Autopsy 2018 Preliminary Finals: Liked, learnt, hated?

[_Mike_]

What a weekend of finals, as we count down to the last 2 remaining teams battle it out for the honours and bragging rights. What were your thoughts for the autopsy of the round?

Liked: huge crowd on Friday night, great for footy.

Learnt: you’d have to give props to both the Eagles and Pies. I didn’t have either team as serious contenders during the year but both have proved me wrong.

Hated: Whether it was the yips, tiredness or the different climate, I hated Melbourne rolling over without a yelp. I would loved to have seen them bring everything to push the Eagles but they were really disappointing

 

[UAWM]

Liked: Collingwood was damn impressive
Hated: Melbournes effort

 

[Macpotata]

Melbourne applied effort. They just got supremely outplayed and had no answer. If you get obliterated and your opponent is switched on and always a step ahead of you, of course you're going to look s**t and as though you're not trying.

Liked - Collingwood and West Coat's slick ball movement, intensity and pressure. Loved the Crowds too.
Hated - Nothing.

 

[dean33]

Liked- our performance at least not being the worst of the weekend. At least I didn’t have to drive home from Perth.
Learnt- a new reason to hate the USA
Hated- how much time do I have?

 

[PerthBoy86]

Liked - obviously our commanding, demanding performance that went beyond all my expectations. Was expecting a close one but we blew em off the park. A chance to defeat the Pies.
Learnt - we can still bring that form. Jetta made for September. Sheed and Barass huge for us.
Hated - the prospect of losing to Collingwood. Vic media.

 

[Occidental]

Liked. Brayden Sier. This 20 year old is a gun. Ripped the ball out of middle continuously. Great hands and a booming kick. He’s an enormous support to Pendles, Sidey, Treloar & Adams.
Learnt. We really can do it this year. We are good enough.
Hated. Nada.

 

[Kwality]

Liked. Brayden Sier. This 20 year old is a gun. Ripped the ball out of middle continuously. Great hands and a booming kick. He’s an enormous support to Pendles, Sidey, Treloar & Adams.
Learnt. We really can do it this year. We are good enough.
Hated. Nada.

Sier

 

[MagicGnome97]

Liked:
Beating Richmond.
Varcoe redemption arc almost complete (redemption from being on the other side of the 2011 GF).

Learnt:
Richmond were great this season, but definitely cannot be compared to certain juggernauts of the past (at least for now).
Mason Cox, not bad, not bad at all...

Hated:
That West Coast coasted so much against Melbourne, would have liked to have seen Melbourne give them a bit more of a game and rough them up a bit more. We blasted away Richmond but at least Richmond showed fight for periods of the time, even getting the margin back down to 21 points. Melbourne seemed so crap that its hard to tell if West Coast really played that well, I mean, sure they played well, but I was astonished at how poor Melbourne were. I only watched the first half though.

 

[Wojcinski]

Liked:
Beating Richmond.
Varcoe redemption arc almost complete (redemption from being on the other side of the 2011 GF).

Learnt:
Richmond were great this season, but definitely cannot be compared to certain juggernauts of the past (at least for now).
Mason Cox, not bad, not bad at all...

Hated:
That West Coast coasted so much against Melbourne, would have liked to have seen Melbourne give them a bit more of a game and rough them up a bit more. We blasted away Richmond but at least Richmond showed fight for periods of the time, even getting the margin back down to 21 points. Melbourne seemed so crap that its how to tell if West Coast really played that well, I mean, sure they played well, but I was astonished at how poor Melbourne were. I only watched the first half though.

Not sure Varcoe himself is after redemption

 

[AcuteWhistle]

Liked: Tiges being put back in their box.
Learnt: Dees scars run deep.
Hated: Pitiful one sided prelims.

Pre finals bye got to go.

 

[Xtreme]

Liked: Both Richmond and Melbourne got the thrashing both deserved!

 

[Lsta062]

Liked: - Collingwood's performance. They just did not miss many targets and made good use of their inside 50s. That was the most we conceded at the MCG since Round 18 in 2016.
- West Coast's performance. One of the most clinical of performances for the year.

Hated: - Collingwood's performance. Guess who their great performance was against?
- Richmond's performance. How many players had their worst game of the season again? Bad time to have your worst game. Also, our preparation for finals at VFL and AFL level was woeful this year. Both sides finished 1st at the end of the H&A season for no Grand Final appearance and 1-3 finals return.
- Melbourne's performance. Although, they really couldn't do much about it because of how switched on West Coast were.

Learnt: Dominate a team or the season all you want, if you are not prepared enough to back it up in the finals or get ahead of yourself, you'll find yourself on the sidelines when the Grand Final is played. In the season, Melbourne beat West Coast in Perth, Geelong beat Melbourne twice, Richmond beat Collingwood twice, GWS beat Collingwood, Hawthorn beat Melbourne, Sydney beat GWS twice. Yet, all of them lost their finals game. Gotta be prepared to back it up in the finals.

 

[Reg Grundy35]

Liked : 1. the post match silence from the merciless critics of Buckley, Cox, Mayne and others. 2. The eventual realisation that the Pies are the fairytale not Melbourne. 3.our skipper looking after a sick kid and his brother 5 minutes before one of the biggest finals in history
Learned: Buckley is the best coach in the comp now
Hated: not a single thing. Perfect weekend.

 

[Balls In]

Liked - Josh Kennedy making a statement with his 4 goals in the first half and 15 goals from our forwards generally. I think this is the best WCE forwardline weve ever had. Also Big Cox on the end of some beautiful delivery and taking it at perhaps the highest trajectory ever seen in the AFL?

Learned - while Collingwood is the real deal, perhaps Richmonds soft draw and zero injuries made then a tad complacent?

Hated - yet again the higher ranked interstate team stiffed by the AFL with home ground advantage ceded and a day less time to recover for the GF. Against the team it beat in the qualifying final... Its pathetic and everyone knows it.

 

[Scanlens Man]

Liked: Two top 4 teams in the GF
Learned: AFL + USA = WWE
Hated: Modern footy's set-ups that now make it very difficult to catch up after falling 4-5 goals behind as Melbourne and Collingwood did, which lead to 2 boring Prelims (maybe excepting 15-20 minutes where the Tige's had a crack)

 

[Goomba1973]

Liked:
Beating Richmond.
Varcoe redemption arc almost complete (redemption from being on the other side of the 2011 GF).

Learnt:
Richmond were great this season, but definitely cannot be compared to certain juggernauts of the past (at least for now).
Mason Cox, not bad, not bad at all...

Hated:
That West Coast coasted so much against Melbourne, would have liked to have seen Melbourne give them a bit more of a game and rough them up a bit more. We blasted away Richmond but at least Richmond showed fight for periods of the time, even getting the margin back down to 21 points. Melbourne seemed so crap that its how to tell if West Coast really played that well, I mean, sure they played well, but I was astonished at how poor Melbourne were. I only watched the first half though.

I would have to agree with this point mate - "Melbourne seemed so crap that is hard to tell if West Coast played that well". Were they that crap or were West Coast that good? I was thinking the same thing about the Pies first half against the tigers. I don't think either West Coast or Pies supporters were expecting those first halves in the prelims. However the Pies and Eagles both did one thing the Tigers and Demons did not, they brought PROPER finals pressure into the game, and our coaches just had better game plans than their counterparts.

Look forward to GF. I think we will get a nail biter if history of our clubs in finals is anything to go by.

 

[catscratchfever]

Liked: I love Richmond getting carved up almost as much as beating Hawthorn

Learned: M.F.C. = Melbourne Failure Club

Hated: The constant stench emanating from AFL House

 

[JackFlash]

Liked:

Learnt: Reminded once again that premierships are hard to win, it takes one stuff up at finals time and it's season over no matter how good you are.
Cats might be making a mistake with Luke Dahlhous...go to the draft Cats!
If Eddie thinks because we're Victorians we are going to jump on the Pies bandwagon, he has a head emptier than a hermit's address book!

Hated: Melbourne's performance : The deliberate rule was once again idiotic: MCC reserve: Dermie's coat...

 

[DieSwans]

Liked - Our complete dominance which I was not expecting, that first half was such a joy to watch, I love this list.
Watching every Richmond flog get put back in their place - if you were a Richmond flog this season, EAD campaigner, sucked in.

Learnt - Not heaps.

Hated - Nothing.

 

[Eagleboy68]

Melbourne applied effort. They just got supremely outplayed and had no answer. If you get obliterated and your opponent is switched on and always a step ahead of you, of course you're going to look s**t and as though you're not trying.

Liked - Collingwood and West Coat's slick ball movement, intensity and pressure. Loved the Crowds too.
Hated - Nothing.

Thank you.
No credit to Eagles in op regarding the Melbourne flogging.

 

[Eagleboy68]

Liked: Eagles flogging Melbourne and denying them any opportunity to play well.
Richmond being shown as the pretenders they are by a young Collingwood side that had no right to beat them.

Learnt: Simpson is a good coach and could be a champion coach.
Collingwood is better than I thought.

Hated: Vic media and Victorian giving us no chance. Grand final played at the MCG when it should be in Perth or a neutral venue.

 

[Thegibbsgamble]

The dumbing down of the football public with jobs given to Darcy Richardson Taylor and ling. It was to be seen in all its glory

Have to feel sorry for the eagles fans watching the seven coverage with such biased commentators instructed by thier producer to call the game that way. This was one of the eagles most complete performances and ruined by channel seven. It was treat watching them play. They'll be even stronger next year under the new rules designed to negate the boring congestion tactics developed by Victorians

Against collingwood the commentators dribbled on about how good Kennedy's opponent was like he was some hero. Yet fast forward to the next eagles game and the same people are saying how rusty Kennedy was in his first week back.


Weve heard for awhile that richmond are in trouble if Martin doesn't fire. We've heard how they rely on a soft draw and the g home ground advantage.

Martin was injured and collingwood made them look second rate

We also heard how good they are and Taylor calls it a shock defeat to the best team in the league. Yet this best team in the league can't win outside of Victoria.

The tigers built a house of straw

We saw Melbourne use the corridor and get burnt by not handling the pressure they are supposedly renowned for. More inside fifties and biased umps and they lose by eleven goals

We saw Niel jetta and rioli bring an instinct and awareness of eachother that cut Melbourne up when the game was to be won.

We saw Rance shown up one on one again. It's ironic Richmond defeated by a one hit september wonder. Richmond rivalling footscray as the kings of one hit wonders in September

The umpiring feeling sorry for poor Melbourne in thier first major final in eighteen years. Perhaps if they didn't sell home games to avoid insolvency they not might of been so tired.

 

[HTT]

The dumbing down of the football public with jobs given to Darcy Richardson Taylor and ling. It was to be seen in all its glory

Have to feel sorry for the eagles fans watching the seven coverage with such biased commentators instructed by thier producer to call the game that way. This was one of the eagles most complete performances and ruined by channel seven. It was treat watching them play. They'll be even stronger next year under the new rules designed to negate the boring congestion tactics developed by Victorians

Against collingwood the commentators dribbled on about how good Kennedy's opponent was like he was some hero. Yet fast forward to the next eagles game and the same people are saying how rusty Kennedy was in his first week back.


Weve heard for awhile that richmond are in trouble if Martin doesn't fire. We've heard how they rely on a soft draw and the g home ground advantage.

Martin was injured and collingwood made them look second rate

We also heard how good they are and Taylor calls it a shock defeat to the best team in the league. Yet this best team in the league can't win outside of Victoria.

The tigers built a house of straw

We saw Melbourne use the corridor and get burnt by not handling the pressure they are supposedly renowned for. More inside fifties and biased umps and they lose by eleven goals

We saw Niel jetta and rioli bring an instinct and awareness of eachother that cut Melbourne up when the game was to be won.

We saw Rance shown up one on one again. It's ironic Richmond defeated by a one hit september wonder. Richmond rivalling footscray as the kings of one hit wonders in September

The umpiring feeling sorry for poor Melbourne in thier first major final in eighteen years. Perhaps if they didn't sell home games to avoid insolvency they not might of been so tired.

Lucky we got to face a zero hit wonder in September last year

 

[Aramis]

Learnt - Jetta made for September.

lol... biggest pea heart ever... 100% will go missing.

2014 GF - 4 disposals then got mysteriously "injured"..... never seen a worse GF performance in my life.

 

[Rotayjay]

Liked: - Collingwood's performance. They just did not miss many targets and made good use of their inside 50s. That was the most we conceded at the MCG since Round 18 in 2016.
- West Coast's performance. One of the most clinical of performances for the year.

Hated: - Collingwood's performance. Guess who their great performance was against?
- Richmond's performance. How many players had their worst game of the season again? Bad time to have your worst game. Also, our preparation for finals at VFL and AFL level was woeful this year. Both sides finished 1st at the end of the H&A season for no Grand Final appearance and 1-3 finals return.
- Melbourne's performance. Although, they really couldn't do much about it because of how switched on West Coast were.

Learnt: Dominate a team or the season all you want, if you are not prepared enough to back it up in the finals or get ahead of yourself, you'll find yourself on the sidelines when the Grand Final is played. In the season, Melbourne beat West Coast in Perth, Geelong beat Melbourne twice, Richmond beat Collingwood twice, GWS beat Collingwood, Hawthorn beat Melbourne, Sydney beat GWS twice. Yet, all of them lost their finals game. Gotta be prepared to back it up in the finals.

Nice post.

This week has highlighted just how hard it is to win one flag, and how hard it is to go back to back. Don't play well enough in H&A and you won't make the eight or be in a competitive position in September. Play well in H&A and then screw up one in a series of four games max, and you're buggered.

That's the beauty of our league and others that employ finals as opposed to ones like the EPL. The regular season means something (positioning yourself for finals) but finals are so thrilling because everything is on the line. Would not have it any other way.