Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I feel he actually played more forward/mid against Freo and looked like he was having an impact in those roles, but then he got injured.

When Frost and McEvoy make up two of their MVP nominations - very.

Great news for the young guy, hope he has a good run and turns into a real champion for the mighty Demons.

It's not an apples and apples season though. 2018, we had a ~22 round season, played a bunch of bottom teams twice and didn't have the 6-6-6 rule, before which we had a game style which ideally suited our team with ruck dominance. I don't think the shorter quarters and more defensive, lower scoring games this season has necessarily suited our team either. Whether we make finals or not, I measure our 2020 as being pretty close to 2018, by the fact that we have performed about the same against the top sides, thrashed/beat up pretty much all the bottom most sides and dropped a few games to middle of the road teams like Freo and Sydney that we did to St Kilda and Sydney in 2018. This year we have been compeditive with most of the top teams, but just haven't been able to get over the top of them at crucial moments or been quite good enough.

Cherry picking the losses and not counting the gains there. I don't disagree that those guys were somewhat of a loss (though Vince had about the same level of influence as Jones has this year), but it's discounting that we have had players like May, Lever and Langdon come into the side at the expense of guys like Frost. Patracca has gone to new levels this year which somewhat offsets some of the downsides. The way Hogan played in 2018, he is another big loss, but somewhat offset by the improvement in Weid. Players come and go and get in and out of top form. I personally don't think the change in level of personal between 2018 and 2020 is that substantial. I actually think we are close to the same level of performance this season as what we were in 2018, which is compeditive, but not world beaters. At the heart of the issue is that the core of the team is just entering an age of maturity that puts us in the frame to be a genuine contender IF we can take the next step and go from an average side to a true champion side that puts together a consistent season which puts us into the top 4 and a genuine premiership contender, not just a top 8 contender.

Even if we finished in a ladder position to 'negotiate', we wouldn't have a true choice. We'd nominate our preference and the the AFL would give us the slops and schedule the game at the worst possible time and venue for us.

Agree. But I think it reflects that he's been good most games, but not great in many. I did think he was quite good around the ground generally against the Giants and did kick a timely goal for us under pressure in the second half. However, while it's true he's our leading goal kicker, he's also kicked more behinds than goals, which for a specialist forward isn't great and I suspect people mark him down for that.

Don't quite know about best on, but Kosie did get our team high for score involvements apparently (don't know if that includes his two fairly ordanary misses?). I do recall him being pretty good in that passage where he did the old one/two handball through the centre of the ground, but don't explicitly recall any others. Perhaps he is the kind of player who can't be judged on possession numbers alone, but I think he's still a fair way off ripping open games on his own. You can see the potential, but I'm finding watching him a bit of a frustrating tease at times.

Yep Richo totally gave me the [censored] on Saturday night as well and was a prime culprit for the useless waffle factor. That call regarding Green was a huge stretch. Would have been a fair call to say there was a lot of those frees that don't get paid and it was a bit marginal, but don't let a reasonable assessment of things get in the way of a commentator basically baracking for one side over another in these situations - another aspect which they are often really bad at.

Not being at the game so having limited vision is understandable. But some of the poor commentary practices are inexcusable and come down to poor standards setting and management. Waffling on with some of the extraneous crap they do while the ball is in general play is disrespectful to their viewers. By all means provide some insights, entertainment and analysis during the numerous breaks in play, but when the play is on, just CALL THE BLOODY GAME.

The AFL are not going to undermine their finacial investment in GWS - weak as [censored] and totally exposes the double standards at play. The MFC should be protesting loudly at this. ANB should publicly ask the AFL why he gets suspended for an action which accidentally caused injury to the head when big Mummy is only finned for an action which quite intentionally did. It's likely he'd cop another fine for bringing the game into disrepute, within the ironical context of the AFL in effect bringing it into disrepute through it's blatant double standards and failure to protect players from gutless snipers like Mummy.

Can't believe I'll be supporting Hawthorn to win later this afternoon. It's a low probability I know, but it wouldn't altogether surprise me with all the pressure that Clarkson has been under that the pull a win from out of their [censored]. Would be a great result for us of they did as it would put our destiny right back in our hands (although I'm not sure that's a good thing given the way we often seem to perform in such circumstances!).

Liked Spargo's game again last night. To me he has got back pretty close to his 2018 form this season and shown that he has a place in the side aging forward. Tough, uses the ball well and knows how to kick goals.

Love Langdon's work this year. Great move recruiting him. His field kicking is really quite good and I rarely see him turn it over in general play. His erratic goal kicking and work inside 50 is his one Achilles heal - if he could polish up that part of his game, he would be the ultimate weapon for his wing role. Perhaps Langdon and Hunt should partner up for the next preseason. Langdon could push Hunt to new levels of aerobic fittness, teach him where to run and Hunt could teach Langdon goal kicking.

6 Langdon 5 May 4 Oliver 3. Rivers 2. Baker 1. Nevvvvv - true Demons spirit. Put himself on the line multiple times when needed. W love you Nev.

[censored]

Rivers needs to get into the game

Even Kossie couldn't miss that tonight.

The Ninja strikes again!

How did Trac kick that. ...Whoops wrong thread

Softest 50 EVER!!

There are a few we have in our side like Weid, Trac, Lever, O Mac and others that whilst they have the potential to perform at a high level really need to get some [censored] into the way they play sometimes.

Many have knocks on him for being in some way sub par in their minds, but I think if we could clone Jack Viney's never say die attitude, I think we'd be well on the way to the ruthless attitude required. Jack was the stand out player for us last week that looked like they were trying their guts out from the get go, till the bitter end against Freo. I wouldn't say he was the only one (Gawn, Clarry, Langdon, Hunt and perhaps Fritsch) we the others that came to mind), but Jack certainly set the tone - what we need is for everyone to have that effort and intensity every game.

Not that an also rans finalist would be much of an achievement, but would represent a better result than last season in the circumstances. I've always felt our season was gone from about round 5 or 6 when we had nowhere near the runs or form on the board for a top 4 finish.

GC beating Collingwood tomorrow night would open our finals campaign right back up.