Game Thread Sydney v Collingwood

[Q...]

He was the one who gave us a chance, ask every other coach in the Afl if they would love him in there side and they have all said how much they admire him. A def star

Here here.

[Lohengrin]

Kirk and J Bolton had 41 handballs between them. It's good they're not kicking it as much because their kicking is terrible, but I don't think they're really giving us a lot of drive in the midfield. Lots of clearances, but not particularly effective. Never doubt their courage though - more ducked heads into tackles per minutes played than anyone else in the game...

[Nico]

Tonight highlighted how incredibaly indirect we are. In the 1st Q Bolton went sideways when running into an open goal. Another time Goodes went right across the ground to a player on the opposite side with a player on his hammer. So many times we went wide to a Collingwood backman.

McVeigh was injured but we did not have a player apart from Jack in the first Q who went forward to the fall of ball at a Hall contest. It was such a glaring flaw in our game. I am still trying to work out what in the hell Moore does out there. It is almost as if he is told not to go inside 50.

In the end we ran out of petrol which is a worry, and our poor disposal/ turnovers eventually buried us.

[Doctor J.]

He was the one who gave us a chance, ask every other coach in the Afl if they would love him in there side and they have all said how much they admire him. A def star

Perhaps you can give him some of your name 'cause he's got none.
And admit it, he can't kick. Probably the worst kick in the AFL. I'd put Jobe Watson ahead of him and that is saying something

[Midfield]

I love Kirk's work ethic, but I didn't think this was one of his better games. The possessions look good on paper, but the reality is that barely half of them found a teammate and several went straight to the opposition. It's no good getting the first touch out of a contest if the opposition wind up putting it back over your head.

Kirk had 15 clearances! He was easily one of our best. Its his job to belt it out of the packs. I think too many of you prefer the players who skirt the packs so they can get that clean touch.

[BSA5]

That looks like our season definer.

Was that Goodes's worst game of the season. Great first quarter but where to after that. Some of his handballs to nowhere were breathtaking and he couldn't hold his feet.
Grundy played probably his best game but that OOF when the game was still there to be won just let him down badly. And why did ROK lead to the 10th row back? When we had the long kicks going in the 2nd half we had them at sixes and sevens, but went back to "the nothings" in the last qaurter.
Jolly, Kirk and ROK outstanding.
MOL - I just hope you get to 300. One of his worst games.
Moore - continued his inglorious season. Any chance of when he does get it of moving it on. Poor effort.
Jack - found some form but needs to kick those set shots running in under no pressure. If he kicks that one, who knows what might have happened.
Crouch - will someone at the club please tell him time is up. Finished off his crap work with a brilliant OOF.
Mattner - not one of his best.
Thornton - for crying out loud leave the bloke on the ground. He shows something.
Smith - well you don't like to bag him in his first game for 2009 but if he can't do better by foot than that then his career is short lived. Mind you in the time honoured Sydney fashion he is another midfielder being groomed as a tagger.
LRT was good, Bevan not too bad, Barlow is a poor finisher, Bird needs to find a lot more pace, J Bolton was service able.

That's 2 weeks in a row that we have stopped against depleted sides.

Simple answer is we leave it up to too few and we are not good enough. When Goodes is down we have no brilliance and our leg speed over the first few metres is pedestrian.

Goodes - Wasn't too bad. Yes, down on his previous recent form, but still made a decent contribution. Won a few clearances, had 23 possessions. Unfair to single him out.

Agree on Grundy. Very good game, but unfortunately he is a clanger prone player. When he's not kicking it OOF or turning it over, he's actually a very penetrating and accurate kick. Similar to Shaw. It just let him down in the end.

Agree on MOL. But, aside from the last two games, he has been decent since coming back. We also have nobody who can replace him and do a better job.

Moore was better than his last couple of weeks. Kicked a goal, used the ball very well when he had it, but just couldn't impose himself on the game.

I thought Jack was great, and beat Davis quite convincingly in the end. If it weren't for Richards and Crouch, Davis would have kicked just the one goal, and Jack's work around the ground himself was fantastic.

Crouch was very poor, but it was his first poor game of the year. Not droppable. Terrible, but not droppable. Especially considering the injuries this week in the ressies.

Agree on Thornton that he shows something when he's near it. Did he just get very little time, or did he drift out of the game?

I didn't think Smith was bad at all. A lot of his kicks were hurried scraps out of congestion, a necessity when playing in the wet. He had one genuinely poor kick, but otherwise his kicks when not under extreme pressure were quite good, I thought. Spotted up teammates several times. Had 2 goal assists. He also kept Dale Thomas almost silent after Daisy had a few touches on Mattner.

Barlow a poor finisher? Not sure what game you were watching, he was amongst our best in that regard. Granted, he took on a couple of very difficult shots at goal, but in both instances they were the best option, and he didn't quite pull them off. Doesn't make him a poor finisher. His kicking in general play was fantastic, and that goal he slotted was straight as a bullet. Might have been from straight in front, but it would have been a goal from anywhere.

Also, to those saying Barlow lacked physicality/looked scared, I couldn't disagree with you more. One thing I noticed about his game is that his intensity was 10X the last game he played. He picked up 5 contested possessions (out of 16), chased all day (something I haven't seen from him before, he really put in), and used the ball really well. Very happy with his game, he has definitely earned another one in my opinion.

All told I didn't think we were too bad. We dominated the clearances, and used the ball well through the midfield. The one area we fell apart in was our forwardline. I find it hard to believe that we could consistently hit targets further up the ground but our skills just magically turned to @@@@ at the 50 metre arc. It may have been a forward structure issue. Many of the "terrible kicks" into forward 50 seemed to just be kicks under pressure when there were no options up forward. Hall wasn't terrible, but he really didn't present well. Neither did O'Loughlin. The only forward that seemed to consistently present was Barlow, and unfortunately he's not strong enough overhead to take pack marks, and with Maxwell playing the loose man for most of the night, that was necessary. Also, while I liked his game, he didn't quite lead into the right places, often getting too close to Bazza (and probably vice versa, to be honest).

Anyway, I was happy with the performances of our youngsters. Aside from the obvious ones like Kirk, O'Keefe and Jolly, it was our young guys like Bird (busy), Jack (great all round job on Davis, unlucky that Davis got a couple of shots in the end), Grundy, Barlow and Smith that played well. Additionally, Thornton showed great signs. He should be played as a permanent forward pocket/flanker and asked to keep bringing down the contested marks, with 70% TOG at least.

[Midfield]

You my friend are on more drugs than Ben Cousins ever took!!!

Such is life.

[Nico]

Kirk and J Bolton had 41 handballs between them. It's good they're not kicking it as much because their kicking is terrible, but I don't think they're really giving us a lot of drive in the midfield. Lots of clearances, but not particularly effective.

We have no brilliance in the midfield apart form Goodes.

When those to blokes scrubbed it forward our forwards were playing behind.

Another thing we don't do is run forward in anticipation of us getting possession. We rarely create a free ball on the HFF. The Bulldogfs and Cats are masters of this.

[Cardinal]

All I can say is it's nice for a change not having a 4 hour bus trip home after a loss.

Geez Cuz would have been good in the midfield tonight.

[Doctor J.]

Such is life.

Boom tish

[Nico]

Is there a reason why only the Swans can do wrong in your eyes?

Probably because I watch us more than the opposition and try to make sense out of why we throw away matches regularly. If you read my summary of the game it is not all negative. If we focus only on the positives when we lose then I guess we can all keep on getting warm and fuzzy and bow to mediocrity.

When I watch other matches I have the perception to see that there are 2 sides playing and see mistakes and good play these 2 sides display.

[msb]

I think we need to settle down. The pies are 4th and I thought we were unlucky, more than anything, not to beat them. It happens sometimes, thats why its such a good game. Sure at certain stages we make the wrong decisions or skill errors, but i'll cop that. The effort from the boys was there tonight and if its maintained we'll make the finals. 100% improvement from a couple of weeks ago. Ed must be shown the door but the rest, as always, are goers. I'll back us to win a few in a row from here.

Geez what optimism! A few in a row Maybe from the north game cause there is no way known on earth we will beat adelaide over there! Look tonight was the season IMHO, what is the point finishing 7th or 8th even if we did string a few together? Lets just get through the last half of the year, maybe win a few games to finish on a bit of a positive and have one HELL of a clean out at years end!

[Primmy]

I am almost left speechless.
The effing bdy handball circle work. The scrub kicking. The sideways stuff when straight up would have done just fine. Dropped ball, boom crashing into each other. AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

To his credit Lewie was not tragic and at times was terrific.

We could have a keeper in Smith and Kris.

Jolls looked like he was going to faint on the side line, he worked.

Kirky is kirky and I expect nothing less, but he is going to wear out one day, we should look after him more.

I think that's it. No, wait, - no I was mistaken, that's all I have to say.

[stellation]

Just back from the game. Holy crap, did Jolly really get 53 hitouts? That's phenomenal, it certainly did seem like he won everything but that figure is amazing... the cover story for the Record was actually on him, too.

I thought Smith was good, seems to know where the ball is going to go- he's quite good at getting into space to cut off leads as slow down opposition delivery coming through the midfield (which nobody else seemed to do tonight). I'd like to see him get a month of games, no issues with his disposal in the magoos so I'd like to see what he can do after he settles.

Great to see Hall contesting ruck contests in the forward 50 again.

Poor old Crouchy.

I liked the game from Jesse tonight- more around the ground play, great to see. I love his second/third efforts. It may be youthful exuberance, but he looks like he actually gives a @@@@ and wants to win.

The 50 on Ted- I'd love to see someone capture the 50 that wasn't given in the Hawks vs. Blues game when Buddy kicked the ball after the whistle. I could be wrong, but I don't think he heard it (it was particuarly loud at that point).

John Anthony has an amazing set of paws.

[SCGonasunnyday]

I might be in the minority but that was a great game to watch. We lost, but to me the bookies were on drugs giving Collingwood $1.90 - to me $1.10 would be more realistic. We haven't gotten close to Collingwood for years and here we almost got there.

It is disappointing to go from 8-5 to 9-12 - it could have been a different story.

Big positives were Jolly dominating, Kirk and ROK getting 41 disposals - I can't ever remember such high numbers - but more Thornton taking 2 nice contested marks, Bird being in everything, Barlow spearing a pass and kicking a nice goal, Jack having a super game. I think Jack and Bird were super, Moore at least didn't miss his shot at goal. Hall giving the ump the thumbs us.

It was very entertaining. The fact that we got close tells me that maybe we are on an upwards trajectory and might actually beat Collingwood soon(ish).