Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life – Round 22: Thinking of 2017

 True Believers, two to go for 2016.

 

The Season. Thinking of 2017 – http://www.afl.com.au/ – under All the News, http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-08-16/buckley-wants-best-talent-to-come-to-pies and http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-08-15/pies-join-race-for-gun-bomber-michael-hurley.

 

Belief. Bucks: http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/ – Bucks on 360 and http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2016-08-13/buckley-couple-of-howlers-really-hurt-us-. Minimum acceptable team performance standard and looking forward 10 years.  Concur with both.

 

The Game:

Gold Coast – Saturday, 20 August; at Etihad (our home game; not sure why we at Etihad (again)); bounce: 7.25pm.

 

12th versus 14th; 6 Wins and 14 Losses for them, c/f  8 and 12 for us.  Percentages: 80.6% for them c/f  91.4%. From a Ladder position perspective this should be a Win for us, but I don’t think it will be that simple; it is likely to be hard-fought and close for much of the game.  We should, however, win comprehensively.  Why?  I think they are correctly placed in the competition on the Ladder reflecting their capability; I don’t think we are – see more below.

 

Weather.  Who cares – just shut the roof.

 

TV – No Free to Air coverage; find a friend with Fox.

 

Them?

The Suns.  The Suns are amongst the great ‘underachievers’ for the season, without too many excuses like some of the others.  We expected more of them this year.  They do, however, have a multitude of critical injury outs.  But they are, still, only sitting two places below us on the Ladder.  They have only two less scalps than us, so far this season.  And since their Bye in Round 13, they’ve had a collection of interesting results – they lost to Hawthorn and the Bulldogs in Rounds 14 and 17, perhaps not surprisingly, but, very much surprisingly, lost to Melbourne and GWS, by very close margins more recently in Rounds 19 and 20.  And they had a win over St Kilda in Round 15.  But they lost last week to Essendon.

 

It is difficult to identify specific strengths across or up and down the ground, except for Lynch at CHF.  As such, I think we have to play ‘our game’ rather than seeking to negate theirs.  The lessons for us are (as always) the need for a four-quarter effort, the need to get and retain control of the midfield and other stoppages and the need to have a slick, fast movement of the ball out of our backline into our forward line; and better entry inside 50 that isn’t just ‘up and under’ bombs.  And tighten up the back 6 to avoid the ‘easy’ goals. Oh yes, and cut Lynch out of the game.

 

Suns players to watch for:

  • Most influential. Watch for Harbrow and May in the backline, Lynch at CHF and Miller amongst the mids;
  • Potential influencers – In addition to them, watch for Matera on the half forward line and Ah Chee off the interchange bench (usually heading to the HF line). Also keep an eye on Brooksby or Nicholls in the ruck; and
  • ‘Family’ – Not sure there are any, apart from their coach.  Any ideas?

 

Us?

Thursday night (again) announcement.

 

Injury outs? Adams, Sinclair and Reid all joined the ‘out for the season’ group.  Both Cox and Crocker are rated as Test.  I’m not sure I want either back.

 

Legacy from last week: See ‘The Agenda’ – http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/video/2016-08-15/is-he-our-version-of-hogan.  Worth watching – especially the overview of Treloar and Darcy.
In’s & Out’s:  With two games left in our season, we should take the opportunity to ‘trial’ ideas as well as maintaining our support of the VFL side and its competitiveness.  I would rest Brown and White to give others a taste – maybe Witts and Frost, possibly Gault?  Your thoughts?

 

Us.  Okay, so that’s four from eight for us since the Bye.  And the opposition has been pretty reasonable.  Saturday against the Suns away from Queensland should be a ‘walk in the park’ win for us; our last game of the season against Hawthorn gives us the opportunity to hit 2017 running.  More on that next week.

 

Congratulations to Treloar for making the Team of the Week from losing side – 35 possessions, nine tackles, plus a brilliant second-quarter goal – outstanding.
Game Plan – what do we have to do to win?  What do you want from these last two games?
Game Previews?

 

 

My Picks this week? Pies by 47; BOG: Treloar (37 touches @ 83.4% DE. Goals: Darcy – 5 and 3 Goal Assists); Crowd –  34 000 – very disappointing.  Your picks?
Other:

 

  • VFL – This week: Collingwood v Box Hill at Box Hill City Oval;Saturday, 20 August; bounce at 1:00pm. Going for 12 Wins in a row (only two games, including this one, to go before the Finals).  I suspect you could do both games reasonably comfortably (Melburnians, your view?) – http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/video/2016-08-16/a-finals-atmosphere-comes-early;
  • Could Melbourne really make the Finals; how about St Kilda? and
  • Eddie Watch. Quiet.

 

Reporting?  Is anyone going?  Ground Reports pls?

 

Remember to keep an eye on the Footy Almanac – http://www.footyalmanac.com.au/.

 

Next. Round 22 – Hawthorn at the G – Sunday, 28 August; bounce: 3.20pm. More on this next week. Go Pies.

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