Grand Final in April

mic59

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Thread starter #1
Well, last year we climbed the mountain of beating the Roos, although it was in Adelaide. The major mental hurdle we need to get over this year is Melbourne at the MCG on 17th April. Although in the scheme of things it is only one game, a team that expects to win the flag cannot let a lower position team have an advantage over it at the ground where the finals are played. Kangaroos at Telstra Dome is an important game too. We have the talent and if 2 games are dropped in shocks, there is nothing to say we will miss the 8, or even a home final. But the mental effect of dropping those 2 could be incalculable.

I will go on notice here as saying that if we don't beat Melbourne, even if we finish top after the minor round we won't win the flag.
 

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Fullarton Power

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#2
Originally posted by mic59
Well, last year we climbed the mountain of beating the Roos, although it was in Adelaide. The major mental hurdle we need to get over this year is Melbourne at the MCG on 17th April. Although in the scheme of things it is only one game, a team that expects to win the flag cannot let a lower position team have an advantage over it at the ground where the finals are played. Kangaroos at Telstra Dome is an important game too. We have the talent and if 2 games are dropped in shocks, there is nothing to say we will miss the 8, or even a home final. But the mental effect of dropping those 2 could be incalculable.

I will go on notice here as saying that if we don't beat Melbourne, even if we finish top after the minor round we won't win the flag.
Reasonable comment. Although we do tend to struggle against lower order sides.
 

mic59

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Thread starter #3
I would like to expand a bit on that statement I made. The problem is not so much being beaten in a shock loss, every team has shock losses. It is having hoodoo teams and Melbourne is a hoodoo team of ours. They are one of only 4 teams we have a less than 50% win-loss record against and we have not yet beaten them at the MCG in 4 attempts.
 
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#4
I think our main hoodoo is the MCG, we have lost very few games in the past three years and the few we have lost a fair percentage have been at the MCG. Just sitting in the crowd at the G I get that weak unsecure feeling watching the team, every part of it, it just has that feel. A couple of confidence building wins there and hopefully things change. I think the make or break game is in August against Collingwood on a Friday night at the G.
We will be playing on a cold winters night, 80000 fans and it will be the closing thing to a Grand Final since our game against Collingwood in the 2003 finals. This is one game to focus on, it will be the litmus test. The Crows came up against Collingwood at around the same time last year, the Crows were hot at the time, they had a breaking loss in front of 50k and they never looked the same for the rest of 2003.
Out of any game I could choose to win in the minor round, it would be this one, not just for the possibility of it being an 8 point game but for satisfaction also.
 
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#6
Originally posted by Paralowiepower
Hopefully it knocks them out of the 8 :p
Life would be so much easier if we only had to play the Crows in the Minor Round and Essendon in the major round and pre-season games against Sturt.
 

Andre

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#7
Originally posted by mic59
I will go on notice here as saying that if we don't beat Melbourne, even if we finish top after the minor round we won't win the flag.
Couldn't agree more! I said something similar, though not quite so harsh, in the ladder prediction thread just a few days ago :

The key game for me next season in the H & A for how we are going to go is Round 4 vs. Melbourne at the MCG. The game the last two or three years where we play our absolute worst. If we can get a win there I'll feel more confident.
 

Sandola

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#8
And not just a win, but a big win. When we beat Hawthorn last year at the G, even though the manner of our winning was my favourite moment of the entire year (Byron!), it should never have been even close.

Yep, the hoodoo is the MCG. We have 3 (?) home-and-away games there this year, which should give us plent of challenge and preparation for the finals.
 

Portia

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#9
I don't really care if we beat Melbourne or not, as that just seems like another milestone of zero real significance like beating the Roos but still bombing out in finals.

I just want us to actually go out and thrash teams because and when we can. If we do that, I'll be a lot more confident of a premiership.
 
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#10
Originally posted by Porthos
I don't really care if we beat Melbourne or not, as that just seems like another milestone of zero real significance like beating the Roos but still bombing out in finals.

I just want us to actually go out and thrash teams because and when we can. If we do that, I'll be a lot more confident of a premiership.
Couldn't agree more, I don't want to just beat sides I want to crush them. We have just scraped home in the remaining games near the end of the year over the past two seasons.
Our best finals campaign was in 2001, another big Rd 22 thrashing like that of West Coast and we will take a lot of confidence in with us. We lost 2 finals in 01, but we were leading Brisbane for a majority of the match with a depleted team and the game against Hawthorn we played one dreadful quarter to a Hawthorn side that was in good knick at the time and very unlucky not to play in the GF.
We play our best footy when we have shoot outs, I want to see more 20 goal plus games, like in mid 2002 and 2001, the free flowing, kick it long, risk football that we should of played last year.
 
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#11
I'm so sick of the mcg excuses. I saw us demolish Hawthorn there in 2002-when they were flying too. What was our excuse then?? I saw us put in insipid performances there last year against the same, and lower, sides. Why?????

It's not like we've lost to great teams there. In fact we've been fortunate that we haven't drawn the better teams there as I don't know if we'd beat Essendon there, despite flogging them recently at Telstra.

I just wonder if it's more to do with motivation, but then that doesn't sit right re our prelim final debacle. Last year though we played sh**house against all the lower sides, yet beat Brissie, the Cows, Swans, Toasters et al.
 

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blackdiamond

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#12
I would prefer to play the likes of Collingwood and Essendon at the MCG than Hawthorn and Melbourne.

Sure we get to play Collingwood at the MCG this year but its at night so its not quite going to be like the final experience we need.
 

mic59

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Thread starter #13
Originally posted by powernut
I'm so sick of the mcg excuses. I saw us demolish Hawthorn there in 2002-when they were flying too. What was our excuse then?? I saw us put in insipid performances there last year against the same, and lower, sides. Why?????

Hawthorn in 2002 was a great performance and the kind of game Port weren't allowed to play last year. Whether because of Choco or other coaches cottoning onto our gameplan I don't know.

It's not like we've lost to great teams there. In fact we've been fortunate that we haven't drawn the better teams there as I don't know if we'd beat Essendon there, despite flogging them recently at Telstra.

We've played Essendon twice there, in 1997 and 1998. In 1997 Essendon finished 9-13 and missed the finals, we won at the MCG by 50 points. Cummings 7.6, Wangas BOG.
In 1998 we lost by 27 points but were actually thrashed. I was there and Tredders kicked 3 goals in the last quarter after we were 42 points down at 3/4 time. The free count was 33-7 in OUR favour so there weren't any excuses there.

I just wonder if it's more to do with motivation, but then that doesn't sit right re our prelim final debacle. Last year though we played sh**house against all the lower sides, yet beat Brissie, the Cows, Swans, Toasters et al.

Most commentators have said it is the slightly different shape. The MCG requires at least one extra kick the way we play. That doesn't seem much but it gives our players more time to lose the ball and means they have to be just that bit more accurate. The best way to play the MCG is straight down the middle, as could be seen from our comeback against Hawthorn in 1997, when we were 68 points down at half time and then 14 with a few minutes left.
 

Eago77

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#14
Originally posted by Scott
I would prefer to play the likes of Collingwood and Essendon at the MCG than Hawthorn and Melbourne.

Sure we get to play Collingwood at the MCG this year but its at night so its not quite going to be like the final experience we need.
We've got Collingwood in round 21 on a Friday night. Luckily we've got a trip to Darwin the week before and a six day rest to prepare for that one:rolleyes:

3 games at the G is certainly better than the odd game in previous years.
 
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