Pre Match. Collingwood v. Sydney - All comments

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

it will be won in the trenches!!! Field Marshall Sir Scott Burns, Private "Buster" Holland, Lance-Corporal Licuria, Sergeant Shane O'Bree and newly promoted Lieutenant Pendlebury will have their work cut out against a wily enemy!

[Hugor]

Without our backline we are only half a team going out against a very good side. I hope a few people step up to make the result respectable at least.

[Tanks1966]

[favourites 2008]

These are the sort of matches that can make or break a season. Backs against the wall stuff, if we've ever needed a MM masterplan i reckon its this week. Seriously depleted down back but it wont matter if the pressure from the mids can stop the supply. H shaw and maxy will be the keys, if they can get off their opponents to double or triple team Hall we will be a big show. The best mid for them has been Nick Malceski, he has been providing plenty of dash of half back so we must stop him. If he plays back we must take him to the goal sqr and stop his run. If Rocca can lift and overcome last weeks effort we will be a real show. I still reckon leo barry struggles one on one. Lets get it in long and strong and let Rocca either bring it to ground for the small forwards or have a big one himself.

We are more than likely going to be on top in the mids and our forwards, If the backs do a similar job like last week. (90 points) It's up to our forwards to lift and kick a winning score.

This will show us where we are.. a great barometer game, its not a danger game because we are not expected to win.

Come on pies, take a risk, have a bounce, run these old men of Sydney off their feet.

In: Cox(r shaw), Licca, Lones
Out: Tooves, Obrein (inj), Stanley

[Heater_39]

In: Cox(r shaw), Licca, Lones
Out: Tooves, Obrein (inj), Stanley

Couldn't agree more with those ins!

That would leave us with a backline of

H.Shaw, Maxwell, Lonie,
Lockyer, Wakelin, Cox,

Not the best I know, but not a bad quick fix

[collingwoodjoe]

My team;

Maxwell Cox Goldsack
Cook Wakelin Heath

Lockyer Swan Johnson

Pendles Cloke Didak
Davis Rocca Stanley

Fraser Burns Holland

O'Bree
Richards
Licuria
Thomas

EMG:
Clarke
Lonie
Nicholls

OUT:
Medhurst
O'Brien
Bryan
Toovey

IN:
Licuria
Richards
Cox
Cook

[David]

I'd kind of like to keep Stanners in the side for a week, I reckon he will have learnt a lot from the Melbourne game, and he brings a good attitude to the team, from what I saw last week.

Cox has to come in, probably for Tooves. If Cook's the young guy playing (as most people are suggesting), I guess he'll come in for Harry.
Not so sure which one to pick out of Bryan and Richards. They both bring different things to the team, but I guess Bryan was poor last week, and Richards is in good form, so he should get a run.
Which leaves Licca and Lonie. I doubt both will come in, with 3 changes already likely, and it's hard to know who you'd drop for either, really. Maybe O'Bree? (he wasn't great last week)

In which case, we'd have:
In: Cox, Cook, Richards, Licuria
Out: Toovey, O'Brien, Bryan, O'Bree

[Culprit]

We have nothing to lose as the Swans are expected to win. Forget the negative tactics go all out assualt as we can out score them. Their negative football tactics will work to our advantage.

[Tannin]

This is set to be a clash betwen a rock and a hard place.

Sydney excel at creating stoppages, slowing the game down, keeping the ball in dispute and low to the ground.

Collingwood excel at applying pressure when the ball is in dispute, at withstanding pressure with run, with quick hands, and by backing up your mates - i.e., at exactly the sort of situation that Sydney tries to create for the 95% of each game when they (Sydney) are not playing attacking football.

It's a classic clash of well-matched strengths. With a full-strength Collingwood, most would back us to win. But a great deal of our pressure football comes from our backmen: Clement, the Shaw brothers, Presti, and co. The mids help, but it's the pressure around half-back and full-back that crushes our opponents.

This is where the game will be won and lost, on our half-back line. Cox, Goldsack, and Heater need to rise to the challenge of mantaining our backline run and pressure. Wakes has to use all his guile, and our mids have to keep on dropping back to help out.

If the Swans start bombing the ball in long and fast to their key fowards, and if Wakes and Maxy do not win the first few contests, we are in huge trouble. Hall is out of form, but he is getting the ball OK. If he gets more than a sniff early on, he will gain in confidence and have a big impact for the rest of the day. Wakes and Maxy (if Nick plays a key backman's role) must go all out to stop the bigger Swans marking inside 50.

More than ever, it is vital for our mids to keep pressure on in the centre and reduce the quality of the Sydney mids' delivery.

Once we show Sydney that they can't mark and goal at will against our depleted backline, then the Swans will revert to type and play their stop-start negative, ground-ball game. And if that happens, then we have every chance to show them who wants the pill more.

Go Pies!!!

[Sammys Hot Pies]

What he said!

Prety much spot on, its going to take a hard, team game this week, rucks and mids will need to drop back and help out defence, and then we'll have to try and hurt them opn the rebound. would it be worth dropping a loose man in defence for the entire game? If so who? Maxwell? Heater?

[Tannin]

You'd think Heater will cop a tagger, Sammy. Most teams seem to be doing that now. If we can spare Maxy from a key defensive role (and I don't really think he's up to CHB/FB, so I hope we can) then he is the perfect floater across half back: mobile, decent kick, superb delivery by hand, tall enough to be an excellent third man up, and most of all, Maxy "gets it" when it comes to hard, running pressure when the ball is hot.

But we have to find a CHB to free him up for that. Tough night at the selection table, methinks!

[HAL]

Let us change the subject. By the way, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?

[sourav04]

I really cannot see how we are going to win any of the next 4 games with our key 3 defenders out. It's not as if it is one midfielder, one forward and one backman it is 3 KEY BACKMEN!!!.

I think the quicker everyone on here accepts this fact the better. There is no point jumping up and down after the next 4 weeks when we have lost our next 4 saying the coach needs to be sacked, players need to be dropped, wrong decisions were made etc etc etc. Accept the fact now, to cover 3 tall defenders is near on impossible.

I know Mick is crabbing on about how excited he is and so on. Well, what is he supposed to say, we are screwed this year coz our 3 best defenders are out!! He is not exactly going to say that. I do not want to get too down in the next few weeks so I am expecting the losses and waiting for the troops to be back and hopefully we can still challenge for a top 4.

[Usurper]

Match defenders as best as we can. Have Maxy and Heater roaming the defence, filling gaps as they do so well, and our midfield is going to have to run itself ragged. Any passengers on the team will be pretty quickly revealed.

Stanley deserves more games, he did a decent job. Along with Tooves, hopefully Cox, Wakelin, Heater and Maxy, and some hard work, we can contain them, but accept that they will get through at times, so our forwards need to kick straight.

We do well as the underdogs.

[Arges Tuft]

[quote="Tanks1966"]
Maybe bring in M.Clarke 182cm to combat Davis 184cm