9 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I hopped off the bandwagon slowly in the second half of the season as we went 6 wins/8 losses! If you think our static, defensive second half 2022 game plan will cut it in 2023 with a set of injury free players you are mistaken. The best Teams are moving the ball at breakneck speed through the corridor (as we saw tonight)  and delivering it fast and low into their forward lines all to negate our strengths, May, Lever intercept marking and Gawn’s marking down the line. The game evolves so do we need to review how we play. 

Definately, but will we?

A few observations re last night

*Rowbottom much better than I gave him credit for

* Umps crucified Swans

* Daicos brothers dont like a hot footy

* Maynard should have been reported

* The filth, suck on a bag of ultra sour vinegar lollies😂

9 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Pies have been fantastic all year… I envy their run and dare… dees played the second half of 22 with concrete boots 

Yeah ..they played like we did last year ..injury free..no pressure …young players running on top of the ground. Let’s see how they back it up next year ..

58 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Definately, but will we?

Maybe its delusion, born from having memories of having Hogan up forward 5 years back where we won by 60-100 points on the regular, or last years prelim v Geelong or the 3rd and 4ths against the Dogs, but I still dream of a game-plan where we dominate centre clearances, post-clearances contested possessions and pile on goals in almost every quarter of every week with ruthless efficiency, barely letting the opposition touch it. And the rare occasion where we don't score a goal, we pressure the opposition with so much intensity (200?) that they bomb it long or dribble kick it to a 50/50 in the corridor that feeds into our turnover game.  And judging by our intention to bring in Grundy for a 1st rounder (?) so does Goodwin. We still have that bull at the gates mindset. The same mindset that Goodwin had pre-666 with the 2 rushing players into the centre bounce.

And I still don't think any game style counters that - Not a game based on turnovers from the back half and fast corridor use, if you're too efficient to give them opportunities. Can a club keep it up for enough quarters of every game for an entire season? Or is it too taxing? Well this year might've proved it is/was - Can we get it up and going again and challenge next , or do we need a radical overhaul? Time will tell.

 I do think the tweaks are that we should be a lot more daring with our ball movement from the back half next year as others have said, and just seeing if we can generate momentum, like the 3 best teams this year were doing - but fundamentally not much will change in that we will back ourselves to get fit enough to execute the same game-plan. Just hope we have the players up forward to deliver that goal kicking efficiency next year!!

With the continued improvements of other clubs like the Cats and Swans - I think some kind of middle ground will be reached if we get back to our best - We won't always be able to dominate in our strengths full match, and neither will they - but at least we will be good enough to all be 'level' with one another - a close 'roll of the dice' prelim will be a massive improvement on 2022 at this stage.

Edited September 17, 20222 yr by John Demonic

10 hours ago, old55 said:

Pendlebury 34y8m, Howe 32y2m, Sidebottom 31y8m, Elliott 30y0m.

These players were crucial to Collingwood's performance this year. It doesn't last forever.

It’s not just the age of their better players that will make it a season that won’t be replicated - it’s that every coach will be working out ways to slow them down or to stop them altogether. 

In addition, the fixture won’t be as kind to them and finally, everything went right for them in so many of their miracle comebacks - accuracy in kicking for goal, frees in front of goal, opposition coaching errors, As their two close finals defeats  showed, if one or two things don’t go your way the result may not go your way either.

Hopefully they drop off 

The pies highlighted how poor our fitness was this season with so many second half fade-outs!  Is Griffiths to blame who took over from Burgess???

1 hour ago, Whispering_Jack said:

It’s not just the age of their better players that will make it a season that won’t be replicated - it’s that every coach will be working out ways to slow them down or to stop them altogether. 

In addition, the fixture won’t be as kind to them and finally, everything went right for them in so many of their miracle comebacks - accuracy in kicking for goal, frees in front of goal, opposition coaching errors, As their two close finals defeats  showed, if one or two things don’t go your way the result may not go your way either.

Agree. But the pies will likely bring in a few players like Hill and Mcstay and get back Taylor Adams who is a very very good player.  

I agree they won many on a knifes edge due to luck and accuracy.  

Yes the draw will mean they get tougher run next year.  But unlike the Dees, they won’t get to play Cats at Geelong!!! 

Gee we must’ve been banged up or unfit ,mentally weak ,or something amiss to lose to that bog ordinary side in Brisbane 

I hope we get that mongrel back for 4 quarters next year.

There are momentum swings in every game. Had we made the most of the time we had the ball locked in our front half we'd have finished with a 20-2 home & away record and would be playing next weekend. 

I must admit it's nice to wake up this morning knowing I don't we don't have to hear about Collingwood anymore 

2 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

It’s not just the age of their better players that will make it a season that won’t be replicated - it’s that every coach will be working out ways to slow them down or to stop them altogether. 

In addition, the fixture won’t be as kind to them and finally, everything went right for them in so many of their miracle comebacks - accuracy in kicking for goal, frees in front of goal, opposition coaching errors, As their two close finals defeats  showed, if one or two things don’t go your way the result may not go your way either.

I generally agree with this, and with Montagna last night who said this was their year and their chance. 

History tells us they are highly unlikely to go 11-1 (or whatever it was) in close games in next year’s H&A season. 

Port was that side last year, couldn’t replicate it this year, missed finals. 

The fixture though is an unknown. It should be harder, given their finish, but that is no guarantee. We will, though, be seeing a heck of a lot of them in prime time. 

4 hours ago, picket fence said:

* Umps crucified Swans

The weird thing is that on Dees supporter pages on Facebook, many are posting about the how “the umpires must be on the Swans payroll”. This despite the fact that the final count was 15-20 in the Pies favour, and that something like 5 of the Pies goals were a direct result of free kicks.

2 hours ago, hardtack said:

The weird thing is that on Dees supporter pages on Facebook, many are posting about the how “the umpires must be on the Swans payroll”. This despite the fact that the final count was 15-20 in the Pies favour, and that something like 5 of the Pies goals were a direct result of free kicks.

The game was well umpired last night (all things considered)

Remembering that the sport itself is impossible to umpire correctly anyway so an error rate has to be factored in

A Demon mate of mine was with a group of Pie supporters (watching in a pub) and he was saying that the Pie fans were screaming that they were being crucified by the umpires.  All game

Yet many here and elsewhere tthought that the Swans were crucified by the umpires

So which opinion is right?  In my view, neither

The answer is somewhere in the middle so we could come to the conclusion that neither team was hard done by

Edited September 18, 20222 yr by Macca

They had to turn back a plane from melb to Sydney because of a funny smell.  What else would you expect with all the Collingwood supporters on there…..

Wonder how Jeremy enjoyed his flight home

16 hours ago, old55 said:

Pendlebury 34y8m, Howe 32y2m, Sidebottom 31y8m, Elliott 30y0m.

These players were crucial to Collingwood's performance this year. It doesn't last forever.

I’ve been saying it about Geelong for 79 years too 😭

Any MCC or AFL members going to the big dance?

Tickets were easy to get for AFL gold members.

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Any MCC or AFL members going to the big dance?

Tickets were easy to get for AFL gold members.

Negatory. Considered going with MCC because I've never seen a live grand final but the ballot is only for full members I'm restricted.

Edited September 18, 20222 yr by layzie

6 hours ago, hardtack said:

The weird thing is that on Dees supporter pages on Facebook, many are posting about the how “the umpires must be on the Swans payroll”. This despite the fact that the final count was 15-20 in the Pies favour, and that something like 5 of the Pies goals were a direct result of free kicks.

Pies have had a great run from the umps this year. Got them to the top 4.

Apologies if it has been said but AFL confirmed today for all supporters attending next weeks Grand Final to bring a packed lunch. Apparently there will be no Pies ! 😂😂

1 minute ago, CYB said:

Apologies if it has been said but AFL confirmed today for all supporters attending next weeks Grand Final to bring a packed lunch. Apparently there will be no Pies ! 😂😂

Yeah I'll pay that haha

I observe that Collingwood play crap and wait for the opposition to tire or take the foot off the pedal before they make their surges and rely heavily on luck to go their way.  But as is the case on putting too much faith in Lady Luck is that she gets bored eventually and declines to show up. 

It just worked so well for the Pies and few teams could stop it. If you didn't absolutely knock them out early you were done. They pressure and pressure then their quality leaders use the ball well and when their X-factors shine its gane over. They also have guys who can kick it through the big sticks.

It was an unknown quantity this season because they would hang in there then as the opposition tired they go bang through the middle amd were very good at transitioning. Surge mentality and putting all the odds in their favour to score. This gets worked over a lot in the summer and a tiny drop off in their pressure levels will see them back in the pack. It should also be said that they had a very good run with injuries barring Adams and maybe Moore for that period. Things will be different next year, Cameron will be studied hard, Cox will probably get targeted the way he targeted others this year. They have a good nucleus but I'm not sold on them challenging for the flag and something really needs to be done about this. We are meant to enjoy a sustained period of Collingwood non success yet we've only had last year. Fix it now or the government should step in and do something about it.

21 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I hopped off the bandwagon slowly in the second half of the season as we went 6 wins/8 losses! If you think our static, defensive second half 2022 game plan will cut it in 2023 with a set of injury free players you are mistaken. The best Teams are moving the ball at breakneck speed through the corridor (as we saw tonight)  and delivering it fast and low into their forward lines all to negate our strengths, May, Lever intercept marking and Gawn’s marking down the line. The game evolves so do we need to review how we play. 

100% the ball movement was an evolution  to counteract the defensive zone and modern flooding we implement. Slow and predictable was just never working for oppositions and we would just murder teams that played this way. We could see this taking shape even in 2021 with close games against Hawks, Loss to Adelaide / Collingwood. 

Teams just needed a preseason to perfect it and identify the talent who would execute it. 
 

But to win it next year we’ll need to go 1 better - who knows what that is but our skills, fitness and pressure are non negotiable. Without this any game plan is likely to fail against the top teams.