Round 18 - Collingwood vs Essendon at Victoria Park

[The Life of Pie]

To me it looked like a broken lower leg or fractured ankle. Severe pain.
Hopefully I'm wrong!

[roar]

Seems it was a convincing win, accepting that the 4th quarter was ordinary. Looking forward to reading about the individual performances.

Thanks for the commentary MB and Kosh.

[jackcass]

Okay, Pies to kick to the Yarra Falls end.

Moore starting on the bench.

PK starting on the wing.

No Kyle Martin...

AND. HERE. WE. GO!!!

Martin on the plane west along with Langdon?

[DT]

Grundy was BOG for mind. Great game and kicked a ripping goal. When he is up and about he is such an influential player.

Karnezis - played a lot on a wing and played really well. Missed a few targets but had good run in his legs and his kicking action is excellent.

Ball - very solid and good game. Can come in if we need him.

Gault - looked very athletic and a likely type. Much improved since I last saw him last year

JT - good game. Maybe not quite there at the moment but on the right path after a disappointing year

Yagmoor - much improved player. Worth persisting with. Not AFL yet.

Mooney - really good game. Good skill and pace and got involved a lot.

Q Lynch - played well. Good finish to his career.

Scharenberg - looks like he has a lot of poise and class. Did a beautiful double candy on the outer wing early on. Will need a bit of time but one to watch next year.

Moore - has some distinctive mannerism with his arms if you recall Peter. Looks a good build and did ok for his first VFL match.

Marsh- very good ability to hit the contest at the right time but injured 3 minutes before the end - not sure if it is a hammy or a knee, hope it is a hammy

It was a scrappy affair - a bit soft underfoot and windy, but we played really well in the third quarter. A lot to like overall.

[jackcass]

Marsh hammy unfortunate, grabbed very high up but don't know what that means, hopefully not too bad.

[MagpieBat]

Okay, Pies to kick to the Yarra Falls end.

Moore starting on the bench.

PK starting on the wing.

No Kyle Martin...

AND. HERE. WE. GO!!!

Martin on the plane west along with Langdon?

No, a knock to the knee...

[stui magpie]

Called in today to take a look. Went and met the man himself Magpie Bat (genuflect) and said G'Day.

Genuinely nice to meet you squire, and Alfred as well.

I don't seem to watch the game in a way that I can give votes or reel off who played well or not.

Anyway, some comments.

Best game I've seen Grundy play for a while. Aggression was harnessed, he was using his brain and also using his agility. Very nice one two handpass for a running goal in the 3rd.

My boy Gault looked good. Dropped a few marks he should have taken but got in the right spot and got hands on the ball. When he had a chance, he can kick long and straight and is quite quick and agile. I was particularly impressed with the improvement in his ruck work. He's never going to be a No.1 Ruck but more (IMO) a westhoff type who can take a turn but is better used as a mobile tall.

PK for mine just didn't do enough. I really hope we give him a full on pre season, get some fitness in him and make him learn to run with repeat efforts 2 ways, not just when the ball is in his area.

Darcy Moore. The chosen one. The second coming. (insert other over the top descriptions)
This kid is a keeper. I was impressed. Played down back when he was on and exudes class and leadership. Runs just like his old man, hunched forward with the top half of the trunk and long strides, deceptively tall (doesn't look that tall until you get a sighter of him right next to someone else tall and he stands up straight) nice leap and a team player.

If you can get a hint of someone's attitude from watching them play one game, I like what I saw. Confident without being cocky, happy to make the sacrifice play for the team, hard at the ball and man without being an enforcer type. Think Gavin Brown rather than Milane.
I like.

[Mugwump]

Good to wake up and read this in London, as usual. Thanks Bat for all your great work, it's much appreciated.

[Kosh]

Grundy was BOG for mind. Great game and kicked a ripping goal. When he is up and about he is such an influential player.

Karnezis - played a lot on a wing and played really well. Missed a few targets but had good run in his legs and his kicking action is excellent.

Ball - very solid and good game. Can come in if we need him.

Gault - looked very athletic and a likely type. Much improved since I last saw him last year

JT - good game. Maybe not quite there at the moment but on the right path after a disappointing year

Yagmoor - much improved player. Worth persisting with. Not AFL yet.

Mooney - really good game. Good skill and pace and got involved a lot.

Q Lynch - played well. Good finish to his career.

Scharenberg - looks like he has a lot of poise and class. Did a beautiful double candy on the outer wing early on. Will need a bit of time but one to watch next year.

Moore - has some distinctive mannerism with his arms if you recall Peter. Looks a good build and did ok for his first VFL match.

Marsh- very good ability to hit the contest at the right time but injured 3 minutes before the end - not sure if it is a hammy or a knee, hope it is a hammy

It was a scrappy affair - a bit soft underfoot and windy, but we played really well in the third quarter. A lot to like overall.

This was a very good win. No Captain. On ball division depleted and several senior players under done.

Grundy was splendid today. The boy can't buy a free kick but he is going to terrorise opposition teams next year.

Mooney did a lot of good things. As I said during the call, if he could kick straight he would be worth his weight in gold.

Its a terrible shame that Marsh was hurt. He set the ground on fire with some of his runs. As the Bat says, its worth going just to see what he will do next.

I have to give honourable mentions to Rammer Ramsay, Yags & Moloney. They were solid all day especially in the last quarter. Moloney was splendid.

Seeds needed the run. Looked good in the first half, even if he was chocolates or boiled lollies with his disposal. He will be much better for the run.

I also have to mention Lynch. He had a Barry Crocker of a first half and it was sad to see a proud player struggling to get to the contest but he was terrific in the second half. Took the game apart.

PK and the Gault are worth watching. PK would be playing senior football if he could have stayed on the park this year. He has that finishing class that you can't teach. Gault is an obvious replacement for Jesse White. White is benefitting from the fact that he doesn't really have any competition for his spot. This should change next year if Gault can stay fit.

A couple of final points:
- Don't worry about the Berg. He can play the game. You should have seen his two step on the outer wing.....
- I wish Ferguson was 2 feet taller. He plays with the kind of heart and endeavour that you can't buy or teach.
- Rammer Ramsay will be a footballer.

Hot Pies!!!!

[swoop42]

Between Moore and Scharenberg there were 3 or 4 passages of play in the first quarter that told you they'll be players.

Grundy and Sinclair both put in performances that would have caught the attention of selectors.

Gutted for Marsh as he's progressed nicely throughout the season.

He'll never be an elite kick but if we can clean up his disposal he could be a star in years to come.

Hopefully hasn't ripped the hammy off the bone but it didn't look good as he was in extreme pain.

[John Wren]

excellent crowd today. as good as i have seen in terms of numbers since we became stand alone.

[thompsoc]

Thought marsh had his best game this year
loved his attack and run and carry
as i said last week gault is a project player
impressed by his ruck work
yagmoor may yet be a player
and the first time this year i liked mooneys game
maybe maybe worth keeping

[Albert Parker]

I'll defer to others who saw the first half as I missed it.

Second half observations

Ball our best in that period. Ultra professional. Very smart and hard.
Thomas got plenty of it. Still loose by foot.
Sinclair - unsighted
Seedsman - seemed like he had missed 10 weeks, not 2 or whatever it was
PK - plenty of stats but little influence for mine
Moore - does look to have a future. Committed and pretty calm
Q-stick - did some nice things. Provided a marking presence.
Gault - did some nice things. Might be retained
Mooney - his speed is good. A couple of nice crumbs and used the pace to kick goals. Would drop Marty before this bloke.
Scharanberg - has poise but still finding his feet in terms of getting to more contests etc
Grundy - does get a rough deal from the umpires. Then it mounts in frustration and he gives away more! SHows obvious skills though. That goal on the run is something few ruck man in the AFL pull off
Marsh - athletic but a bit of work to do. Looked like a bad, high hamstring for mine. The sort Reiwoldt did against us/Presti a few years ago.
Ramsay - did some nice spoiling work. A few have been critical of him as a draftee but give him another season and judge it.

I though the endeavour and pressure was really good today and allowed them to grind out a win. Was hard work watching the last quarter though as we failed to score a goal. Continues the momentum though.

[Dave The Man]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/d ... 02byx.html

[watt price tully]

Thanks people for the reports. Watched some of it on TV. Would have gone but was preparing for my youngest's 21st party which was had tonight.

What I saw included Moore - he's a player for sure. Can we see if there are some peptides available - needs some bolstering up - but his attack on the ball was terrific.

Loved Marsh's play - reckon he's all-right. Boy is he fast.

That non AFL kid Williams looks a good'n too.

Grundy looks OK but still taps it dangerously in the back line - he'll learn from experience. His goals were great.

PK for mine still doesn't work hard enough but dare I say time will tell.