Collingwood and Geelong game, quick review

[Greg J]

You have to start at the end. The loss was disappointing, not as bad as the Swans game, but a bitter pill to swallow, nevertheless.

The game started quite well.

Last Thursday, I has reserved some seats (and got the tickets) on the first level, and was able to cruise through gate 2, just before 1:30. Seats turned out to be at the Collingwood end, two aisles from the cheersquad (Happy Bday, Joffa, sorry I did not know, else I would have bought a beer), a real bonus, as I was expecting Geelong, as the home team, to be at the Bourke street end!

The lads started at a cracking pace, and blew Geelong away in the first quarter. We quickly built up about 10 or 12 scoring shots to their 3 (I think). Pebbles was on fire, Molloy was barging about knocking Geelong players arse over tit, and doing it with such finese that he didn't even get reported (as opposed to Johnno later in the game, who could have killed someone, but didn't, and was rewarded for his compassion, with a 50m penalty and the honour of being reported, go figure. The ball was flowing freely into our forward line. All looked good, for a pumping.

But then the wheels fell off. Geelong kicked 9 goals to our 2. And we went from 4 goals up, to four goals down.

I do not know what Bomber said to the cats, at quarter time, but from that point on, they played like a different team. Their attack on the ball, which was missing in the first quarter, was getting more desperate as the game went on. Unfortunately for us, the second quarter saw us play with less intensity than we had in the first. Perhaps the players were lulled into a false sense of security by the ease with which they dominated the first quarter. I dunno.

Buckley was being tagged. Geelong had success with this tactic last year, but, we drafted Steinfort, so I was hoping Buckley would be able to break free this year. He did to a greater extent than last year, but seeing Buckley virtually pick up Bhudda and dump him into the turf, illustrated the amount of scragging he already undergone, by the end of the second quarter.

Both sides seemed to go with a tall forward line. Unfortunately with Wakelin and Richo out, that left Presti and Kinnear to shoulder the "talls" burden. Clement was needed to mind Ronnie Burns. Neither Presti or Kinnear looked entirely comfortable out there, with Kinnear especially, kicking to the boundary line whenever he was under pressure, interrupting the smooth flow of the ball out of the backline. I am not saying that either of them had a shocker, just that both played like that had not played of senior football lately.

Which brings me to my next point. Leon Davis. Coming on just before half time, it took some time for Leon to find the right touch. He is bloody electrifying. But the first two times he broke free with the ball and chipped a pass to Tarrant, the ball went sailing over Tarrant's head, into the hands of a Geelong player. If he had of got on sooner, he would have got his touch sooner. Thats all I will say. The third chip pass to Tarrant was spot on.

And while I have mentioned Tarrant, he seemed to be kicking like a mule all day. Even the shots that he got, looked a bit awkward. I think he knew he was kicking badly, and when he finally got that third chip pass from Neon Leon, he then chipped it to Nick Davis, but the pass went astray and Geelong kicked a goal. This was even more heartbreaking, when Chris, got the ball, in almost the exact spot, a couple minutes later, and then resolutely lined it up and kicked a goal (at least it showed that he can learn by his mistakes).

For the rest, well, we never controlled the centre, and once we made a mistake, Geelong was always able to zip it up the other wing, or straight up the guts easily enough. They matched up well with us all over the ground, always seeming to have a couple of matchups in their favour.

And now for another tale of us versus them. Towards the end of the game, while the main fracas was going on around the cheer squad area, there was a little commotion going on in aisle 4. I do not know what started it, but a Geelong guy was sitting behind some Collingwood people and two coppers were hovering about. Also, I do not know what is right or wrong, but when you see a hand reach up and yank a female Collingwood supporter down, you would expect the two coppers to chuck out people left, right and centre. But, instead, they had jumped the fence, and were on the ground. As the fracas continued to get more heated, they had to come back, and finally, wait for it, throw out the female Collingwood supporter, and to top it off, throw out another female Collingwood supporter, who seemed only to be trying to tell the coppers to chuck out the Geelong perpetrator. WTF.

Thats all, folks. As I said disappointing.

Greg J

[junkboy75]

greg, I saw that incident as I was sitting in aisle 4 as well, in my usual seat in Row J. that geelong supporter was an ogre. imagine, picking on women! as he was led away, he started carrying on about geelong, and the 3 morons behind me were applauding. I felt like turning around and giving them a piece of my mind. rather than siding with the women, the female copper was chastising them! it is a fallacy of the ticketing system that geelong gits are seated in the c'wood reserve seat section and are allowed to cause trouble like this.

"everyone's a winner hot pies"

[Spidergirl]

ha wot is it with Geelong they were in our reserved seats at the StKilda game earlier on in the year woah imagine we went in their pussy seats