Today's game the Yardstick

[legendstatus]

Before anyone jumps in yeah I know its only round 2 but from what I saw today we are a fair way back at the moment in competing with the Dorks & Hacks....what I really notice was the skill level, decision making and hardness in both team that are streets a head of us, I really hope the Pies players were all down there watching, although reading some of the tweets, some were tossing up between smelling farts or sleeping, dining out or watching American sports......

 

[rustyg70]

Great game.
But I don't think there is going to be much between the top three from last year again.
The Cats showed why they are the Premiers.
The Hawks showed why they are the favourites this year.
And we showed why we shouldn't be counted out when we lost to the Hawks with a vastly inexperienced squad.
The only change to the top 4 will be the Blues jump in and the Eagles drop out (to 7th,Injuries are finally catching up to them).

 

[mattys123]

Game of the year so far, and it will be game of the year for a while, maybe until we play the Cats in round 8, or two of the other 5 contenders play each other with near full lists.

"Brutal" was the word I used about today's game, and Mark Thompson and Rodney Eade just used it too on AFL 360, it was as physically tough of a game as I've seen in the home and away rounds in years, yet it was fair, competitive footy, nothing dirty at all.

That is the yardstick, and they did that today with Hodge and Scarlett respectively, we need to improve before round 8, or else we won't get close.

The positive is after this weekend we have a relatively easy draw and we can gradually improve leading into that Cats matchup.

The countdown is on, just over 5 weeks till our first real test (I'm ignoring Carlton as you can see).

 

[Bay Pie]

It's hard to tell where we are up too, until we get our best players all playing. We've been 5 or more short of our best players in both games. That is massive when our depth is not that flash. When we get next to nothing out of our bottom 5, then cash that in for a solid to good contribution, that makes things look very different.

If anything, it just confirms Geelong will be tough to beat again. Very good even contribution from all and a few guns. Geelong had a few out too, with Hawthron missing only Hodge, Bailey and Gilham. I don't see Gilham as much of an upgrade on what they have shown already.

 

[Gambit78]

I don't know, maybe I'm getting caught up in the hype a little, regarding all these other teams - carlton, hawthorn, wce etc - but despite it being a cracking game of football, the overwhelming feeling I had after that game was reassurance. I loved the contest, it was great football, but neither team had me feeling as if Collingwood were left behind. In fact, I'm really confident that we have Hawthorn's measure, especially if our back six settles, because they cannot handle power forwards. As for Geelong...well, they're Geelong. There are some chinks in their armour that we could exploit - the ruck for one, especially around the ground. Their kids are good, but they drift in and out of the game. Like us, Geelong rely on a core group of guns, but if we're more even across the field (which I believe we are) then we should hopefully get over them.

Don't know - I'm more confident now. But then, my brother would point out I was confident during the coaching days of Tony Shaw. What can I say?

 

[rustyg70]

I don't know, maybe I'm getting caught up in the hype a little, regarding all these other teams - carlton, hawthorn, wce etc - but despite it being a cracking game of football, the overwhelming feeling I had after that game was reassurance. I loved the contest, it was great football, but neither team had me feeling as if Collingwood were left behind. In fact, I'm really confident that we have Hawthorn's measure, especially if our back six settles, because they cannot handle power forwards. As for Geelong...well, they're Geelong. There are some chinks in their armour that we could exploit - the ruck for one, especially around the ground. Their kids are good, but they drift in and out of the game. Like us, Geelong rely on a core group of guns, but if we're more even across the field (which I believe we are) then we should hopefully get over them.

Don't know - I'm more confident now. But then, my brother would point out I was confident during the coaching days of Tony Shaw. What can I say?

 

[rose jam]

The game was close but hardly of high quality, I would have said it was mistake riddled even given the conditions. A few good moments but a lot of players played poorly.

 

[Tbone McGraw]

It was a super tough and hard game but some of the skills were very ordinary. If hawks skills were that bad last week, we would have 2 wins on the board.

Just in addition, i really hope we make a statement this week against the scum. I think both teams made a statement today about tough, hard footy which would definitely scare some opposition teams and i hope we can make a similar statement against apparently decent opposition.

 

[Bay Pie]

Oh how I'd love these 2 teams to play in a prelim final and we are in the other against whoever.

The winner will be sore and jaded for the GF, similar to us last year.

 

[Collingwoodity]

It was a super tough and hard game but some of the skills were very ordinary. If hawks skills were that bad last week, we would have 2 wins on the board.

Just in addition, i really hope we make a statement this week against the scum. I think both teams made a statement today about tough, hard footy which would definitely scare some opposition teams and i hope we can make a similar statement against apparently decent opposition.

But they werent. Neither were ours.

We just did enough to win against Richmond.

Hope we can do the same against Carlton.

 

[daics cousin]

Yep the 3 teams that are up and about at the moment,Hawthorn ,Geelong and Carlton.

We will play a hard game against Carlton on Friday night don't worry.

We are palying at 55% capacity at the moment the other 3 are at 90% capacity.In fact we are playing maybe 1-2 good quarters of footy at the moment.

Yes we have been down this road,last year smashing sides from the get go and then we limped into the finals and nearly pulled off a beauty.But not so .

No bucks is managing and introducing players every week.Soon he will settle the team and if we can go into the second half of the year with a lot of the seniors back were a chance.

Never write off the Pies!

 

[Ed D]

Before anyone jumps in yeah I know its only round 2 but from what I saw today we are a fair way back at the moment in competing with the Dorks & Hacks....what I really notice was the skill level, decision making and hardness in both team that are streets a head of us, I really hope the Pies players were all down there watching, although reading some of the tweets, some were tossing up between smelling farts or sleeping, dining out or watching American sports......

I don't agree with this, I went to the game and it was a great contest, but the skills were not great at all. I took extra notice of it because there were a bunch of guys from the English cycling team in front of us and I didn't think the game reflected the skills very well to someone who hadn't seen the game before. There were a lot of errors, poor kicking and poor decisions made during the game. I suppose on TV it doesn't show up all that much but I wasn't worried about either team after the game.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Are we that far off though?

A team almost 50% comprised of kids and vastly inexperienced players should have had the Hawks iced twice and lost by 3 and a half goals with Franklin kicking 5, and that's despite only Pendlebury and Blair having great games.

I mean, are we really off at all?

I attribute the Richmond game to everyone being in CBF mode and Richmond dragging us down to their level somewhat.

Friday will be a clearer picture. Especially given who we're getting back.