Pies' "judgmental" day

[TRAVCLOKE#32]

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse views the Anzac Day blockbuster against Essendon as a key test for how his players handle big-game pressure.

Malthouse will coach the Magpies for the ninth time tomorrow in an Anzac Day game and he said these matches were almost as important as finals when it came to rating his players.

"It is different - it's a judgmental day, I will certainly be judging players on their capacity to play before a big crowd and the occasion," he said.

"I've always rated finals as a precursor to whether you keep players on your list or not, whether they can hold up, and I don't really see a great deal of difference, quite frankly, in this game.

"Players are expected to hold up on this day."

Collingwood key forward Anthony Rocca did not train today , but Malthouse expects him to play.




The Magpies lost Brodie Holland and Ben Reid with leg injuries, while regaining Nick Maxwell from suspension and recalling Ryan Cook.

Essendon brought back Courtney Johns for Nathan Lovett-Murray.

The Magpies and Bombers will go into the game needing some form, having lost their last two matches for 2-3 records.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23591857-19742,00.html

[daics cousin]

Have been told by a few liitle maggies, a few things that seem to fit into place with all the current form and excuses about why the pies are playing the way they are at the moment.
The little magpie told me he has it on good authority,that Malthouse isn't at all concerned at where we are or will be on the AFL ladder this year.
Malthouse's main priority this year is just to get as much game time into all the young players at pie land,this year.
So we will see debuts from wellingham,cook,barham,mcarthy, and Dawes a liitle later this year.
Apparently so the story goes is that,malthouse has conceeded that Geelong are too good for the rest of the competition at this stage,so his main plan is to keep playing young players as much as possible ,and even rest the senior players to make way for the youngens.
This is typical when one considers the carlton game as an example.
Malthouse knew that Brown was the man to look after fev but ,no he kept changing playing positions just to see if brown can play forward.
He is expermenting and by all accounts will do this for the rest of the year,sacrificing this year to get as many games into the young brigade.Then from next year the assault for premierships will be the main aim .
If we lose to Essendon then i may be persuaded to believe what i have heard.
This is only an opinion and not gospel.

[Godfrey Jones]

^not sure if you're making it up

but if not that is ridicilous and i hope its not true

i mean, im all for playing the youngsters but to conceid defeat because the opposition are too strong at the moment??! wtf is the plan there...to wait till geelong is not as strong in a few years and then pounce??

that is not the collingwood spirit. we excel when we are the underdogs, our history shows that, and if this year is thrown away nilly willy i will be fuming and i expect everyone else to be as well.

lets just hope you're talknig bullshit though

[daics cousin]

Nah not making it up,the little magpie plays golf with a good mate who is uncle to a high profile collingwood player,that's what he was told.

[The Pies Are In Front]

Nah not making it up,the little magpie plays golf with a good mate who is uncle to a high profile collingwood player,that's what he was told.


Q. Obviously Tony Shaw, and what does he talk?


A. SH*T !!

[daics cousin]

He is not conceding defeat.No not all.
Malthouse believes that by playing as many young guns as possible,will give them a lot of valuable experience,and allow the pies more depth to able to challenge for a series of flags.
Look at teams like hawthorn.The current geelong line up was 10 years in the making,didn't come together over night !
Short term pain for long term gain.
Think about it,how much depth do we really have at the moment ?
Are we premiership material right now ?
If the youngens play well, then bonus.

[Godfrey Jones]

lol true

[jimmy35]

Theoretically this may well be the case . Hard to argue though when it's always a gamble to take anything for granted . Teams (Geelong) fall over all the time , and 'you have to be in it to win it' . There's been a few flags won that were unexpected . Chances are too precious to be taking libertys with them .

Regardless of that fact , if it were in Malthouses plans to do what you suggested then I seriously doubt there would be too much spoken about it , even in the inner circle .
Lot's of complications in what you are suggesting .

[popathon]

Nah not making it up,the little magpie plays golf with a good mate who is uncle to a high profile collingwood player,that's what he was told.

It seems a bit far fetched. I mean what if in a year Geelong are no longer the best team in the comp but instead of us taking the mantle it's held by Hawthorn, or Footscray, Adelaide. Anyone but us. Then that's a year wasted. If that's his plan then it may be time to look elsewhere,
I doubt it is though.

[3066]

Nah not making it up,the little magpie plays golf with a good mate who is uncle to a high profile collingwood player,that's what he was told.


sorry but I absolutely can not believe a word of it. We finished in the top 4, missed a GF by 5 points and gained an actual ruckman and you've heard MM wants to waste a year building? WTF?

If MM doesn't get us into the finals this year there will be blood. We are expected to finish top 4 this year - PERIOD!!

[daics cousin]

sorry but I absolutely can not believe a word of it. We finished in the top 4, missed a GF by 5 points and gained an actual ruckman and you've heard MM wants to waste a year building? WTF?

If MM doesn't get us into the finals this year there will be blood. We are expected to finish top 4 this year - PERIOD!!

3066, mate i totally agree with you.But let's look at things in retrospect.
Last year we blooded quite a few youngsters with great results.
Yes they played some great games,and nearly got us to a grand final and also covered for buckely and clement.Both those players played in the finals series,and we had a great balance of leadership,youth and experience.We don't have that this year so far.From a leadership factor,we are missing burns,Josh is good but not a leader like a buckley or a burns.The quicker we can get burns back the better.
Sorry guys,but i more than anyone want to see us win another flag i was very young at 1990.now that i am older i want to experience and celebrate the joy of winning a preimership.I LIKE EVERYONE WANT A PREMIERSHIP NOW !
But hey if i have have to wait another year,well i've waited for 20 what's another year ?
What i have posted is only an opninion not sold truth,it's just hearsay so we'll have a better undersatnding over the next 4 weeks.The next 4 weeks will define this season.

[The Royal Sampler]

Whatever happens, we absolutely must make every effort to see the named 22 win. Tanking is not an option. It's not as if we're going to finish with 4 wins or less anyway, but I don't believe you get anywhere by giving players experience if those games are spent with anything less than 100% dedication and commitment to winning.

[3066]

3066, mate i totally agree with you.But let's look at things in retrospect.
Last year we blooded quite a few youngsters with great results.
Yes they played some great games,and nearly got us to a grand final and also covered for buckely and clement.Both those players played in the finals series,and we had a great balance of leadership,youth and experience.We don't have that this year so far.From a leadership factor,we are missing burns,Josh is good but not a leader like a buckley or a burns.The quicker we can get burns back the better.
Sorry guys,but i more than anyone want to see us win another flag i was very young at 1990.now that i am older i want to experience and celebrate the joy of winning a preimership.I LIKE EVERYONE WANT A PREMIERSHIP NOW !
But hey if i have have to wait another year,well i've waited for 20 what's another year ?
What i have posted is only an opninion not sold truth,it's just hearsay so we'll have a better undersatnding over the next 4 weeks.The next 4 weeks will define this season.

No worries DC. I understand it's an opinion and so is mine.

IMO the reality is we've been playing shit this year it's as simple as that and not a plan in experiments. The carlton game .... well I'll blank that from memory BUT not finishing off games in Brissy and North where we've been in front with 10-15mins to ago is a very big concern. I have faith though. We showed numerous times last year we will never give up. I want to see that spirit back ASAP and if there's any day that can do it, it's tomorrow.

[thatday]

No offence, but if we don't atleast make finals this year I am expecting blood.

[Optimax]

No offence, but if we don't atleast make finals this year I am expecting blood.
i feel the same way, the members will be ready for a baord and coaching panel spill

[Clokey34]

So why was Holland played?

[Godfrey Jones]

So why was Holland played?

lol:thumbsu:

[SIDE BY SIDE]

There is no way in the world MM is giving up on this year. Yes Geelong looks like taking back to back but nothing in this world barring taxes and death are certain.

Just look back at the prelim last year to show anything can happen and any one who thinks MM would go out there from round 4 saying lets throw the year away is full of it.

[Bay Pie]

You only have to have a look at Essendon in 2001.

They lost 1 game al year in 2000 and started 2001 in the same fashion.

They tired towards the end of 2001 and while still making the GF, the Lions were hungrier.

It is very early in the season, many things can change quickly.

Remembers Freos' charge in 2006. It came from nowhere also albeit came up short.

in saying all this, I think blooding young players that have earned their spot is very good for the future.

[Axl the great]

Mick is so right in blooding these young guys and seeing whether they can in fact cut it on the big stage but premierships are built on one thing, a core midfield with players all around the same age (usualy 23 to 28). Our bevy of talls have this as their advantage but not the midfield which is of varying age and not really strong enough to challenge soon unless we do some serious recruiting and or headhunting. The mix isnt quite right yet so a flag could be further away than we think (although i hope not)

[adzarani]

Have been told by a few liitle maggies, a few things that seem to fit into place with all the current form and excuses about why the pies are playing the way they are at the moment.
The little magpie told me he has it on good authority,that Malthouse isn't at all concerned at where we are or will be on the AFL ladder this year.
Malthouse's main priority this year is just to get as much game time into all the young players at pie land,this year.
So we will see debuts from wellingham,cook,barham,mcarthy, and Dawes a liitle later this year.
Apparently so the story goes is that,malthouse has conceeded that Geelong are too good for the rest of the competition at this stage,so his main plan is to keep playing young players as much as possible ,and even rest the senior players to make way for the youngens.
This is typical when one considers the carlton game as an example.
Malthouse knew that Brown was the man to look after fev but ,no he kept changing playing positions just to see if brown can play forward.
He is expermenting and by all accounts will do this for the rest of the year,sacrificing this year to get as many games into the young brigade.Then from next year the assault for premierships will be the main aim .
If we lose to Essendon then i may be persuaded to believe what i have heard.
This is only an opinion and not gospel.


I was hoping for more this season.

But he has done this in the past, 2004 for example.

It's a brilliant strategy, every year he is there he earns close to $1m

I'd be rebuilding again too!


Still the question has to be asked.....How many other current AFL coaches are in their 9th season with their club and haven't delivered a flag?

[Ilch]

^not sure if you're making it up

but if not that is ridicilous and i hope its not true

i mean, im all for playing the youngsters but to conceid defeat because the opposition are too strong at the moment??! wtf is the plan there...to wait till geelong is not as strong in a few years and then pounce??

that is not the collingwood spirit. we excel when we are the underdogs, our history shows that, and if this year is thrown away nilly willy i will be fuming and i expect everyone else to be as well.

lets just hope you're talknig bullshit though

i agree. its what i love about us. 2002 no one gave us a chance and we nearly did it, last year everyone wrote us off, and we were just pipped by the better side of the year.

even if hypotheticaly teams were playing for second place, anything can happen on any given day and if that happens to be beating geelong on the grand final, remembering two teams have to make it to the big day, then it doesnt become a waste of a year!!!!!

[Godfrey Jones]

i agree. its what i love about us. 2002 no one gave us a chance and we nearly did it, last year everyone wrote us off, and we were just pipped by the better side of the year.



yeh and throughout our 100+ years as well, we have been characterised with this spirit. for example the 58 grand final, melbourne going for 4 in a row to equal our record, we were massive underdogs and we did it


in 1990 we won the flag when you can ask anybody we were not even close to being the best side of the year. or so they tell me, im not old enough to remember

[stui magpie]

Lets assume for a seconmd that the concept is correct, but it's reporting is a little skewed and try a variation.

MM doesn't think we are at the right point on his premiership clock to win one, but isn't putting aside the possibility of pinching one.

So, the aim this year is firstly to develop kids but at the same time, to win games. (last year ring any bells?)

It's not about giving up on the season, it's about priorities. Do you pick a team that might have a better chance of winning a particular game or pick a team that still has a good and real chance BUT also develops young players.

Other teams have played players past their use by dates because they were the best chance of winning games now, rather than having one eye on the future and trying to achieve a balance between remaining competitive and blooding kids for the future.

IF that's what his aim is (and it should be) he's doing OK by me