- Apr 30, 2015
- 15,357
- 27,702
- AFL Club
- West Coast
Repeat after me:
Born is pride,
from isolation
Our fortress built,
we cross the nation
Our colours share,
the west coast sky
Our will to win won’t die
You may sit.
Who: Our MCG bunnies
When: Saturday April 6, 7:25pm AEDT (4:25 Perth time)
Venue: Neutral
Last time we met:
[Good times]
So, let me just start off by saying that the banter in Grand Final week with Pies supporters was top notch, as was the way they conducted themselves in the aftermath of what was a gut-wrenching result for them. So I certainly don’t plan to hang sh!t on them or to rub their noses in it with this preview.
I’m just kidding...
[Aahhhh, that feels better]
OK, on with the preview. With flag unfurled (in the most spectacular manner in the rich history of flag unfurling, I might add) we return to the scene of our glorious 2018 triumph. After apparently being a neutral venue on GF day, Perth Stadium’s ugly stepsister magically reverts back to a home ground advantage for Collingwood this Saturday. No matter. We made the Pies our bunnies last year, including twice at the G. So I’m calling it – this is now our “home away from home”. Either we’ll be good enough to defeat Collingwood, or we won’t. The venue will play little to no role.
Form lines
Collingwood
After a disappointing round one loss to the Cats, the Pies made amends with a clinical dismantling of Richmond last Thursday night. What became obvious in that game is how Collingwood have, again, adopted the game style of the reigning premiers. In 2018 they were deemed ‘Richmond-lite’ for their pressure game and already they have been described in 2019 as ‘West Coast-lite’ for their precision kicking and marking game.
(Seriously, is this a thing now, Bucks? Was there a lightbulb moment when you survived that review a couple of years back where you decided the best way to keep your job was just to copy the most recent winning formula? Well, it seems to be working I guess. But fair dinkum, how dare you steal our game style? We stole it fair and square from Hawthorn first. Not cool Collingwood, not cool.)
Anyways, intellectual property infringement aside, Collingwood looked the goods last week. Or maybe it was just that Ninth-mond are back. The entire BigFooty community certainly hopes so.
West Coast
After a patchy effort first up against a rapidly improving Brisbane unit, we came home in round 2 and welcomed Josh Kennedy back into the team. It took a quarter and a half for us to get rolling and shake off a determined GWS, but thanks to the ever-reliable Luke Shuey, a decent effort in the ruck from Tom Hickey, and some elite efficiency in the forward 50 (we lost the inside 50 count 62 – 47 I believe), we ended up strolling home with a 52 point win.
Sheed kept doing Sheed things, Allen showed us why we’re all excited about him with some decent grabs and 3 snags, Darling chipped in with 4, while Petrol-Jelly sparked up the crowd with some Matera-esque dash down the wing.
But the highlight of the evening was that epic flag unfurling.
Match-ups
Darcy Moore versus Darling/Kennedy
With Darcy Moore absent for the two finals against us last season, Tyson Goldsack was rushed back into the side as a makeshift fullback. Apparently he did a reasonable job (JK kicking 2.4 in the QF and 3.2 in the granny). But can Moore’s presence down back be the key to tipping the scales in the Pies’ favour? He’s certainly looked solid so far.
As we saw in the finals, JK tends to take a match to warm up following an absence, so I’m backing him to be back near his best this week.
Despite booting 4 majors I think Jack Darling looks some way off his early-2018 best. I noticed some play-acting for free-kicks creeping back into his game against the Giants, which is not a good sign (Simmo, have a word mate). Regardless, if you can kick 4 goals while not playing at your best, there’s a fair bit of upside.
Moore will probably find himself on both our guys at various stages as they push up the ground. But with such a ridiculous haircut I can’t possibly see how he can nullify them.
[Bend it Like Darcy]
Tom Barrass versus a baby giraffe*
Barrass did a fine job on Mason Cox last time around, keeping the big Texan quiet in the first half and basically keeping us in the game when the early onslaught threatened to see us revisit the ghosts of 2015. Cox lifted in the second half and very nearly played a hand in seeing the flag end up on the wrong side of the Nullarbor. Cox seems to have found his feet in the AFL, especially with his overhead game. However, Barrass is my man crush and I back him to do the business once more.
Yeah yeah, I know. Cox is currently suspended by the MRO for being too tall and standing still while someone ran into him. We all hope and pray this one gets overturned for the good of the game. You never quite know with Tribunal Roulette (hi NicNat) but I fully expect Mason Cox to play.
[Mason Cox’s athleticism had him earmarked early on by AFL talent scouts]
* credit to Luke Parker for the baby giraffe reference
Cheer squad versus cheer squad
[For shame]
[Cheer squads are my version of scary clowns]
Can Collingwood’s cheer squad recover from their Grand Final humiliation? Will they double up on the crepe paper this time around? Will they use masking tape instead of cellotape? Or will the WC squad once again dominate just by managing to do their one job? Does anyone really care? I certainly don’t.
[Collingwood’s cheer squad have ambitions of competency following their GF debacle. They managed to get it up, but were unable to maintain their Grand Final er*ction. No such problems for WC fans 2 hours later.]
Players to watch
De Goey
Wow, on fire last week. Has emerged as a top echelon talent and will be hard to stop. Is Schofield available?
[Thanks Richo]
Gaff
Great to see Gaffy back in the side (assuming he gets a game). It’s been a long time between drinks, so will he come back the same dominating player he was last year? Will Collingwood send a man to him? Will they be sure to wear a mouthguard? So many questions.
[GWS’s Heath Shaw finding out Gaff wasn’t due back until the following week]
Dead-eye Dom
He pretty much ran amok all finals series. He ran amok on Grand Final day. And he has run amok so far in 2019. I don’t know what amok actually means, but I hope Dom runs some more of it this Saturday.
Prediction:
The last time we played Collingwood the week after they had just knocked off Richmond, well, you campaigners know what happened. This time? I’ll say the Eagles with a last minute mark and goal to Jack Darling on the goal line to seal a 10 point win (see what I did there?).
Born is pride,
from isolation
Our fortress built,
we cross the nation
Our colours share,
the west coast sky
Our will to win won’t die
You may sit.
Who: Our MCG bunnies
When: Saturday April 6, 7:25pm AEDT (4:25 Perth time)
Venue: Neutral
Last time we met:
[Good times]
So, let me just start off by saying that the banter in Grand Final week with Pies supporters was top notch, as was the way they conducted themselves in the aftermath of what was a gut-wrenching result for them. So I certainly don’t plan to hang sh!t on them or to rub their noses in it with this preview.
I’m just kidding...
[Aahhhh, that feels better]
OK, on with the preview. With flag unfurled (in the most spectacular manner in the rich history of flag unfurling, I might add) we return to the scene of our glorious 2018 triumph. After apparently being a neutral venue on GF day, Perth Stadium’s ugly stepsister magically reverts back to a home ground advantage for Collingwood this Saturday. No matter. We made the Pies our bunnies last year, including twice at the G. So I’m calling it – this is now our “home away from home”. Either we’ll be good enough to defeat Collingwood, or we won’t. The venue will play little to no role.
Form lines
Collingwood
After a disappointing round one loss to the Cats, the Pies made amends with a clinical dismantling of Richmond last Thursday night. What became obvious in that game is how Collingwood have, again, adopted the game style of the reigning premiers. In 2018 they were deemed ‘Richmond-lite’ for their pressure game and already they have been described in 2019 as ‘West Coast-lite’ for their precision kicking and marking game.
(Seriously, is this a thing now, Bucks? Was there a lightbulb moment when you survived that review a couple of years back where you decided the best way to keep your job was just to copy the most recent winning formula? Well, it seems to be working I guess. But fair dinkum, how dare you steal our game style? We stole it fair and square from Hawthorn first. Not cool Collingwood, not cool.)
Anyways, intellectual property infringement aside, Collingwood looked the goods last week. Or maybe it was just that Ninth-mond are back. The entire BigFooty community certainly hopes so.
West Coast
After a patchy effort first up against a rapidly improving Brisbane unit, we came home in round 2 and welcomed Josh Kennedy back into the team. It took a quarter and a half for us to get rolling and shake off a determined GWS, but thanks to the ever-reliable Luke Shuey, a decent effort in the ruck from Tom Hickey, and some elite efficiency in the forward 50 (we lost the inside 50 count 62 – 47 I believe), we ended up strolling home with a 52 point win.
Sheed kept doing Sheed things, Allen showed us why we’re all excited about him with some decent grabs and 3 snags, Darling chipped in with 4, while Petrol-Jelly sparked up the crowd with some Matera-esque dash down the wing.
But the highlight of the evening was that epic flag unfurling.
Match-ups
Darcy Moore versus Darling/Kennedy
With Darcy Moore absent for the two finals against us last season, Tyson Goldsack was rushed back into the side as a makeshift fullback. Apparently he did a reasonable job (JK kicking 2.4 in the QF and 3.2 in the granny). But can Moore’s presence down back be the key to tipping the scales in the Pies’ favour? He’s certainly looked solid so far.
As we saw in the finals, JK tends to take a match to warm up following an absence, so I’m backing him to be back near his best this week.
Despite booting 4 majors I think Jack Darling looks some way off his early-2018 best. I noticed some play-acting for free-kicks creeping back into his game against the Giants, which is not a good sign (Simmo, have a word mate). Regardless, if you can kick 4 goals while not playing at your best, there’s a fair bit of upside.
Moore will probably find himself on both our guys at various stages as they push up the ground. But with such a ridiculous haircut I can’t possibly see how he can nullify them.
[Bend it Like Darcy]
Tom Barrass versus a baby giraffe*
Barrass did a fine job on Mason Cox last time around, keeping the big Texan quiet in the first half and basically keeping us in the game when the early onslaught threatened to see us revisit the ghosts of 2015. Cox lifted in the second half and very nearly played a hand in seeing the flag end up on the wrong side of the Nullarbor. Cox seems to have found his feet in the AFL, especially with his overhead game. However, Barrass is my man crush and I back him to do the business once more.
Yeah yeah, I know. Cox is currently suspended by the MRO for being too tall and standing still while someone ran into him. We all hope and pray this one gets overturned for the good of the game. You never quite know with Tribunal Roulette (hi NicNat) but I fully expect Mason Cox to play.
[Mason Cox’s athleticism had him earmarked early on by AFL talent scouts]
* credit to Luke Parker for the baby giraffe reference
Cheer squad versus cheer squad
[For shame]
[Cheer squads are my version of scary clowns]
Can Collingwood’s cheer squad recover from their Grand Final humiliation? Will they double up on the crepe paper this time around? Will they use masking tape instead of cellotape? Or will the WC squad once again dominate just by managing to do their one job? Does anyone really care? I certainly don’t.
[Collingwood’s cheer squad have ambitions of competency following their GF debacle. They managed to get it up, but were unable to maintain their Grand Final er*ction. No such problems for WC fans 2 hours later.]
Players to watch
De Goey
Wow, on fire last week. Has emerged as a top echelon talent and will be hard to stop. Is Schofield available?
[Thanks Richo]
Gaff
Great to see Gaffy back in the side (assuming he gets a game). It’s been a long time between drinks, so will he come back the same dominating player he was last year? Will Collingwood send a man to him? Will they be sure to wear a mouthguard? So many questions.
[GWS’s Heath Shaw finding out Gaff wasn’t due back until the following week]
Dead-eye Dom
He pretty much ran amok all finals series. He ran amok on Grand Final day. And he has run amok so far in 2019. I don’t know what amok actually means, but I hope Dom runs some more of it this Saturday.
Prediction:
The last time we played Collingwood the week after they had just knocked off Richmond, well, you campaigners know what happened. This time? I’ll say the Eagles with a last minute mark and goal to Jack Darling on the goal line to seal a 10 point win (see what I did there?).
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