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Collingwood might have caused a surprise by only using one new player - veteran former Eagle Chad Morrison - to kick off the Wizard Home Loans Cup last week but coach Mick Malthouse says he is likely to stick with his experienced players throughout the pre-season.
After their impressive comeback win against Richmond, the Pies now head to Darwin to take on Malthouse's former club West Coast in the quarter-finals and despite the luxury of having two extra players on the bench - a total of eight - due to the Darwin heat, experience is again likely to dominate the Pies' squad.
Despite sliding from second to 13th on the ladder last season, the Pies did not give any of their draftees a taste of senior action last week and may possibly only blood Travis Cloke this week.
COLLINGWOOD will not shield its senior players from Darwin's extreme heat for Saturday night's Wizard Cup quarter-final against West Coast.
The desire to restore confidence in the playing group after last year's debacle is behind the Pies approach to the pre-season competition.
While experienced players Chris Tarrant and Scott Burns didn't train with the main group yesterday, they are expected to make the trip along with other big names including Anthony Rocca, Josh Fraser, James Clement, Paul Licuria and Shane Woewodin.
Only captain Nathan Buckley, Tarkyn Lockyer and Alan Didak are expected to be missing.
I for one would like to see some young players play this week.
Darwin is a shit draw for us. It is the hottest part of aus.
The ground is below afl standard
The flight is long.
West Coast sounds as if it will go into the game below full strength. I do not think we should rush back any senior players.
There's more to life than footy.........just not much more.
Its an interesting one.
Obviously Mick wants to make every post a winner from game one this year and sees picking the best available squad each week as part of that.
Now MM's best squad and any number of supporters best squads will always differ but its his gig so he's got to make the call.
As the war of attrition begins to take its toll through the year some of these kids will obviously get their chance.
As much as some of us would like to get a glimpse at the new faces, it could be argued that Rowe, King, Cam, Walker and Richards are also still new faces and getting games into them is certainly a bonus. It could also be argued that this is where our most likely improvement is going to come from this year.
Giving 'kids' a run that haven't even really played senior footy is a big call and they will certainly benefit from a half a season or so at Willy.
I'm more concerened that players like Maxy, Brayden, Zane, Swan, Heath aren't getting a run. Morrison and Hall I can live with as they both played a lot of footy in the Willy seconds last year so, for the first half of this year let's just see if they can cement a spot in the Willy ones.
Zane missed a lot of footy last year but, he was bloody close to a call up when he totally ripped his hammy early in the year.
Maxwell to me is a good option and should be given an opportunity to demand a spot in the side. Served us well when we needed it last year.
Swan is in a make or break year and whilst he does have his problems off the field he should be given his chance, hasn't played too badly at times in the seniors.
Much is talked about Brayden's ability and with a year of senior footy under his belt let's see what the boy can do in the big show. Heath might be a little further off yet.
It positively sh*ts me that we go with the serial duds and they look fantastic in the preseason, because you just know that they are going to go back into their shell and back to bad habits once the real stuff starts.
You've got to look at where our improvement is going to come from this year.
Now for a lot of players, it is much harder in the VFL to show your 'best wares' as it where, with sloppier delivery, scrappier play, windier conditions and heavier/rougher tracks; what better opportunity than the Wizza to see who might go on with it this year.
To me, our improvement is not going to come from the Lokans or Rhyces and probably not from the Williams' or O'Brees. They have had plenty of chances to show their stuff and its a big difference from running around looking good in the Wizza to being a genuine contributor throughout the season proper. (Ask Dids, after the 2003 Wizza Cup nearly every commentator in the land had him becoming a star of the competition and winning the copeland, his year ended up being okay but only average).
To me, if we are going to give it a shake this year we need to see players like Richards, Walker, Maxwell, Rowe, Cam have really good years and make an impact and we need to see the emergence of Brayden and perhaps a Zane or a Heath. Its these guys that I would like to see get a run with the seniors before the real stuff starts.
If we get good games from Travis or Egan or O'Brien or Rusling or Yakka or even Fanning it is a complete bonus and sets us in good stead for the future.
Interestingly enough we still have Dids, Lockyer, Caracella to come back yet -not to mention the great man himself, our captain; all are automatic selections and then there's Davidson. Once these guys get up and firing I'll chuck my lunch if we are still picking the serial duds, but I strongly suspect that they are all on notice and it should only take a round or two to find them out again.
Yeah thats what i thought too. Mick was saying after the game that he desperately wanted to play in Darwin rather than Morwell, and i'd say thats because of the surface.
I totally agree we need last year's new faces to step up and command permanent places in the 2005 side. If they do that, it puts pressure on the "serial duds" to lift their games or take a hike at season's end.
However, I also like MM and the player's more serious attitude towards the Wiz Cup and there's plenty of evidence to suggest a winning pre-season run translates into winning form in the season proper, so would prefer to set the season up properly than experiment too much. If any of the kids deserve a chance, that's absolutely fine by me, but don't give someone a run in the Wiz Cup just to see if they are any good. Willi is the place for that.
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!).
According to a post at EBnW,Pebs said that Egan,Fanning and Leonard are a chance for Darwin.
Egan did some nice things including an amazing goal against the wind.
Fanning took on Stafford and did well.
MM was heard to comment on The Max Factor during the game. Apparently he liked Maxie's attack on the body.
Yep, got to remember that Malty treats giving info to the press as feeding the chooks, just throws out lines without there being any basis in fact. Loves to trip them up or throw them of the scent too.
What we do with selection this week will have absolutely nothing to do with what Mick or Balmy or anyone else says to the press methinks.
The club is the one boasting about the young kids. For them not to play any leaves me the perception that they cannot cut it and that is a worry. Look at Brisbane they played nearly all their kids as did Sydney.
Throw them in the deep end. Better finding out now if they can cut it than when we are trying to win 4 points.
I think it is great that MM and the players are taking the wizz fizz cup seriously. IMHO they should always pick their best side no matter what the game is.
If the kids are good enough, they will get a game. They have to earn their spot by showing something at Willy. Look what happened last year against Wet Toast when we played all our kids, I don't think they will benefit from a 100 point plus thrashing.
Difference between us and the Sydney and Brisbane teams is that we are almos tsitting on a full list, aside from the one and two week injuries, where as those two teams have a fair few players missing.
I don't see where everyone is coming from though, it's not like we didn't play 'young' kids. Cameron Cloke, Julian Rowe, David King, Tristan Walker all stepped out. They are our young kids, they've had 6-10 games of football under their belts. They need the run. The draftees we have, they've been exposed to elite football for two months, cut them some slack.
Brisbane don't have any choice any longer BUT to play their kids!
They held their vets together to maximise their chances at winning as many flags as possible and weren't blooding any youngsters during the last few years. By my count, they now have just 20 experienced senior players left on their list, with the other 18 being draftees since 2000 who have either not yet made their debut (the majority) or played a bare handful of games (a couple).
I also noted that absolutely NONE of their 2001 draft picks remain with the club.
One detects some suffering ahead for 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!).
Cannibal wrote:Brisbane don't have any choice any longer BUT to play their kids!
They held their vets together to maximise their chances at winning as many flags as possible and weren't blooding any youngsters during the last few years. By my count, they now have just 20 experienced senior players left on their list, with the other 18 being draftees since 2000 who have either not yet made their debut (the majority) or played a bare handful of games (a couple).
I also noted that absolutely NONE of their 2001 draft picks remain with the club.
One detects some suffering ahead for them.
Will my count they have 20 experienced senior players left on their list with the other 18 being draftees 2000 who have either not made their debut the majority or played a bare handful of games a couple accomplish your objective?
