Rodney (Balls) Grinter

So who is her best mate?

Well done to our girls. Building a really good season towards a solid finals position. Would love to see this headline repeated again in a few weeks!

I can see Clackson walking away himself, if after a few years if things are going further south.

Spot on. Asides from the Hawks and Cats, I think the other sides with extremely lob sided age profiles for their sides best players would be Collingwood and West Coast. This is where I see a real oppertunity for the MFC to win flags in the next 3 or 4 years as the best of the current teams start to fall away and the age of our list profile comes into it's prime. What's also pleasing with respects to Hawthorn is that some of the youngish players they paid premiums on like Jager O'Mera and Wingard aren't really producing the rewards proportional to what they gave up for them with respects to draft picks either. On another point, yes our win against Hawthorn is only against what may well pan out to be a middle ranked side, but it's also worth noting that many of the so-called experts predict them to be in the 8 ahead of us (well before this weekend at least) and I agree with Mr.Short Temper that beating middle ranked sides consistently goes along way to making finals, although I'd contend that we also now need to get into the habit of beating the best teams as well and finish top 4. Personally, I'm quite happy for Hawthorn to never completely bottom out and spend a decade or more finishing in positions 7 to 12 - never good enough to genuinely compete and never low enough to get first crack at the cream of the crop at the draft. They should also find it harder to attract free agents from this position as well after a few years and everyone works out that they are not really a genuine premiership contender or have buckets of money left over after they pay Mitchel, O'Mera, Wingard, $culley & Co. In a similar vein, while 2019 really was not a fun year to support the MFC, perhaps we will look back on it as the hickup we had to have, particularly if Jackson, Picket and Rivers all deliver for us in the comming years.

That kick in was like the 'Frost Ball' kick-in goal from that final we played last year, but without the Frost and without the risk.

I know it's only preseason, but one thing that did please be last night is that basically no Hawthorn player got off the chain in any way and I recon pretty much all were well beaten by their man. Scully did a few things but was totally shaded by Tomlinson and Langdon Burgoyne virtually unsighted Wingard - no impact Puopopelo - did he even get a kick Mitchell - quite (although coming back from injury) Patton - well beaten by May Frosty - little impact although if he had the job on T Mac, then he did play his role well to take him out of the game O'Mera - hardly touched it Bad mullet man Worple - turnover king Sicily - marginal impact About the only good players I could really identify for them were Frawley and Ceglar (of whom was rucking against a non ruckman for most of the game). Hope this caries on into the season propper. I have been waiting for Hawthorn to fall off a cliff and into a hole with their aging stock of ex-stars.

I'd been uncomfortable and displeased with his performances up to this point, but only because I know he can do better. If he can really get going, it will be good to see if he can take his game to the next level.

So the real positives for me were the return to good form of: Viney Spargo Freitch Melksham May Oscar - I actually thought he looked like he belonged again tonight ANB in patches Hibbard late in the game Brayshaw was quite serviceable and did a few nice things Bedford showed he's on the pace Continued good form from: Lochart Tomlinson Langdon Was a bit disappointed with: Trac didn't dominate, but better to save that for Rd 1 Clarry was average, but has a few credits up his sheave and did a few nice things Jones didn't play a full game. I assume he is being managed for the season ahead, due to old age, but did some nice stuff when on the ground and suggested again he could make an important contribution this season. Injuries to Weid and AVB Commentators talked up Lever a fair bit, but I thought he was just ok, but conversely good to get through another game T Mac's almost non existent presence was one of the more disappointing things of the night to me, but then I do also wounder if they had him playing a slightly different role, with Freitch and Melksham playing deep and being the main focal points. Overall, I thought we lacked a bit of system and skills at times, but the wind did seem quite tricky and for a team in the Hawks that I think many commentators would have ahead of us, I thought we made them look pretty ordinary and were not really threatened by them for most of the game. For the most part though, I thought we looked pretty well in control of the game, which had not often been the case against Hawthorn for the past few years. The game did look a little like the intensity wasn't quite there at times, like both teams really did hold back a little more in reserve than if there was points on the line.

Agreed, and that's without even talking about the excellent pressure game that he bought. Harassed well all game and properly stuck some great tackles. To me it was pretty close to the sort of form that saw him play the majority of the 2018 season. Really don't understand why people are so quick to pot Spargo. When he's up and about he makes an impact.

I wasn't all that impressed last week to be honest and thought we would have been better off playing Brown against the Hawks as more of a dress rehearsal for a fortnights time in Perth. Was also a bit concerned with T Mac's lack of impact against the Hawks and so really think we need a big man with form on their side to play the Eagles.

Makes you appreciate the value of having Preuss as backup once he gets over his injury. He may be a bit slow (though hopefully a bit slimmer and fitter this year), but he does provide a pretty decent contest.

Agree. To some point. I think Weids will come good, he clunked a few good ones tonight. But I agree with T Mac as backup and playing Brown as the second tall forward as I think he is actually the other in form and has a good record of being pretty handy for a few goals a game.

I actually didn't mind the look of the predominantly red polos, but I can imagine they are probably too vivid a reminder of the Neeld era to ever revert to them again or at least for a long while.

Following on from some of the points made in this thread Re the finacial value of theAFLW, I can't say I agree with this Muppet a lot of the time, but Kennet make some interesting points in this article: Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett says it is a ‘gross discrimination’ that they don’t have an AFLW side https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/hawthorn-president-jeff-kennett-says-it-is-a-gross-discrimination-that-they-dont-have-an-aflw-side/news-story/93f11e1bf549dd5e848aa0ce8873f965 Kennett said the Hawks are missing out on a major revenue stream by being excluded from the rapidly growing women’s game. “We are very disappointed we are not in the AFL, not only for our female (VFLW) players, but also our female membership,” Kennett said. “I consider it to be gross discrimination against the four clubs that are not part of it. “It puts us at a huge disadvantage in terms of our membership and sponsorship and our ability to participate fully in what is the AFL. In the article Jeff also openly makes the point that the AFL don't like the success that the Hawks have in recient times - it's not just the AFL, just about every non Hawthorn supporter thinks this way I recon.

All the attention has been on Kossie, so Bedford has been a bit of a sleeper and gone under the radar a bit. In general, from a situation of being bereft of small forwards we may end up with it as being a strength. If they are both in good form, don't see why we couldn't play both of Kossie and Bedford. Then we could also have the luxury of ANB, Spargo, Hunt and Baker all fighting it out for competition for a spot in the team - all of which are very capable on their day. If Hannan and/or Smith ever make it off the injury list, they are both pretty quick forward types very much capable of making an impact in the air or on the ground.

I think you have figured out who we will run with fairly well there AW. I suspect with his performances to date that Brown is pretty close to a lock too and Jackson may be in to cover for Gawn to be eased back into things a bit such that he doesn't take quite as much of the ruck load that he normally does. Personally I'd like to see Weid playing more time forward this game than as a make shift ruckman. I personally think Spargo is showing some good indications that he is close to the sort of form that made him a regular in 2018, but his finishing by foot (particularly in front of goal) just doesn't quite seem to be there at present. I hardly noticed Hore against North, so would be surprised if he gets a gig. Thought Rivers was the standout backman in the North scratch match, so surprised he wasn't named in the 26.

After watching specifically him in the first half of the North, I thought his pressure and intensity was ok, but every time he got the ball in any space and kicked it he completely butchered and shanked it.

Really glad to have our whole top on ball brigade on the park, looking fit with a good oppertunity to build some early cohesion and confidence. Also really interested to see how Bedford goes as he was looking really quite sharp and ready to play senior footy in last week's scratch match against North.

Lol. ...but I hope Goodwin is just focused on being the MFC supercoach!

All of Lever, May and Oscar would all be reasonably mobile talls at ground level wouldn't they?

Know where you are coming from, he looked pretty good against North to me. Still plenty of time for him to develop his game and confidence at Casey for a call-up later in the season.

I don't understand the lack of detail in the article from the AFL - they need to be open and transparent.

Based what has been comuncicated Re the modified training regime of AVB, I get the impression that Burgess and the club have a flexible horses for courses approach. With their somewhat unique abilities, I don't think either of AVB or Harley necessarily need to be in top 5% league fitness to make an important contribution. More important to get them out on the park somewhat reliably than push them too hard and have them break down and so long as the majority of the team has good fitness, I think we can carry a few highly talented freaks of below average fitness.

Could well be true. I get the feeling that the club are intentionally playing down and keeping pretty quite on Harley generally to manage expectations and keep some of the media attention and pressure away from him as far as reasonably possible.

I recall that win we had against WC in Perrh back in 2017 when we were serverly undermanned with our on ball brigade and a gut busting effort from Jack Viney won us so much ball at the stoppages and around the ground through shear grunt work that kept us in the game until Pederson and T Mac's last quarter, last minute heroics finally got us over the line over there. I don't mind that kind of one dimensionalisim - just keep forging on forward. When he is fit, Jack is an absolute bull and particularly if we have a midfield of other fit bulls like Trac, Oliver, Brayshaw, AVB, Jones, Harems etc, there will be no stopping them.