Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Be releaved that the side is finally starting to live up to its potential. To be honest, I won't be that surprised as we really should have beaten Richmond in at least one of our encounters in the last few years. Time we stop being intimidated by these sides. Richmond are good, but they are not invincible.

Spargo is more than 'just a player' at the moment. May not have stared yesterday, but still contributed and his year to date has been excellent. Just wish he'd start nailing a few more goals. People on this site seem to have some strange expectations at times. No team can have a list chock full of A graders, but premiership teams have sides chock full of compedent players committed and capable of playing their role for the team and I think guys like Spargo and ANB, Hunt and Tomlinson are doing that to a tea at the moment. We've also got enough genuine A graders to get the job done as well.

I like your optimism Killer.

Agree and that crowd murmur use to sort of reflect the mood of the game. A quite tension if things were close or an electric buzz if a team was getting on the front foot, which seemed to build as the game went on. I seem to recall my times watching in the 90s that you would still get things like Four and Twenty Pies adds, the iconic VB add and the like which played away in the background during breaks, but they seemed to be more in the background and less in your face, due to the somewhat less powerful sound systems used in that era.

I actually don't mind some of the music played pre-game and at appropriate times during the breaks. Without the reserves, there is a bit of a need for something to fill in the time if you arrive early for a big game. But the constant advertising and sponsored crowd involvement segments drives me bloody bonkers. That KFC thing today was abominable. On a related note, I know the closeup crowd shots on the scoreboard have probably been a feature since big screens became a thing at the footy, but I feel they have ramped it up to a ridiculous point in recent years, to the point it becomes an invasion of privacy. They seem to stop way too long on some people at times and I do think that if it were me I'd feel soo embarrassed to the point of being belittled being on the big screen in front of tens of thousands of people in an awkward moment, without asking for it or having any control over it. On a related note, I understood the need for the canned crowd sound effects at games last year when crowds were minimal and was actually pleasantly surprised how good they got at it and how much better it made the broadcast. I'm not sure I've picked it up in recent telecasts, but you'd hope it's not being used, as the genuine crowd noise does add a somewhat better, less repetitive/predictable and better atmosphere to games.

Interesting to see Daw being named at full back. A fairly obvious and prudent move given the riches of talent in the Casey forward line, but also be good to see if he can reconfigure to playing with a defensive mindset in case we need more cover for May. Understand that Daw has played well in defense before for North, so I'd be fairly confident he could get the job done. Quite happy to be getting senior games into Petty and hope he steps up and gets the job done for us in the seniors such that Daw isn't required, but it's alway good to have solid depth options. Similarly, it would be nice to see Daw given another go at AFL level at some point, because from all reports it sounds like he's approaching his involvement with the MFC with the right attitude and has some ability and weapons of his own to bring to the table at some point.

That could characterise a huge portion of the Hawthorn fan base (I wouldn't credit them with being actual supporters), but just watch them evaporate and scurry off like the filthy little cockroaches they are after a few more seasons of irrelevance from a washed up and poorly managed Hawthorn list. Really looking forward to Hawthorn having a long, stuttering and painful rebuild and era of poor performances.

One of the things I think T Mac has been doing, which has gone fairly unnoticed and unacknowledged is when he takes the ball around the wing, turns and is able to deliver the ball deep into an open forward 50m because he has a powerful, penetrating kick. Fritta was often the beneficiary of these kicks and I wouldn't mind betting it was a bit of a set play. I'd be looking for either M Brown or Jackson to be getting on the end of those today.

This made my morning. rofl

I somewhat agree, but I don't think these stats quite tell the full story. Many of Fritta's misses are from 30 - 40m out towards the boundary, where as Max's are often from 15 - 20m out straight in front. I love Max, but how I do wish Max could have slotted through just one of those goals Vs Geelong over the years.

Even Hawthorn's current away/clash jumper is too close to the geometric design of our jumper for my liking. I get that we have a great design and others would want to emulate it, but Hawthorn is a stretch too far for me. Don't want to be associated with those [email protected].

That's true, but they were still taking up list spots that Hawthorn desperately needed to be utilised by developing the next batch young kids, not some injury prone has beens. I can see the attraction to Patton, but to have both him and Scully was daft.

No.1 draft picks haven't exactly had the best run of late have they? Watts Scully Boyd McCartin Patton Just the ones that come to mind. Different reasons and nothing personal as a whole.

Well, I guess that makes 3 Liberal MPs in WA today. Seriously, that bloke makes me sick. Such a phoney. Wouldn't know what an Ausie rules ball is from a soccer ball. Sort of guy who would pretend to be interested in all the things you are just to try to look popular and hang with the cool kids.

I seem to recall that there was talk of Jessie Hogan being an option to switch to the backline. Don't think I've ever seen it in action though.

Kicked 3 goals last week against Williamstown in wet conditions didn't he?

Lol

Same issue here. I'm guessing staff cutbacks due to COVID are the problem.

And alway cruises around with a huge grin from ear to ear looking like he wouldn't blow out a candle. His kicking for goal and delivery deep into the forward line was a bit iffy last year, but his general feild kicking was never really an issue as far as I've noticed. Actually wounder why opposition teams don't try more of a hard tag on him, because as others have noted, he's become pretty critical to the way we play.

Clarry on board the Demon train choo choo

And hopefully not flogging Max every will have him both fresher at the pointy end of the season as well as extending Max's career a bit.

Ruthless mongrels. I really want us to tear the Hawks a new one. I'm not sure that I'd be as assured by Jackson filling the hole and marking behind play as I am by Gawn, but it would be a good string to add to his game at some point.

Would love to see us dominate first half against Hawthorn and just go on from there like we did to Carlton in 2018. That's been the only thing lacking in our performances to date, to get on top of a side early and then go on with it. Started to go that way against Freo and St Kilda, but we let them back in with periods where they had the ascendancy and kept them in the game on the scoreboard and mentally, which isn't entirely surprising since they arn't exactly bottom four sides and you'd expect some sort of contest. Our forward line has been good this year and we are getting so much better at hitting up good targets inside 50, but you still feel there is an oppertunity to make more of our around the ground dominance. I feel that we were almost totally in control for most of the game against Geelong, but kept them within striking distance by not totally capitalising on the scoreboard. I don't think we are kicking quite as inaccurately as the scoreboard might suggest, because quite a few of those behinds are rushed, which plays to our dominance, because sides are pushed back to that point in defending our deep forward entries, as opposed to our backline which is mopping up the opposition's entries much more comfortabley around the 30m - 40m area alot of the time. Feel like we are playing quite conservatively through the midfield alot of the time too, preferring to go around the wings rather than taking on the corridor too much, which may be both a confidence thing or related to a lack of skill by foot or a bit of both. Feel like we could really rip a side open if we attacked through the corridor a bit more and perhaps having BBB leading from full forward providing a predictable, reliable target might help this too. Clarkson may be a master strategist, but he doesn't have the troops to play the accurate kicking game he use to, so that takes away his main weapon of choice from years past. I can just see him getting his players riled up to play the man though and I think that will also become part of the next challenge for us, becoming the hunted every week, although right now we are pretty good hunters, so long as we don't let it go to our heads and start playing like millionaires, but I sense the disappointments of past false dawn's will put that somewhat at bay as the playing group really does seem to be playing with a maturity that correlates to the bulk of the team being in their prime and/or with plenty of experience in the bank.

You can thank @pinkshark for that:

Asides from his substantial footballing ability, everything I've seen and heard about BBB suggests that he's a rippa bloke to have around a footy club. Really makes me think that North made a big mistake offloading him the way they did and if they have made similar mistakes to the MFC era 2011 loosing too much experience and leadership within a young, struggling team.