Week 1 of Finals: Loved, Loathed and Learned

[Its not the coach]

Agree to most of that. Last year I feel the "premiership favourites" tag was justifiable as we were the best H&A team & totally choked & copped our fair abuse on the chin from Collingwood fans.
This year is different we have been flogged by the pies & Giants early. Flogged by the cats & flogged by your mob!
The premiership favourites tag is an overall but you need to get to the big dance first & the degree of difficulty is 10 folds over what the pies will face regardless of #pieshaveinjuries.
I'm happy to be named favorites but it annoys me that the irritating pies fans continue to play down their lottery win including WC s**tting the bed against the hawks.
I see the pies having lot of familiarity of what the Tigers had in 2017 with everything just going right for them including luck when it counts.
Anyway time will tell. I feel If we win it this year it would be way more pleasing & successful than 2017 after fighting through heavy injuries, diversity & media writing us off before the bye.

You really shouldn’t have just rolled over to hawthorn at home, it could’ve been you getting a bedtime story.

Liked: ummmm I’ll get back to ya.
......
Thinking outside the box... well I like NicNat, good to watch but I don’t like what he is about to do to us.

Learned: Richmond are far better than the rest.

Hated: Injuries

Look on the bright side, If west coast never lost to hawthorn the cats might not have had the luxury of getting the Collingwood game out the way in the 1st week and avoiding them in the preliminary final. A cats win this week wouldn't surprise me at all, and if you do win it's into a prelim against a nervous Richmond with last year's prelim choke in the back of their mind, who you smashed earlier in the year at the same ground. Cats far from out of it.

 

[PerthBoy86]

Look on the bright side, If west coast never lost to hawthorn the cats might not have had the luxury of getting the Collingwood game out the way in the 1st week and avoiding them in the preliminary final. A cats win this week wouldn't surprise me at all, and if you do win it's into a prelim against a nervous Richmond with last year's prelim choke in the back of their mind, who you smashed earlier in the year at the same ground. Cats far from out of it.

Don't kid yourself, they're not getting past Richmond. If anything Richmond will be stronger and more determined not to choke. Unfortunately I feel it'll now take a small miracle for anyone to best the Tiges, their flag to lose.

 

[Its not the coach]

Don't kid yourself, they're not getting past Richmond. If anything Richmond will be stronger and more determined not to choke. Unfortunately I feel it'll now take a small miracle for anyone to best the Tiges, their flag to lose.

I'm not kidding anyone, you have your opinion and I'll have mine, And mine is that side of the draw is wide open and any one of Richmond, Geelong and to a lesser extent west coast Could get through to the G.F. And don't kid yourself by thinking it would take a small miracle to stop Richmond taking the flag, The smart money will be on Collingwoods flag.

 

[Its not the coach]

Agree to most of that. Last year I feel the "premiership favourites" tag was justifiable as we were the best H&A team & totally choked & copped our fair abuse on the chin from Collingwood fans.
This year is different we have been flogged by the pies & Giants early. Flogged by the cats & flogged by your mob!
The premiership favourites tag is an overall but you need to get to the big dance first & the degree of difficulty is 10 folds over what the pies will face regardless of #pieshaveinjuries.
I'm happy to be named favorites but it annoys me that the irritating pies fans continue to play down their lottery win including WC s**tting the bed against the hawks.
I see the pies having lot of familiarity of what the Tigers had in 2017 with everything just going right for them including luck when it counts.
Anyway time will tell. I feel If we win it this year it would be way more pleasing & successful than 2017 after fighting through heavy injuries, diversity & media writing us off before the bye.

I'm not trying to be arguementive but if I remember correctly the Richmond team of 2017 had a dream run with injuries, And to be honest if Richmond had the injuries Collingwood have at the moment they would be performing like they did before the bye, Definitely not in a home prelim.

 

[My Cotchin Rules]

I'm not trying to be arguementive but if I remember correctly the Richmond team of 2017 had a dream run with injuries, And to be honest if Richmond had the injuries Collingwood have at the moment they would be performing like they did before the bye, Definitely not in a home prelim.

Yeah fair call I agree we wouldn't be where we are not going to hide that truth. It showed with all the heavy losses we struggled badly. We were lucky in 2017 hence why I said all the luck was falling at the right times.
Collingwood are a great side & thrive the underdog status as they seem to always get up against the favorites which shows in their excellent interstate record.
Pies will be hard to stop in the GF & I feel they will be only afraid to face WC.

 

[PerthBoy86]

I'm not kidding anyone, you have your opinion and I'll have mine, And mine is that side of the draw is wide open and any one of Richmond, Geelong and to a lesser extent west coast Could get through to the G.F. And don't kid yourself by thinking it would take a small miracle to stop Richmond taking the flag, The smart money will be on Collingwoods flag.

Why do you have Geelong ahead of WC? I mean it's your opinion, just wondering.

Also I can't see any way Collingwood could be favourites. They could win if at their electric best, and Richmond are a bit off, but from what I've seen Richmond just look more solid. I'm not entirely sure Collingwood will even get past the PF.

 

[PerthBoy86]

Yeah fair call I agree we wouldn't be where we are not going to hide that truth. It showed with all the heavy losses we struggled badly. We were lucky in 2017 hence why I said all the luck was falling at the right times.
Collingwood are a great side & thrive the underdog status as they seem to always get up against the favorites which shows in their excellent interstate record.
Pies will be hard to stop in the GF & I feel they will be only afraid to face WC.

Facing a team you dropped a 30 point lead to just get beaten by against in a GF a second time may play on their minds...or spur them on more, if they needed more motivation. I don't think the history and the demons of the 'Colliwobbles' would play much on players minds in the heat of battle, but I may be wrong. The 2002 GF was a close affair, while in 2003 the Lions blew them away. Like in 1992 it was close while 1994 was a thrashing. But I honestly still think Collingwood would fear Richmond more, even if theyre competitive against both. Collingwood were beaten most badly by GWS, but a PF at the G may be a totally different affair.

 

[Leeda]

tiger are learning to love themselves

 

[Its not the coach]

Why do you have Geelong ahead of WC? I mean it's your opinion, just wondering.

Also I can't see any way Collingwood could be favourites. They could win if at their electric best, and Richmond are a bit off, but from what I've seen Richmond just look more solid. I'm not entirely sure Collingwood will even get past the PF.

Gut feel, It's in Melbourne, Geelong finished minor premiers, And west Coast have put in the odd bad one in big games hence hawks a fortnight ago and if they did beat Geelong they would be on the road again the next week,, But as stated in my original point that side of the draw is wide open and either one of them 3 teams in the GF wouldn't surprise.

Collingwood look more likely to get through to the GF facing either the inexperienced Brisbane, Or the GWS team that continues to fail at the MCG in the minor round so I see no reason they would turn it around in front of 80000 pies fans in a prelim.

The pies have given me no reason to doubt them, In Collingwoods 5 recent finals they have shown up ready to play every time and been in all of them til the death, They put on a clinic against Richmond in the prelim last year and also have the disapointment of losing the GF last year by a kick driving them.

Collingwood change the momentum in games better than anyone from attacking bold scintillating football to slow keeping off. Their Midfield is as deep as it gets full of players that can hit the score board, Their forward line multi functional with players that can play back or forward depending on team needs with match ups.
Only time will tell.

 

[M0557]

tiger are learning to love themselves

 

[SloppyJoe]

We're playing either the raining premiers or this year's minor premiers

But we're awful in the wet

 

[PerthBoy86]

But we're awful in the wet

Unlikely to be wet.

 

[smasha]

Richmond were supposed to be awful in the heat and away from the G.
Liked our win
Loved the full Gabba,great fun,Dusty amazing.
Loathed not much
Learnt ,Eagles are Richmond’s biggest threat then Collingwood.

 

[Tiger2709]

oh really? gotta be a stretch to claim underdog status now mate. Yours to lose. No 2 ways about it. Just like last year.

mmmm just like last year.

So as we can't meet you in the Prelim you can only mean that your going to choke to us in the last few minutes of the Grand Final, cool.

 

[roacheee]

tiger are learning to love themselves

yes but it's tough love

 

[SloppyJoe]

Unlikely to be wet.

Woosh

 

[kranky al]

Woosh

But hes the essendon coach now

 

[tugga]

Loved:
The atmosphere at the Gabba. Packed house, plenty of away support and vocal home support.
Giants' response to the doubters
Nicnat's comeback.
Dusty

Loathed:
injuries to Greenwood, Robinson, Lids, Duncan, De Goey
No real excitement in any of the games after half time. Pies were never going to lose despite Hawkins missing that late shot.

Learned:
Brisbane not done with yet. Saw a lot to like in their past two games against us.
If WCE win it, they will have deserved it. Three trips to Melbourne coming up if they are good enough.
Pies poor form of a month or so ago is well and truly gone. They are back on track.
Pies vs Tiges GF is now looming likely. Melbourne will go absolutely off if it happens.