NAB cup "glory" hurt us

[krisholio14]

It's not even that. The amount of injuries and suspensions in the 2nd half of the year was huge. I have no doubts we'll bounce back but most of it came down to bad luck. How often do players in teams break their knuckles? We had 3 players break theirs from round 15 onwards!

We had as much bad luck in 2009 as you did this year , and we still won it.

If your coaching and fitness staff think it was just bad luck, you're in for a disappointing year next year.

Pendles alluded to it in the paper yesterday. Even though you have won a premiership already, each year you have to keep finding ways to get fitter and stronger. You ultimately couldn't work out how to do it this year, but next year, you'll know exactly what you have to do. And even if you have a spate of injuries, you'll have better contingency and management plans in place to deal with them.

Put it this way. You won't be 20-2 at the end of the home and away season next year.

 

[MarkT2]

Put it this way. You won't be 20-2 at the end of the home and away season next year.

20-2 is rare. Even more so when a few other teams barely lose a game as well. I don't know what the win/loss will end up at but Collingwood won't be any weaker in 2012. Whether anyone else is any better I don't know.

 

[PremiumPies]

20-2 is rare. Even more so when a few other teams barely lose a game as well. I don't know what the win/loss will end up at but Collingwood won't be any weaker in 2012. Whether anyone else is any better I don't know.

Exactly. We may well improve in 2012 on how we played this year; but who's to say that two, three, or even four teams won't improve by a much greater amount and go past us (even though at the moment I think that's fairly unlikely). We'll just have to wait and see; and I for one am really looking forward to seeing what happens.

 

[Optimax]

We played kids and won the NAB Cup at half rat power. Hope we do the same in 2012. We didn't lose the GF becasue of what happened in February and March, we lost because of what happened in July and August. Shaw and Thomas' suspensions and injuries to Dawes, Ried and Jolly cost us dearly. Apart from that we actually were beated by an awesome side for the last 40 minutes of the season.

Bang on the money

 

[Collingwould]

and injuries to Dawes, Ried and Jolly cost us dearly.

don't forget N.Brown, huge loss

 

[Stifler's mom]

As the title suggests, Stiflers not saying it cost us, but hurt us.

Mick was pretty keen to go in with as full a list as possible with a view to winning it and that did make the season extra long as the hunted in a 24 round season. I understand Mick often deferred to Buttifant, but like some interference with draft choices, I wonder if Mick over-ruled him.

While it was only 22 rounds, 24 is a lot in a season that begins with the NAB Cup. We did play young players in the NAB Cup, but I'm pretty certain we made a claim that we wanted to use the NAB Cup as a builder to the season proper. That could mean form and conditioning, but it could also have meant glory and cups.

I can't find the team sheets, but there is no doubt in my mind we phased out players very quickly in the NAB Cup who looked good in the 1st or 2nd round, such as Bolton and Keeffe.

Sure, the best grounds are occupied by NAB Cup winners, so there's an injury logic at hand, but the same logic applies to the NAB Cup in general. The more games you play, the greater likeliehood of injury or soreness. To my mind you have to strike the balance between senior game time and youth development. Perhaps we didn't get that quite right.

In any case, it's an entirely sensible question to discuss.

Thanks OS,

You are correct, i'm not saying that it cost us, but personally i would rather see us play mostly kids, lose early and prepare as it suits us. Experiment etc....

How many NAB cups did the great Brisbane teams of early last decade play most of their 1st stringers?
Paul Roos told one of his Swans players to go forward but don't kick a goal!

With a late start from Oct 2010 to an early start in Feb 2011, we looked a tired and sore team late in the year.

Only an observation/opinion.

 

[lgarth80]

Geelong looked like they didn't care when St Kilda smashed them in the NAB

Then they just picked up the pieces, won round 1 and got the momentum wrecking ball up

I would like us to give our best players complete rest until maybe semis or finals if we can make them. It's the perfect time for Wellingham, Sidebottom and Beams to shine in the middle, for Wood to get a full run in the ruck, for Goldsack and Buckley to duke it out in defence and for players like N Brown and Macaffer to get a nice easy run back under their belts. Nothing more than that necessary.

 

[josh the gent]

Thanks OS,

You are correct, i'm not saying that it cost us, but personally i would rather see us play mostly kids, lose early and prepare as it suits us. Experiment etc....

How many NAB cups did the great Brisbane teams of early last decade play most of their 1st stringers?
Paul Roos told one of his Swans players to go forward but don't kick a goal!

With a late start from Oct 2010 to an early start in Feb 2011, we looked a tired and sore team late in the year.

Only an observation/opinion.

Sorry to intrude, but FWIW, I feel that nab Cup success hurt us last year too.

We were utterly spent in September, just falling over the line to Sydney in the Semi-Final, and generally looking shabby from August through September. Brad Johnson looked buggered pretty much all year.

It is truly a poisoned chalice...

 

[krisholio14]

20-2 is rare. Even more so when a few other teams barely lose a game as well. I don't know what the win/loss will end up at but Collingwood won't be any weaker in 2012. Whether anyone else is any better I don't know.

You're good enough to go 20-2 again, if you want to, but that's the point i'm making. You won't want to. You'll be conserving more energy next year.

 

[Steeleyourself]

The NAB cup is worthless, we shouldn't even be bothering with it, except for more chances to blood youth.

The Doggies and Cat supporter in this thread have it right - we need to see what 2010 run we did, and how the players looked, no point wrecking Port etc and then meet recover.

 

[Kirby]

I don't see the issue as so much being physical, but mental.

It's having the players mentally not up so long in such a long season that is the issue for me. We were up so long that it created so much expectation and pressure.

In 2010 our momentum just grew and grew, especially from half way in the season.

I'm just throwing this out there because i do generally agree that we just had a lot of shit bad luck with injury towards the end of the season along with dumb suspensions.

 

[Ed D]

We had as much bad luck in 2009 as you did this year , and we still won it.

If your coaching and fitness staff think it was just bad luck, you're in for a disappointing year next year.

Pendles alluded to it in the paper yesterday. Even though you have won a premiership already, each year you have to keep finding ways to get fitter and stronger. You ultimately couldn't work out how to do it this year, but next year, you'll know exactly what you have to do. And even if you have a spate of injuries, you'll have better contingency and management plans in place to deal with them.

Put it this way. You won't be 20-2 at the end of the home and away season next year.

You could also easily say in 2009 you played against a lacklustre side in the GF and only scraped through for a win. Either way I think the Pies went through worse than what Geelong did that year. Don't get me wrong, Geelong are a great side and outplayed the Pies in this year's GF, but the amount of unavoidable problems we had in the 2nd half of the year, I think it effected about half the side.

Saying it was bad luck was merely pointing out we had 10+ injuries/suspensions that effected the team going into the finals and throughout the finals series. Fitness and management wasn't going to stop those things from happening. How do you stop someone breaking their knuckle or getting suspended? It's just multiple instances that all added up.

 

[pauly_moss]

Yes the NAB cup hurt us we should have played players not inside our best 22 like.....

The Yank, Sinclair, Young, Keefe, Buckley, Wood, Ugle, J.Thomas

or maybe play players new to the club like Krakeour and Tarrant so they can gel with the side

perhaps we could try players in new roles like Leon Davis down back

oh wait end sarcasm now

Either way we would have been playing practice matches only dif is they were on tv the only game the pies really set out to win was the last game as most teams do even if they are not in the final

The reason we lost we came up against a side that was very good also and they were the better on the day. Stupid moves like Tarrant going to Stevie J didnt help either

well done Cats (ya jerks)

 

[wednesdaywarrior]

Krisholio is spot on. I did a little research (as part of my grief therapy) and discovered that since 1990 - a 21 year period, the team that's finished top has won the flag just 7 times. It could be argued that this achievement is also a poisoned chalice. I'm pretty sure that Brisbane weren't top during those threepeat years. What does this mean? If you are commandingly good eg Essendon 2000, Cats 07, us last year, you can win it from top. Otherwise, I actually think you are better off coming from the leading pack (2nd or 3rd) like a clever 1500 metre runner or, the analogy often applied to Geelong this year a perfectly timed cup runner. Timing is key. I do agree we suffered something of a death by a thousand cuts with niggling stuff but our form and confidence were well below Geelong's on GF day. If there's a lesson I hope Buck's and the coaches absorb for next season it's timing the run and resting key players. As Pie fans we should also be unconcerned if we bomb out of the NAB cup and dont finish on top next year with 20 and 2. No doubt that is where Carlton and Hawthorn expect to be.

 

[Ed D]

I don't think the results matter too much one way or another, it's about making the top 4 and then going into the finals at full strength.