rufus

We've lost every game we've played against the other 3 teams in the top 4 this year. We can dream, but you can't really argue with the fact that we just aren't as good as those other sides. Most of those losses on our home ground. Really thought we'd have Sydney's measure tonight, but I have overrated us too. We are being beaten in the physicality stakes by the big boys and that hurts.

Amazing that Brisbane won that game. They just didn't seem to play that well. That chain (highlighted by the commentators) in the last where Richmond kicked short along the boundary to uncontested marks all the way from full back to inside 50 and for a goal was shocking. We allowed a bit of that during the season...really hope that's all behind us now!

Will be watching Bailey Fritsch very closely tonight. Last year, his increased physicality and attack on the ball and man from the start of the finals told me that through all levels of the group they knew what was going to be required to win it all, and they were prepared to do it. It's going to take that level of pressure, and probably more because our opponents are stronger this year, to get it done. In my mind, if we match or exceed Sydney's pressure around the ball tonight, we win. Wouldn't surprise me if they follow Collingwood's tactic of almost conceding the in close contest to us, to try and harass us and turn us over on the way out. We need to put them under massive pressure whenever they are near the ball to counter this.

What a magnificent performance. High pressure applied around the ball. Something we have barely done all year. Result is that we can move the ball forward in a way that our forwards like Ben Brown look good and we are much more able to score. General hardness at the ball, both air and ground, was where we want it to be as a club week in week out (and it hasn't been there consistently this season). Also loved the odd kick out going down the guts, and some f50 entries coming in lower to lead ups. If we play with that level of intent and hardness and we don't win it all this year, then so be it. We will have made another team earn it big time, and it will be something to be proud of for us.

It really feels like we went away and did all this analysis of scores achieved and conceded from various positions on the ground and through various scenarios, identified the best outcomes, and have gone with the idea that things will only arrive out those statistical outcomes if we do it that way every single time. We might have missed a trick in that it seemed to have opposition sides stumped last year, and a bit early this year, so maybe we should have mixed things up just so we can pull this plan A out when we really need it. Now that plan A has been analysed so much by opponents, it's not as effective anymore. Having said that, our way of playing is hugely reliant on us applying pressure around the ball, and we have been extremely poor in that area this year. If we can somehow switch that on, all of a sudden teams will be inherently kicking the ball to the spots we want them kicking to, rather than having the time and space to cut through us and generate good deep entries. Our game will go from painfully boring to watch, back to the more exciting stuff we saw at times last year.

Game will be decided the same way every other AFL game is decided: pressure on the player with the ball. If we bring our A level pressure and force their inside 50s to be haphazard and landing 40+ metres out, we will be fine. If we let them walk across and up the field towards our folded back zone, and they get their entries within 35 metres then we're dead ducks. There's no way we can handle all of Rayner, Cameron, McCarthy and Bailey if it's played on their terms.

On reflection after being pretty disappointed with our last few weeks, i like the way we're starting to win the i50 battle. It means our mids are starting to win more ball, which is our biggest strength. Even if our forward line isn't humming, the pure weight of numbers of entries will give us a shot. However, i do question whether we have been physically hard enough this season. We 100% have been timid in the air, though that was present at times last year too. I wonder if other teams are coming off the ground hurting from the way we've hit their bodies around the contest. It hasn't looked like it. I'm not saying we haven't been trying, but to be the best means digging deeper and going harder than you maybe thought you could for longer than your opponent. If we switch that on, we are in it up to our necks. If we can't lift it, we will struggle with the sides that are unconditionally hard like Syd and Coll and even Rich.

Positive that we found a way to win. Also positive for our long term objective to become a consistently competitive football club that we have been in a position to win all 21 games so far. Just not convinced that we are as good as many on here think we are. I've been thinking/hoping we've been keeping something hidden and had a switch we might flick at the pointy end...but our defence has dropped way off (uncannily kept teams to 16 to 18 scoring shots every week last year, this year it's regularly 24 to 25), and we don't seem to have a method of getting the ball forward when plan A isn't working. I honestly see us in big trouble in week 1 of the finals if we drop next week...I reckon the Tigers are a better team than us and Dogs and us are line ball right now.

I reckon it'll be heavily dependent on what happens in the next 2 weeks. If we lose one of these games, then get bundled out in week 1, the club will be pretty aggressive around the fringes. If we make it to the last 4 when all is said and done, then it might be looked at as an acceptable return from this group and we might stick fat.

I am in the minority but I like Collingwood. Always have. I don't care about ther supporters...sport for me is about one thing...watching the best athletes battling it out desperately for the win. When i check which matches are on Channel 7 for the week, if I see Collingwood in those games you know it'll be worth watching. Regardless of ladder position, there is a pride in the club that means they will give it everything. I have a theory on their poor GF record...they have made many GF's that they had no business making. They weren't the best, second best or possibly in the top handfull. They get there by out husting better opponents. When you get to GF day, both teams tend to scrap and fight for the full 120 minutes. Collingwood lose the gap they often have over their opponents in the desperation stakes. Best team usually wins and its often not them. Still think it's a record to be proud of.

He might be dirty, but they have looked tougher, stronger and more resilient than us in each of our last 3 meetings. The only way to respond to this stuff, and to their general physical domination of us is to raise the intensity at our end...give back bettet than what we get...

I know he's won a Norm Smith and had a good year last year, but I've just always felt he's a bit overrated. He still fumbles whenever under hard physical pressure, something that players usually get out of their game as they mature physically, and with his body size you'd expect him to have no problem with that. He is Dangerfield-esque with his defensive efforts, which isn't a great look for his teammates. And i find it hard to remember a time where he's ever actually in genuine 50/50 contests in dangerous spots on the ground.

Staggering how much legs this has ever gotten. Sure we have probably loaded, as have the other teams, but it's just another embarassing excuse for some of our down hill skiing. Our stats last night looked like it should probably have been a win, but in the one thing that really matters, pressure, we again got out done by the Pies. Everything we did was under pressure, while not everything they did was. That is just will to win and unrelenting competitiveness. It's just not in the DNA of our club. We can do it ok when things are on our terms. We look timid and weak when the physical pressure really gets put on us. Really not an admirable trait for a team to have.

Gee this has been an arrogant season from the club, through admin to the coaches and players and down to the supporters. We are heading for a big serve of humble pie. Absolute nightmare scenario to cop the Dogs in the first final. We will legitimately be putting our season in the hands of the incompetents in yellow, with a very likely 10 vs 25 free kick count. AFL umpires love nothing more than piling on to a narrative, and the whole league will be salivating at the idea that the MFC chokes away a 10 zip season start without a whimper.

Yep one of our best in 50/50 contests which is huge. IMO it is the second most important component to winning games (behind applying pressure to the oppo).

Cats look extremely good...pretty similar to us last year...just overwhelimg teams with inside 50s until the goals flow like an avalanche.

When you're in a position to compete like we are at the moment, players like Hibberd must be retained. So good at halving genuine contests, which really stands out the way football is now played. The change to player empowerment has been terrible for players like Hibberb...unless they are at a club that is trying to win a flag the next season, foot soldiers up and around the age of 30 are now being let go in favour of bringing in youth. With high profile players abandoning clubs as soon as they think the flag window is shut, clubs are now also abandoning the peripheral contributors as soon as they believe they'll be too old for the next flag tilt. Free agency and players dictating destinations between contracts does not work well in this sport.

When our pressure is up we're a very good team. When it's not, we're ordinary. Surely it couldn't be any clearer to the players now. Having a good shot at it is 100% in their control from here.

Tonight will tell a lot about our hunger to win it all this season. Players should be stung by the earlier meeting where they belted us in the contest and on the scoreboard on our own patch. When teams have really upped the physicality this season we just haven't responded well enough. It's going to take a full 4 quarters of intensity tonight, including finding a way to drag ourselves back up when things are going against us. Do we have it in us?

Great signing. I personally love the long term deals for your best players...reduces the annoying noise about potential defection. I was getting a bit worried about him leaving and what that would have said about what we're trying to build the MFC into. Very relieved. Brayshaw is a much improved player over the last few seasons...one of our very best at winning genuine 50/50 contests.

I remember early in the season when the Blues were up and about thinking "let's just wait till they face Melbourne and see how they go against some real physicality". Was probably the first time in my life i have thought of Melbourne that way. The way things are going, we might just let them stroll out the front of stoppages under little pressure and tear us apart. I can't believe how much we have dropped off in terms of physicality/pressure. The absolute phyical belting we let Freo give us on our home ground could maybe be excused after so many wins on end. But the lack of response vs Syd, and then getting belted physically with very little response vs. Collingwood was a massive downer. We play a boring style based on probabilities of outcomes in certain parts of the ground, that has been painful to watch when we don't bring the main ingredient: pressure. Still time to turn it around, but we are dancing with the devil by allowing it to drop off as far as it has. Hoping for a product to be proud of over the next 4 to 8 weeks.

Am talking on field rather than off field. Can almost never remember a Collingwood game where I've walked away and thought, gee they just didn't look like they had a fair dinkum crack today. To be fair we are better than we used to be in terms of competing harder for longer, but it still doesn't feel like it's the default expectation of a player wearing an MFC jumper. The Freo game was about as egregious an example of losing a game 100% due to lacking the intensity of your oppo that you'll see. Collingwood game similar. 18th rank for pressure, coming off a flag built on applying pressure, is appalling.

No. Look at their team. They are so low on talent yet have won 13 games. Every year they win more games than their talent dictates they should, because of their non negotiable competitveness. I hope we've been holding something back, because to be given a game plan that was proven 100% to work (and in fact to be close to unbeatable) provided you bring pressure to your opponent, and then dish up an 18th ranked level of pressure is completely unfathomable. If we bring number 1 ranked level of pressure from here forward we'd win the flag in a canter. It could not be laid out any more simply for the players. If we continue to dish up what we've dished up, this will be one of the biggest wasted opportunities imaginable. This is another weak season on terms of contenders, and our attitude right now looks like it's going to cost us a golden opportunity.

He's right. And at our current level of competitiveness we're not winning any finals. We are back to the old Melbourne of picking and choosing when to go hard. Our 'changed' culture is still a mile away from proud clubs like Collingwood. I don't care what anyone says, if Ugle Hagan is kicking 5 goals on you, that is your evidence that we are not hard enough physically.

They also, like Freo and Syd, made a concerted effort to attack some on on one's against us, in positions where most coaches hate to open themselves up to the ball potentially rebounding (e.g. kick ins and the centre corridor). It's a good tactic against a well drilled 'system' team that does not have great depth in terms of contest winners. We can be timid and weak in marking contests, which is masked by the fact that we structure up in a way to get 3 up in most contests. When we don't have a numbers advantage, teams are exposing us in the air, and also working harder to get to the full of those aerial contests.