Review on today's game

[magpie10]

We are far too inefficient going forward, and once we get it in there we stuff it up anyway. No doubt cloke + another key forward would straighten us up, but far too many times today it was in our forward 50 with a big chance of kicking a goal and we stuffed it up. Looking forward to regaining our forward line from injury.

And on leigh brown, ..... WHY THE F@#$K DID HE PLAY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 clanger touches and offered us absolutely nothing. Sure there were many other passengers, but he's been shocking for the whole season. And save the '..ohh but he tries his hardest' posts for someone else, because quite simply he is not up to AFL standard. Can't mark + Can't kick a goal+ can't ruck + shit defender + clumsy = dud. But i reckon he'll get a game against west coast. Dawes surely couldn't have done any worse. If anything he would've at least taken a mark inside 50.

postives: Impressed by sidebottom today, has great poise and excellent skills. Pendles was one of the few mids who had a go and is approaching elite status very quickly. his work in close today was excellent and is improving every week. Nathan brown i thought also did well especially when it came to clearing the ball out of defence. And finally maxwell, well if only some of our more talented yet lazy players had the commitment of our courageous captain.

your thoughts????

 

[goreds]

Just got smashed.

Simple.

You cant let Judd, Gibbs and Murphy run around by themselves.

 

[Ant85]

Ok here's my review.

I don't think we really were a chance to win today. Good to see 82,000 turnout to a game that wasn't expected to live up to the rivalry (and didn't).

First and foremost, intensity was lacking (dare say from both sides). It just seemed both sides were in cruise mode, but as I am a Collingwood supporter, I'll focus my comments on them.

For Collingwood, the intensity and the heart has been pretty much lacking all year. With the exception of a few, we just don't seem to be throwing in the weight needed to win a game of football.

So often, we laid weak tackles that somehow still enabled the opposition to either break free or get a handpass away. From being the best tackling side of 2008, and the side renowned to bringing intensity to a match, this is an area we have definitely gone backwards in 2009.

And cattle has nothing to do with intensity and hunger. In 2007, we had injury woes, fielded young bloods, and the intensity and hunger they showed almost won us a flag.

What do we need to do to give our players some inspiration?

Another worrying sign is that we don't seem to be playing like a team. We offer little support for one another, and we aren't showing the workmanship. What's going on here?

Selection into this match was poor (as noted in another thread). I still don't know why we went into this match with only one marking forward (Anthony) and one ruck (Wood) + Brown, when we have two goalkicking forwards (Dawes and Bryan) trying to crack into the side. The St.Kilda match showed that we didn't have scoring options, and that was where we needed to top up. Why didn't we?

At the other end, hats off to our defenders. I thought Presti, Nathan Brown and O'brien did well down back (special reference to Presti keeping Fev goalless). This is the only part of the field we haven't caught a key injury, and they're doing a terrific job.

We again had more forward entries this week than the opposition. We are getting plenty of the ball, we are getting the rebound from defence (the backline is doing the job), but our forward entries are too slow (MM makes a good point there), we wait for everyone to flood back, making an already difficult task for Anthony even more so.

Ok, the loss of key forward players has severely hit at our forward structure. It makes me wonder, what was MM's forward structure today? What did he hope to achieve with only Anthony as a marking option? Our players looked lost going forward, which effectively cost us the game.

I enjoyed watching Sidebottom, seems to be showing the hunger many of his teammates lack.

I agree with the board on Corrie, Brown. We sure did pick up two duds.

Essentially, we are going to struggle with half our team out (the better half). Any team would struggle, even Geelong and the Saints. Hawthorn is a good example of a side struggling with injuries, no one is immune to them.

Can we resurrect our season? Well, I guess the next few weeks will tell. We are no certainty to win against WCE and Port, but we definitely have a chance. We had a chance to win today, had a forward structure been put in place. Our defenders won their battle, the midfield wasn't too terrible, they got plenty of the footy. We just couldn't kick any goals.

What can we do for next week?

A) Get the selections right! Putting Brown in over Bryan/Dawes was an error this week, and probably cost us the game, if not, a good contest. We cannot rely on one tall forward.

B) We need to figure out what our contigency forward structure is. Ok, it's not ideal when 3/4 of your forward line is out, but you make do with what you've got. We're getting plenty of the ball, our defenders are giving us plenty of rebound, so we need to conjure something up forward.

C) Intensity! Our boys need inspiration, an electric shock up the bum. They need to regain the hunger they had in 2007/2008. We seem to be walking into games thinking we're going to lose, and can't seem able to get out of this mindset.

I hope we continue to blood our young players, give them the greatest opportunity while our seniors are out. We have to stop relying on hacks like Brown and Corrie. Our future isn't with them, the future is sitting in the VFL. Why they're still there, I don't know.

 

[RRRooocccaaa]

Some other random notes I had from watching the game on TV

* Watched as Sidebottom went for 2nd and 3rd attempts to shut down Carlton players in a 1-on-3 contest and he managed to win by forcing them out to the boundary line. Not one Collingwood team-mate came across to give him a bum-tap or a side-five.

* Watched Corrie lay 3-4 tackles where he was literally brushed aside. Hard as a hand-cream commercial.

* Leigh Brown.

* Has the world gone mad? We have 20 players to cover the ball - can't two of them stay at home in the forward line?!?

* Pendles is just amazing in close - his touches are nearly always effective and he gets Judd-like amounts of time to dispose. Trouble is, he rarely has runners to keep a chain of kicks/handballs going.

* The Ox is a tool. Calling Harry O'Brien Harry Taylor. Being astounded that Nathan Brown was outmarked by Eddie Betts (until Cometti pointed out that it was actually Ryan Cook!).

* Channel 7 would rather show puff-pieces with Ricky O titillating some old birds instead of actually showing the match.

 

[smiddaz123]

Did anyone else just throw their head in their heands when the old bitch said we didn't have the cattle?

 

[RRRooocccaaa]

Did anyone else just throw their head in their heands when the old bitch said we didn't have the cattle?

No, but I was watching to see if she was using her mobile phone to make 'Hackwell' updates on the BigFooty forum...

 

[didaka]

Today's game was more painful than an episode of Rove live.

 

[didak#4]

There were a couple of occasions where we actually looked the better side in general play but made skill errors at key moments which resulted in not putting score board pressure on. Two notable moments were Leigh Brown dropping a mark near the goal square and davis missing the set shot.

 

[DaVe86]

great comment earlier about not congratulating Sidebottom on his efforts.


Deadset, it was 1 on 3...a 2nd game player vs 3 more mature bodies...and he won the battle with 3 huge efforts.

Not one congratulation.

This was the theme for the whole match. No tapping each other on the bum after good work.

Even Lockyer when he kicked a goal on the siren deserve a pat on the back or something. But there was no one around him.

Team spirit is lacking.

 

[KnaveyBlue]

Obviously the injuries hurt, but I think Malthouse has to take a lot of the blame.

Wide, stop-start gameplan is killing you guys. Went in with only one ruckman, and didn't put a hard tag on Judd.