Bring-Back-Powell

Just out of interest what was Viney and Jones's reaction after those 18 year old rat bags targeted Gawn?

He's really scraping the barrel of things to say now. "We took some positives out of the first half of last week"

I f he wants another year, he gets another year. There are so many ordinary out of contract players that can go before him such as the Wagners, JFK, Maynard, ANB, Stretch, Keilty and Tim Smith.

A good solid analysis there. I would contend that the outs are equal in quantity but certainly not in quality as DeGoey (A+), Stevenson, Beams, and Moore are all A Graders, while T Mac and Jetta are the only A/B+ Graders missing for us. Assuming we lose, Saturday will highlight how much better depth Collingwood have than us, particularly up forward. While they'd prefer to have De Goey, Stevenson and Cox in the side, they can easily rely on Hoskin-Elliott, Miocheck, Elliott,Thomas, Varcoe and Sidebottom to pick up the slack and kick their 3-4 goals. Who can we rely on aside from Fritsch who will likely kick his 2 or 3 on Saturday?

This bloke?

Wasn't he out with a toe injury after the St Kilda game? He didn't crack a mention in the injury report for some reason.

Anyone that has managed to pull off a 27 possession, 11 mark, 6 goal game is of interest to me.

Geez I would've thought after 21 weeks, the players would have built a bit of match fitness, grit and determination to run out a game of footy.... When they actually dug in during a last qtr, they got a result against Sydney, Hawthorn, GC and Carlton. They showed they could do it earlier on in the season when they put their minds to it, why can't they do it now? But in fairness to you, the last quarter stats don't lie and do point to the fact that we're a hopelessly unfit side. I'm just sick of using our pre-season as an excuse, and perhaps we should raise the possibility that we are simply a very ordinary footy side that lacks the basic fundamentals with respect to skill execution, eg - the infamous ANB & Fritsch stuff up against St Kilda 2 weeks ago.

Agree in that he didn't get a game in the early rounds when they were up and about. Beams probably took his place. However, he had an interrupted pre season and was a part of their grand final side last year, so he's certainly in the best 22-26 mix for Collingwood.

Can't use injuries as an excuse this week: Collingwood missing 9 of their best 22: De Goey, Stevenson, Beams, Langdon, Sier, Cox, Moore, Aish and Wells (who will return for finals). Or will the apologists still blame the interrupted pre season, 21 weeks later?

Agreed. Bull Smith is not a good player but I’d happily welcome him back at the expense of Preuss, particularly given its going to be practically snowing on Saturday.

He is best 22. Been out of the side because of injury.

I'd only trade if we can seriously address our outside issues. ie - an A grader in Brad Hill rather than just a B grader in Ed Langdon. We would all hate watching Brayshaw tear it up elsewhere for years to come as he's a gun player who's currently being played all over the place and can't cement a position. This has the potential to be a seriously controversial and regretful trade, if the MFC are indeed considering it. Blokes that have had 37 possession 3 goal games don't grow on trees.

Agree he's a pretty decent AFL footballer who's a lovely kick for goal from distance. He's been injured for a few weeks this year, but is otherwise ensconced in their best 22.

Preuss’s stocks with respect to playing this week just plummeted.

Don't mind that to be honest. I can vaguely recall him taking some ruck contests in his early games for the club. It's a dilemma as Preuss has been an absolute liability since the Bulldogs game (Carlton game he was OK as the sole ruck) but we need someone to compete against Cox as the resting ruck.

Amazing he's found his way into the top 5. Mind you there is a massive gap between he and 4th placed Harmes.

If we drop Preuss (and he absolutely deserves to be dropped after that performance) who plays that second ruck role assuming T Smith is unavailable?

This post seems to have gone under the radar around here. Apparently he trained well and was border line for the Richmond??

Dunkley’s set shots for goal were outstanding. Hats off to him.

Maybe they need to enrol a few of the boys at Auskick to work on their skills?

First time since about 2015 I’m going to a game 100% certain of a loss. How I’ve missed those days...

Not sure it’s relevant to how crap we’re going but yes, he had or has a gambling issue. He also got in a drunken physical altercation with a photographer in December 2005.

I think the boys need to get together over a pizza and a beer and watch the replay of our elimination final win over Geelong to see what we’re capable of as a footy side.

Wow , I admire your persistence in sticking up for O Mac. I note that your completely disregarded the first paragraph of my post where I defended O Mac by stating that he was a serviceable/solid/sufficient defender in 2018, particularly at the business end of the year. Not many others around here would acknowledge that he was reasonable last year. He’s been sub par this year.