Match Thread - Round 14, Collingwood

[Wardy]

Nicely put and it was an awesome game.
I don't feel totally devastated by about our defensive effort tonight. Very tough night for Reggie basically playing a lone hand. He never dropped his head and kept competing. Special note made on his spoil to reduce a certain goal to a rushed behind.
We were missing Teddy and AJ. I thought Kennelly and NIck Mal adapted well particularly when we know they aren't strong defensively and yes Tadhg had a @@@@ up but he is so creative.
When I look at Cloke and Dawes I feel very excited that in the very not too distant future one Sam Reid will be scaring the absolutely pants off all defenders. I don't think his wing man will be LJ or White.
I putting it out there: White needs to play in the Ruck and float forward and back. LJ needs to be traded to Freo for Mundy, Mguzu , Fyfe or other plus a pick (yep tell me I'm dreaming but you know what I mean).
Bring in Dan Currie and plonk him at FF and just see what he can do.
Everitt will be a nice insurance player but failure to hold out Tarrant and allow Birdie to mark are just not good enough IMO.
McGlynn was great tonight and Smith is super.

Bird is classy. Anyone who thinks he is slow needs to watch his clearances. "Slick little handball from Bird".......just remember how often you hear that in a game.
Hanners is an amazing 19 yo.
McVeigh played a captains game today.
Our Josh Kennedy is the best version.

That loss will give us a lot confidence once the disappointment wears off.
We need to stay focussed annd composed in the next couple weeks.
I LOVE MY TEAM and hats off to the supporters when the that terrible Collin-wood chant started in Q3 the red and white people got on their bikes and showed whose home ground it was!

Longmire's game day coaching was fantastic today. Hats of to the Horse.
The likes of Goodes will never be seen again so watch carefully people he is pretty special and he's all ours.

right with you there LK - it was an amazing game - voice pretty much gone and I am so proud of the lads. Sure we made some errors, and the Pies couldnt kick straight - but our boys applied pressure that the pies were not expecting. they and their god awful supporters thought it would really be a cakewalk. The OOBOTF down the southern end was clearly out - no question, and Cloke staged for a free - now wasnt it Malthouse who branded stagers cheats??? - anyway - be that as it may, it was a great improvement on last week and I almost got my wish for a 1 point win. So we are still in the 8 - lets hope that the next few weeks we can consolidate that position.

Oh and Lucky & Kirkari looked SENSATIONAL up on the big screen singing Cheer Cheer!!! well done chicks!

[neilfws]

Terrific effort I thought, given how most people thought it would play out before the game. And given that the Pies skills were down on the night, it was only a couple of basic skills errors from us that made the difference between a 1 goal loss and a 1 goal win. I just hope we come up OK next week; a lot of players put everything they had into that game.

I liked this generous quote from Malthouse too:

Malthouse says he has always been in awe of the Sydney Swans, describing their style of game as hard, fair and "finals footy".
"If you're lucky enough to make September, go back and revisit your Sydney game because that's what it is all about."

Malthouse praises 'finals-like' Swans - Official AFL Website of the Collingwood Football Club

[Wardy]

Bevo has to learn to take marks out in front of him in his hands rather than wait for it to come onto his chest. We genuinely lost w or 3 really good looking forward movements because he tried to take it on his chest, ball spoilt and rebounded by the Pies. Otherwise he looked fine again. His hard body and pressure is great to have deep in the forward line.

I am probably wrong, but too me Bevo seemed to be trying too hard to be the "match winner" always trying for the tricky shot at goal when there were players clearly closer to the centre of the field and free waving at him to pass it and he missed said goal attemp most of the time, perhaps he was trying to justify his selection - I dunno, but thats how I saw it.

[Go Swannies]

that stupid bomb for goal that was out on the full was annoying though.

Nowhere near as annoying as the boundary speccy Goodes went for towards the end of the game where it was clear that he was just aiming to spoil and the ball hit his hands anyway and he still couldn't hang on.

[BSA5]

I like Bevo up forward. It's hard to say whether he's best 22 there, but I think he should keep his spot. He blazed away a few times for little result, but he's got a nice long kick on him and he's had success doing it before, so I'm OK with that. First game back in the seniors for a while, he acquitted himself OK. He, Macca, and occasionally Jude on HF gave as a real nice look.

Everitt needs to go, unfortunately. 2 possessions in a half of footy, last man in, TDL kicking 9 and Gordon 7 in the ressies, Johnson and Richards possible ins, it's hard to argue he should keep his spot.

Could Sumner get a recall? Parker?

[Lucky Knickers]

Oh and Lucky & Kirkari looked SENSATIONAL up on the big screen singing Cheer Cheer!!! well done chicks!

I thoroughly recommend having a crack in the VW. You actually have to put your seat belts on. We decided to give it a burl and was told quite politely that our timing was excellent so imagine my surprise when we actually cracked a gig on the big screen.

Did I really propose trading LJ to Freo?

[Red]

I am probably wrong, but too me Bevo seemed to be trying too hard to be the "match winner" always trying for the tricky shot at goal when there were players clearly closer to the centre of the field and free waving at him to pass it and he missed said goal attemp most of the time, perhaps he was trying to justify his selection - I dunno, but thats how I saw it.

I know what you mean, but it's hard to fault a guy for trying to win the match.

[Cpt. Kirk]

Could Sumner get a recall? Parker?

Would love to see sumner get another shot, and get subbed off in the third quarter apperently his endurance isn't quite up to scratch atm, but if he got subbed off he could have a big 3 quarters.

[Scottee]

I was very proud of the boys last night and I thought the game answered a lot of questions and raised a few.

Questions answered:
How to overcome the forward press ? just get LJ to kick it to Seabs in the centre.
The players aren?t talking enough ? eg LJs spoils when he could easily mark plus other examples.
Cloke has taken over Barry Hall?s mantle as the best CHF in the comp.
Collingwood are vincible.
We can stand up to pressure as well as deliver it.
Seaby can dominate a weaker opponent.
Seaby is a good contested mark.
We can match it with the Collingwood midfield.
Carlton are at least as good as Collingwood.
?Bevo the unaware? has learnt nothing
Everitt is still a work in progress.
We didn?t miss Jetta.


Unanswered questions
Would we have won with AJ, KJ , Ted and Mummy in the side?
Would we have won without ?direct pass to an opposition forward syndrome?.
Will we be able to consistently play at that level for the rest of the year?
Will we find a suitable for forward before the finals?
Can Seaby match it with better rucks?

I am now looking forward to the rest of the season with great interest. We may not be far off clicking and beating top 4 sides accusewell.

[Cpt. Kirk]

I was very proud of the boys last night and I thought the game answered a lot of questions and raised a few.

Questions answered:

We didn?t miss Jetta.

I am now looking forward to the rest of the season with great interest. We may not be far off clicking and beating top 4 sides accusewell.

I reckon he would have been a better sub then everitt, everitt had 2 touches, jetta could have been the guy that broke through collingwoods lines as he has against other teams and kick goals.
I really do think jetta will be a very good player he just needs the one break out game to really get his confidence level up.
Sydney compared to the other top sides lack 1 or 2 outside midfielders and in years to come Rohan should be able to do this perhaps Jetta aswell.
We are really 3 players off being the top side, a Dominant key forward, and 2 outside mids with pace and kick accuracy.

[Nico]

I have been saying for some time that McVeigh's value is on the forward line. He is simply wasted as a tagger and has ordinary midfield disposal. Better to use his skills and ability to get on his own and to kick goals from a HFF. Bevan also up forward adds the grunt required and gives a far better contest than TDL. When the chips are down Bevan is there having a go.

Jetta's form from all reports was ordinary in the 2's so he should not be brought in until the attitude changes. Going into the second half of a season with a finals berth at stake you need total commitment regardless of his pace. Pace means nothing if you 'aint got the footy.

Cloke has been our nemesis for a number of years now. He seems to save his best for us. He has been the difference in a lot of games between the 2 teams in the past 4-5 years.

On the ABC pre game talk today they said that game was as close to a finals game that a home and away match gets. Luke Ball said a lot of Collingwood players are very sore this morning. If we can produce that form on a weekly basis from now on then we should take 5th or 6th.

[swansrule100]

can seaby and mumford work together in the same side with a 3 man bench? Pyke has probably shown more as a forward in the dogs game then either of them so far

[ScottH]

Gee Scott I could argue that Kennedy just blazes away going forward. A couple of times in the last quarter he was clear going forward of centre and went wide to a contest when it was clear that when we went direct to about 20 metres out the Pies defence got shaky. What both Bird and Kennedy did in the second half was get boot to ball under pressure which seemed to catch Collingwood out and make it a one on one contest with the ball bouncing and bobbing around. What we did better this week was have players inside 50 metres at the contest, rather than the opposing defenders being let just whisk the ball away.

You could add Hanners to the blazers too. I think 3 OOB was the last count.

I know Birdy got a lot of ball and did a lot of great work, but there are times he just seems lackadaisical. Not going at 100% when in heavy traffic. Frustrated me a few times.
Almost got run down again at one stage.

Don't recall too much of Kennedys blazing. not to say it wasn't there. But a lot of his disposals are from inside the pack.

But they are all still relatively young and are improving each week.

Bird: 23 touches @ 78% effective
Kennedy: 24 @ 67%

I guess the stats favour your argument.

[swansrule100]

i think the bombing is better then the sideways chipping, least they took the game on.

Everitt played a very flat footed game last night, that infuriated me more than anything

[ScottH]

Did anyone else notice that it looked like poor Jude was wearing odd socks?

No wonder he failed to kick the distance.