Post match - Pies v. Bombers. All comments.

[zpxf11]

Gotta stick up for Shawry here. Any time you get 32 disposals you will turn a few over - even Bucks does!! But how many players on our list have the ability to get 32 possessions in just over 3 quarters and actually carry the ball through the lines??

Our play is so stagnant and the only players who carry the ball for us are Shaw and Johnson. What's happened to the run Licca used to have? Lonie's run when he was confident? Holland in 2003 was damaging with his run. That's what we are missing. Get the ball to Taz or C3 or Walker one out. Move it quick and not just one player running, run in numbers!!

[Culprit]

He didn't just turn a few over, I counted 11. That's a third of his possesions. Don't get me wrong here. I feel he has played great if his possesions were damaging it would be the icing on the cake. He has a go the whole time, I am happy with that.

[mudlark]

I hear what your saying Pies Fan, but PATHETIC heartless , gutless no passion ETC just doesn't seem like " constuctive" criticism to me.Perhaps North Melb are not as good as people make out and perhaps the scum are not as bad as some make out. Either way, we lost both games ,which were winnable at several stages of both games,with basically the same sides in yet to lose by 2 goals in a hard fought ,tight struggle, barring the first quarter, does not deserve the "criticism" from some of the fair weather flyers who appear on this site.
Granted we have a couple of duds in the team, namely williams and o'bree , and King and Lonie would be preferable options, but we have a MAJOR injury list that NO team in the AFL could cover, and our good kids need more time to settle in.So my point is the season may or may not be "over" but ffs get on the players side and stop saying they are weak , pathetic , heartless etc because most of us on this site would have NO idea of how hard it is out there, especially an ANZAC day game.

[zpxf11]

A turnover is classified as "direct" to opposition (or out on the full). There were 3, maybe 4 of those. I'm proud of Rhycey's performance.

[sq3]

I am still not happy with the off field staff.

Anyone that is or has been an athlete could see in the first 5 minutes all the classic signs of not hitting the day right - commonly called overtraining.

The first sign is the players are running like they have lead boots and they cannot stop quickly or chnage direction.

The next sign is the worst - poor skills as they suffer the most.

I don't think I have ever seen a Collingwood match where so many straight forward marks have been dropped.

As I have stated countless times - get the off field staff right and the on field performances will get better.

Once again learn from the Storm - how they can have guys back up on 1 or 2 days rest between games shows they have the formula for rest, recuperation and peak physical timing down far better than the Pies do.

C3 is showing that he can be better than Riewoldt as he has more pace.

C3 is one of the few bright lights on a very sad Anzac Day - Shawry you showed guts and he can hold his head high. Cole and backline except for BJ were great - how he turned his back on Johnson was unacceptable froma professional footballer.

[Lazza]

Cant believe sometimes what I read here. So in a nutshell, most of you want to sack MM, tell Eddie to shut up or go, play only Shaw and C3 from yesterday's team and pick the rest from Willi firsts and seconds?
Listen! The reality was that we lost only by 14 points. The reality was that Essendon had an almost full senior team (minus Hillie, Allan and Bradley), the reality was that we had Bucks, Pebbles, Fraser, Richards, Lonie, Davis, Davidson missing (and Leonard and B Shaw from possible replacements), Didak playing his first game this season and Travis playing his first ever game. I wrote last week about Magpie fans having unrealistic expectations and putting incredible and sometimes unbearable pressure on our team. Having totally unrealistic high expectations ONLY EVER leads to the team being unable to meet them. We set ourselves up for failure with such attitudes.
At the risk of attracting a host of flames, give it a rest for goodness sake! Look at the team first REALISTICALLY and then decide if they are able to compete on equal terms or not, even if God bloody coached them. That is NOT to say that you should be always happy with a loss or expect a loss each time but at least ACCEPT that the result was due to the current circumstances that are way beyond anyone's control, including ours.
No one will be able to convince me that we wouldn't have beaten Essendon with our full senior team in place and in top form. We would have won by 10 goals. But unfortunately, with the injuries, we are only shuffling number cards with the replacements. However, having silly tantrums and demolishing the entire bathroom, and chucking the bath AND most of the babies with the bath water is NOT the answer.
Having realistic expectations of the picked team on the park as compared to the opposition on a particular day is FAR closer to the mark.

Esto Collingwood Perpetua!

[mudlark]

Well put Lazza and i think sheedy acknowledged in his after match speech that the pies had many injuries and that the replacements should be applauded for their fine effort in pushing a near capacity scum side to 14 points.

[mudlark]

He didn't just turn a few over, I counted 11. That's a third of his possesions. Don't get me wrong here. I feel he has played great if his possesions were damaging it would be the icing on the cake. He has a go the whole time, I am happy with that.

I must have been watching a different game. 11 turnovers
And Culprit, just a question, "I am happy with that" is the shemans fave. You're not are you

[Culprit]

[Cannibal]

Can't believe sometimes what I read here.....

Listen! The reality was that we lost only by 14 points....

Having totally unrealistic high expectations ONLY EVER leads to the team being unable to meet them. We set ourselves up for failure with such attitudes.

At the risk of attracting a host of flames, give it a rest for goodness sake! Look at the team first REALISTICALLY and then decide if they are able to compete on equal terms or not, even if God bloody coached them....

Having realistic expectations of the picked team on the park as compared to the opposition on a particular day is FAR closer to the mark.

1. Better believe what you read here. It's in Black and White.

2. Yes, the reality is that we did lose by 14 points. But "only" is inappropriate. It implies we should accept that result and be happy with it. Not a friggin' chance in hell. It was a totally unacceptable, spineless, gutless performance and I never want to see a Collingwood side play like that ever again.

3. Expecting the team to play well is a realistic expectation. A post I wrote for the pre-match thread (but which got lost because my connection and login got disrupted and I wasn't going to spend another 90 minutes re-writing it) stated plainly and simply that we put 22 players on the park and so do the opposition. Injuries, suspensions, loss of form, etc. are just excuses and should not be accepted. Our 22 guys are expected to play to the best of their ability. The simple reality is that this almost full-strength Essendon side is not very good; pretty piss-weak poor, actually. If we'd played with anything like the passion we demonstrated against Adelaide, Carlton and North, we'd have won the game quite comfortably (I predicted by 16 points, but warned that we should expect Essendon to come prepared to play, as this was the biggest game of all outside the Grand Final). That we basically didn't turn up prepared to play is a damning indictment of the players and coaches and expecting them to come prepared to play is in no way, shape or form an "unrealistically high expectation".

4. Sport has a history longer than the length of your arm of teams (and individuals) that are either of inferior quality or suffering from some inadequacy getting up to win against all the odds (for perhaps the classic example concerning Collingwood, our premiership side of 1958, against a Melbourne side comprised of many champions of the game, purely and simply because they determined that Melbourne would not equal our "four in a row" record). I'm not prepared to accept your contention that we should only ever expect to win if we compete on "even terms" and that, if we can't compete on equal terms, a loss is an honourable loss. That loss yesterday was not an honourable loss. It's one of the most shameful episodes I've ever seen in 40 years of following the club.

I am not prepared to be lenient, hence my refusal to take ANY positives out of it. The stage was the Anzac Day game. 90 years ago, many young Australians laid down their lives in defence of King and Country. The players yesterday shamed themselves and the memory of those young Australians. They didn't play as a team. In my earlier post in this thread, I stated clearly and simply what I am prepared to accept from any Collingwood side, even if it loses. If they turn up next Sunday and give it a red hot go against the Saints, then, even if we get rolled as comprehensively as the bookies' odds will no doubt suggest, then I'll accept it. Anything less than putting their bodies on the line and playing hard-at-it footy will not.

[DaVe86]

i think essendon did not win the game, we lost it. I was the battle of which team wanted it less, and we did. It really looked like a battle between the 2 worst teams in the afl. Ladder positions reigned trued yesterday.

[Culprit]

The good thing about us losing leaves the bears on the bottom for a week.

[DaVe86]

culprit the lions you mean lol

[3rd degree]

Dave86 CAN FREO win next year's wizard cup?

[Lazza]

Cannibal, you repeat stuff that I never mentioned and you only quoted parts of my post. Please read it again dude. I never wrote about any honourable losses, and was not saying that we should EXPECT defeat but ACCEPT the reality after the game. Its like in cricket, the umpire might give you a bum decision but in the scorebook, you are listed as "out".
This mythical stuff about 22 versus 22 being an even contest is an absolutely illogical load of garbage. It all depends on how many of your top 22 are out compared to the opposition's top 22. If we play our bottom 22 against a team's top 22, you may well 'expect' to win because you are a paying current club member or due to what the Anzacs did years ago or whatever but again all you do in reality is to set yourself up for failure and more disappointment.
Also increased team confidence and the players positive mental states plays a very major role and that usually comes from winning. They beat the Blues and were bloody stiff to lose to North by 3 points and to lose Rocca for the season. This upset their run. Then, vastly undermanned with regards to top 22 players, they ran into an Essendon that was slated by their own to fire them up. Such is reality sometimes.
By all means be unhappy with the team, the result and disagree with me but don't misinterpret my post into things I never ever said or insinuated.