Game Thread Sydney v Collingwood

[Bear]

Perhaps I should have qualified the comment slightly. I was referring to the fact that he played injured regularly in his long run of consecutive games.

Did he?

Well in that case you need to have a word to him, and every other player on our list as they all play with injuries, regularly. It's a fact of AFL football.

Start with Jared McVeigh who selfishly stayed on the ground last night after getting a shoulder injury. Work your way through to Barry Hall who recently started games with groin problems. That's if you want to be consistent.

There would not be one player on our list now who is 100% at this stage of the season. They are ALL "selfishly" playing with injuries throughout their whole career. Get rid of the lot!

[connolly]

The old MOL is just sneaking his way to 300 now.

His lack of pace is really hurting. Can't get away from his opponent on a lead, can't even turn and take off now, easily run off... and even his skills are ordinary

Add Moore into the mix and you have the two slowest small/crumber forwards in the comp - in the same forward line - a disaster. Two really weak links in the one forward line, and two really weak links in the one backline - Bevan and Grundy.

We actually did ok to be competitive!

Probably because our 31 year old tagger and shorts tugger held it all together once again. We will never see his like (or him) again in senior ranks. Gentlemen glasses raised!

[Lucky Knickers]

Eds game was pretty good I thought. He was finding the ball ok and managed to get into some dangerous positions. I do find him frustrating as I am shaking my head thinking "what are you doing?" in anticipation of a soft effort but last night he really surprised me. He shows a lot of composure under pressure.
I love Jessie White's game - great passion and attack on the ball and for the contest!
Skills and decision making remain a problem but I thought there was a lot more focus and intent to our game.
I must say the decision that most annoyed me was failing to give Jude the free kick. It was pretty clear that his opponent (who?) wasn't looking at the ball. Very very poor.
Smith was impressive in his debut. I look forward to seeing more.

[ugg]

Eds game was pretty good I thought. He was finding the ball ok and managed to get into some dangerous positions. I do find him frustrating as I am shaking my head thinking "what are you doing?" in anticipation of a soft effort but last night he really surprised me. He shows a lot of composure under pressure.
I love Jessie White's game - great passion and attack on the ball and for the contest!
Skills and decision making remain a problem but I thought there was a lot more focus and intent to our game.
I must say the decision that most annoyed me was failing to give Jude the free kick. It was pretty clear that his opponent (who?) wasn't looking at the ball. Very very poor.
Smith was impressive in his debut. I look forward to seeing more.

The other Shaw.

[Lucky Knickers]

The other Shaw.

THanks ugg...now doubly annoyed.

[shaun..]

Just as their skills are their tomorrow?

Thanks for helping my grammer, its werking

[shaun..]

I thought the umpiring was pretty reasonable. They weren't whistle-happy and seemed to let a lot of soft ones go by, ones that would have been paid in previous weeks/seasons. I think both teams got one "head high" free where the recipient created the head high contact themselves.

The one glaring exception was the HTB rule where the rule seemed to apply differently to the two teams. Bird was pinged where I thought he just managed to handball as he was tackled. He'd certainly had prior, and those are often paid, even if the player kind of disposes of the ball. But then how on earth could the Didak one not have been HTB???!!! He had had eons of time and didn't come close to disposing of it correctly. The Pies scored a goal directly from that "play on call". There was another just as blatant later in the game.

On the other hand ROK was pinged having had no prior opportunity, had his arm pinned almost as soon as he took possession. The umpire who paid it was standing behind him and couldn't possibly have seen what was happening within the tackle.

Yep thats what I was referring to - HTB, maybe I should've made that clearer.

On another note, LRT timed his jumps surprisingly well last night

[Bas]

Thanks for helping my grammer, its werking

Did she need help crossing the road?

[liz]

Smith was impressive in his debut.

He was OK. But that was around a year ago.

[shaun..]

Regardless of whether we saw it as a free or not, the umpire did not call play on or advantage so Richards was wrong to kick the ball. Shaw tried to stop him.

Perhaps he heard the whistle but assumed it was for HTB, and therefore advantage. But shame on him for thinking that, they weren't calling it all night

[Nico]

Perhaps he heard the whistle but assumed it was for HTB, and therefore advantage. But shame on him for thinking that, they weren't calling it all night

He had the ball for quite some time so if it was advantage the umpire would have called it.

[Nico]

Did he?

Well in that case you need to have a word to him, and every other player on our list as they all play with injuries, regularly. It's a fact of AFL football.

Start with Jared McVeigh who selfishly stayed on the ground last night after getting a shoulder injury. Work your way through to Barry Hall who recently started games with groin problems. That's if you want to be consistent.

There would not be one player on our list now who is 100% at this stage of the season. They are ALL "selfishly" playing with injuries throughout their whole career. Get rid of the lot!

Actually Hall didn't play with a groin injury. He came off when he did it against Hawthorn and missed 2 games before coming back in. Of course a lot of players play with injuries but there is a difference between an injury that can be carried, and one that genuinely prevents you from playing at much of a level at all.

I don't buy the statement that all our players are playing injured. All players are muscle fatigued after a game due to the contact and intensity but it doesn't mean they are playing injured.

[Triple B]

It was ROK on Didak for most of the night.

If that's correct I definately need to watch the replay cause I was at the wrong game.

Crouch started on him and after that it is anyones guess as he was on his own, but there is no way known ROK was on him 'for most of the night'.

Yes, that is my assessment from what I remember. Possibly because the two of them seemed to have the freedom to do whatever they wanted, that it seemed natural to pair the two off together as a matchup.

Strangely, you didn't offer who you thought was Didak's opponent for most of the night. Perhaps if I watched the replay too then I could also come to the right answer.

Mate, I don't know why you took that personally, it wasn't meant to be and reading it again I still don't think it was.

I actually did offer who I thought was Didak's opponent for most of the night after Crouch.......nobody.

[ugg]

Mate, I don't know why you took that personally, it wasn't meant to be and reading it again I still don't think it was.

Sorry I took that the wrong way, easy to do on an internet forum. It was late and I was cranky from a few things including the result.

I actually did offer who I thought was Didak's opponent for most of the night after Crouch.......nobody.

And who did you think was ROK's opponent? I think Swan started on him but after that McVeigh seemed to be tagging Swan. So Didak - nobody, ROK - nobody, possibly meant they were the 'matchup' as such, although not in the conventional fashion.

[Triple B]

Sorry I took that the wrong way, easy to do on an internet forum. It was late and I was cranky from a few things including the result.

I can certainly understand that.

And who did you think was ROK's opponent? I think Swan started on him but after that McVeigh seemed to be tagging Swan. So Didak - nobody, ROK - nobody, possibly meant they were the 'matchup' as such, although not in the conventional fashion.

Interesting way of looking at it, but I'd prefer to just say neither had an opponent.