1964_2

4 minutes ago, Tracca said:

I don't think it will happen either.

 

But 25 goals from 14 games this year in a cellar dweller team, not bad at all. He looks fit as at the moment and according to all reports really got his mental health under control

A 27-28 year old would do the trick. Take the best backman for a couple of years while JVR develops. 

5 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Serious contender for silliest thread of the year.

Nup.

I fear for next year. 

Brown - knee is cooked

TMac -  will be 30

Weid - potentially had his last chance

JVR - will take a couple of years to develop

Jacko - Out the door

We are going to have to get creative and pluck a KF from somewhere

36 minutes ago, deebunked said:

Of course we can still win it. Our best is still the best. We need to sort out the backline. Gave up 200+ points against Bulldogs and Pies. Unthinkable in 2021. Forward line is kicking enough goals to win games. Fix the backs and the forwards will deliver.

Geelong will tire on the MCG, Lions are pretenders, Swans  deserve respect and could go to the big dance and Collingwood are running on 8 cylinders at 200km/h  without brakes. Classic Collingwood good average side boistered by massive crowds, intimidated umpires and astonishng run of luck. Wont last.

I see it the opposite of this. Backline is fine. Need more pressure up the ground, and especially in the fwd line, preventing the opposition from setting up end to end goals. 
 

3 hours ago, Ollie fan said:

It’s true that we very badly need a centre half forward. I certainly didn’t recognise how important TMAC was and I don’t think many people did. And I don’t see there is any chance of getting him back this year – he would be too underdone, even when he gets fit. so although I have been against bringing JVR in, perhaps we need to try.

To my mind, the other important thing to do is to get Ben Brown to stay in the goal square near it. He tries really hard and holds some good marks around the wing area, but his ground play is absolutely terrible – after all, it’s certainly not what he is expected to do – and if he stayed in the forward area, we would always have someone to kick to. No doubt the fullback would try to run off him but once the ball was kicked to BBB alone in the forward line a couple of times, the fullback would know that he has to guard him constantly.  But then we would have a 1:1 in the forward line which always favours the attacking team.

Spot on. Couldn’t understand why BB didn’t spend more time as the deep target last night.

Understand he can be effective leading up the wing when we have another big fwd target deep. But what was the thinking last night? 
 

4 hours ago, COVID Dan said:

Might be a dopey thread to you, but it will be a fact come 8 weeks time.

Then who will look dopey then? Tough guy calling out people for having an opinion?

go and lock yourself down Dan. 

1 hour ago, Fat Tony said:

Brown and Gawn apply no pressure and Fritsch isn’t much better. Brown needs to kick 3 goals to justify his place IMO because so many parts of his game are a liability. 

Melksham not much pressure either. Obviously a bit different with him playing a def fwd role, but still 4 out of 6 forwards applying minimal forward half pressure, could be where we break down. 
 

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The reason is because we are not halving the contests in our forward line. We either get outmarked (Moore and Howe last night) or the ball cones to ground and the oppo small defenders are rebounding it out. Our plan is to create forward 50 stoppages and it's not happening. Quick transition from our forward line makes it harder to zone further upfield and our defenders get caught one-on-one and made accountable. Both our F50 entries and our small forwards/mids are letting us down.

Would love to hear what the coaches thought of bombing to the top of the square to Melk + Fritsch against Howe / Moore or similar. Often when BB had been working up the ground to be more of a CHF target outside 50. 

Is this poor coaching, poor execution by the players or both? 
 

36 minutes ago, binman said:

The pies pressure was incredible in the last quarter. Finals like pressure is a cliche, but that is what it was.

By far best pressure we have faced tgis season.

And we couldn't go with them, which is a shock.

They deserved to win. If they can sustain that level of pressure through a finals campaign they are a real show of winning a flag. 

But from our side it was such a perplexing game tactically.

It was so much like the dogs game in that we didnt control the tempo like we normally do. We allowed it to be a run and gun for the entire first half. Which was working, except we didn't capitalise.

There was only one period- in the first few minutes of the third, where we looked to lock it in, but that was more about stopping their tempo, not us going slow deliberately to take the heat out of the game

And there were other weird things. The crazy number of handballs. That wasn't a pressure thing, at least not in the first half. It was clearly a tactic. We almost doubled their handball count.

And we went next level with our new long clearing handballls forward  into space. So many of them

Then there are the other departures from our template - one tall, melk as a defensive forward (though he played that role in a few games late last year), Gus into the middle, harmes as a sub, Jackson and maxy almost 50 50 in the ruck, may only taking 70 odd percent of kick outs and kicking out less often to the one area (no doubt influenced by not having g a second tall forward).

It looks like they are trying implement some prety significant changes to the game plan, or at least adding some pretty major tweaks.

Lots of people have been calling for less predictability from goody. Well, goody had answered that call.

That unpredictability was a factor in tbe ladt I tgought. Yes their pressure was a huge factor, but we often looked unsure of what we were trying to implement.

 

Melksham on Moore looked a big fail to me. Often Melk was where a KF should be positioned. And the players kicking inside 50 looked confused:- do I kick to an undersized forward, on a gun back, in the best position, or do I kick to someone near the boundary?  
 

1 hour ago, bobby1554 said:

I am going to be quite bullish about this. Collingwood played about as well as they possibly could have. Their ball movement and pressure were outstanding. We lost by 7 points and led for the vast majority of the game. Do you think Collingwood before the game would have said “ let’s give them 24 more forward 50 entries, 95 more possessions, 14 more centre clearances and 24 more contested possessions, she will be right mate!” As Goody said, we left the door open by not converting the dominance in the first half. Something that can be quite easily fixed as we saw just under a year ago. Do you think we would be all hand wringing this morning if in that first half our forwards had the same accuracy and luck that Collingwood did? 
 

The players will respond in the next two weeks. Play them again in September? Yes please.

 

The question is do great or even good teams, squander the opportunity:- right on the eve of finals, lock in top 4, everything to play for, and we couldn’t handle the moment. 
 

5 minutes ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

The questions will be answered in September not August, hanging in there believers im taking names tonight.

Tough one to swallow tonight real tough live to fight another day.

Feel free to take my name. R21, and we lost in a similar manner to other losses. That changes a few assumptions for me. 
 

A big hit to use “loaders” tonight!  More than happy to put my hand up and admit when wrong. 

Absolutely no excuses tonight. And the similarity with other “loading” losses just too uncanny. 

Sure loading is a big factor, but more than happy to acknowledge I placed too big a weighting on how big a factor it is/was. 

Well done to others who favoured other factors. That second half, was just really weak in so many different ways. 

Sorry guys, but I fear this year will go down as a wasted golden opportunity. 
 

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Missing the set shot I can handle - it's a skill error albeit one he should NOT be making

Trying to kick goals out of your [censored] like your a bloody small crumbling forward is bush league stuff. Far more selfish than anything Fritsch was accused of. I'm bloody ropeable about those because he should know better and it's not the first time it's happened.

Wanted to be like Draper. Really poor Max. Key moment of the game as well 

1 minute ago, fr_ap said:

What's missing is hunger. We drop away in second halves because we mentally let it happen. It's not fitness. 

Our response as supporters to these losses is - we have last year. Players are no different. They are satisfied with one. 

For the first time this year, I agree with this view.

really really poor. 

8 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

The amount of times they scored setting up through Sidebottom who seemed without a man all night on his wing was ridiculous 

A 10 year old sitting next to me, worked out the damage Sidebottom was doing. Why do we have no ability to react / re-jig things during a game? 

No excuses tonight. Not acceptable. The better team, and somehow managed to drop it. 

Could/should have kicked a goal to go ~30 points up at half time. Instead allowed them a cheap one, and a manageable 17 point half time lead. 

Something missing I fear. Premiership teams don’t drop that kind of game. 
 

54 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

They're a one trick pony. That's a pony with one trick. They're a good pony. It's a good trick. They're a good trick pony. They're a one trick good pony. They're a good one trick pony. Their trick pony is good. They have a pony and it does good tricks. They do tricks at the Pony Club. They're a tweaked peony. Their good pony twerked once. Only Grundy's tricked ponytail is good.

Right, I think I've put as much serious thought into that as it needed.

Too late to get this on our banner? 

1 minute ago, Mel Bourne said:

Read my previous post, and the reactions of Collingwood fans. They don’t give a toss, and some are even all for it. 

Honestly the pearl-clutching going on from some here is a bit much. What’s even more bizarre is the suggestion it will have any impact on the match whatsoever. 

The idea that this will “fire up” the opposition? I mean, it might fire up the Campbell’s Creek Magpies but in a league as drilled, honed and already-fired-up as the AFL, such a polite but of banter won’t touch the sides. 

Our players have learnt to deal with expectation, and success, but many of our supporters haven’t. Minds still programmed as if Mark Neeld is coach. 
 

48 minutes ago, Deenooos_ said:

Langdon really f'd up If you ask me.

Knowing filth supports they're going to relish in this opportunity to hate on our boys by booing the hell out of May and now unfortunately Langers. Since they'll probably be in greater numbers this will drown us out.

I hope this media overreaction has angered us to finally hand the filth the loss they deserve, otherwise we look like clowns. We are actually such a good team and it's time we show the opposition and competition our true premiership credentials. No more time for stuffing around, this is it. [censored] smash them!!!!!! 

Which is what we like. Won 12 on the trot interstate with some hostile crowds. The more hate and booing from the pies, the better we will play. 
 

Round 21, Melbourne vs Collingwood.

1 Vote, Melbourne, J.Viney

2 votes, Melbourne, E. Langdon

3 votes, Melbourne, and taking the lead in the 2022 Brownlow. C…………………..Oliver 

1 minute ago, Jaded No More said:

I don’t like this from Ed. I prefer to let the footy do the talking. It’ll look pretty stupid if we lose now. 

How good will it look when we win though. 
 

2 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Lingers has given them some extra motivation with those comments. Not sure that was wise!

[censored] I hope we beat them tomorrow. I’ll be seriously flat if we lose to them yet again.

Love the confidence & self-belief. 

Statement game coming up. 

1 hour ago, binman said:

Do you have any theories that might explain a post bye drop off by one of our aerobic beasts?

Definite lack of fitness, hunger and ruthlessness, that he will magically re-discover in the next 2 weeks. 
 

8 hours ago, old dee said:

I don't share your confidence. You need good games from KPF's in finals. Right now  we don't have one let alone two.

Don’t stress OD. Our game plan doesn’t rely on a gun KPF. Sure they are handy and help, but when our defensive zone, 2 way running, midfield dominance is all in check, then just some kind of “scarecrow” type KF will be more than adequate. 

Biggest myth in football is the mighty demons “forward 50 woes” 

14 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

This is damming by Caro..

 

Credit to Caro. She nailed this one. 

Just had the unfortunate experience of watching Lloyd and Ross Lyon on FC (2 blokes that hate us, and wrote us off recent weeks)

Apparently we beat Freo because Matthew could identify 20 seconds in that our  ruthnesness and hunger was much improved.

BUT the 2 $&@@$ did tip us to beat the filth. Ross even said “we are the real deal again” 

How do we get Binman on channel 9 / foxtel next year?