Qualifying Final. Magpies v. Demons. All comments.

[Mr Miyagi]

I’m posting what is often put forward by external commentators and sometimes people here, and in an attempt to show how irrelevant some of those statements are when you consider the season we have had .

Yep agree with you. We blasted out of the blocks early, only a matter of time until we dropped a few games. Hell, heard some Age journos claim Geelong was the best team this year

[Mr Miyagi]

Agree with Mr Miyagi here. Fast ball movement is always quicker than outright leg speed. We have quality decision makers who can execute over time. That's our strength in the middle.

I wouldn’t call Noble, Markov, IQ, Moore, Daicos, WHE slow either

[lazzadesilva]

Actually, in all seriousness, I heard few days ago, that Neil Balme is very sick, quite ill, and is not good at all, not sure if its Alzheimer's or something, but hes not well at all. Best wishes to Balmey, hope he can recover, he did a lot for the Magpies when with us.

Oh I obviously wasn’t aware of that. I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

Agree with Mr Miyagi here. Fast ball movement is always quicker than outright leg speed. We have quality decision makers who can execute over time. That's our strength in the middle.

I wouldn’t call Noble, Markov, IQ, Moore, Daicos, WHE slow either

whattabout Degoey, Hill and McCreery? In fact, I reckon one of our main weapons this year has been our pace across the field!

[RudeBoy]

Actually, in all seriousness, I heard few days ago, that Neil Balme is very sick, quite ill, and is not good at all, not sure if its Alzheimer's or something, but hes not well at all. Best wishes to Balmey, hope he can recover, he did a lot for the Magpies when with us.

Oh I obviously wasn’t aware of that. I wish him a full and speedy recovery.

It was on the news. He has developed epilepsy, but it seems medically under control.

[Mr Miyagi]

[BazBoy]

Fly has indicated both Cox & Cameron will be in the side

[Piesnchess]

Agree with Mr Miyagi here. Fast ball movement is always quicker than outright leg speed. We have quality decision makers who can execute over time. That's our strength in the middle.

I wouldn’t call Noble, Markov, IQ, Moore, Daicos, WHE slow either

whattabout Degoey, Hill and McCreery? In fact, I reckon one of our main weapons this year has been our pace across the field!

Yep and last season, the Cats were derided , pre Finals, as too old , too slow, and they won the GF by bout 100 points.

[mudlark]

I am shocked how many Pies fans have no clue about football, let alone understand what historical and contemporary statistics mean. I laugh and ignore some losers on this site that personally abuse other posters for offering a different view to the Mass group think delusional bile that suggests we can actually beat Melbourne on Thursday night. One absolute dope thinks we have a clear game plan that allowed us to win fifteen games this year, despite football experts suggesting the narrow margins were more a case of luck than some undefined genius. But the poster who called me a village idiot for merely repeating what football experts are saying , is a known nasty who can’t deal with the issues, rather prefers to insult the messenger in a gutless
manner. Pathetic immaturity, but I am not surprised by these halfwits. But I hope and pray I am totally wrong and we beat Melbourne. But somehow my gut tells me we won’t and can’t .

One must never forget Mr Hiss. An EXPERT is described this way. X is an unknown quantity and a Spurt is a drip under pressure. Something to consider when next you want to quote the "Experts".
Further more, we had ,up until recently, beatenMelbourne 5 times on the trot and twice in their premiership year and our last outing, with several of our stars out and a bout of "Sickness" as it was called, surging through the club, a 4 point loss was not a bad result. I think we will win by 4+ goals and you may save this and quote me on Friday.

[Mossi]

Back to the debate in who to leave out! Like most 106000 selectors around the country, I've been thinking about it, and assuming the tactical direction Fly and co are heading if it's not going to be too wet and showers only are forecast. With Melbourne the contested ball is key and we cannot allow the Dees to dominate. Selecting both Cameron and Cox are a key to that. I presume the first half will be a tight contested affair and the way to put pressure on the Dees backs is to have that extra tall McStay to contest the high ball and having Ginni Hill and whoever gets in there roaming the packs. The third quarter is where Melbourne and us both try and break the game open here we need speed and run, the ideal sub would be Markov. For me as much as I love Markov he needs to be the Sub!
In Moore, Murph, McCreary. Out MacCrae, Billy Fram, and Lipinski.

[David]

[Magpietothemax]

Love his answer regarding Howe.
We must remember that against Brisbane, Howe completely nullified Harris-Andrews intercept game.
Are we entertaining the prospect of using Howe to similarly negate either Lever or May?
Then, with the other Melbourne defender isolated, we get the ball to ground in our F50 where Ginni, Beau, Jamie and Bobby will get to work? If so, then we wonder what McStay's role will be if and when Howe goes forward?

[piffdog]

Getting pretty excited!

Thinking about the game, their forward line seems to be their weakness (or so the pundits all say), while our strength is arguably scoring from
our backline. Hopefully these two things can provide an avenue for us to score well.

Coach has said Cox and Cameron will play, and I don’t think they will omit McStay. He was also quiet on Howe so maybe he plays forward as a defender - to try and nullify Lever and May in the air. Seems the perfect player for that approach given his experience at both ends of the ground.

What does worry me is around the ball and at the contest. Viney is as hard as a cats head (we don’t have a player of that calibre IMO). We were quite successful last year in winning but now winning contest so hopefully the game plan can accomodate that potential shortfall.

The last think I think we have on our side is our coaches and their mental prep of the team. I think we played to our best/limit during the finals last year annd it wasn’t quite good enough to beat Geelong - or Sydney as it turned out. I think we’re a better side this year and we can and will play our best footy of our season over the next month when it matters most.

[Haff]

Ffffffark. Just learned I will have to go to a delayed Father’s Day even Thursday evening. Filthy.
Will be turning my phone off at 7 and watching on Kayo.
No match day thread negativity for me.

[stui magpie]

Agree with Mr Miyagi here. Fast ball movement is always quicker than outright leg speed. We have quality decision makers who can execute over time. That's our strength in the middle.

I wouldn’t call Noble, Markov, IQ, Moore, Daicos, WHE slow either

whattabout Degoey, Hill and McCreery? In fact, I reckon one of our main weapons this year has been our pace across the field!

You'll always be Frankie to me, with the Emu avatar.