Injuries,Club suspensions and we still beat Carlton

[The Old Dark Navy's]

With injuries to top plyers like Buckley,Clement and Medhurst.Also we had in-form Davis missing through club suspension..................and we still beat the blues

The players you suspended were probably on the fringes anyway with Didak, Holland and maybe Wakelin looking to come back in. The first two are walk up starts so the decision was made easier by the suspensions. Also, don't underestimate the fact that our best defender (Thornton) and best midfielder (Stevens) were not there.

Two sides to every story.

 

[Lensen]

Honestly? I saw a Premiership team out there today.

I looked all across the ground, I looked at the players doing their plays from one another, every single one, having their own thing to offer the team, not one bad player out there, and yet so many more to come in.

Everyones talking about the next few years bla bla bla, but look at this current crop, we have such an exciting group RIGHT NOW, we have a perfect mix RIGHT NOW that is doing so well, all 22 players have their own positives to offer that is making us become unbeatable, and if we are beaten, we are going down with a massive fight.

We are in the Premiership mix and if you dont believe so, then you are blind.

Collingwood of '07 has a touch of Collingwood '90.
We aren't the best in the AFL, neither were they, yet we are capable of derailing any team in the AFL.

Watch, wait and see, the Magpie will rise for everyone else in the competition to see.

Mate I hope you're right but don't underestimate the toll on young teams that the long season has. How many times over the years have we seen not only Collingwood, but other young teams - St Kilda, Richmond, Hawthorn etc - win 8-10 of their first 12 and then fade to just scrape into the 8? I wholeheartedly agree that the signs are good but whether the likes of O'Brien, Thomas, Pendles, H.Shaw, Cloke etc can back it up for the entire year is still questionable.

I guess we do have the positive of blokes to come in if the strain of the year starts to take it's toll. Whether they can do the same or similar job is also arguable but hey, not knowing what's going to happen is half the fun of footy!

Don't forget we're a serious injury to Rocca away from a scarily inefficient forward line. If Cloke or Fraser suddenly attract the #1 defender we'd better have some contingency plan in place.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

The players you suspended were probably on the fringes anyway with Didak, Holland and maybe Wakelin looking to come back in. The first two are walk up starts so the decision was made easier by the suspensions. Also, don't underestimate the fact that our best defender (Thornton) and best midfielder (Stevens) were not there.

Two sides to every story.

Buckley/Rusling/Clement > Stevens/Thornton

Save the excuses.

 

[PieLebo87]

Mate I hope you're right but don't underestimate the toll on young teams that the long season has. How many times over the years have we seen not only Collingwood, but other young teams - St Kilda, Richmond, Hawthorn etc - win 8-10 of their first 12 and then fade to just scrape into the 8? I wholeheartedly agree that the signs are good but whether the likes of O'Brien, Thomas, Pendles, H.Shaw, Cloke etc can back it up for the entire year is still questionable.

I guess we do have the positive of blokes to come in if the strain of the year starts to take it's toll. Whether they can do the same or similar job is also arguable but hey, not knowing what's going to happen is half the fun of footy!

Don't forget we're a serious injury to Rocca away from a scarily inefficient forward line. If Cloke or Fraser suddenly attract the #1 defender we'd better have some contingency plan in place.

I disagree.
The likes of O'Brien, Thomas, Pendles, H Shaw and Cloke showed last year that they aren't the younger group anymore that will be inconsistent, they've actually shown the opposite, a mature bunch that can be relied upon for consistency.

When you said long season having a toll on young teams, I thought you were talking about the likes of Cox, Toovey, Dick, Nicholls, Illes ect. I agree with that, theres no chance, other then a fluke, that they'd offer us something for more then 15 games this season, or even maybe next season. But thats why MM is playing it smart. He said it after ANZAC day, that there are so many youngsters that are knocking on the door of senior selection.
Dick, Toovey, Cox ect are great, they are going to be really good. But they wont last more then 4-5 more weeks. THATS when MM brings in the 2nd batch of youngsters, we still have Goldsack (almost 20), Sharrod, Reid, Brown, Cook ect. that are trying to get a few senior games and whos to say whether 3-4 of them wont stand up and play the last 6-7 games of the year like the Tooveys, Coxs ect have in the first few. Keep in mind, when these other young players come in, the top 5-6 will be close to set, some clubs' seasons will be over, more season ending injuries to big league players, so Collingwood will have fresh youngsters coming in, and doing well against some depleted, or tired teams.

As for the Rocca comment, thats 100% correct. He gets injuried, our season is over. NOT because the load will be on Cloke/Fraser but because Rocca is our barometer, when he fires for 5-10 minutes, it becomes a Collingwood game. We need Dawes or Cloke (maybe even Brown) to take that responsibility within the next 2-3 years.

 

[Bay Pie]

Injuries and Suspensions can be a blessing in disguise.

We are still winning, next few weeks will be tough without Jimmy though.

The thing is, Jimmy, Dids, Brodie and hopefully Bucks will all be much fresher towards the end of the year then players that play the whole year.

 

[Frederlick]

Fanatstically awesome, absolutely wonderfulto rub it into my mate at 3 quater time, after he told me big red Lance had beaten Rocca everywhere.

Lance was useless and the Fox commentators still tried to talk him up! He personifies what is wrong with Carlton, unfit, doesn't deliver and walks in to the team on poor performances. Pagan would dearly love to drop him I reckon.