Pre-match: PIES v Hawks - All comments here.....

[DaVe86]

yep the competition for spots is good this week. I think the only person id say would be a certain omission would be davies. I dont rate swan, never have but i have to admit he has done enough to earn his spot. It would be unlucky for him to go however for a player like woey, lonie or yakka to come in, id say mick will consider it. Cameron Cloke will be a funny one. I think Fannign has done enough and is the proper ruck option whilst cloke has tried hard without doing anything really special. If Fraser is fit and ready to come back in, id say malthouse will play him. If we lose to hawthorn we are not going to win many other this year so its pretty much make or break time for collingwood.

Ins: Fraser, Woey, Yakka
Outs: C.Cloke, Davies, Swan.
Lonie will miss again.

Cloke may be retained this week as extra backup to take on spider. It may not be a bad idea either to triple team him. Having Cloke and Fraser in the team will also stretch hawthorns defence, however will leave us with little run off the bench. I think yakka and woey should be included this week.

Matchups: Id like to see:
Licuria vs Crawford: dont underestimate crawford, he is in great form. Is third in fantasy footy competitions showing he is racking up the ball and kicking goals. Licuria must shut him down.

Burns vs Vandenberg: Richie is no good, burns will shut down their skipper nicely.

Holland vs Osbonre: Shut the little man down, brodie will outmuscle him and has better skills. Osborne cannot kick a ball more than 30 metres.

Shaw v Hodge: Hodge is dangerous. Shaw has shown tagging abilities with the ability to hurt opponents going the other way as he has done on judd and wells. Hodge will be forced to play accountable which is not his style. Hodge has run loose off half back for 4 weeks straight. Been great for my dream team.

other possibilities for hodge: Johnson- Will bring johnson into the game where his pace may worry hodge.
Licuria- Id like him on crawf but hodge is possibly more damaging, holland or morrison to go onto crawf.


Now for the reason i think we will win.
Far and away, the reason for hawthorns success has been little williams. No one can match him. We however have the ideal player.
Yes you guessed it, James CLement. Clement has played and shut down players such as Brown and Welsh and Milne by using his versatility. Williams will be matched for pace and outmarked every time. Clement will kill him. Then Wakelin and Presti will do the job on Dixon and will nullify Everrits presence up forward. We are more than well equipped to manage hawthorns attack which is reliant on a small forward. This has not been a recipe to success against collingwood.

Without Williams kicking 5, where will the goals come from?

Pies by 4 goals.

[Ah Tibor]

Will be won/lost in the midfield, nothing else needs to be said.

Fanning
Licuria
Holland
Burns

vs

Everitt
Mitchell
Hodge
Crawford

[Proud Pies]

i work with too many Hawks supporters so we HAVE to win this one...........do you hear me Collingwood????

I think we'll win (said with legs, fingers, eyes crossed)

[HAWKS HEROES]

[Snoop Dog]

First - lets not talk about tagging. Lets give the blokes their heads like last week.

The real issue is how do you match them up. Part of their intrigue is they are v difficult to. They play small fwds (Taylor and Frankling started on bench last week). Typically we play tall backs. There is no certain match up for Presti and Wakelin as I am assuming Clement or Maxwell will get Williams. Mick will want lots of stoppages this week - problem is Hawks can be brilliant at them. The Freo game showed us we cannot give them room. They are better at it than Freo.

Therefore -

Swan will play - no doubt. He played well last weekend and set play up with v good handball.

Fraser should come in for Cam Cloke although he does not deserve it.

Davies maybe but Hawks are quick and bringing in Woey may not work in the match ups. The only bloke I can see coming in is Davis.

In the end it may just be Fraser for Davies although that would worry me as I think we are well short of pace for these blokes based on their respective 22 last week.

[Johnson#26]

[surfer1]

what a nice change to have so many players to choose from. For my 2 cents I don't think Rowe has been so good that his stop is guarranteed. I don't think anyone deserves to be omitted but....

So my in and outs would be

out: Davies Rowe C Cloke

in: Davis Fraser Yakka or Rusling

[skaman]

Im with Chris 71. Hopefully they will allow our players to play an attacking brand of football. A couple of tags may be required, but geez, if we play like last week, they should be the team talking about negative tagging. If we stop Williams, and I,m sure Jimmy will, and even if we cant stop spider (he is in top form), but learn to rove off him. I reckon we can kick another big score. Pies by 4 or 5 goals.
Surfer1, Rowe should definately not be dropped!

[Cannibal]

Anyone who loses their spot this week will be very unlucky after last week's effort, as no-one deserves to lose out. However, talk around the traps is that Fraser will come back and I have strong memories of him thrashing the then league no 1 ruckman, Everitt, in last year's match, so figure that he has to be a big chance. Fanning will be blown away by Everitt otherwise and needs lots of support.

IMO, neither Davis nor Woewoeful deserve to come back into the side and should play at Willi this weekend. I can't see Ruzza getting a game yet (his chance will come but not this week).

Talk about mismatches on the backline is a bit of a furphy. Yes, Williams is the smallest FF in the competition, but Everitt lurks around the forward line a lot and Presti will have to pick him up when he does. Wakes and Jimmy are both quick, but not exceptionally tall, so can take the medium forwards as well. I agree that Jimmy will probably pick up Williams to begin with, but Dixon and Brennan were amongst the goals last week as well. I'd say Cole has a pretty strong chance at coming back into the side to help shut down the other Hawthorn small forwards.

Hawthorn played Subi's expanses well last week, but so too do the Weagles and we played smart footy on them, so can do the same again to Hawthorn's mids. What we will have to do is shut down the dangerous Mitchell. He's right back in his best form and is arguably their most dangerous mid, as he's the one in the thick of it getting the ball in the first place. He prefers to shoot out a handball to a receiver running past but, cut out supply, and their receivers have nowhere to go. Expect to see 100% focus on shutting down Mitchell.

However, Hawthorn are going to have lots of problems trying to curb our own forward line. Croad was clobbered by Pavlich last week and will be equally troubled trying to curb Travis Cloke. I'd expect Cam Cloke to play as that means Hawthorn will have to curb both Clokes, Taz and a resting Fraser, on top of a rampant Caracella, dangerous Egan and lurking Didak. A very big order. And one that is probably beyond them.

I'm expecting a high scoring game but think that we'll get up in the end. 'Pies by 15.

[-]

I reckan it will be a close game but I reckan we can do it and win by a few goals fire up boys you know you can do it

[35forever]

So Daks got away with it then?
I cant believe a Collingwood player got away with hitting someone!?!?!
I dont think it's ever happened!

[uuuuu..... The LoneSTAR]

We're also a chance to get off the bottom of the ladder if,....

Freo lose to Cats at Shell
Saints beat Swans at the Dome
Dogs lose to Dons at the Dome
Port lose to Weagles at Subi
Hawks get thumped !!!!!!!
Lions beat roos at the Gabba
Blues lose to Crows as AAMI

Albeit still 2 games out of the 8

[punkologist]

So Daks got away with it then?
I cant believe a Collingwood player got away with hitting someone!?!?!
I dont think it's ever happened!

he sure did!

I actually really like the new tribunal system. I like that it is run by ex players who have a clue what it is like to be in the heat of the moment on the field. It has been far more consistant and fair this year that the last few.

[KYPREO]

Yep Fraser was BOG last time we met. He got the 3 brownlow votes.

Didak had his first game where he really rotated through the midfield: 20 possessions and kicked 4 goals, but could have kicked 7 or 8, set up a few. Got 2 votes.

[35forever]

God, I thought Daks was gone for 2 for sure, YIPEE!!

Biggest game of the year. Win this and we can play finals. Lose and there is no longer a chance. I'm sure MM will go in with the 'if it ain't broke, dont fix it' attitude, and my ins & outs are as follows:

Out: Davies
In: Yakka

Fraser not ready, neither is Davis. Davies didnt get much time & will be unfortunate, but Yakka deserves the spot. I have never thought Swan was any good, and wouldnt have picked him against WCE, but his tackling on Saturday was sensational and has changed my mind about him.

If Jimmy shuts down Williams, and Dutchy can keep Crawf quiet, the rest will fold. If Cam & Fanning could keep Gardiner & Cox from dominating, they can stop spider, as long as Race, Cheesy & Licca rove to him well.

I cant BELIEVE no one has suggested dropping Cheesy yet! I thought he was one of 3 or 4 contenders for BOG last week, but I just gave it to Johnno. Lets hope we can run them down like we ran the weagles down. They are quick, but if we put enough pressure on them they become very sloppy. If we can force them wide & run hard enough to force mistakes we will beat them, but ONLY if we run as hard as last week and take our scoring opportunities like last week.

Lets hope MM gives guys like Dids, Trav, Egan, Cara & Cheesy the license to take chances like he did last week. I think Dids will be the difference. If he has a big one we win.

This is sooooo big. Win this and we'll beat Geelong.