Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Took a great clean grab drifting across the front of the pack in the last quarter and then proceeded to miss the goal which I had expected him to kick based on his simple, confident, reliable goal kicking up until that point. Hopefully T Mac is there also to take some of the Harris Andrews heat off the Weid.

Yeah, but to be fair, I think I recall he was on the end of a few easy over the top type hand balls and/or kicks to him loose in the goal square as well. All in all, I think this kind of play is a great sign for how the team played to be creating the loose players up the ground through hard running, then a willingness to use team mates in a better position, the skills/confidence to pull it off and the resulting high percentage shots on goal. It's something which has been missing from our game and present in our opponents for a lot of last season and is just starting to find it's way back into our game again now.

Though Weid was great on the weekend in combination with Jackson and think he could be downright dangerous as the season progresses and he builds more confidence and form. If he had have kicked just a little straighter, I thought he could have kicked 4 or 5 goals against Hawthorn. Anyway, good little article on him in the Fairfax online. 'She sometimes is in the COVID ward': Why Weideman's partner won't be joining AFL hub https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/afl/she-sometimes-is-in-the-covid-ward-why-weideman-s-partner-won-t-be-joining-afl-hub-20200720-p55dq7.html After the headline part about his partners nursing, there is also a pretty good write up about his football struggles over the past 18 months and the support he got off team mates and the club.

I personally thought Brayshaw was ok against Hawthorn and actually had some really good involvements in passages of play. That one where he pick pocketed the Hawthorn bloke off half back was a ripper. Yes he had an element of luck with the ball spilling to him, but he was still there and then had pretty clean skills to gather the ball, accelerate down field, kick the ball into a good spot for Fritsch to run onto and from memory we went coast to coast and got a goal out of the play. Also recall another pin point pass he put on the chest of Weid or someone, but there were certainly other occasions where his kicking let him down and overall, I think his disposals yesterday could best be described as a bit hit and miss. One of the most encouraging things I saw yesterday was that he was starting to get involved in plays breaking lines and moving the ball through the centre square, which I think he does quite well and was somewhat a signature of our dominant 2018 performances.

Has Ben Stratton got anything for his habitually clumsy front on head high impact with Weid?

So sad for two footballing families, both the Tucks and the Abletts who have already had their share of family tragedies in recient years. My recollection of Shane as a footballer is of him being a down to earth battler of a player that forged a pretty decient AFL career through hard work and resilience as opposed to being 'naturally gifted' so to speak.

Thanks guys. Just to be clear, my somewhat frustrated response was more so directed at the AFL, because I had assumed that the club would have sent me some sort of info email, as I specifically updated me email with them on the Friday. Understandable if things get a bit messed up with all the staff cuts and chaos, even for the AFL I guess.

Did you get your tickets through your MFC membership or just GA? I called the club on Friday and they said they were still waiting for information from the AFL with an email to be sent out to mebers expected on Sunday night, but still nothing. Pretty poor.

We basically went coast to coast a few time on Sunday, not always with flawless execution, but it was a pleasure to watch.

As MFC supporters, we have often bemoaned the lack of quality delivery into our forward line. Whilst the Hawks did deliver it into their forward 50 a few times with good intent and precision, there were so many times they just kicked long around the boundry to Max Gawn or one of our other key backs who easily out marked them. On a few occasions, they kick it straight to our backs who were floating loose in a paddock in Hawthorn's forward 50m. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear the Hawks supporters moaning about kicking to packs or kicking it straight to us. It's nice to be on the right side of that problem for once and I hope it continues.

Hopefully it's the new/improved Hawthorn that the rest of the competition has been waiting for. It could (and I'm certainly hoping it is) a loooong way back for the Hawks. I really do hope what we are seeing is the beginning of the end of anything like competitive team for Hawthorn. I think that they have now been tipped over the precipice that their list of aging once great stars has been staring down for the past few years, combined with a policy of trading away top picks for ready made players at the expense of going to the draft for young tallent. Asides from Gunston yesterday, I can't think of any of their older or mature players that actually contributed. Actually feel a bit for Frosty, that he will now likely have endure a long list build for the third time in his career.

Sorry if it's been said before in this thread, but how bloody good is Max Gawn? Not only was yesterday a master class in ruck work and marking around the ground, but his collection of the ball off the ground and general play with the ball are stuff that ruckman are not suppose to do. At one point he out manoeuvered $culley for a ground ball as if he was a nimble 5'10" rover. Oliver did one of his occational hand balls out of know where to a totally unexpecting Gawn deep in the backline (who I actually suspect was trying to recover he breath from copping a hard knee to the back of the rib cage) and Gawn sucessfully moves on to a team mate and out of the area. You could tell that in the second half Hawthorn were trying to double team and were putting in a concerted effort to try to take Gawn out of the arial contests, but were mostly hapless to stop him. I temper this somewhat that while McEvoy was a quality ruckman at one point, like a fair percentage of Hawthorn's list he is clearly past it and was pleasing to see Gawn towl him up. I was also glad to see Gawn rested for reasonable periods and Jackson give him a chop out int the ruck (of which he did quite a credible job). Huge game against Steff Martin next week.

Copped a nice shiner along the way there too somewhere, but it's not hard to see how. Asides from the fact he got on a few good leads and pulled down some good marks, I thought he provided a great physical presence. You could see the genesis last week, but this week, I thought he stepped it up a notch again. Some great crashing of packs led to valuable crumbs for our suddenly in form forwards to swoop on and move quickly and dangerously into our forward 50, with great effect. WEEEEEID. (P.S. I'm guessing the shiner came courtesy of that pos Straton hammering into him front on - should be looked at by the match review panel as careless/intentional, but I doubt it will be).

6 Gawn 5 Trac 4 Oliver 3 Viney 2 Weid 1 Langdon

I get the impression that Max isn't the type to measure happiness and sucess in life in $.

No, if the legend is true, I recon that Gawn got the last laugh on $culley!

I actually think we got close to it in 2018. That season we put away almost all of the bottom teams we needed to beat and really only had a couple of major slip-ups against St Kilda and Sydney. Even the top teams often have one or two slip-up when they are upset by a lower side. We just hadn't put away enough of the top teams along the way in 2018 to have the tolerance to loosing the odd game but still finishing top 4. To me 2018 showed that the core of the team have the mental toughness and capacity to be a genuine finals contender. It's consistently beating or at least breaking even 50/50 against top 4/8 teams along the way that will mark the next step in our progression.

Great post Binman and I agree with much if not all of the above. The other important changes which we implemented last week that I think are important are the structural changes with O Mac down back and the second tall / Weid up forward (not that we actually had the second tall for 3/4, so probably more Oscar down back). Similaly, he may not have had many possessions, but AVB was huge plus for our forward pressure with his numerous bone crunching tackles. I actually think AVB is a real on feild leader for the level of physicality we play with, pulls up those around him to rise to similar levels of pressure and makes those around him stand taller. After a few games at the top level, I think AVB is now cherry ripe again and wouldn't surprise me to see his output and impact on games steadily rise over comming weeks, starting with this game against Hawthorn. Contrast this to our restart when we went in with a very inexperienced J Smith destabilizing our back six and a forward 50 that was also all over the place. I do think we need to blood some of these younger players, but it becomes much more viable to do that within a side that's more stable, predictable and when team confidence is good. This is a game that we should win.

Agree. Hawthorn are not a top 4 side and most probably not even a top 10 side. To me, as one of the other posters put it, this should be a game that we just methodically work our way through and move onto next week. The next step this side needs to take is to be able to have the maturity to get them selves up against any side, top or bottom and get on with the job of winning. Not being overawed or over powered by the best sides and not taking the lesser sides too lightly. Consistency is the key. On paper and potential, we have a side that is capable of beating any team in the competition and the age profile of the list is at a point where it's put up or shut up. If there are two sides that I think would come close to line in the sand for us, it's Richmond and Collingwood, but even then, I think we need to get to a point where beating these sides just becomes the next logical step in our progression and not a huge physoclogicaly barrier to overcome. I actually think we have had our line in the sand game against Hawthorn back in 2017, when they were the top side that bullied the competition playing 'unsociable football' and we out ran, out played them physically that day.

Oh, but I guess he will always have his millions.

No, there's actually a pretty big difference - I quite like ANB as a bloke.

I found it quite amusing in Max's captain's run podcast that he suggested that Oscar has asked for a portion of Lever's pay, since Lever only seems to play well when he's in the side. Lol. Came up partly in the context of that toss Adelaide club administrator having a go at Lever's pay. Max also had a freindly dig at Oscar that he was asking around trying to find our how to reopen his deactivated Twitter account to bask in some rare praise from MFC supporters after a good performance. Does make me think that when Melbourne play the Lions at Carrara stadium next week, I'm going to try and get down and shout some encouragement for big O Mac from the stands (noticed in the GC game last week that one of the benifits of small crowds is that individual supporters voices travel well). I think Oscar deserves some external positive reinforcement comming his way and I actually think he could have quite a high ceiling for us if he builds some continuity and confidence again.

They are professional manipulators they prey on the weaknesses of human nature to make scapegoats of minorities and blame someone else for the problems facing society. Politicians like Dutton are expert at it and assisted by Murdoch and Co. These people are too well resourced to be doing it unintentionally. These people often use the fig leaf of claiming to stand up for the right to free speech and that these sort of 'robust' conversations need to be had, but that's just BS cover for their racisim and wolf whistling. Unless you are talking about combating racisim it's self, to be genuinely look to solve problems of youth viloence, or terrorism etc, there is absolutely no need to bring race into the conversation if you are looking to have a productive objective debate. Bringing in race into the conversation in a negative context reinforces prejudices and us and them attitudes.

Great advice. Also for all of us to keep an eye on the mood and behavior of our fellow human's in a compassionate, non-judgemental way, to carefully and respectfully ask if they are ok and offer our love and support. People may scoff at the RUOK type movement's, but often it's when people from outside the imeediate family structure care enough to take notice, offer emotional support and provide aexpression the intrinsic worth of the other person, it can have a very important and positive impact. I have certainly experienced this from work colleagues of my spouse, helping to turn around a spiral or concerning depression for her, that I alone was limited in my ability to arrest.

Then there is also the issue of will the AFL reduce list sizes in 2020. If that's the case, I can see a lot of 2020 talent going through to the state league's and ready to be picked up as more mature, less of a gamble players as rookies or in the 2021 draft.