy events to speak of for relevance. ....Anyways, looking forward to the weekend as I recon we will beat Carlton convincingly, if not smash them out of the park. GO the MIGHTY DEMONS!

Clash of the clash jumpers!!

Much prefer Smith as a forward. Thought he was looking really good as a deep forward in that fated practice match in 2019 ...and then 2019. His foot passes in defense have never looked very convincing or confident to me. Seems to be too slow to move the ball on and then either picks the wrong option or it isn't a great kick and he turns it over. Hope he gets a decient run at it wherever he ends up playing, builds some confidence and does finally develop into the player he has been promised to be all this time.

Rubbish. What really counts is premierships and what is required to achieve those can be substantially different from just achieving a few wins. I'm quite happy to write off 2019 given the circumstances, so long as we are building towards sustained success. I'm also in the camp of sticking with Goodwin and riding it out where ever that takes us. He's a smart, passionate football guy who has the respect of his team at the same time as demanding high standards of performance on and off the field. I don't think it would do the team any good for us to become a revolving door of senior coaches. Time to stick fat as MFC supporters, we have a team loaded with midfield talent that is comming into the prime of it's career.

What I did find interesting (though again not particularly surprising) was that both Richo and Chapman were a big rap for Jay Lockhart and Trent Rivers.

What else was he going to say? Was pretty much the typical speel that people say about Goody - footy fanatic and strong relationships with his players. Nothing too original there.

150 Neville's, nice. I'd love to have 22 of him to run out onto the ground for the MFC!

I take it the above is 2019 stats? T Mac lowered his colours a bit accuracy wise last season. 2018 he was going at something amazing like 80% accuracy.

If it's from the boundary, then Maxy is Da Man. I can't work out if this clip shows a replay or the second of these goals that Max kicked from the same spot in the space of about 5mins. The spray he gives the Bombers fan afterwards is gold and would be worth while setting up Max to kick for goal just to get up opposition supporters.

He is a bit like Maxy in so far as you put him within 15 - 20m straight in front and he gets the yips. Further out than that, or hard up against the boundry right in the pocket, I think they go all right.

...60m+ out, I'll go with Jayden Hunt

N.Jones

HB's first few years on the GC list were nothing short of sensational. HB and Dion Prestia were two of the players I would always have loved to have poached from GC and we all know what happened after Prestia went to the Tigers. With all his injuries, his off feild indiscretions and the sheer time he has been effectively out of the game I think people have forgotten what a generational type of player he once looked like becoming. There were very good reasons why both Freo and the MFC thought HB was worth taking a risk on. Some of the irony in this is that GC picked up HB with picks that would probably have otherwise belonged to the MFC at the time. Maybe this is Karma's way of righting past wrongs of the AFL?

If he's not fully fit, we have the long term physical well being of a potential A grade player to loose. This isn't so much about what contribution HB could contribute to beating Carlton or not in his first game back. I think most MFC supporters have seen enough botched injury management over the years to know that winning a game or two along the way is less important than taking the patient path and doing what we can to guard against aggravating serious but manageable injury problems into those which become crippling long term chronic career ending ones. This applies doubly to a player with the injury history and talent profile of HB.

My interpretation of that is two fold: 1. That the natural skills and footy nouse of HB stand out from the pack. But he might only need to be 50% fit for that to be apparent; 2. I think there is also an element of excitement and encouragement that he has made it back this far and I see part of the players being pumped in the way he's performing as being a form of moral support, encouragement and embrace from the playing group. I'm not sure that I read it as him being ready to play Rd 2 necessarily, but I look forward to the point when the medical/fitness team pronounce when they all think he is at that point be that Rd 2 or a bit further down the track.

One thing I note about HB at the moment is that he is always training in leggings. To me that suggests somewhere in between that he and the club are taking sensible no regrets precautions, but that no one is 100% confident in it yet either. The club keeps talking about building up enough of a base with him to put him on a sustainable path going forward, so I'm wondering how long can everyone be patient and resist selecting him if he keeps showing really good form on the track. As some have suggested, full contact might not be any worse for HB's injury problems, but I think there is a huge difference between training drills/match simulation and the physical stresses of game day footy / match fit. I continue to be optermistically hopeful this comes off long term for all parties.

Thinking I might wear mine face mask style on my daily commute. ...not that anyone much in Bris Vegas will know what it's about, but will proudly fly our colours anyways.

I'd hope by the end of his career with us that Steven May would feature somewhere in that list.

Pitty the backman who ends up manning that combination rotating trough the forward line!

My perception is that Fritch is a fair bit grittier than your average 'icing' type of player. We weren't exactly flying in the back half of last year when after being thrown forward in somewhat despiration, he kicked a number of big bags of goals and provided a good focal point.