Maldonboy38

Saturday morning is one of the best parts of my week. Lie in, brewed coffee and toast. All spoilt by having every media outlet (TV, social media & internet)gushing over everything Pies, Collingwood, and Daicos. Vomit inducing. Having said that, yes Daicos can be soft, but he is an absolute gun if you give him a centimetre of space and has a habit of being "lucky" late in games. No luck, simply a very good footy brain and super skills to execute in high pressure moments. And channel 7 constantly showing his dad Peter is excruciating, but he is now a channel 7 person so this is going to go on for some time. Is it wrong to want a whisky so early in the morning? I will leave the Dalmore, and maybe go the Monkey Shoulder (best budget whisky in the world). This might get me over all this Collingwood BS.

It's not a great spectacle, but very finals-like in its pressure, tackling etc. . . Lots of forward thrusts being thwarted by great defence or poor kicking. Line ball who wins from here. 3 things to note: Carlton mids throw it a LOT Maynard fuels my filth-rage like no other player. O wait, Mason cox is also on the field. I picked Carlton so want them to win, but feel like I need a bath whenever I find myself almost barracking for them. Unfortunately, modern defence based football often takes the drive and energy out of our great game, and many potentially great games are forced into a tackle fest or two half back lines playing kick to kick.

I know JHF does lots of "look at me stuff" but he and Butters are the only two Port players having a crack and chucking themselves at it. Port playing like the pretenders they are.

For a showdown, it is a 'meh' game of footy. Very few highlights, and no star player tearing the game to pieces. I would take Soligo in a heartbeat but that is not enough to keep my interest piqued.

Very difficult weekend for tipping. Most of the games look very close, while the others are open for boilovers. Crows to beat Port tonight.

I feel pretty good about our top 4 aspirations, especially based on our defensive strength. We rarely get 80 points scored against us, and we have a LOT of improvement available.

Looking at the Cats v Blues game (which is a ripper to watch) I reckon 5 teams are now positioned to be genuine contenders. Cats, Blues, Giants, Swans and Dees. I feel there is a gap after this. All 5 have shown finals winning football. It is about bringing both pressure AND skills together in a game on the day, and any of the 5 can beat the other team if they bring these two components on the day. Can't wait for us to play Blues & Cats - should be great games.

O wow - so many wrong dropping-the-ball decisions in this game. Horrendous. Clear, clear umpiring errors with 4 of them on the ground, and the officiating umpire only 10-15 metres from the play.

The Roos are unwatchable. Simple skills - tackles, spoils, defensive spread, 30m passes - all simply sub VFL standard. The Roos v Crows game is a turnover fest. Crows running at 3/4 energy, waiting for a simple mistake, kick it towards Tex, Fogarty, Rachele or Rankine. I'm going back out to the garden . . .

Agree, HBT. If Brisbane lose tonight it is very tough for them to be top 4 at the end of the home and away season. And they won't win it without that advantage.

Essendon losing it rather than Pies winning it. Lineball game, though. Can't ever barrack for Bombers put Pies loss keeps them away from top 4.

How is that a free kick? Both looking at the ball, body impact at the same time as the ball. There was no interference.

No defensive pressure from either side yet. Some great foot skills, great running handball chains, and clutch finishing, but so few stoppages, tackles or team defensive pressure. Refreshing in a way. Except that it is the Filth v Bummers.

Now that the knot in my gut from last night is beginning to unwind, and I have checked the gaps in my hair from pulling so much out, I can actually appreciate some of the good stuff from last night's game. The 45 degree kicking. Yes, the skills involved were so poor, but we continued to attempt it. We took the risk, and often the switch/change of line was open and on. For so long, we went down the line from back to the forward pocket, caused a stoppage, and tried to score from that. I feel McQuallter has emphasised the reward over risk so we go for this more often. And I love it. It is just a shame that TMac, Woewodin, even Lever and Windsor stuffed it up so much last night. This is why we need Bowey and Salem. Still a work in progress, but our forward line is beginning to MOVE. So often, we are stationary. Turner and Fritsch were moving. Kozzie got on his bike. JVR led at times also. It didn't work all that well, but it was great to see this change. On top of those things above, we have the best captain in the AFL, and the best backline ever.

I fully agree about getting games into them, and the club is doing it at the right time. Windsor is a lock, and I was glad to see Turner back in. Howes, Laurie and Woewodin are good, and long term I can see Woewodin being at the club for a good long career. I can see the other two leaving for more game time with another club - like Jordon. However, at the current stage of their development they can show lack of awareness, iffy decision making, and all three are quite slow. I hope Bowey & Salem recover soon. If we go into the Carlton or Cats game with the same 5 young players, these weaknesses will be exploited. I am VERY happy to be proven wrong.

6. Gawn 5. Lever 4. Turner 3. May 2. Langdon 1. Rivers Strange that Lever and May did not lay a single tackle.

How can I enjoy a 7 goal win so little? Horrible, horrible, horrible unpressured kicking. No reasonable excuse or reason. So much great turnover football at half back then trash kicking through midfield and into F50. Petty? Looks disinterested and lacking intensity. Needs a Casey run to get his mojo back. Give me a clumsy ageing BBB. No way can we continue with Howes, Woewodin, Windsor, Howes and Laurie all in the same team. Another game where the best Dees midfield I have seen in my lifetime gets owned/equalled by an injured rebuilding one. Can't tell you how much I hate that. Hats off to Lever, May, Gawn and Langdon. Well done Tuner and Fritsch for their cameos. Laurie impacted well when he came on.

Defence, marking, game plan all great. Kicking composure running at about 15%.

How many of those horrible short passes have we stuffed up? Really poor.

Adding to the reminiscing, I just watched the Dees v Dogs at Whitten oval, last round of 1987 to get us into the finals for the first time in 23 years. Lovett, Yates, Stretch and Spalding tore the Dogs apart in the 2nd half. Jimmy got his running game going. Flower and Wilson were a class above the Dogs defence in the 2nd half. And THAT crowd noise when the Hawks went ahead v the Cats - we knew we were going to play finals. I still remember where I was. I was in the car with my parents listening to the game on ABC rural radio near Stawell, taking my parents to meet my girlfriends parents for the first time. Great win. Dees into the finals. Broke up with girlfriend a couple of months later. Win - Win!

This is the first ANZAC eve game I have missed, so like many others will be on the couch. I don't see this as an easy win at all. 3 main factors: 1)The Yze knowledge factor. 2) The Tiges three outstanding defenders (Grimes, Vlastuin and Broad) all back playing together, and 3) our still-forming forward mix. But there is a huge class difference. Gawn will be at his unstoppable best, our backline should smother their forward efforts, and our best players are way better than theirs at the moment. Even around half time, Dees to pull away to win by 25 - 30 points.

On YouTube - the entire games free and without ads.

Just watched most of the 1987 finals where the mighty Dees played in their first final series in many years. Elimination final v the Roos, then 1st Semi v Swans. I attended the 1st semi final and can remember it vividly. A few thing stand out to me: Robert Flower - no, my memory does not make him better than he was. He was simply football perfection. The joy of football played mostly one-on-one, or two-on-two. Warren Dean was way better than I remembered. Great mark, great kick on both feet. David Williams - until I watched these replays I didn't even remember him. Wow. Very quick and a great kick. Danny Hughes, Sean Wight, Brett Lovett, Earl Spalding, Graeme Yates - that is a backline to remember. Todd Viney & Jimmy Stynes both really young but already showing their skills. And boy, were we TOUGH. No compromise if you wanted to play under John Northey as coach. If poor Jimmy had not run across the mark in the Prelim final, I remain convinced we would have had the measure of the Blues.

With how bad they have been the last 2+ years, all media and commentary forgot how good their coach is, and his track record in developing players. I rate Simpson in the same way I rate Goodwin and if I was a lot younger (and a better footballer!) would love to play in a team coached by him. They have a long way to go, but can see them making it difficult for teams sooner rather than later.

Pies, Blues and Bummers all winning. And I was having such a good day. At least the footy has been of a high standard and very watchable.