Pies prevail on the Queen’s birthday

By Paul O’Connell

It’s a Public Holiday, usually cold, and we usually win. So it is great that the “usuallys” prevailed on the day. We continue to field several inexperienced players (who continue to stand up) due to our injury list. Sadly Dids was added to the injury list with his attempt on goal very early. Can he get back? Is he still in our best 22? Time will tell.

It was a strange game – good and accurate first and last quarters by the Pies with a combined 15 goals 3. But the middle 2 quarters saw us score only 4 goals 12. We kicked the first 8 goals of the game and were never going to lose. But the Dees showed some fight to get within 4 goals a couple of times. A few players, notably Jolly had good first and last quarters to reflect the scoring.

Goals were shared around. Sinclair continues to improve and was on fire in the first quarter with 2 goals, a good spoil and a great contested possession at half back. Our midfield racked up possessions for a quarter and a half to see us lead by 52…but then we started to lairise (mainly Swan with random speculative handballs). We finished on strongly 3 great goals at the start of the last quarter and 9 straight for the quarter, but they scored plenty as well. Overall it was good to win by 7 goals, and against all odds after the first 3 weeks, suddenly be at the top of the tree.

Others may want to comment more on the specifics of the game itself, whereas I have decided to spend more time on the info below. As usual I avoid any significant comment on the opposition.

The votes for the Thornburgh Medal are as follows:

3 – Dayne Beams -worked hard and skilfully all day both inside and outside, and snapped a great goal (and narrowly missed 3 long shots)

2 – Steele Sidebottom – continues to have great year, ran out the game as only he can, kicked a great last quarter goal on the run

1 – Dane Swan – a good “in” for Pendles, despite some first half turnovers ran out the game beautifully including 2 master class efforts v Watts in 4Q

The Billy Libbis (see below) Medal goes to Dayne Beams. Other good players were Wellers (who provided a great exhibition of high marking), Blair, Sinclair and Fasolo.

Some other observations – Dawes started to show some form, Cloke is working hard and going ok without huge results, we really miss Shaw and Reid on the backline, and also Toovey and Keeffe. Harry had another shocker, the skipper struggled somewhat, Marly and Elliot show promise but were not as good as last week, Young stood up well when required, I’d be surprised if Swan and Brown get any weeks given the decisions on Franklin, Hunt et al. A guest pass holder from Mars would be more concerned with the 2 Dees who hit Fasolo and Young.

In keeping with some previous efforts, mainly by Steve, I have cobbled together a team of players who played for both Collingwood and Melbourne. It proved to be a bit harder than anticipated. I got to 12 ok, Steve came up with another 4, but then I had to scrounge the last couple from the first half of last century. I’m sure there are a couple of modern players I have overlooked, so maybe some of you can add them as interchange and emergencies.

As Mark said a while ago, it is remarkable how these teams invariably end up reasonably well balanced, with most players more or less in position. The 2 players who played in the first half of last century are Billy Libbis and Percy Wilson. Both were rovers of great repute. Percy Wilson, at 168cm, gets the captaincy as he played 234 games, captained both clubs, was a dual premiership player for the Pies (1910, 1917), and coached Melbourne for 3 seasons. Billy Libbis takes his rightful position as first rover. According to Wiki….”Libbis was a rover and made his debut in 1925. He became a member of the successful Collingwood side which won 4 consecutive premierships from 1927 until 1930, Libbis the first rover for each grand final. During the beginning of the 1933 season Libbis protested against the player’s weekly match payments being reduced and he was forced to leave the club for Melbourne.”

Team of players who played for both Collingwood and Melbourne

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B: Tony Elshaugh, Wayne Gordon, John Dellamarta

HB: Simon Buckley, Glenn McLean, Ted Carroll

C: Henry Coles, Allan Davis, Robert Pyman

HF: Ross Brewer, Phil Carman, Danny Seow

F: Steven Pitt, Peter Moore (vc), Percy Wilson (c)

R: Darren Jolly, Shane Woewodin, Billy Libbis

Trivia questionWhich player in the above team played in a premiership team as a 17yo against one of Collingwood and Melbourne? Hint – he was not playing for either Collingwood or Melbourne at the time.

Comments

  1. Chris Weaver says

    Allan Davis

  2. steve fahey says

    On behalf of FPS, congrats, you are correct of course Chris

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