Collingwood/Eagles discussion

What do you reckon?

Comments

  1. Gripping start.

    WCE players aren’t choosing the best option with their kicks.

    Only 8 points down is a good result for Collingwood.

    Marsh/Hussey both in the ’90’s.

  2. Marsh/Hussey notch their tons.

    Wellingham probably kicks the sealer (early crow). Lethargy shaken off.

    Pendlebury BOG.

  3. radio or TV PJF?

  4. Footy on TV.

    Is it live in Melb?

    Live up here.

  5. up where?

  6. Macedon Ranges.

    Helmet and Smart Missile race most unkindly.

    Not much sport to look at today!

  7. Joseph Walker says

    Collingwood by 13 at half-time. Eagles attack slowing down. Wellingham has three. West Coast nothing like they were in the first term.

    Here come the Magpies.

  8. FASOLO!!!!!!
    i’m talking about the grin, not the goal…but yes the goal was AWESOMEEEEEEE ;)

  9. Dear Editors,
    Thanks for putting on this Collingwood/Pies discussion. Appropriate really – because if the Pies think they are premiership material after that insipid runless last quarter – they really are playing with themselves.
    Regards – Disgruntled of Perth.

  10. Good point.

  11. A note to the other finalists.If you want to beat Collingwood, someone should probably play on (or at least near) Pendlebury.

  12. Have thought about this a lot Shaken. The answer is who? SSelwood – too small, too slow. ASelwood – too old, too slow. LShuey – if you can’t get a kick, might as well watch and learn? The answer is critical mass. If you have enough tall, strong, fast midfielders – one of them will get a hold of you. Might be Daisy next week. The response is in who they have to worry about on your side. Sad reality is that we had to have all the luck and play to 100% – they had the depth to only play to 90% and still win. When the cameras panned down the line of players at the Anthem, I said to the AE that Shuey looks like he is going to cry. He is a good kid and will learn a lot – I expect he will go close to BOG next week after a big learning experience today.
    Ebert goes out for McGinnity next week. Ebert is too skinny and soft for finals. Will be a player when he grows up and out but still a boy.
    Bigger worries were Kennedy, LeCras and Nicoski who gave nothing. Nicoski worked hard, but opposition coaches in finals were never going to give him time and space. I understand why we run LeCras through the midfield given our paucity, but time for the failed experiment to end. He is a ‘hands and arms’ skilful player who does not enjoy the hard body stuff in the midfield. Keep him within 40 of goal and he will give us 4 a week. Midfield rotation of MLC has been a lose-lose all year and “if you find yourself in a hole – stop digging”.
    Most worrying is JK. I am reminded of Crash Davis and Nuke Laloosh in Bull Durham – “Nuke you’ve got a million dollar arm and a ten cent brain”. By all accounts JK is a lovely bloke, but is what is euphemistically called a ‘confidence player’ (read head case). It is not that he is dumb, rather that he seems to think/worry too much about his game. The last 2 years he has been a world beater in the first half of the season and then his game and his kicking trail off in unison. When he had a shocker last week against the Crows I thought “uh oh” – he’s thinking about it again. Today he dropped 80% of the marks he got 2 clear hands on. When he played on from a mark on the angle for a left foot snap 25 metres out early in the last term, I thought “he doesn’t believe he could hit the side of a barn with a handful of wheat.” Embarrased into taking the same set shot later in the quarter I dropped a motza backing him to kick out on the full. He squeezed a point.
    Hall of mirrors time for JK. I am confident that Shuey will rebound, I just worry that JK seems too nice and self aware to be a ruthless competitor at this level.
    All said we were brave, brave, brave against a team that seemed way too good in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. We turned what felt like it was going to be an 8 goal drubbing at 3Q time into a 7 point game with 6 minutes to go.
    My thoughts are that Pies are ripe for the plucking. Malthouse talked them up in the post game which suggests to me that he is worried, that they are soft and have lost their ‘mongrel’. A confident Mick would have baked them for an insipid last quarter against a brave but wounded opponent.
    For us the back 6 were all magnificent. Nic Nat was great but without Cox he couldn’t run out the game alone. Kudos to Jolly who is a great competitor. Harry O joins Hodge, Goodes, Rioli and StevieJ as the opposition I most enjoy watching. Gaff was the best of our kids.
    Given a genuinely fit enough Cox and Kerr next week, I’m not worried about Blues or Bombers at home. Temptation for Woosha will be to roll the dice with them half fit. Not smart.
    We will get a lot out of a narrow loss on the MCG with injuries and playing poorly in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Cats will know they have had a game in 2 weeks time (not that I am getting ahead of myself).
    Regards – “Glass Half Full” of Perth (will soon be glass full when I can get this next bloody cork out)

  13. I thoroughly enjoyed the close game but I am not worried about the last quarter. Almost all of Collingwood’s defenders were underdone, injured, or both. Our best tall defender, Ben Reid was out injured, our other tall, Tarrant had limped from the field against Geelong and was probably only 90% fit. Shaw was playing his first game for nine weeks, Maxwell his first for four. Leon Davis missed last week and Toovey had missed quite a few earlier in the year and was being asked to play on the much taller Josh Kennedy. Only Harry O was fully match fit and he ended up in Collingwood’s best three players.

    Under the circumstances I thought Collingwood’s defenders played pretty well but it was hardly surprising that they all tired markedly in the last quarter (apart from Harry and Leon) This is not to underestimate the fine performance of West Coast. I was really impressed by Nic Nat. If PeterB has added Harry O to the list of opposition players he likes watching, I have done the same to Nic Nat. If Ruckmen hit their top in their mid-twenties and Nic is only 21 he is going to be awesome at 26. Eric Mackenzie, who I have barely heard of, beat Travis Cloke comprehensively. Harry Taylor of Geelong is the only other defender to do that this year.

    I am reasonably confident that the Pies will regain their season’s form. I wouldn’t want to be playing the Cats next week but fortunately we don’t and hopefully if we meet them in the Grand Final we will be back to something like our real form.

  14. PB

    Interesting observations on Kennedy. Maybe I won’t wince quite so much when I watch him now.

    Dave, I don’t think it was the defenders who were the ones not running in the final term.

    Dawes has been poor since returning from injury. That’s affecting Cloke.

    Like PB, I found the MM hard sell post-game intriguing. Who was he trying to convince?

  15. PeterB, you make some very good points.

    If I had the choice, I would have started A Selwood on Pendles at the stoppages and then had McGinnity or even Waters run with him. He probably would have still over 25 possessions, but perhaps they might have been under some sort of pressure.

    The forward line was always going to be up against it. They have been talked up all year, and there are many options, but sometimes in the pressured environment of finals, it is better to have less options (like Cloke, Franklin, etc). I cringed every time I saw a pack of 6 players flying for a mark inside our 50.

    It hurts to say, but I think that strategy has just played the Collingwood back 6 into form.

    And while on the topic of cringing, I actually didn’t when Shuey kept getting lost. I always thought that it is your teammates fault when you get caught from behind. His response to the third one (which might have been career defining) was very, very classy.

    Very happy with the games of McKenzie, Butler, NicNat (although he didn’t seem to tackle anyone) and Gaff. All is not lost. We weren’t going to win and we would have learnt a lot for next week.

    On the other side of the coin, I wonder who Collingwood would like to play more, the limping Hawks, or the red hot Swans? Go Swans!

  16. I felt that the Eagles were well below their best. What that, along with the game in general, says to me is that Collingwood, while no doubt very much in the frame to win the flag, are beatable.

    I came away with the same feeling about Geelong after they beat us in the ’08 Prelim.

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