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Sep 26, 2010
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A 6 goal loss. Looks bad, could've been worse, could've been better.

But we aren't that far away from the best. And the best is Hawthorn. Not sure if there is a stat, solely based on efficiency but the Hawks are just that. Efficient in movement, skills and hardness but always beatable. They are a fantastic side, but we are on the incline, and feel our best isn't far from the benchmark.

Keep the faith, the confidence and belief that this side can go places. And hell, we finish 5th, knock Freo off in a semi and avoid the Hawks altogether when they are knocked out in the PF against the Cats, and we're home ;)

The signs are good.
 

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I thought the game was riddled with coaching errors and either a lack of fitness or a lack of attitude to get to the ball.

All things that can be rectified until finals.
 
Sep 19, 2011
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Well Dorkhorn had there best side in didn't they, so thats as good as we get....we just need to make better decisions going forward and put Reid down back and play Jolly & Grundy through the forward line.
 
Sep 25, 2011
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Just got home from the game. As far as I'm concerned:

We've shown we can beat Geelong and Sydney. Hawthorn however is a different kettle of fish, whatever gameplan we go in with simply doesn't work. Their midfield looked average last week against St Kilda, but tonight they towelled us up in the first half.

To me it felt like the same thing all over again: as soon as it gets on the outside and they have the ball, they kill us. How many goals did they get just running into space and basic crumbing?

On the plus side though, there were times when we dominated them, I think if we can brush up the skills we may be able to compete with them a little better. Cloke wasn't able to influence the game all that much - maybe that had to do with him being molested by Gibson and Lake more than anything else.

Oh and also:
Grundy :thumbsu: :hearts:
 

THATSGOLD

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A 6 goal loss. Looks bad, could've been worse, could've been better.

But we aren't that far away from the best. And the best is Hawthorn. Not sure if there is a stat, solely based on efficiency but the Hawks are just that. Efficient in movement, skills and hardness but always beatable. They are a fantastic side, but we are on the incline, and feel our best isn't far from the benchmark.

Keep the faith, the confidence and belief that this side can go places. And hell, we finish 5th, knock Freo off in a semi and avoid the Hawks altogether when they are knocked out in the PF against the Cats, and we're home ;)

The signs are good.
Mate, Hawks switched off in the last. If they had kept up the intensity we would have been rolled by 10 goals. They were never in trouble all night. ALL NIGHT they had us.
 

SwanBet

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Sep 15, 2007
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lets be honest, they have potentially one of the best forward lines of all time. All there forwards are capable of kicking 4-5+ goals on any given day- Franklin, Roughead, Rioli, Bruest, Gunston, Hale, its a potent set up. Whereas Collingwood only really has Cloke.

Reid must actually play as a swing man, not just a forward.... The good thing is that he has been tested forward against a few potential finals teams we will come up against.

Hawthorn- Must play down back, didn't work tonight. It should be; Reid>Franklin, Brown>Roughead, Keefe>Hale.

Geelong- Leave him back on Hawkins imo.

Sydney- 50/50 on this one. In finals like games, Sydney are going to kick it op Tippett's head, and he is too good for brown/keefe imo. Reid played well forward against Sydney, but im just wondering whether its better to play him down back.

Fremantle- Play him forward. Especially if Mcpharlin is out.

Essendon- Play forward, there key forwards aren't overly dangerous + he exposed Fletcher one on one.

Richmond- Leave him on Jack... i wan't the ball kicked to Cloke every time because he does not lose one on one to Rance.

Port Adelaide- I would play him forward, Keefe and Brown should be able to take Westhoff and Schulz.
 
Not closing in fast enough. Still the same major problems of field kicking and goalkicking that will never go away. Simple set shots being missed by all players (not just Cloke), and that simple 20 metre pass to Blair all alone 15 metres out in the last that was too high for him sums up our foot skills.

We also need to defend better in a lot of situations but the biggest one that gets me tearing my hair out is coast to coast by opposition teams. We defend too far up on opposition kick ins. Tonight multiple occasions of the Hawthorn kick in going long, spilling out the back and then 2-3 Hawthorn players streaming forward with no Collingwood players in front of them. It isn't just tonight that this has happened.

Then we have our kick outs which we give to multiple players instead of training just one or two. You don't get any consistency that way and then get situation like Goldsack who makes a costly error with a poor kick.

Until we rectify these and other issues we will be thereabouts but not at the summit.
 

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What swanbet said times 100. The hawks have so much firepower up forward and multiple avenues to goal. I'm not sure what the answer is but I thought we played in patches so maybe if we can clean up our skills and nail the goals we should, like Cloke and Elliot stuffing up.
 

noideaatall

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May 14, 2011
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Yep, and nah ...

Sure, heaps of good signs, not the least Grundy. Finally a bit of fight in the team too. But hawks well and truly had our measure last night. We are improving, not sure about closing the gap. Need a bit more talent in the team for that.
 

Giant Sphinx

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Oct 4, 2011
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Compared to the last couple of games against the hawks I agree. We had some chances to put some pressure on them but blew it with bad skills and bad decisions both on the field on off. I came away thinking we still have some work to do but not as much as the score would say.
 

PieNSauce

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Aug 22, 2007
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Compared to the last couple of games against the hawks I agree. We had some chances to put some pressure on them but blew it with bad skills and bad decisions both on the field on off. I came away thinking we still have some work to do but not as much as the score would say.
Agree. Normally I would come away from a 6 goal loss feeling really deflated but there were definitely some good signs if you discount the skill errors. The skill errors were a bit of a one off since it's not something that's characterised the side that much this year and you couldn't imagine that happening too often.
 
Although losing was highly disappointing, I did see some positive signs last night.

I love the way Grundy goes about it. He is star already based on his game awareness and clean disposal of the ball. He also has a super leap about him too!

We were aggressive in patches last night but more than usual (particularly against the Hawks) which is a great sign.

We troubled, at stages, the hawks midfield with pace and fluent run. Another good sign.

The 35 points is still a clear indicator that we aren't working hard defensively which all starts from our forward line.

Now for some negatives.

On too many occasions, they had lose men everywhere. This cost us in the end. I dont know how we let this happen time and time again.

Cloke needs to get his s**t together. He is turning into a junk time specialist. Most power forwards can at least shrug their opponent off.

We need to take more risks against the hawks. Its that simple.

Look all in all I thought we played as good as we could. The hawks are on another level than what our current squad can win against. They also lift a few gears when they play us which sucks.
 

Lord Wilberforce

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Apr 5, 2013
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We have to be realistic. The story of the season has been inconsistency, so we have been in hot form lately, but that could easily turn around. If we were to be a major threat for the flag, I think we needed to be more consistent throughout the season, which would have got us a top 4 spot as well.

2013 is not the year. We may shake things up in the finals, but highly doubt we'll be in the GF. Nonetheless, it has (surprisingly) turned out to be an important year for development. So, there is definitely some hope for next year.
 

JackoSpades

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Sep 24, 2011
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Space and uncontested marks killed us.
When they got the ball they seemed to have free players everywhere.

When we got it all our players seemed to be manned up.

One stand out example of this was in the centre.
The ball went their defensive side where there was two hawks then 5 magpies in a line and then 5 hawks their offensive side of the square, they just pop the ball over and run in a wave to a goal.

When they kick out from a point they always had free players.
When we kick out we a forced deep into the pocket then have to bomb it out.

We constantly had to bomb it into our forward line whilst they sliced and diced us going forward picking out free players.

At times it seemed they had more Players...

Good effort but we have big problems playing them.
 

THATSGOLD

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Can't beat the Hawks in a shoot out. We didn't have control of the game. Somehow Buckley needs to learn to slow it down like Geelong kick and pass the ball around, frustrate the opposition by taking time off the clock. Can't do that with the poor kicking skills of guys like Maxwell in the team who bomb it long as soon as we get it. No wonder we have massive scores kicked against us by Hawthorn.
 
Aug 29, 2005
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lets be honest, they have potentially one of the best forward lines of all time. All there forwards are capable of kicking 4-5+ goals on any given day- Franklin, Roughead, Rioli, Bruest, Gunston, Hale, its a potent set up. Whereas Collingwood only really has Cloke.

Reid must actually play as a swing man, not just a forward.... The good thing is that he has been tested forward against a few potential finals teams we will come up against.

Hawthorn- Must play down back, didn't work tonight. It should be; Reid>Franklin, Brown>Roughead, Keefe>Hale.

Geelong- Leave him back on Hawkins imo.

Sydney- 50/50 on this one. In finals like games, Sydney are going to kick it op Tippett's head, and he is too good for brown/keefe imo. Reid played well forward against Sydney, but im just wondering whether its better to play him down back.

Fremantle- Play him forward. Especially if Mcpharlin is out.

Essendon- Play forward, there key forwards aren't overly dangerous + he exposed Fletcher one on one.

Richmond- Leave him on Jack... i wan't the ball kicked to Cloke every time because he does not lose one on one to Rance.

Port Adelaide- I would play him forward, Keefe and Brown should be able to take Westhoff and Schulz.

If he played back against the Hawks then that allows Gibson to help Lake double team Cloke (who got in Clokes head and flogged him after the 1st quarter), we have seen the result of how dysfunctional our forward line is when Cloke is the sole target we can't go into the finals with Reid back.

Their forwards would kick less goal if our midfield put more pressure on the Hawks mids who when spreading from the contest absolutely kill us for leg speed.

We really need to either trade for Boyd or maybe even Watts and de Melbourne him, as we can't enter 2014 with just Cloke.

Reid must play forward he had a bad night but all forwards have a bad one here or there.
 

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