Post Game v Crows - Disaster in Dubai - All comments here!

[Alec. J. Hidell]

Nothing at all

[DaVe86]

Theres no negatives at this time of the year...only positives. When you take away interchange limitations, get a full side in etc we will be alright. No doubt the boys were flat after a pretty gruelling couple of weeks and gastro went around.


The good things to come out of it were :

- Cloke is still looking pretty sharp. Had gastro and had limited game time but looks primed.

- A couple of fringe players did ok. They were Rhyce Shaw, Isles, Reid and Anthony. Shaw's disposal was off but he provided run and showed a real hunger. Isles staked his claim for a place in the side and looks just about ready to make an impact. Reid kicked 3 and looked sharp. Anthony barely saw it in the first half but had an impact in the 2nd. Laid a few bumps, kicked a goal and got a bit of it. I was impressed.

- We never had our midfield all on at the one time. Pendles and Clarke saw little of it, Burns was missing, Brodie will hopefully find some form, and O'bree, Lockyer and Swan were heavily rotated. When Didak, Davis and THomas pushed into the midfield they looked quite dangerous.

- Ben Johnson had a shocker but i still think he is an important cog in our engine and it was good to see him back. He wont play the first few games but there is no doubt that his pace out of defense will help us.

- Our ruck division can only be improved when Wood returns. Fraser rucked terribly, but i think he was been cautious with his body. It was good to see him get a bit of it around the ground. That said, losing to Maric and Moran is a bad effort considering they are inexperienced ruckman. Bryan showed again why he is not a top 22 player and a backup at best.

- Nathan Brown was smashed but kept trying and was exposed to a forward line in form and getting plenty of supply. Great learning experience and had to shoulder the responsibility of Sellar who was in good nick. Wakelin barely played, Maxwell was out of sorts and Presti, O'Brien and Goldsack sit in waiting. Thought a couple of times he was terribly out of position, but then on a few occassions did quite well. He looked a bit out of place though. Having Wakelin beside him for a full game would help that



Overall, glad we are out of the NAB. We are not ready for competitive footy. We have been in Africa for a month and have had little competitive training. Adelaide were fantastic, but this was more an indication that we are not as advanced into our pre season as they are. The benefits our the altitude training will appear in a few months time. We will be flat probably for the next month.

Best to have some low intensity practice matches with proper rules where we can rotate heavily and get ourselves back into shape.

[HAL]

Why not?

[STOKA35]

now we now what we have to do

SKILLS crows are always skillfull something we need to look at.
Sure its feb. I will wait till round 4 to see how we are travelling

what worries me is our backline the key defensive posts full back and chb
wakes is a veteran and to me i think he played above himself last year hope he can prove me wrong.

[eddiesmith]

If we were going to play like that then atleast the could have played a few more players who are not in our best 22, we went out with a close to full strength side, why?

But oh well, we wont the see the side again before rd1, so people wont be able to bag them too mcuh

[nitric]

Lets see if I am following some of this:

They have a 3 week training camp and ........ that means they aren't ready for a game that has been scheduled for months?

Hmmmm.

Think I"m missing something.

[daicos35]

Theres no negatives at this time of the year...only positives.

Dave, you're one of my favourite posters, if I owned a newspaper, I'd beg you to write for it.

I posted my thoughts on the game in the positives thread, won't add to them here. BUT, I gotta say, I am so wrapt about the Albany visit. I'm on nightshift and I haven't been able to sleep,(that's rare). It is such a bonus to what I've been planning as a huge footy year. 400k's away, that's nothin'.

There will be life at Collingwo8d this year.

[Fire Up]

Lets see if I am following some of this:

They have a 3 week training camp and ........ that means they aren't ready for a game that has been scheduled for months?

Hmmmm.

Think I"m missing something.

makes 2 of us.



oh wait i know the reason. the afl ceo decided oh ill organize a game between pies vs crows on the spot.

[Breadcrawl]

I made a few bucks laying the pies on Betfair at $1.53 cause I was pretty sure we'd lose (told ya Ash). As I posted when the 'Should we tank?' poll was up, MM has no interest in winning these games. We lose on purpose pretty much, Adelaide's effort indicates to me that they know they have no chance in the season proper. They'll probably take the tin trophy home. Good luck to them. 11th or 12th in September.

The skills were abysmal, but then so were mine yesterday. It's that time of year and you can go on about pre-season all you like - match pressure changes everything.

I still say we'll win the premiership.

GO PIES

[daicos35]

Lets see if I am following some of this:

They have a 3 week training camp and ........ that means they aren't ready for a game that has been scheduled for months?

Hmmmm.

Think I"m missing something.

makes 2 of us.



oh wait i know the reason. the afl ceo decided oh ill organize a game between pies vs crows on the spot.

ill? Definitely not planned in advance, but unfortunately played a part in reducing the fitness, perhaps MR2G's abbreviation typo is a big factor in some players not being physically and mentally up to an AFL game. Good thing it was a NAB(Not A Big deal) game.

Adelaide played well, this week their supporters feel assured. '08 is a journey that gets serious in Round 1. IMO

[Jason]

The worst thing about last night was that NAB ad!! If I want off key singing I can listen to the ten year old. OMG I thought my fillings were going to fall out .

Truth be known, I'm glad we're out of the NAB cup so I don't have to subject myself to that ad anymore. It was atrocious, every single goal that was kicked led to that ad being played, the Pies players knew this obviously so kicked as fewer goals as possible to save us back at home.

[mgh3536]

I was at the game;

The troubled delivery to forwards is still evident, our fundamental ball handling skills are and have been inferior for a while now. The amount we turnover the ball and put our defence under pressure is appalling.

We put good pressure on Crows but they were very smooth when they went forward but used the ball well, just fundamental things.

Re Thomas, look he is exciting but starting to believe his own hype getting a bit ahead of himself.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

He's always trying to create something, sometimes it doesn't come off but when it does it's brilliant. You can't knock the kid for having a brain fade.
How many 3rd year players do you see sprint 30 metres past a player he's only just passed to and then find space again to provide another option?

[Magpie Girl]

I'm just wandering..... was Toovey actually playing? because I didn't hear his name mentioned before or during the game. Was he actually part of the team for the game? was he replaced in the side before the game?
He was in the selected side.....

[Dave The Man]

I'm just wandering..... was Toovey actually playing? because I didn't hear his name mentioned before or during the game. Was he actually part of the team for the game? was he replaced in the side before the game?
He was in the selected side.....

No he Didn't Play