10 hours ago, binman said:

Ben Dixon:

Premiers: Collingwood. “System and talent, clearly the competition leaders in these areas, young enough to be still hungry and their ability to win tight games in clutch moments is no fluke.”

Young enough to still be hungry?

We'll i guess that could apply to any team, but relevant data points are the Pies have the oldest list in the AFL and 9 of their best 22 players are over 30:

• Cameron
• Mihocek
• Crisp
• Hoskin-Elliott
• Elliott
• Cox
• Sidebottom
• Howe 
• Pendlebury

 

I know Ben. He’s more of a ‘vibe’ guy than a ‘data points’ guy

17 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

I know Ben. He’s more of a ‘vibe’ guy than a ‘data points’ guy

No wonder he has a gig in the footy media. 

Goddamn ‘connections’ is as pathetic a term as ‘culture’

I prefer ‘accuracy’ and ‘hyperbole’ 

Which seven other clubs do you think can make this year’s top eight?
(18 times seven selections).
17 – Collingwood 
16 – Brisbane
15 – Carlton, GWS GIANTS
14 – Melbourne, Sydney Swans
10 – Adelaide Crows
7 – Port Adelaide
6 – Western Bulldogs 
4 – Gold Coast SUNS
3 – St Kilda
2 – Geelong Cats
1 – Essendon, Fremantle, Richmond

Which other club is most likely to reach the Grand Final? 
(No captains picked eventual premier Collingwood in 2023).
9 – Brisbane Lions
6 – Collingwood
3 – GWS GIANTS

Which player from another club do you think will win the 2024 Brownlow Medal?
(Three captains correctly nominated Lachie Neale in 2023).
10 – Marcus Bontempelli, Western Bulldogs
2 – Nick Daicos, Collingwood 
1 – Charlie Curnow, Carlton; Jordan Dawson, Adelaide Crows; Tom Green, GWS GIANTS; Errol Gulden, Sydney Swans; Darcy Parish, Essendon; Sam Walsh, Carlton; 

Which player do you think will win the 2024 Coleman Medal?
(One captain nominated eventual Coleman Medalist Charlie Curnow in 2023).
7 – Charlie Curnow, Carlton
3 – Jeremy Cameron, Geelong Cats; Nick Larkey, North Melbourne
1 – Tom Hawkins, Geelong Cats; Max King, St Kilda; Tom Lynch, Richmond; Harry McKay, Carlton; Jacob Van Rooyen, Melbourne

Which player do you think will win the 2024 AFL Rising Star?
(One captain nominated eventual Ron Evans Medalist Harry Sheezel in 2023).
6 – Harley Reid, West Coast Eagles
5 – George Wardlaw, North Melbourne
3 – Ryley Sanders, Western Bulldogs
2 – Colby McKercher, North Melbourne
1 – Blake Howes, Melbourne; Jed Walter, Gold Coast SUNS

Which club will win the McClelland Trophy?
8 – Brisbane Lions
4 – Melbourne
1 – Adelaide Crows, Collingwood, Gold Coast SUNS, GWS GIANTS, Richmond, Western Bulldogs

Who would you love to see perform as the Telstra Pre-Game Entertainment this September?
3 – Coldplay
2 – Luke Combs, Tame Impala, 
1 – AC/DC, Adele, Fred Again, Luca Brasi, Kylie Minogue, Mumford and Sons, Oasis, Rhianna, Robbie Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift

This is a big slider:

SEN’s Biggest Slider is quite humorous considering the State of the Radio Station itself. 
they are in a very precarious position themselves…

Anyone else see that David King now has us in his predicted top 8?

Why is there so much love for the Crows this season?

What a surprise, Tim Watson doesn't like us. We don't like you either Tim, so it's mutual.

Leigh Montagna is still frothing over us. He’s the only one that sees we still basically have the same team, the same defensive system that almost doubled the i50’s against Collingwood and had 8 more scoring shots against Carlton. 

 

Assume Gawn went with JvR for coleman - as he has form with going for Fritsch too aha

40 minutes ago, roy11 said:

Assume Gawn went with JvR for coleman - as he has form with going for Fritsch too aha

Also assume he went for Blake Howes as the Rising Star.

2 hours ago, HBDee said:

What a surprise, Tim Watson doesn't like us. We don't like you either Tim, so it's mutual.

i mean this is a guy who defended his footy club when they couldnt tell him what theyd injected into his son, instead of doing what id have done - sue the pants off them...(unless they knew exactly what they were given of course and were just lying about it)

If you are interested in”expert” opinions, then I’ll happily give you mine:

Dees for premiers this year! 
And I’ll tell you why:

My first grandchild was born in 2021, exactly one week after our grand final win. Quite apart from the fact that it’s time for another - and my poor grandson has never ever seen a Melbourne grand final win - my daughter is going to be delivering our second grandchild this year!
So if you were looking for confirmation of our success this year, now you have it.

27 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

If you are interested in”expert” opinions, then I’ll happily give you mine:

Dees for premiers this year! 
And I’ll tell you why:

My first grandchild was born in 2021, exactly one week after our grand final win. Quite apart from the fact that it’s time for another - and my poor grandson has never ever seen a Melbourne grand final win - my daughter is going to be delivering our second grandchild this year!
So if you were looking for confirmation of our success this year, now you have it.

Absolute Logic 

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

Also assume he went for Blake Howes as the Rising Star.

Missed that one, Wonder which Musical artists was his nomination

11 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Absolute Logic 

Thanks SWYL, but I also have some bad news. Our premiership window will close after this year. Selfishly, my daughter has decided that this birth will be her last!

4 hours ago, Megatron said:

Leigh Montagna is still frothing over us. He’s the only one that sees we still basically have the same team, the same defensive system that almost doubled the i50’s against Collingwood and had 8 more scoring shots against Carlton. 

To be fair, his analysis is usually pretty good.

i’ll just leave this here

Melbourne
Bulldogs
GWS

Brisbane
Port Adelaide
Adelaide

Collingwood
Sydney

Carlton

St Kilda

Geelong
Gold Coast
Fremantle 
Richmond 
Hawthorn 
Essendon 
North Melbourne
West Coast

23 minutes ago, DiscoStu17 said:

i’ll just leave this here

Melbourne
Bulldogs
GWS

Brisbane
Port Adelaide
Adelaide

Collingwood
Sydney

Carlton

St Kilda

Geelong
Gold Coast
Fremantle 
Richmond 
Hawthorn 
Essendon 
North Melbourne
West Coast

I might as well include,
Max for the Brownlow, (it’s been too long since a ruckman won)

Sanders, for the Rising Star – just heading out Windsor.

 

On 05/03/2024 at 11:28, Demonland said:

DAVID KING

Top 8 changes: Western Bulldogs IN, Melbourne OUT

Premiers: Collingwood. “I think the Pies will be better in year three under Craig McRae. Collingwood played awesome football pre-bye last year, but patchy after that point, winning games in bursts, which avails significant scope for improvement.”

Runner-up: GWS Giants

Wooden spoon: West Coast Eagles

Brownlow Medal: Nick Daicos (Collingwood)

Coleman Medal: Nick Larkey (North Melbourne)

“LET’S BE HONEST…”: COLLINGWOOD CAN'T WIN THE PREMIERSHIP IN 2024, ACCORDING TO DAVID KING 

BY SEB MOTTRAM 8 HOURS AGO

Collingwood isn’t winning the premiership in 2024, according to David King. 

On three weeks of evidence of an underwhelming Magpies outfit, King believes the reigning premiers will struggle to make the top four and subsequently go back-to-back. 

They currently sit 0-3 with Brisbane away looming on Thursday night. 

Furthermore, the dual-premiership Kangaroo went as far as to suggest Craig McRae’s game-plan has been found out in three consecutive losses. 

After a loss to St Kilda to open Round 3, King is now prepared to call it. 

“Let’s be honest. Are they winning it this year? No,” King declared on SEN’s Whateley about Collingwood's prospects. 

“We’ve had this chat about Port Adelaide two years ago when they went 0-3. We had the chat about Geelong (last year) when they went 0-3. You fight tooth and nail now to make finals

“It’s a different discussion to what you have had over two years about this type of team. It’s Collingwood this time. If you’re a Collingwood fan, take the colours out of it. 

“The chances of finishing top four are sliding, if they haven’t already dissipated… you can’t lose too many and they’ve already lost three of them. So even if you make it (finals) you’ll be five to eight, and you’ll be considered one of those dangerous teams. But they never win… let’s not worry about the anomaly, let’s worry about what history shows.” 

He added: “It would be just a ridiculous performance from them to go on and contend, to finish top four and go from there… they won’t be in my seedings for three months, if at all this year.” 

McRae is in his third year at the helm, having taken Collingwood to a Preliminary Final and premiership in his first two seasons. 

But now that the competition has caught on, King believes the Pies have no choice but to batten down the hatches and continue with their style. 

“I think when you do things so drastically different, they either work big or fail big. Now they worked big for a couple of years and the competition took a long while to catch up to what Craig was doing,” King continued. 

“An overinvestment of numbers where the football is, forcing the turnover and going. Wave run and go. If it works for 10 minutes, put a four-goal gap in the game, shut the game down. Situational. They can’t play like this for the whole game… so they would have wins through burst scoring. 

“Now teams have worked this out. If you can handle the heat of being outnumbered at the source where the ball is, if you can just get it forward or get it lateral and hit a target, once you go forward it will be 5v3 in your forward line in your favour. 

“Now it’s been worked out and it’s failing big. So it’s unfair to look at their back six and say, ‘you’re conceding some easy scores’. Of course they are. 

“You’ve been worked out. Does it mean you change? I don’t think you can change now. I think you’re wedded to this plan for a little while and you challenge the group to do it better, perform better.”

However, King did laud McRae for his influence across the league and spoke about the off-season footy department reshuffle at the Pies. 

Despite reported interest from other clubs, assistant coaches including Justin Leppitsch and Brendon Bolton ultimately stayed at the Pies and received promotions internally. 

“Craig McRae has changed the game. And now everyone has stolen a little bit of his IP. Everyone says, ‘why did they make so many changes? Why did they keep (Justin) Leppitsch there and do (what they did) with (Brendon) Bolton’? They did it to keep the IP in. They can’t let them all leave,” King said. 

“We’ve seen what’s happened with Richmond’s (Damien Hardwick) plan. They (assistant coaches at the time) are all everywhere else and they’re flying. 

“You just have to take your hat off to what they (Collingwood) has been able to do, now they’re in a world of pain for 2024 and you just buckle up.” 

Only three clubs have gone back-to-back in the 21st century, with McRae’s men far from the first side to fall apart in their premiership defence. 

Geelong started 2023 0-3 after defeating Sydney in the Grand Final the year prior and went on to miss September action that year. 

But King is optimistic for the Pies putting forward a strong performance against Brisbane in Round 4, with both 2023 Grand Finalists still searching for their first win of the season. 

Collingwood and Brisbane will meet on Thursday night at the Gabba, where the Lions have lost only one game since 2022.

24 minutes ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

“An overinvestment of numbers where the football is, forcing the turnover and going. Wave run and go. If it works for 10 minutes, put a four-goal gap in the game, shut the game down. Situational. They can’t play like this for the whole game… so they would have wins through burst scoring. 

“Now teams have worked this out. If you can handle the heat of being outnumbered at the source where the ball is, if you can just get it forward or get it lateral and hit a target, once you go forward it will be 5v3 in your forward line in your favour. 

“Now it’s been worked out and it’s failing big. So it’s unfair to look at their back six and say, ‘you’re conceding some easy scores’. Of course they are. 

Was thinking this yesterday. How easily the wave/corridor game has been countered.

I really thought the Hawks would come at us in the last quarter but they continued the chip around which Collingwood have been reduced to. The same with Adelaide.

The only successful proponent of the art is GWS

Interesting to see how it develops over the next 4-6 weeks