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Now with Tarrant and Didak out I will review my prior margin of 54 at the final siren to 90 points and going away at the end.
After the game Eddie and the rest of the board to finally ask MM and Buttifant about the conditioning plan they had in place for 2003 and why the 2004 model was such a disaster and why the Pies had more soft tissue injuries this year than the past 4 seasons.
Someone must be accountable - Quinn changed the Bombers after the first 3 weeks into the season and we haven't changed after 14.
With tarrant out yet again, there is little hope - not so much because of his absence directly, as the fact that the team plays pathetically indirect and plodding football when he is not there. If they could be hypnotized to thinking that we had Tarrant and Riewoldt waiting in the forward line then we would be a chance, however the coaching staff seems to have them hypnotized in the opposite way. But if they play attacking, play-on-at-all-cost risk-taking footy then miracles can happen.
DaicosMagic wrote:
Cannibal - you have Johnson, Shackleton and Davis on the ball against 3 Brownlow medalists and more. No good having those tall options up forward if the ball never gets past the centre line. 3 pretty-much on-ball rookies against the Lions midfield...um, have another go at assembling our team please.
Nope. We have won just two games out of 13 against Brisbane since 1996. In which case, it is pretty bloody obvious that our tried and true defensive gameplan can't, and won't, work against them. So, we have to try something different. I came up with a possible solution which I didn't, for one micro-second, think MM and the coaching staff would go along with.
However, I think Bokka is a kindred spirit with me on this:
Bokka wrote:But if they play attacking, play-on-at-all-cost risk-taking footy then miracles can happen.
That's what it's all about, mate. Play our usual game and we'll get done by ten goals, like up in Brisbane earlier in the year. Playing an attacking game, as I set my team up to do, and we might even pull off a win which would get everybody revved right up. Tell me, just exactly what do we have to lose otherwise?
Glory Glory Good Old Collingwood, Glory Glory Hallelujah,
Collingwood's The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen,
And The 'Pies Go Marching On (in Black and White Stripes Forever!).
honestly i dont give i hope in hell of the pies beating the lions saturday night,and i hope joffas speech on saturday night is going to be a beauty aswell..
Cannibal, i think you're right, we need to change our gameplan, but i think we're 100 percent stuffed if we dont play our best midfield. Perhaps we need mcg, burns and bucks in the centre. Keep woey off and brodie off till later in the game.
The change should be made by playing walker in the goalsquare, leon on the wing, lonie forward.
Play Rocca in CHB. Make him drop back in front of lynch. With his kick, he can boot in forward, and bypass the whole of the lions midfield.
In my dreams, I had hoped MM would surprise by pulling a rabbit out of the hat; something different, something unusual, something that would throw Brisbane off its stride. Something which might give us a chance, even a glimmer of a chance; something which might give us some hope that we could pull off the upset of the year.
We've raved about the development of Guy Richards this year, the throwing of Dids and Leon onto the ball a couple of weeks ago, which sparked our best performance of the year, following Johnno's on-ball dynamics earlier in the season. Injury and suspension have been our nemesis this year and no sooner do we start to get the players injured earlier in the year back into the side, but we are struck by another spate of injuries.
Richards (156 hitouts for the year) is out with a groin injury, leaving Fraser (151) up against Charman (285), who is almost single-handedly carrying their ruck in the absence of McDonald and Keating. Oh, to have such depth!
Our goal scoring has been sparse. Taz (28 goals) and Dids (20) are both out, as is Cam Cloke, leaving Rocca (26) our sole key forward. Brisbane have a greater spread of goal scoring prowess - Aker (25), Brown (23), Lynch (22), Bradshaw (21) and Pike (20). With Brown suspended, Matthews simply puts Bradshaw in at CHF and, presto!, the gap is no longer there. Just the right time to be missing Jason Cloke to injury, eh?
So what do we do? We put McKee, gallant and courageous of which there is no doubt, up against Charman to try to plug the forward gap with Fraser. If we put Fraser in the ruck, we have but one forward option, and even Pebbles is labouring with an ankle injury.
Rob Peter to pay Paul; rob Paul to pay Peter.
But ah, Brisbane also possess the Fab Five. Lappin (367 disposals for the year), Black (333), Aker (306), Voss (300) and Power (295), Against whom we can throw such renowned speedsters as Licuria (324 disposals) and Woey (287) plus Johnno (246), the latter struggling now after a great start to the season. So who can we turn to for a bit of variety - Bucks and Burns, still on the path back to full fitness after injury, and Leon, playing just his third game in midfield. And whilst I do not doubt their courage for one second, every one of them will have to turn on a gut-bursting, ball-breaking, death-defying effort just to get close to the Fab Five.
I am pleased to see Lokan return to the forward line. I love the guy's hardness at the ball, his ability to shrug off blatant blows to the head from frustrated opponents aghast at his temerity to take a mark in front of them. I love the way he has turned from being one of the lousiest kicks at goal last year into a dead-eye dick this year.
I'm equally pleased to see Shawy return. One of the few genuine speedsters we have, who has worked hard on his disposal accuracy and who has played several good games on a wing for Willi. An opportunity for the guy to show he has shrugged off last year's GF performance, on the same stage.
But I look again at Brisbane's ruckman, their midfield and goal scoring options and I despair. Far from pulling a rabbit out of the hat, MM reverts to the old, true, tried - and failed. Two wins from 13 against Brisbane since 1996 going into this game, still two wins, but from 14 games, coming out.
Lions by 8 goals on the way to their fourth flag in a row. We will be but a mosquito bite on an elephant's bum to them.
Glory Glory Good Old Collingwood, Glory Glory Hallelujah,
Collingwood's The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen,
And The 'Pies Go Marching On (in Black and White Stripes Forever!).
Cam, I agree with you but I hate praising them as it is done by every **slicking Journo in the land so often. Regarding the match I think McGough should be given a chance to prove himself remember his great wrestling set up on Voss when he pushed him in to the way of Caketin head and Voss got concussed at Telstra 2002 ? That hit was a bit like Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart accidentaly KOing "The Hitman". I also think drop Mckee he hasnt got the jump or pace to go with Charman give Walker a crack at least he can jump off the ground and keep Fraser forward . It is going to be very hard to win without Taz!
No win this week. Agree with Cannibal and others. If something doesn't work then why o why do it again! MM is showing the same hand that got beaten last year and bears have probably picked up another ace!
I have no worries about our boys commitment. They will go hard and get the ball. But will turn it over just as quickly. Therein lies our demise.
Heart but no skill. Therefore play ugly possession football, deny their players the ball, hold up play, chip and hold. Fast play-on footy is playing into their hands. Looks good but causes turnovers- we don't have the skill or fitness.
This week's game reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Homer has to fight Mike Ty...er...Dreaderick Tatum which is the equivalent of a blind man with no arms boxing against...well...Mike Tyson...
Behind the doors of the walkway, Moe has a last chat with Homer.
Moe: All right, Homer, I'm not gonna lie to you. There's a good chance you can beat Tatum. But you gotta visualize how you're gonna win, okay?
Homer: Gotcha.
[dreams on about his victory]
Announcer: A congenital heart defect has apparently felled Tatum moments before he could step into the ring!
chalky wrote:Fast play-on footy is playing into their hands. Looks good but causes turnovers- we don't have the skill or fitness.
Sorry, Chalky, but I disagree with that statement. We DO have the skill but just won't use it for some reason. When we use it, we look bloody brilliant; we can move it up the field faster than a speeding bullet. We made a lot of sides look third rate last year playing that way.
I think, at the end of the day, it comes down to MM's ultra-defensive outlook. Maybe he's put the fear of God into the blokes about making mistakes. I've seen the TV cameras panning to the coach's box during games and he looks like he's turning purple from anger at times at on-field mistakes. It can't be helpful if he then vents that anger at the player. Perhaps this is why they tend to play the chipping game; because they think it will reduce the number of mistakes and therefore make MM happy.
I have been arguing for a while that we should play run-on footy and accept mistakes as part of the risk in doing so. But I don't think we'd make all that many more mistakes than using our current gameplan. How often have we seen the ball moving upfield painfully slowly until such time as the guy with it has no other option but to kick to another player under pressure? That's where the turnovers are happening. If we move the ball slowly, it gives the opposition time to mark our guys; if we move it quickly, they don't have any time to react. Even if we do make mistakes playing run-on footy, at least there is an upside. With the chipping game there is none. In the final analysis, I'd far rather lose a game playing run-on footy because at least it presents us with a chance to win. There is little or no chance of winning with the slow chipping game. Particularly against the better sides like Brisbane.
Anyway, as I said earlier, what have we got left to lose?
Glory Glory Good Old Collingwood, Glory Glory Hallelujah,
Collingwood's The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen,
And The 'Pies Go Marching On (in Black and White Stripes Forever!).
Mick has to change his mindset, and then his gameplan will follow. But its a tough one. Its a bit like the league dealing with flooding a couple of years back.
Defense wins you finals, but so does initiative.
Port has neither and that's why they lose. During the H&A they are like a conveyor belt that transports footballs to their goals. When people jump on the conveyor belt in the finals the machine breaks down.
Brisbane has a solid defense and play with initiative. But they also have three more cream of the crop types than every other team. $200,000 each on top of an normal 150-200 grand wage that the other clubs can afford their better players allows them to keep these extra talented guys on their list.
If Essendon had had that allowance they would have been able to keep their 2000 team intact. They too had a settled defense and played with initiative but simply ran out of stars.
At least Mick discovered what we had been saying all year. Play Dids midfield and watch him become a superstar. Why he waited until round 13 I'll never know - but out of all this shit we have become less reliant on Bucks as a midfielder and leader (missing 7 or whatever games will do that to you), we have seen a new Leon Davis, Cameron Cloke looks good and possibly our retooling might only happen this year.
Tex Walker has been given another year in the 2s to learn the game and by all accounts is progressing nicely. No need to rush him back, let him be stable. Richards can play.
We just need something new and next year we may well do that. I just hope we don't go 10-0 like the Saints because you're in shit if you do that. 7-3 would be better, provided we had beaten the Lions.
