"Our young and improving side" appreciation thread

[PendlePie]

Seriously, we lost a final to a much older and more experienced side. We weren't going to win the flag this year, and we learnt a lot about our side today and where we need to improve.

**** the haters to hell. They can bag us all they want, but at the end of the day this team was the youngest to play finals in eight years, and we managed to go away to Adelaide and come away with a win. The future is bright!

GO PIES!

 

[magpie10]

Seriously, we lost a final to a much older and more experienced side. We weren't going to win the flag this year, and we learnt a lot about our side today and where we need to improve.

**** the haters to hell. They can bag us all they want, but at the end of the day this team was the youngest to play finals in eight years, and we managed to go away to Adelaide and come away with a win. The future is bright!

GO PIES!

Completely agree, the future will be bright if we can get a few inside mids.

 

[Dave The Man]

Seriously, we lost a final to a much older and more experienced side. We weren't going to win the flag this year, and we learnt a lot about our side today and where we need to improve.

**** the haters to hell. They can bag us all they want, but at the end of the day this team was the youngest to play finals in eight years, and we managed to go away to Adelaide and come away with a win. The future is bright!

GO PIES!

Agreed - Tonight was not Great.

But the Young Kids Like Dawes and McCarthy will be better on getting 2 Finals under there belt

 

[Chief Ten Beers]

Seriously, we lost a final to a much older and more experienced side. We weren't going to win the flag this year, and we learnt a lot about our side today and where we need to improve.

**** the haters to hell. They can bag us all they want, but at the end of the day this team was the youngest to play finals in eight years, and we managed to go away to Adelaide and come away with a win. The future is bright!

GO PIES!

Well said. Considering since July, the team had a major restructuring and a lot of first year VFL players to get this far was pretty good.

I'd love to see any other side loose their Captain, Full Forward, Full Back, Centre half forward, leading kicker in the entire AFL comp and future captain and see how they go.

Well done Pies, it was a little disappointing, but to finish off a season under the circumstances this year, well done.

(Also, you know who was the youngest finals side 8 years prior? Brisbane, look what they did a couple years later!).

 

[Pie in the Sky]

Agree, tonight was disappointing, but we haven't had a great run with injuries (and suspensions) to key players, and the young guys have shown a fair bit. Looking forward to a good season next year.

 

[OniAu]

good thread , being realistic

no one expected us to win last week , i thought we had a good chance tonight. our kids goin into their third years just look tired from the extra workload they have had to pretty much cover this year. likes of thomas pendles clarke

snag another mid like Mccarthy and maybe an experienced mid like cousins and im sure we will be better for it next year.

we were missing dids shaw rusling rocca burns tonight for fair chunks of the season. put them in and we look tottaly different.

plus if we were to even challenge for even a finals berth this year , we seriously needed the above five that i mentioned to take on the hawks and cats.

big year in 09 is coming

 

[Hard Yakka]

Great post. Prior to the season starting, I thought we were a 50/50 chance of making the finals because of our young list. I expected we'd be inconsistent, which we were. I also expect things to start improving next year as the likes of JMac, Dawes and Jack get another pre-season under their belts and Pendles and Thomas continue their development.

This year was just another step towards a bright future.

 

[OniAu]

Great post. Prior to the season starting, I thought we were a 50/50 chance of making the finals because of our young list. I expected we'd be inconsistent, which we were. I also expect things to start improving next year as the likes of JMac, Dawes and Jack get another pre-season under their belts and Pendles and Thomas continue their development.

This year was just another step towards a bright future.

exactly, just gotta look at other "young developing sides" who arent even in the 8, they are patting themselves on the back for a finish just outside the 8.

 

[Dave The Man]

Great post. Prior to the season starting, I thought we were a 50/50 chance of making the finals because of our young list. I expected we'd be inconsistent, which we were. I also expect things to start improving next year as the likes of JMac, Dawes and Jack get another pre-season under their belts and Pendles and Thomas continue their development.

This year was just another step towards a bright future.

This year was sort of a Re-Building Sort of Year with all the New Kids Coming in

 

[jimmy_clement#8]

Last week was the second youngest team to win a final. The youngest being a Lions side back in 2000.

Arguably our two best players suspended for the year, our skipper still out, plus a host of others, compounded by retirements to Bucks and Jimmy last year, I think 6th is a great foundation to build from.

Bryan is holding Wood's spot until he is up to it, remember young ruckmen take a while to develop, McCarthy and Wellingham will be better for the exposure, as will Dawes, Anthony, Brown, we can see more a maturing Chopper next year, it was a bad loss tonight, sure, but underneath the defeat lies a prosperous glow. Keep the faith. We are Collingwood.

 

[shanrew5]

I'd love to see any other side loose their Captain, Full Forward, Full Back, Centre half forward, leading kicker in the entire AFL comp and future captain and see how they go.

Yeah true that. Melbourne lost our Captain, Full Forward, Full back , Centre half forward and our best midfielder and look where puts us.

I commend you guys on a pretty good season considering the youth you guys were playing and the people you were missing. Alot of respect and good signs for the future.

Also Dawes looks the goods. Love the look of him

 

[Nathan Q Brown]

we clearly weren't a good enough side to play in a prelim. there are half a dozen players in that list who wouldn't get a game in any of the other top 7 teams. If Riewold was going to turn it on we were always dead meat.

Disappointed that we couldn't get back in the top 4 like last year ut there were some factors although that shouldn't mask the gaps in our list and we need recruiters to keep working hard.

Looking fwd to 2009 - still easily the best value club to support

 

[Nebula1971]

It is actually quite refreshing to come to this board and find that the support is positive despite the disappointing loss.

In all my posts, I have never made a statement about the Pies winning a flag. However, with our young list and with the final's experience they have had, we will give a real shake in the next 2 to 3 years. We just need to trade aggressively and try and snag a Kerr or Cousins and another quality inside mide with our pick 11.

Go Pies, you have done me proud...

 

[mattys123]

I think we are in a better position now then we were after the loss to Geelong last year.

Last year we lost 3 greats, this year we may only lose one (Burnsy).

This year our young players played a greater role in a run to September, and that win in Adelaide in my opinion is better then either of the 2 finals wins last year.

We ran out of "cattle" tonight, but the future looks bright.

Look forward to getting all those injured players back, and even seeing the likes of Dick and Reid who's years were also ruined.

We have the best young list in the league, and will push for a flag in the next 2-3 years, given a little bit of luck and some more smart recruiting and trading.

 

[DAWESOME!!]

Yeah, great year from the boys, very proud of them for what they've achieved this year. I thought we'd beat St Kilda tonight, but we had a shocker and Riewoldt took us apart for the first time in his career against us. A bad night will happen to a young team from time to time, especially with the veterans who'd normally provide the example like Burns missing. Travis looked like he was sick tonight, but honestly the delivery was such that he could do much anyway. All that said, it shouldn't detract from what's been a fantastic year.

The Shaw and Didak thing was very disappointing, but the incident really seemed to galvanise the group and we've played "Collingwood" football since then, until maybe tonight. I hope those two can come back to the team and win back the respect of their teammates and fans by following suit. While we could have used them tonight, I don't think we'd have made it this far if things had kept going the way they were just before that incident.

Hopefully Wood can have a fantastic preseason and develop into the ruck option we need. I don't know what to make of Bryan - 90% of the time I hate the bloke, he must be the dumbest player I've ever seen and I've never seen a bloke fall over so much - but then every now and again he does something quite good. That said, really hope Wood can kick on and demand the slot alongside Fraser for the majority of next year.

For me however the real highlights have been the first two-thirds of Medhurst's season, Leon Davis's emergence as a genuine superstar, Swan and Cloke backing up for another great year, but mainly the emergence of first year players of the calibre of Nathan Brown, Jack Anthony, John McCarthy, and Chris Dawes. It's been awesome to watch, especially after we had a similar experience last year. I really think if we can keep this group together, and find a couple more players to fill the one or two gaps we have, we'll be the team that eventually dethrones the current Geelong dynasty and be the clear stand out team of the comp for a few years.

Fantastic work from the best club in the league - and we've done it without half-a-dozen top-3 draft picks or under-the-table/outside the salary-cap payments! (although some other clubs have done those things and were very proud too of their tenth spot finish!)

GO PIES '09!!!

 

[Snag Breac]

This thread is a delight - full of determined optimism and courage. It's important that the loss not be allowed to overshadow this year's success stories. We have a cohort of young guns coming up, and now they've had one or two years finals experience. Many of the wiser heads on this board predicted that our premiership opportunity would be 2009-2012; well, we're on track with a team born to play in September.

I'm proud of the lads and proud of Pies posters this morning.

 

[Bay Pie]

At the start of the year the general consesus on this board was that we were a 5-8 team with an outside chance to finish top 4.

That is exactly what happened. We had a few very god performances throughout the year that showed what we might be capable of within the next few years.

I recall in 2004/early 2005 when the Lions, still playing well, were flogged by a young Hawthorn team. I remember watching that day thinking they have the makings of a good side.

Geelong had some great performances in 2004 & 2005 when they made finals.

From little things, big things grow.

 

[Quicky]

I'm stoked we did so well this year. The way the young blokes stood up and performed this year is a huge positive. I think some people forget how young our team actually was and considering this I think they played out of their skins. It all looks great for the future....

 

[Optimax]

We finished where we deserved to but teh anger and pain of last nights lost will hang around for some time, you just dont throw up performances like that in big matches.

But there is hope and in teh cold light of day we probably over achieved again in the end, and we debuted many more kids and found some good ones. So it all points up

 

[Dave The Man]

We finished where we deserved to but teh anger and pain of last nights lost will hang around for some time, you just dont throw up performances like that in big matches.

But there is hope and in teh cold light of day we probably over achieved again in the end, and we debuted many more kids and found some good ones. So it all points up

Agreed we had a Big Season but a Pathetic Game last night does not Sit Well

 

[Pie eyed]

Like most on our boards since the loss I am disappointed.
Not so much with the loss but more so with the tenor of the loss.
As far as the season goes I am very happy.

One thing that has really been evident though is that our members, my fellow posters, are maturing with the side.
The Collingwood board in general is reflecting the optimism at the club?

Cheers to the boys and to all on the Collingwood board.

Can't wait for round 1 already.