The Chazz

Said all preseason (and to be fair, a big part of last year too) that Jones is done. In was often criticised for my strong view on it. I will say it again, for him to break the club games record, we won't be playing finals and he will be gifted the games to get there. I also have regularly said that I just don't see in Smith what the coaches do. Both played terrible last night. Not on their own, but the two that I have gone all-in on for many months just confirmed my doubts.

What has that got to do with what I posted?

Sometimes this is somewhat of a false economy - it's used to try and get the player to lift more at training. Kind of like saying "James, you're going well at training, so much so that you're on the cusp, but to turn that in to a proper selection, we just need you to lift to the next level".

A defensive unit is only as good as the pressure being put on up the field. If we let opposition teams just waltz out of half back (our half forward), through the wings and deliver in to their forward 50 with pace and ease, it wouldn't matter who we have down back. It's why, over the past 25 games, that we've made even some poor opposition defences look elite.

Let's face it, the 2008 draft was pretty ordinary. A number of players selected are still on lists, but a huge majority of them are far from the top of their respective club (and many have also changed clubs).

Clearly not saying that. But let's face it, we have extensive history for not being prepared for some games. I'm sure you can create your own list, but I'll start you off with the Gold Coast game last year, the Essendon game when they had most of their team out, Geelong 186. I can remember going to some games where you could tell as plain as day during the pregame warm up if we were on or not.

Makes perfect sense, and exactly why it doesn't make sense. From what I understand, Aly is put on this pedestal as someone to look up to, someone to listen to when he speaks, is very vocal about his religion, making sure that viewers understand that religions have their complexities. Yet when he has the opportunity to open up on a serious issue like the HL one, what does he do? Looks after himself. And this guy is meant to be someone that our newer generations look up to and relate to.

Paul, all due respects, but your post is riddled with excuses. Firstly, basing an argument on the average of the last two years ladder position is an easy out. Most were happy to write off our 2019 as an aberration. In 2018 we played the Eagles in the Prelim, the previous year we were .5% short of playing finals, behind guess who? The Eagles. The issue of playing in Perth? Wasn't an issue in Round 22, 2018 when we managed to beat them over there. Same deck. And wanting to stick the boots in? Of course I do. As I have previously stated, the glaring issues in 2019 revolved around our delivery inside F50. We had an entire preseason to fix this. What was the thing that stood out for me in the Round 1 2020 loss? Our delivery inside F50. Now, either our coaching group didn't think it needed addressing, or the players were/are unable to execute it. Finally, you talk about where our group is at. You tell me where it's at. I' imagine if you ask any of the players on on list, or even the coaching group, they would expect that we are finals-worthy side. So they should - our 2020 list hasn't had many significant changes since 2018. Wouldn't hurt for you to read Ethan's post a few up from here. It points out that mindsets, excuses and arguments like yours that need to stop, not the ones demanding improvement from a perennial underachieving club.

How can you not agree? 5 goals to none in the opening 20-odd minutes of a new season. Even if we want to excuse them because of the bizarre circumstances going in to the game, it was clearly felt more by one side than the other. That most certainly points to professionalism - one willing to not let adversity impact their own performance, and the other one did.

While this thread has gone off the main topic (which I definitely contributed to), it does make the whole Lumumba story somewhat intriguing. You've got someone (Lumumba) raising serious racism concerns in one of our country's most recognisable brands (the AFL, and in particular the Collingwood Football Club), at a time when racism worldwide is a major headline. Then we've got a TV program (which is meant to be a current affairs program), that traditionally are happy to investigate "popular" issues, willing to shelve (or somewhat dismiss) these accusations? Why? Have they dug deep and found nothing? Are they too worried about their own individual reputations and employment prospects if they dig too deep? Now we learn that Collingwood, on arguably one of the biggest football stages in the history of the game, giving a public show of support for the #BLM movement. While it's reported to be player driven, they still have the same coach and president that were in charge when HL made these allegations, the president in particular having prior offences on the very topic. It just doesn't make sense to me. Part of me hopes that this has been investigated and there's a "nothing to see here" outcome. On the other hand, if something has happened to HL and it's being easily dismissed, especially by programs like The Project, then what hope do we have moving forward of stamping this thing out of mainstream society?

There were a lot of reports about the use of Zoom during isolation, especially around conversations being hacked and inappropriate material being displayed by the hackers. We would just need to make sure that if anything like this happens, that before we report it we check that it's not @Bitter but optimistic just logging in.

I know we don't agree about our Round 1 performance, Dr, but I totally agree on your post here!

That's why I choose not to watch the show, HT. We have quite a simple life rule in our household, and that is if you are going to whinge about something, what are you going to do about it to change it. In this case, I'm not interested at all in trying to start my own TV show (possibly more to the point that others wouldn't be interested!), so the simple solution is to take the action I have.

Hahaha, you're so funny, LN. You say that you think you've had your political fill for the day, then you follow it up 8 minutes later with another political reference, which was totally unprovoked. In that time, only one person added to the thread, SWYL, and he talked about playing the guitar.

There's different levels of putrid, Dr, and Round 1 2020 was on one of those levels. Perhaps I got sucked in to 2018 too much. Perhaps I raised my expectations too highly for this group (both playing and coaching).

Is this what I said? Is this what I implied? I'll give you the answer - NO to both.

So if a "lefty" says something that I don't agree with, does that mean I have to jump on one of the "righty" platforms to respond?

Is it? Is that his job? Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not missing anything by not watching it. I'm not asking for scripted bulltish either. I want his opinion, but I also what him to acknowledge that he's not always right, or that there's often a whole lot of grey in many issues that he talks about. For him to dismiss such a sensitive topic like racism just backs my view. The problem I have is that if I don't agree with him, where's my platform to offer a different perspective? That's why I choose not to watch his show.

Please. They should've been ready to fire based on their 2019 efforts (as well as their last game in 2018 at the same venue against the same opposition). This was their first chance to start earning back some respect, mostly from their own supporters, and they turned up half asleep. And what a cheap brush-off using the "last game for who knows how long" line. Should've added to that motivation to put in a better performance. Didn't seem to worry the Eagles, especially in the first quarter, that this could be their only game for the year. They played like a true professional outfit that had one job to do and did it as they and their supporters would've expected. We didn't. And don't give me this "in Perth" excuse. We actually play well over there. It took us 80 minutes to lose the game, but the result was beyond doubt by quarter time (and I'm being generous there). Putird doesn't mean getting blown away. We were putrid against the Gold Coast last year and still won. And we were putrid, especially Quarter 1 Round 1, 2020. What was disappointing was that the Eagles clearly took the foot off our throat for the rest of the game and we were still not good enough to threaten at any stage. But if your definition of putrid means getting blown away, why don't you go back to the score at quarter time - they kicked 5 goals and we didn't kick any. Is that blown away enough for you? Lift your standards and expectations, Dr.

That's why I have no interest in watching The Project. Hellier can be amusing at times, but is cringeworthy when not. He knows how powerful the Collingwood FC and it's head honchos are in the media and communications areas, which is where Hellier gets his bread buttered. He's not going to ruffle feathers among the CFC power-brokers. And Aly? From the very few snippets I have heard from him, I think he uses his position on the show to cram his opinion/agenda down our throats, while very rarely covering all angles, or at the very minimum, looking at it objectively. The Lumumba story is a classic example of that.

Your expectation is a lot lower than mine, Doctor. I, too, think we were putrid. I'm not letting the final margin cloud my judgement. We had one key area to improve on from 2019, and it was glaringly obvious that we didn't. A terrible disappointment. I just hope, somehow, that we've managed to use the last 70-odd days to somehow fix it.

Way too early for a big tick.

Let's face it, with the list reductions, loss of income and pay cuts that are going to take place from 2021, it might see the return of players needing to have a job during business hours, and will be made to train at night. Seriously though, I'm doubtful of it returning to that type of scenario, but it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

More often than not that's their VFL team.