Anyone think we can actually win next week?

[Jabso]

This wasn't the flag that got away, we never had it, regardless of what the media knobs say about it.

Yeah agreed. I mean we were only a goal up 3 quarter time, Saints had momentum. That is hardly a lead you can rest your laurels on.

Against Brisbane, now that is a game that got away.

If it got away from anyone it was St. Kilda. They were up with about 8 mins to go. They decided to hold on to the ball for the rest of the game. It didn't work (as it rarely does anymore) and we were able to get a goal through Clokey.

As for Clokey's misses, I'm more disappointed with Dawesy. He had 3 shots that were just on his range. He is a good kick and usually learns from previous misses from similar spots. He should have done better or looked for a pass or kick it to the hotspot EARLY.

 

[Rohan25]

I'm still pretty confident we'll conjure up a win. I think Goldsack deserves a run though. We will need to be absolutely manic this time, even more so than the first time, and Goldsack will prove useful here.

 

[Copeland]

Well fk me!

About all I can add...lol!

Its ok mate we understand you can't add much, in fact we're used to it.

 

[Privateye]

Its ok mate we understand you can't add much, in fact we're used to it.

Some observations:

Special - Riewoldt, Goddard (match winner), Hayes (match winner) and to a lesser extent, Fisher (match saver).

Hopefully Gram and Dal Santo can't play any better this Saturday - due to being sore.

Riewoldt was well held by Brown.
Both Goddard and Hayes are so good because they have huge tanks and a great will to win. Come the second half this Saturday, potentially a similar story will unfold - we need them to be shadowed in the 2nd half. Check Q4 last Saturday and you will see how we made it too easy for them, esp seeing we had the ruck advantage. We can still have rotations but part of the rotation can be a defensive role on Hayes especially - this hopefully brings a great player back to good, as was done to Swan.

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

While there were some crucial shots missed, I think a reasonable chunk of those points would have been rushed. True, St Kilda was very lucky that the Pies didn't really make the most of their early dominance, but in the end 7 of your points were rushed behinds, ending with 9.7 from Collingwood kicks. Some gettable shots were missed and some impossible goals were scored from Thomas and Didak. By the same token, St Kilda squandered opportunities in the last quarter and some bad turnovers lead to easy Collingwood goals. Both teams had opportunities to put the game away but the other just kept fighting back.

Yep fair summation of the game IMO. Most talking about Collingwood squandering the GF and the media and the rest of the non thinking football world will forever report it as being the one that got away for the Pies. I think we both share the honors there. Somehow the Saints have come out of it looking like the Premiers and the Pies the also-rans. I don't buy the Psychological edge sh!t either. The Muppets on SEN were agreeing with any tool phone caller who mentioned that the Saints would have the mental edge over the Pies.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Personally, I'm over trying to be positive when the side gave me no reason to be so after what I saw on Saturday.

Our history in Grand Finals reared it's ugly head once again.

Yes, the advantages SHOULD lie with us. We definitely dodged a bullet. While our zoning game was there, as 62 i50s to 35 would indicate. That swarming game we've seen the last 2 weeks wasn't. That constant harassment and intensity wasn't there, and for the last month or more I've been saying our intensity has to be up for us to win.

If our intensity is that low again, and we continue to kick like that, St.Kilda has this in the bag. If Davis and/or Lockyer play, then it will be a HUGE margin that the Saints whoop us by.

I'd like to think we can win, but I doubt it. My only hope is how confident my dad is. He's normally more negative than me, and before Saturday was warning me and the rest of our group not to get too cocky because he's seen us lose too many GFs when we were favourites. He was right. But RIGHT AFTER the draw happened, he declared we'd smash them next week.

His confidence gives me confidence, but not that much. I don't see how these players can get themselves up. St.Kilda seem to have very strong mental fortitude.

 

[Zahki]

Every day must be an emotional rollercoaster ride for you Shepshal Ed. I can imagine it now you buy yourself an icecream and it's the happiest day of your life, then someone bumps into you and you spill it and you start thinking about suicide. But as you stare down at your spilled ice cream you spy a dropped $2 coin, happy day, could this be the greatest day of your life? You start to skip a little with the joy of it all and step in some dog shit, and as you break down into tears you wonder why you even bother going on living.

Maybe you have manic depressive disorder or something, hell I dunno.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Every day must be an emotional rollercoaster ride for you Shepshal Ed. I can imagine it now you buy yourself an icecream and it's the happiest day of your life, then someone bumps into you and you spill it and you start thinking about suicide. But as you stare down at your spilled ice cream you spy a dropped $2 coin, happy day, could this be the greatest day of your life? You start to skip a little with the joy of it all and step in some dog shit, and as you break down into tears you wonder why you even bother going on living.

Maybe you have manic depressive disorder or something, hell I dunno.

Not sure what you want me to say to that.

I promised I'd be positive up until GF day, and I feel compared to my norm, I was. I even got involved on the main board as a more traditional 'Collingwood flog'. But I also warned that if we didn't win, I'd go back to normal.

So here I am.

 

[Zahki]

Not sure what you want me to say to that.

I promised I'd be positive up until GF day, and I feel compared to my norm, I was. I even got involved on the main board as a more traditional 'Collingwood flog'. But I also warned that if we didn't win, I'd go back to normal.

So here I am.

Yeah but it's been a fantastic season already. 19 wins, 4 losses, 2 draws, we finished top of the ladder, steamrolled Essendon and Carlton both twice, absolutely embarrassed them, flogged the Dogs, flogged Geelong and got revenge for our prelim losses to them, we've watched Dale Thomas become a star, Blair come into the side and really shine, Reid play ripper games. It's been a hell of a ride and you don't seem you've enjoyed it one bit because you're too busy trying to shield yourself from disappointment.

Don't fret so much about the end result man, enjoy the ride. We've been the best side all year, we played in the best Grand Final of the decade and we're still in with a shot to win the flag!

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Yeah but it's been a fantastic season already. 19 wins, 4 losses, 2 draws, we finished top of the ladder, steamrolled Essendon and Carlton both twice, absolutely embarrassed them, flogged the Dogs, flogged Geelong and got revenge for our prelim losses to them, we've watched Dale Thomas become a star, Blair come into the side and really shine, Reid play ripper games. It's been a hell of a ride and you don't seem you've enjoyed it one bit because you're too busy trying to shield yourself from disappointment.

Don't fret so much about the end result man, enjoy the ride. We've been the best side all year, we played in the best Grand Final of the decade and we're still in with a shot to win the flag!

If we win next week, it will probably be sweeter than if we had won on Saturday. But come now, if we lose, our 'great season' will have been for naught, because at the end of the day, we'll have lost our 26th grand final, and if you're content with that, awesome. I'm not.

 

[AsianWithAFro]

simple... kick over 10 goals and we win

Once it goes over that the Pies have a good chance to win

 

[daics_35]

I think we need another deffender and Goldsack would be perfict against Stkilda. He played against them last time when we beat em and he played well. He could be a lose man in deffence and we need another player like that becuase everytime they went forward they looked much more dangeriouis then us. If they wanna have an 18 man deffence we will as well and we will beat them at their own game just like round 16.

 

[Kirby]

I'm finding it really hard to be positive about next week.

I was really pretty confident before Saturday and we saw what happened.

Next week's game will be won by whatever team copes mentally and emotionally with what happened.

 

[adamov13]

Would it be worth giving Goldsack a run with roll on Goddard? Seems he would match up pretty well with him plus he would be fresh.

 

[Kirby]

I think we have to play some fresh players next week.

Serious thought needs to go in to Goldsack, Lockyer, Medders and maybe Presti.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Goldsack has to come in regardless. He goes in hard, and he's the perfect match up for Goddard.

I also think Medhurst should come in. If Lockyer comes in, it's borderline WORSE than having Leon in.

 

[SpongePie]

Davis out and Goldsack in to play on Goddard.
Blair out and Medhurst in. Though I wouldnt have a problem if it was Lockyer in. He might not be fast, but he can kick, and I trust him with set shots.

 

[jerry springer]

1. Leon out, Goldsack in
2. Win the stoppages
3. Kick straight
4. ???
5. Profit

quoted for lols and the truth

 

[4#Didak#4]

Davis out and Goldsack in to play on Goddard.
Blair out and Medhurst in. Though I wouldnt have a problem if it was Lockyer in. He might not be fast, but he can kick, and I trust him with set shots.

Blair out? Apart from hitting the post he had a real crack & was a problem for them.

 

[danielnajdek]

Thought Blair had kicked that goal. I started celebrating

 

[daics_35]

Goldsack on Goddard is the perfict match up. Goldsack is under rated I think. Since he came into the site he hasnt put a foot wrong except for the round 21 match against the Crows but the whole team play shit that game. He played ok against the Cats and played really well against the Saints. Blair has to play ahead of Medhurst. Medhurst has played like 1 game in three months and we all saw he wasnt AFL standard macth fit. bringing him in for a Grand Final is a massive risk and it wont happen. I think there will be just one change assuming no one gets suspended. I feel for Presti though.

 

[4#Didak#4]

My initial reaction after the game was that we were screwed & couldnt win next week. The fog of grog is now wearing off and the scars of Saturday starting to heal.

I am a little bit more confident now and am thinking its a 50/50 proposition. Its all in the head. The side that can mentally get over whats happened better will win.

It will be a fascinating game as both sides have seen what cards the other has. There will be thing that need to be changed but this will just make things more even! St Kilda will got to all lengths to ensure we don't start quick again. The Pies will make sure we don't squander possessions in our forward 50 and be prepared for them coming hard in the second half. Goddard & Thomas will be stopped, but others will pop up.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Wouldn't drop Blair.

a) He went in hard
b) He DID kick a goal earlier
c) Thomas should have taken that kick anyway
d) He's better than Davis and Lockyer

 

[Normy132]

The only query I have over Goldsack is that he doesn't have the GF experience that the rest of the playing squad now has. Playing him on Goddard would be a risky proposition even though he's a perfect match because Goddard knows how to play Grand Finals. Goldsack doesn't.

Having said that, he should come in for Davis and play. His output will surely be more than what Davis produced.

I thought about bringing Fraser in for Dawes but then thought better of it. Dawes is a better defensive player and monstered whoever he played on in one-on-one marking constests. The only thing Fraser would offer is straighter kicking. While we need that, the opportunity cost of replacing Dawes isn't that great.

 

[Yidaki]

The only query I have over Goldsack is that he doesn't have the GF experience that the rest of the playing squad now has. .

Still believe we need a few fresh legs into the side even if that means sacrificing GF experience.