And making such a sweeping comment THREE rounds into the season ... and when one player has only played ONE HALF of footy for his new club ...

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I just want my old club back ... (edit) maybe I have!

Sorry my slip up.

In some ways I thought the game was decided by a team with a defensive unit that had been together for the best part of three years, and one that had been together for three minutes. Those Collingwood defenders know each other's games inside out. Our guys don't.

I thought Duigan's game was ordinary, but the coaches should consider sticking with him because he clearly doesn't know and understand his team mates yet. A few more weeks to gel will be indicative of whether he can make it or not.

As for Collins, when he came on he was clearly overawed. I hope he gets another shot, because I thought his last quarter was pretty good.

That brings me to a final point. I'm not sure our MC has yet given sufficient thought to who should be the sub. To my mind, they've picked the 22nd player as sub every week. I think it is worthwhile taking a different approach. What we should look at is an impact player in the position. The problem with having the last player picked as the sub is they look like they take longer to work into the game when they come in. This can disrupt the whole team. What might be better is to have the sub as someone who can really hit the ground running. Jordan Lewis when he was sub for Hawthorn was a great example - he was immediately able to influence the side. I think the last picked player should start on the ground and then we look at removing him for the substitue.

apparently Collingwood were below par last night, hence the reason we lost by only 5 goals. no mention of what level we were at, but assume we were at maximum capacity. This Collingwood lovefest is doing my head in!!

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i don't wanna spend my life explaining myself. Either you get it, or you don't- Frank Zappa

I think people have to realise our team is STILL DEVELOPING!
We have a whole new back line, 2 or 3 other new players and (other than Juddy) the guys that will get us our next premiership are 21-23. When they are 23-25 we will be ready and Juddy will still be 29 which is ok.

A lot of posters want to drop younger guys that are making some errors, but give them time this year even if it means finishing 5-6 instead of 3-4 this year. It will pay dividends in 2012 and 2013 which will be the start of 3-4 big years for us

So.....

*Put more time into Hammer, his upside is huge. If Krueze can get a flexible role developed for him in the team, our 3 big ruckmen can all play.
*Play Watson - so he and Jammo become our Key defensive backs in the future - with chop outs from Bower
*Get Hendo back in and build forward line around him.
*Let Gibbs play attacking posession winning games
*Give Collins time - he has poise and time
*After a couple of BOG's in the ressies get Lucas back in (he played well today)
*Thornton and Cararazzo are doing OK filling gaps now but if young guys play well in ressies (White/Ellard etc) then play them
*Our game plan is modern and is starting to become visible - haven't seen one for 2 years. Stick with it and play it at Bullants.
*Be patient and keep educating.... The Collingwood side that played Friday night has had their current structure for 2 years and their current personnel and positions for 12 months. The team we see now will not even be the team we play in 2 months!

That's the Vibe

DD

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It's the vibe.........Tell him he's dreamin' Darryl!

Great post DD.

People are @#$%&! stupid sometimes.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Great post DD x2


S*&t I agree with GWS.......... that is flowered up

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" -Winston Churchill

L.M 35-06

I totally agree with your post. But if you look back at my posts on the last page and before you'll see I think there's some issue with our midfield. Sure our midfield dominated Richmond and the Suns. But how did we measure up against Collingwood? Pretty bad. If you watch the game and concentrate on how many times Collingwood won the clearance from a stoppage, you'll be amazed.

I agree with you DD and you make a good point too Skadoosh.

I'd like to say that the criticism of Collins by many posters is over the top. He mucked up a few times, was clearly nervous in his first game for a new club in front of 88k. But in the last quarter he started to move and play with the ability I'm pretty sure he's got in him. Let's give him a few more weeks before making any rash judgements.

And I can't fathom why some people thought Scotland was poor last night?

Don't make it personal. It reflects a diminished cognitive capacity on your behalf

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

Guys

i for one are very proud of the team . didnt read all the posts. just page 9. i was at the game last night and the pies supporters and pies in general give me the shits. they are ugly and have a vocab of a 2 year old.

what i took from the game-

- watson is 18 let him develop. he will make mistakes . He is 18! and played his 2nd game!
- Laidler, Collins, Duigan - played 1st-3rd game for the club.
- We had 3 KPP players missing plus 4 new players !
- the party pies from what i saw were full strength and still on a high from last years premiership win.
- we made a few mistakes and so did the umpires.
- scoreline flattered the pies

Preferred a win like all of us but not entirely disappointed.

Now for the bumbers.

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Alexander the Great was born in Greece!

i like what ya say here, perhaps a simpson to be sub next week? can come on in 3rd and have a real impact

Which is effectively what he just said...

Perhaps It's not just about personnel, perhaps it's about the structure they are playing to.
We were beaten by the basics on Friday night.
Our set ups at the defensive stoppages were terrible. We didn't push back to assist and we allowed our defenders to go one on one which resulted in 7 goals 2 from defensive stoppages!

When you're beaten by less than 5 goals, that's nowhere near good enough. Yes we can bring in Lucas or Hendo or Wayne Carey. If they're not playing with smarts or adequate instruction, you're swimming uphill anyway.

Collingwoods set plays smashed ours. Jarryd Blair (2nd year rookie) didn't seem to have too many problems understanding their structures. Nor did Krakouer (first year player). Yet our players need a few years. I'd suggest we assess what and how the players are being taught instead of the time its taking them to grasp it.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

you can have all the structure in the world but when you have dumb footballers giving away dumb free kicks and 50 metre penalties inside your forward 50 you are going to struggle - I lost count of the number of stupid frees we gifted them 20-30 metres in front of our own goal- releasing the pressure - It was stupid stuff

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Of course it's personal.

I'd argue it relects a heightened capacity to appreciate the game. Why reduce everything to cold analysis?

Football's an emotional pursuit if you're genuinely involved in it. To reduce your response to the purely intellectual reduces your appreciation and involvement it.

Get emotional and realize that people are @#$%&! stupid sometimes.

You've never met a Collingwood supporter?

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

seriously who gives a shit what the clowns in the media and on talkback are saying, we showed enough Friday night for us to think we are a serious side.
It is only round 3 and we were nowhere near top strength.

I think other clubs will be taking us seriously and that is the only opinion that matters

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We are the maybe blues

In hindsight our team for rd3 arguably tried to have too many HF options - Collins, Walker, Thornton etc - without having any very very good one ie Henderson. Our marking ability promises to be a strength through the year but Walker couldnt find space on the lead, leading to ridiculous marking attempts, to try to get in to the game. Rather than rotate more & more players through there I think we were caught short for small defender options with Duigan a liability on the night (nice intro to AFL) and Yarran being pretty good. Having an Armfield (noting he apparently is playing midfield not deep in defence) or Joseph in the 22 could have allowed a bit more flexibility with Yarran (say) or hopefully at least have prevented a few of the 7 goals ceded to their smalls. I think our bench flexibility wasnt right on the night although I understand why Ratten would want to play to his strengths.

Rather than have some occasional upside here Id have preferred Henderson (again in hindsight) as against the great defences we'll need two clear marking targets so we can work the ball better. Recognise this creates a problem for how we play our ruckmen though - not sure WAite, Henderson and resting ruck can play in the one forward line?

Agree with your thinking on the sub Molly - it needs to be someone capable of coming on late (or early) and being ready immediately. Must be a very tough role. Coaches and players will get better at it.

Anyone remember Fraser Murphy?

Good effort by the Blues on Friday, we're getting there. We tried our guts out but they're just ahead of us still at this stage, it's simple. They had more composure, more experience playing that game style, and just more class across the field when it came down to it. But not much more. It's a margin we can bridge, and this year if everything goes well. I was so happy to see us collectively actually knowing what we were doing to try and beat them though. Marked difference from last year when we clearly had no idea!

Couple of negatives:

- Duigan should not have played on what he showed in Rd1 and 2.
- Walker is a great disappointment. Full stop.
- We need to find a way of using Betts smarter when things aren't going his way. He definitely struggles when it heats up in big matches....not a good trait. Maybe the wing? A run on the ball?

But a lot more positives than negatives.

I'd love to see Kreuzer play mainly at CHB when he comes back.

I'm going to have the guts to disagree with you here....and I am probably wrong but this is what I think anyway.

You talk about Jarryd Blair and Krakourer knowing their structures and somehow comparing it to our group....

I think had our backline been together for 12 months solid and we just threw in Watson he would probably know the structures too but our backline has 4 new additions who have played together for a preseason and a couple of games. If it's that easy to just 'know your structures' then any coach with a clue could put together a whole new bunch of guys in the off season and then win a premiership within 12 months.

We need time because our team keeps looking different from year to year.....it's about getting it right I think and then we should notice a large group of players should be interchangeable within this structure...but not yet for many reasons I suppose....we just don't have a core 22 who have had 12 months or more of solid footy together....but we are getting closer.

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The problem will be made. for the solution to be sold, to your face before your eyes, tolerance is now the new danger