Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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.

No disrespect to Fritta, but I think season will really show if he has what it takes or not. While he oozes natural talent, footy smarts and courage, up to this point the expectations and pressure on him has been modest. It's not like he has been given a free ride up until this point and I'm sure it only would have taken a few weeks of handy 2 to 3 goal hauls and goal assists for him to have attracted the attention and respect of opposition coaches and been marked with quality defenders. However, I will be interested (and hopeful in the affirmative) to see if Bailey can stamp his name as a consistent and reliable scoring machine over the whole season.

If he's out there kicking goals for us we will be screaming it BENNELLLLL you bloody beauty! (....most likely in our living rooms!).

I really do hope we are saying that it was an incredible recruiting coupe at the end of this season. Until then, I don't think anyone will be counting any chickens before they hatch. Even if he plays two or three great games I think everyone will be walking on eggshells hoping he doesn't break down at any moment. If he does make it through sucessfully till the end of the season, then we could be faced with the issue of keeping him on our list under the salary cap, whatever that turns out being. You would hope there would be an element of repaying the faith to the MFC for taking him on, but you just never know. Like you say, fingers crossed.

I'm going against the grain of this thread and putting it out there that I think Max's new mohawk rocks. What's more I think it is the sort of thing that would get on the nerve opposition supporters and possibly opposing players. No doubt Max will come under additional scrutiny and pressure for it if we start loosing, so no pressure big guy, but I think the hair cut suits Big Maxy's style, in your face and warrior attitude so I recon he can pull it off, lead the team to victorious times with it and all the naysayers will eat whatever bad they said will come of it.

I think Max was channeling this dood.

Agree with most of what you are saying above here, but I my recollection is that we were pretty close to full strength first round. Yes Jones was an important absence and were we also missing Salem? But apart from that, I thought we were as close to full strength as most teams ever really get in practice.

Pay wall, so I can't read the content, but IMHO if restrictions ease to the point of enabling contact sport at an amature level by say mid July/ early August, I think these leagues should consider playing a shortened season of more or less social games to give all the young guys out there a kick and keep some sort of club cohesion and continuity together. Govenment grants should be used to assist with the finacial side of things. Social ties and people are what keep clubs and competitions going and I see a real need to keep that aspect together for the health of the game going forward.

I know the draw matters, but I'm honestly getting to the point that I don't care who we play where, I just want to see us play again and start building some winning form. I hope that the long break to Rd 2 has given our boys time to stew on things and get super hungry to play and for some success.

As much as Rd 1 was a fail, it can take time for players and teams to gain confidence in a new system. Before that confidence is built, it is easy to default to old habits under pressure. It took us half a dozen or so rounds to fully hit our straps and get going in 2018, but once we did, asides from a few notable (and costly) lapses we never really looked back. I'd like to see what our forward line looks like with Nathan Jones playing a half forward role on a regular basis which as absent from Rd 1. And as much as guys like Kossie ooze raw talent, I still think it will take a good number of games to build cohesion. It will also be interested to see what effect a truley small forward dangerous player like Kossie, Bedford and/or Bennell truely up and about could have on the psyche of opposition backlines. Looking forward (pardon the pun) to Rd 2 and beyond to see what the team can put together this year.

Out of the sides above, at least Collingwood and WC are running on borrowed time when you look at the age profile of the key/most talented players on their lists. Richmond probably aren't that far behind in that respect either. I'm not saying it's just going to happen, but I'm hoping that our developing talent is nearing its prime and we will start to dominate overtake the current power clubs as they fall away. As Richmond showed in 2017, the transition between a side that's nearly good enough but inconsistent and one that wins premierships can be a pretty fine line. Agree that Hawthon are irrelevant though.

So we have Allan Richardson and Ross Lyon as assistant coaches in a financially constrained environment? ... Righto Might as well put on John Worsfold and Mark Thompson as well for good measure.

2018 we started poorly and had everyone write us off as going nowhere for the year after the Hawthorn loss. Then to this day 2 years ago we came up against a resurgent Carlton who were starting to find some competitiveness and everyone was smelling a dangerous game that the Melbourne of old would likely loose against aside that on paper it shouldn't loose to - we then proceeded to blow them away by 108 odd points. Whilst I would have much prefered to be round 1 winners for once, I'm not loosing my [censored] over it like some people are here. It's a long season and I recon we will go ok.

Absolutely

Nice little article on the AFL site https://www.afl.com.au/news/435046/round-two-bolter-injury-ravaged-dee-coming-good-at-right-time Gee I hope this punt pays off for us. About time the chips started to fall our way. ... and I love Harmesy, but he isn't exactly the brightest spark sometimes - he is quoted in the article as not knowing that Bennell is a really good kick and that he didn't know that. You'd think most mids in the comp would know what kind of silky skills Harley has.

The South Korean attempt! Lol https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/18/south-korean-football-team-apologises-for-using-sex-dolls-to-fill-stands South Korean football team apologises for using sex dolls to fill stands Paging @Bitter but optimistic

It's ridiculous that the AFL has accepted that games are to be 'crowd free' and surely they need to challenge govenments and push for at least some admittance of live spectators of some description into grounds. In my view, the below should all be quite feasible: 1. Permit family and/or an invited guest of each of the players to watch from inside the stadium; 2. A limited number of somewhere in the rehlm of 100 - 1000 supporters from each club to attend the ground in segregated, physically distant allocated seating. Could allow a certain number of premium members/sponsors seats and put the others in a members lottery to provide some incentive and reward for club members continued contributions during these challenging times. Either or both of the above would result in a far superior TV viewing experience as they would provide at least some level of non manufacturered atmosphere. As an asides, Fox Footy's attempt to compensate for the lack of crowd atmosphere by playing little musical jingles as the ball was bought back to the centre after goals was worse than having near silence of only the players voices audible.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/geelong-star-jack-steven-hospitalised-after-incident/ef591f1c-3441-4d3f-a017-42e684fe9cb0 Article say he is expected to physically recover which is good news on one level. But does make you wounder what the heck is going on in his life for something to escalate to that point too. Of coarse, it could have been completely random, but unlikely. I must say, I feel somewhat conflicted on this, because on a human level very much hope this guy gets his life together and has health and happiness, but all the same, I'd also be very glad for him not to deliver anything substantial for Geelong on field.

Really looking forward to what a revitalized Nathan Jones could do this year and beyond. With players like Trac now looking like they are ready to step up and help carry the midfeild, along with an unhindered Jack Viney, Jones having more of a free reign in the forward line, with perhaps the occational injection into the midfeild could really help our team ballance. Jones could also help add that hard physical presence into our forward line in much the same way as AVB.