Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life: 2018 ‘The Year of the Pie’

True Believers, greetings to all.  So ‘it’ starts, again.

 

A good past weekend, led by another fantastic Win by the girls; plus another for the VFL side in a practice match.

 

AFLW

 

Ladies, well done. Again, I was not surprised – I have faith. Next year?

 

Match Reports at http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2018-03-18/report-magpies-end-crows-gf-dreams andhttp://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-18/aflw-match-report-pies-end-crows-charge.

 

Best. Another ‘team effort’; always the best.

 

Coach’s comments: “The same thing happened in season one. Over the off-season we’ll work out how we can manufacture what we need to do early in the season to get that going early, whether it’s trying to play more games against opposition rather than one hit-out.”

 

Next:  That’s it for 2018, ladies.  A really great performance by the girls over the last several weeks.  Well done.  Look forward to watching the improvement heading into next year. Good luck.

 

And just out of interest, have a look at the early predictions at https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/aflw-2018-preview-predictions-and-players-to-watch-for-season-two-20180126-h0otj4.html and see where we’ve come.  Well done.

 

AFLW GF: Dogs vs Lions at Ikon Park on Saturday, 24 March; ball-up at 1.05pm.  Good luck, Lions. Regardless of the strange website name, game preview is at http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-18/aflw-who-can-make-the-grand-final.

 

AFL

 

The Game: Round 1; Saturday, 24 March vs Hawthorn at the MCG; bounce: 7.25pm.

 

Match Centre: http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2018/1/haw-v-coll match preview detail later in the week (but the betting is there already).

 

Selections & stuff?  Selections on Thursday night.

 

  • Who to watch for:

–         Mids, incl ruck. Grundy, Pendles, Treloar & Adams.  Wells – eventually (maybe).

–         Wings – Varcoe, Hoskin-Elliott.

–         Forwards. Cox & Reid.  Smalls – Fas & Blair (both doing well at VFL).  Elliott, eventually (maybe).

–         Backs. Moore, Howe & Murray. Scharenberg – where is he; has anyone seen him lately?

 

  • New? Stephenson – looking awesome; Mihocek – has done well; Daicos & Brown?
  • Critical to our season? Grundy, Reid.  Anyone else?
  • Outside chances? Stephenson, Milhocek, McLarty, Daicos and Hore?  What do you think?

 

  • Game Plan:  Key Points from past few seasons:

–         Disposal Efficiency, particularly amongst the Mids.

–         Kick-ins keeping possession.

–         Connecting the Forwards.

What would you like to see improved?

 

  • Role of the Coaches’ Box:

–         Readiness to adjust?

–         Preparedness to adjust?

Your thoughts?  The role of taggers?

 

  • Individuals – ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’:

–         Good – http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-15/i-havent-seen-anyone-like-jaidyn-pies-big-call

–         Bad – http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-15/banished-pie-ready-to-come-in-from-the-cold

–         Ugly? Actually, De Goey is back.  Does that fit here?

Your contribution?

 

TV?  Yep.  Free to Air coverage on 7mate from 7.00pm.

 

Reporting?  I would seriously invite those attending to report, please?  You get a totally different view of the game at the ground, different from watching it on TV.  Actually, I think you get a better coverage on the radio than TV – better ‘experts’ who have to justify their statements rather than just “Did you see that?”.  And anyone watching is welcome to comment – we are all family (except for those couple of interlopers, anyway). So reports / comments / attitude please?

 

Season Preview?  Go to: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-03-14/season-preview-collingwood.  Interesting.  I don’t agree with too much of it, but it’s worth a read.

 

What will constitute a successful season for you / what do you think is a ‘pass mark’ for the season?  What are you predicting?

 

My pass mark & prediction?

 
My pass mark & prediction?

· My ‘pass mark’ for the season is making the Finals and Wins over Carlton ( 6 April and 24 June), Geelong (13 May) and Essendon (on Anzac Day; ignoring the other meeting on 8 July).
· My prediction is Top 4 at the end of the H&A season.
· The basis of my prediction (yes, there is logic underlying it) is a good List with some good ‘pick-ups’, an evolving (hopefully) Game Plan and, as above, a willingness by the Coaching Box to get actively involved in the game (hopefully). Maybe the guys should watch the AFLW girls’ commitment and try to match it – things we’d like to see: multi-person tackling and support running.
 

Experts?  Go to https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/expert-tips – nothing there yet. I love these guys; especially when they are all wrong.  Remember Mr Shorten is a Pies fan and, like all Pies’ fans, will never pick against us.  And Mr Turnbull is from Sydney, and by definition doesn’t know anything about ‘footy’.  Accordingly, his picks can be seen as pretty random – like picking a horse based on the jockey’s colours.  There are a few who, usually, know what they are talking about – “watch and shoot” is the ubiquitous military expression that fits.  I tend to include their ‘guesses’, mostly out of spite.

 

VFL

 

A solid Win on the weekend against Coburg – 8.16.64 to 8.5.53.  Detail at http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2018-03-16/vfl-magpies-tune-up-with-victory.  Best: Reeves-Smyth up Forward,  Lachlan Howe in the ruck (note McLarty in that role the week before), Hellier (Captain) in the Midfield and Hore (last year’s VFL B&F), down Back.  Can someone explain to me the potential for ‘high-achiever’ VFL players to make it into the AFL list?

 

Next:  Another practice match against Box Hill, Friday, 23 March at the Holden Centre.  Bounce timing TBA – watch the Pies website for detail.

 

VFLW

 

Season starts weekend, 5/6 May 2018.  See http://vfl.com.au/2018-vfl-womens-fixture-release/.

 

No change.

 

Netball

 

Commonwealth Games netball competition runs from 5 to 15 April.

 

Season starts Saturday, 28 April: Vixens vs Magpies, Hisense Arena, Melbourne; tip-off 3.00pm.

 

Otherwise no change.

 

AFL Wheelchair League

 

Yep, another team in another competition; counting AFLX, that makes 7.  Go to:http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/new-afl-wheelchair-league-to-launch-in-2018-featuring-collingwood-essendon-hawthorn-richmond-and-st-kilda/news-story/38724cf69fa31d90aa91c00c9b7ffa15.

Could be interesting.  If you’ve ever watched the wheelchair basketball or rugby at the Olympics, s are unbelievable – no fear.

 

Season start: 6 May.

 

Other:

–         GWS play their opening game against the Bulldogs at Manuka on Sunday,25 March; bounce:1.10pm. ‘Support the AFL into Canberra’ – see you there – wear your Pies’ shirt.

–         The Raiders home game against the Warriors is on this Saturday, but with kick-off at 3.00pm you’ve got time to get home after it to watch our game.

–         The Brumbies have this weekend off.

 

Go Pies.

 

Cam

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