Casual obs.

Collingwood is a foreign country that should only be visited when you can usurp and overthrow it.

Harry O.looks like he's in steroids.

Betts appears to go missing in big games..but I'd need to see some stats.
(cue ratts )

We don't take enough contested marks right now.

Felt for Laidler and Watson..trial by fire..but well done.

Can't believe if you were there, that you'd still think it's more important to beat Dons.
Oppressive dictators need to be exiled.

Ungracious winners should also be exiled.
Was greeted with 'No passengers...HA HA HA' on the way out.

If we play with that intensity, we will beat Essendon*, and any other team.
Not kidding. We are really good, but they are better right now.

With special field operators O' Hailpin, Kreuz, Houla and Hendo, we will beat them round 17. No doubt at all. We have a few holes to fix, but we can.

Hats off to Edward Curnow....and Jeffy...and Jammo.

Not kidding,
We will smash Dons..don't bother fretting about it.

_________________
That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

Obviously I'm disappointed however there are some positives.
We were right in it up to half way through the 3rd qtr and there is potentially a lot of improvement to come. The likes of Kreuzer, Henderson, Bower, McLean and Lucas will all come in to the side in the coming weeks.

_________________
There is no footy god

agree.

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That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

It's Simple,,,,,,,,,,,,,

We weren't flower good enough,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Loosing to the filth is one thing, but to lose to the Scum the following week,,,,,,,,,,,is UNACCEPTABLE !!!

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BRING BACK PERFORMANCE BASE PAYMENTS !!!

Waite has huge talent, but he doesn't run near hard enough or often enough to make the most of that and at his age things probably won't change. To be the genuine star he could be and we need he needs to watch Nick Reiwoldt and see his work rate. If Jarrad could get anywhere near that we would be a 4 goal better side. He is great at the cameo and the fade and the touch of brilliance, but we need him to be an ption every time we go forward and if he is not used he is making position for the next kick and dragging his oppenent miles away and then back again, and then to the contest etc etc.

Also on another matter has anyone ever seen Gibbs break into a sprint, he always seems to be jogging.

^

_________________
WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

removed link cos it ain't working.

_________________
That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act,” she said. “He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.”

I thought it was a fair article too but again the old "Collingwood didn't get out of second gear they weren't trying blah blah" bullshit The_Cranium has already mentioned (admittedly from the peanut gallery Hun commentators) is ridiculous.

Collingwood were playing arch rival Carlton. On the night they unveiled their premiership flag. In front of 88,000 people. There's no way they were just going through the motions on a night like that.

I'm @#$%&! tired of the lack of respect we get.
If we'd gotten flogged, we'd be laughed out of town.
If we'd won, it would be written off as a fluke.
We lost by a reasonable margin compared to some of the floggings we got last year, had probably one of the most inexperienced backlines in the AFL, and we're still getting very little credit.



The call against Gibbs was the worst!!!!

Put a fully-fit Henderson, Kreuzer, and Bower into our line-up, and we might beat them next time. Robbo hits the nail on the head - Collingwood aren't invincible, in fact last night says they can be beaten. I'm just not sure they can be beaten by the teams thought to be 'top four material'. They'll flog the Bulldogs, and the Saints. Of late they've had Geelong's measure, but I think Hawthorn (who've had the wood on them a bit in recent years) will put an end to Collingwood's run.

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Premierships: 1869, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1887, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1914, 1915, 1938, 1945, 1947, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1995.

"GIBBS."

Essendon* would've been brave and would've won a lot of admirers

_________________
WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

EXACTLY

The headline would be "Courageous Young Dons Test Red Hot Pies"

i was quite happy with our performance and hear me out....we played the best team in the comp by a mile at the moment and felt we had some dubious decisions against us, players missing, and how we let them kick cheap goals and we didnt convert our cheapies.......and we only lost by 5 goals, i take that as a positive.

add kruezer, hendo and bower i think we are a 3-4 goal better team
as some one said previously waite needs to run his opponent into the ground riewoldt style
i got laughed at after round 1 for saying this like im a lunatic and i still stand by it walker and hampson are shit, add carrazzo to that list now.
betts is lazy and goes missing in big games
ratts needs to play gibbs as an offensive player ffs not defensive
i would rather play armfield, lucas...atleast they break the lines

loved yarran in the backline, watson made me shit myself everytime he went near the ball, so slow to react, copped a bath but learned alot last night , will be a good player
judd, simpson, robo, curnow, jamieson and garlett played well

depending on how they play this week i would bring in hendo...bower...armfield....lucas for thornton..carazzo...betts...duigan

I've read every post.
Interesting spread.

One of the things that stood out for me has been raised and it concerns clearances. On lots of occasions, out rucks would get a clear hitout and it would go straight down the throat of a Collingwood player running through the contest. They scored a couple of goals from this and numerous clearances from the middle after goals. Forgive me for not going back and giving credit to the original poster but Jimmae also commented on this. I'd like to take it a bit further. In the first quarter our rucks actually hit the ball forward into the half forward line and were able to make space. It didn't happen again for the rest of the game. And I have ranted about this for years. There is NO point winning a hitout and putting it at your own feet. The rucks of old, much shorter and less athletic though they were, knew how to palm the footy to their own advantage and clear the packs. (Yes, I know the packs were smaller). Jamar did it well last year and occasionally we see it from our boys but not consistently. Clearances from stoppages are too important to not rectify this weakness. Our clearances seem to rely on a short hitout followed by a quick handball to a runner near the contest. It's great when it works but horrible when it doesn't.

I wasn't expecting a win last night but was filthy we lost in the end after having a reasonable crack at them for most of the game.

One final point. I said to Blue Beatle at half time that Ratts wouldn't make any changes to the structure like putting Betts on the ball to get him into the game and I was right. We just don't like making game-day decisions. And don't get me started on wasting Gibbs down back. OK he negated a good player but he is wasted in a negating role. We need his skills in the middle running forward of centre.

Now for next week. If we can take that level of intensity to the ground next week and every week we will end up in the top 4. That's what is needed. Plus a bit of luck along the way.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

I have a home game membership, so I turned up an hour before the game hoping to get a standing room general admin ticket. No luck... there were no tickets on sale at all as it was 'completely sold out'. Just thought I'd let everyone know there were thousands and thousands of people unable to get into last nights game. If the MCG/MCC actually filled up all the spare seats there would have been 95k+ at the game not 88k. It's annoying when they say 'we're full' but you know there are still 10k empty seats inside.

General admin "sold out" by about 6pm I heard!

Again in a big game it was left to Judd to carry the side. Murphy, Simpson, Scotland, Carrazzo & Gibbs were all ordinary last night and you cant have that many players down if you want to beat the best team in the comp.

Duigans turnover when we got back to 14 points in the third quarter and resulted in Blair kicking his fourth was the turning point and we were not in the contest after that.

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You heard it here first!

Ratten should have subbed off Duigan last night IMO. Walker should have been moved to HB to give us some extra run and carry in a similar way to when he was playing his best footy early last year. Again Ratten is shown to be not good enough in making postional changes of players that may influence the result of a game.

_________________
You heard it here first!

Austin was terrible too. We should delist him.

_________________
WADA medical director Dr Alan Vernec describes Essendon* FC drug case as biggest scandal in team sport the world of sport has seen. #WC2WB

#GUILTY

Yes, this is exactly my point. You can talk all you want about the forwards and the backs. But aren't we supposed to have an elite midfield?
The Collingwood players always seemed to have the better position and even if they ball wasn't tapped directly to them, they'd still end up with the ball somehow and after a few handballs it'd be in their forward line.

You can see Gibbs always standing at least 5m away from the pack and he's standing still. He's flat-footed, not on the run or anywhere near the ball - just waiting for a handball.
I don't know whether it's got to do with Carlton players not going at the ball hard enough, not being in the right position or both. The midfielders need to remember that although they want to get the ball first and attack and be in space, they still need to be mindful of their opposition player and not leave them all by themselves.

Yes, my Italian dictionary says "Carazzo" is italian for "turnover". His surname is "CaRRazzo" though.

Last time I looked at the list it was "Thornton", too.

Do agree with only losing the one qtr though.