Rod Grinter

Rod Grinter
Personal information
Date of birth	(1965-05-26) 26 May 1965
Original team(s)	Katandra
Height	182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb)
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1985–1995	Melbourne	134 (57)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1995.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Rodney 'Balls' Grinter (born 26 May 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Melbourne in the VFL and AFL.

Grinter is most remembered for an incident in Round 2 of the 1988 VFL season when he punched Footscray defender Terry Wallace in the face, rendering Wallace unconscious. Both field umpires failed to report Grinter for the incident, but he received a six-week suspension for the incident after a VFL investigation. Later that season he appeared in Melbourne's losing Grand Final side against Hawthorn. He was also suspended for nine matches in 1990 following a number of incidents in a game against Richmond at the MCG.

Grinter was involved in another famous incident in the previous season's Preliminary Final against the same opponents. He was the man on the mark when Jim Stynes ran between him and Gary Buckenara (he was the one that gave away the free kick to Bukenara) which resulted in a 15-metre penalty and goal to win after the siren from Buckenara.

After playing most of his career in defence, Grinter was moved into the forward line in 1993 and rejuvenated his career kicking 21 goals. He managed only 9 games the following year, Grinter stayed on the list as a supplementary player in 1995 serving as reserves captain mentoring the younger players.

He was later employed by the Demons as a match day runner.

Grinter was coach of New Norfolk in the Tasmanian Statewide Football League during the 1996, 1997 and 1998 seasons.

Statistics

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
1985	Melbourne	14	11	13	9	81	39	120	31	0	1.2	0.8	7.4	3.5	10.9	2.8	0.0
1986	Melbourne	14	11	9	10	96	45	141	40	0	0.8	0.9	8.7	4.1	12.8	3.6	0.0
1987	Melbourne	14	18	2	3	230	48	278	67	12	0.1	0.2	12.8	2.7	15.4	3.7	0.7
1988	Melbourne	14	19	0	4	169	72	241	48	25	0.0	0.2	8.9	3.8	12.7	2.5	1.3
1989	Melbourne	14	19	4	4	160	74	234	47	22	0.2	0.2	8.4	3.9	12.3	2.5	1.2
1990	Melbourne	14	13	5	2	103	48	151	36	17	0.4	0.2	7.9	3.7	11.6	2.8	1.3
1991	Melbourne	14	16	1	2	129	32	161	34	20	0.1	0.1	8.1	2.0	10.1	2.1	1.3
1992	Melbourne	14	3	0	0	29	8	37	8	4	0.0	0.0	9.7	2.7	12.3	2.7	1.3
1993	Melbourne	14	15	21	6	96	41	137	49	8	1.4	0.4	6.4	2.7	9.1	3.3	0.5
1994	Melbourne	14	9	2	0	44	16	60	9	7	0.2	0.0	4.9	1.8	6.7	1.0	0.8
Career			134	57	40	1137	423	1560	369	115	0.4	0.3	8.5	3.2	11.6	2.8	1.0

References

• Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

• Rod Grinter's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Demon Wiki profile
• Rod Grinter Player Profile bio