What I learned today

[Kirby]

^ and Loki never misses a chance to slam Maxwell

 

[DWil6]

Loki, no excuses. Buckley was hideous with his disposal. Better to bomb long and turn it over then to either get caught and turn it over near 50, or just shank kicks repeatedly allowing goals through butchered turnovers. You can point the finger at Maxwell if you like, but he was very solid for the most part when we were under attack. I've never been one to criticise our players but how Buckley is close to good enough to play for an AFL team is one of life's many wonders.

 

[Tbone McGraw]

I didn't see the game but a couple of things.

Beams has stepped up massively.

Cloke may be back.

We may have found another player in Elliott.

This pies side is made of something special. Injuries and umpiring to a lesser extent, and we are top of the table.

Lastly, well done the crowd. Over 60,000 against an interstate team. Well done magpies army.

 

[daics_35]

I am very confident about this year if we dont get anymore injuries. Can't wait to play the Hawks and the Blues, I want to beat them so bad. Not looking forward to playing WCE in Perth, the umpires are going to kill us.

 

[magpielicious]

Simon Buckley.....

DISCLAIMER: That's what I feel like doing... Not what I want him to do.

CLASSIC ! Great kick and could be a jet, but GEE can he look anymore disinterested ? How about putting your body on the line
? Best game he has played was in the midfield v dogs. Great penetrating kick from the middle. Needs to be told, either get some urgency in your play or see you later !!

 

[Pie eyed]

Maxwell saved our arses a dozen times in the last.
Staunch.

 

[Pie eyed]

I am very confident about this year if we dont get anymore injuries. Can't wait to play the Hawks and the Blues, I want to beat them so bad. Not looking forward to playing WCE in Perth, the umpires are going to kill us.

We get to take our umps to their home game. Reciprocal agreement.

 

[Nebula1971]

Although we came home with the points, the Eagles are also a very good side and will not be underestimating them in September.

One big concern for me was how simply Hurn hit targets coming out of defence after a point. It was as though our forward pressure was non existent. We know he is a fantastic kick, but we can't allow the ball to exit our forward zone so easily. We certainly missed Sinkers pressure yesterday.

Reid, Tooves and Shaw will find touch. Pendles, Tazz and Dids all to return = a much stronger outfit...

Elliot was sensational with some of the grabs he took...

We are still building our momentum and like the pace we are travelling at.

 

[Stifler's mom]

I thought our Captain was terrific also.

Fasolo will be a top player in the near future.

 

[cfx_1]

I think half the back line had a shocker, but in all fairness, team cohesion is more important than you think, and you can't just slot half a backline in and say "get it done" against one of the best teams in the comp.

Having said that, I do think Knightmare has it exactly right when he says that Buckley may be delisted come seasons end. If not purely because he is 25 and is never really in best 22 contention.. He isn't even in best 25 contention. I would like him retained but not at the expense of blooding more youth. If he knows he is depth and nothing more than thats fine, but if I were him i'd be looking at perhaps giving Guy McKenna or Kevin Sheedy a call and seeing if they wanted a cheap fill in player for a couple of years.

 

[MegaBob]

My avatar notwithstanding, I thought Maxwell had a very solid game last night, did a lot of necessary cleaning up. Buckley is seriously doing my head in I watched the replay earlier today and I... don't know, someone have a word to him about maintaining control of a kick. Beams was immense and very quickly becoming a game breaking player for us and Daisy is well on his way to coming back to the form he showed last year.

 

[vjknight]

I am very confident about this year if we dont get anymore injuries. Can't wait to play the Hawks and the Blues, I want to beat them so bad. Not looking forward to playing WCE in Perth, the umpires are going to kill us.

i made a call before the geelong game that i didnt really care about the result that week or versus the crows the following, simply due to the mounting injury toll at the time. i had an expectation however that we wouldnt lose another game. not to say we wouldnt lose one, but with a full list (apart from the long termers), improvement in the mid rotation and some of the usual hine magic, we should be able to win all remaining games. of course we did win those games, and havent stopped since.

considering we now sit top, a game clear (percentage will always be an issue with a tough draw) i'm now thinking we might 'do a freo' in that return game and do some wholesale resting before the finals, if with 2 weeks to go we have a top 2 spot rapped up (in addition to round 18 vs GWS). many will say its dangerous to play with winning form, but 2011 taught us to manage our list better, and the one luxury granted to us if the top 2 is ours is to use the opportunity to rest anyone with any history of soft tissue injury. frankly i dont care if throwing the eagles game in round 22 guarantees them home finals - if we are good enough, we can take on all comers and win. thats what its all about.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

That was probably Buckley and Clarke's worst game for the year, and possibly their career's to be honest. But a bit harsh to go too hard given it's only been the ONE game. Both have been more than serviceable over the season.

I learned that we tend to give away very silly cheap goals still, we need to tighten those up.

1) Dale Thomas drops a chest mark he'd normally gobble, turns it over, goal
2) Jolly and Dawes have no clue who was meant to contest the ruck, NicNat goes up on his own, takes the ball away, goal
3) Buckley kicks to the top of defensive 50 (which was ok given 3 Pies players were there), but for some random reason, Swan runs around in a circle like a headless chook, handballs up in the air, turn over, goal

Then of course, one that can't be helped, Lynch dives into Clarke's shins and the umps got sucked in, goal.

If Cloke was gettin HALF the frees he should be getting, he'd be on 67 goals by now.

Also, that was Nick Maxwell's best game for the season so far.

 

[wicksy]

That was probably Buckley and Clarke's worst game for the year, and possibly their career's to be honest. But a bit harsh to go too hard given it's only been the ONE game. Both have been more than serviceable over the season.

Clarke, yes.... Buckely, f@#$ no!!!

Good attributes: Beautiful long kick, decent mark.
Bad attributes: Terrible disposal which effectively eliminates his good attribute.
Awareness of a block of 2x4. How many times have we seen him try and jog it out of our back 50? WTF!?
SLOW, SLOW, SLOW!
DUMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Busse]

Yeah Marty was ordinary, his worst game of the year.

Just interesting that the commentators were talking about how young West Coats was. I reckon there wouldn't be all that much difference in the average ages of the two sides out there today.

Yeah they should have researched it first Collingwood's average age 24y 39d and West Coast's 24y 194d and total game experience was in West Coast's favor as well not by much though. Collingwood 1923 and West Coast 1970

 

[ksardog]

what i have learnt is that we are terrible at defending kick ins, too many times the ball came out the back to one of their spares leaving them free entry to our 50. apart from that im very happy with how we are going. excited about what elliot showed and good to see travis hitting the scoreboard.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Thought Buckley was put under the pump on a fair few occasions and everyones favourite 'the skipper' was a bad offender in bombing blindly yet people sing his praises and slam Buckley...

Maxwell made some monumental clangers in teh first half and put teammates under pressure (mostly poor Buckley).

But Maxy got better as the game wore on and was a matchwinner. Buckley was ok.

 

[4#Didak#4]

I think people really had elevated expectations of Simon Buckley. He is purely a depth player, always has been and has filled a hole back there in recent weeks when we needed it so he has done his job.

As we all should know by now Simon struggles in the decision making department, when under intense pressure he is exposed and as such it would be a concern in a finals series if we needed Simon to hold down a role. Some of his decisions in our back 50 & in the corridor are frightening at times - the place we can least afford turnovers. A couple of handballs in the middle of the ground on Saturday were horrible - skill problem or bad decisions I am not sure.

Having said all that the fact is we may need him in September so the more he gets exposed at this level the more he will be capable when it matters (we hope!).

Benny J is the obvious person missing that Simon is covering for. I think however we can probably slot Heath Shaw back to that role and leave Simon out, with most of the rest of our defense returning. Unfortunately Simon hasn't taken his chance and cemented his position like some of the kids like Sinclair & now Elliot appear to be doing.

 

[zhoung]

We cannot afford to take Buckley or Clarke into a finals series.
Decision making gets shown up when the heat is on.

 

[hellfire]

1. A few players bounced back or continued to build back to good form. Maxwell, O'Brien, Thomas. Dawes also took a step forward despite not having a scoreboard impact. He really was monumental in those closing minutes, and it's heartening as we move to the business end given the opponents on Saturday.

2. Sinclair has become a very important player for us. His forward pressure is immense, and his absence leaves a gaping hole.

3. It is time to evolve the press to combat scoring from kickouts. We almost need to go man-on-man within the first kick, with a mini-press setup behind it to intercept a quick kick out once the ball is brought to ground. I'll back our players in one-on-ones to at least break even. If you take out scoring from kickouts this year, our percentage would be immense.

4. Our midfield is an embarrassment of riches. We literally have 5 A-graders, with a few others who are capable of A grade performances. Our second string midfield would destroy many first string midfields of the competition.

5. Predictions aside, this year has a much better feeling to it than last year. Not only in terms of enjoyment from the stands, but there hunger is back in the playing group and a gritty resolve that is symbolic of a great side. Fantastic to see.

 

[Pie eyed]

Maxwell made some monumental clangers in teh first half and put teammates under pressure (mostly poor Buckley).

But Maxy got better as the game wore on and was a matchwinner. Buckley was ok.

I laughed when he did that "limp" handpass which basically fell at his feet. Mostly at the thought of the posts which would pop up here if we had lost.

 

[Bloben]

We cannot afford to take Buckley or Clarke into a finals series.
Decision making gets shown up when the heat is on.

I'll give you Buckley however Clarke usually has terrific decision making and is one reason why his disposal efficiency is usually very high. We have played in a number of games where the "heat is on" so far however this was the first time I've seen him play so poorly this year. I'm willing to take Clarke's game against West Coast as a one off until I see him crumble again in a big game.

 

[jerry springer]

said this in 2010,and still say it.Buckley should be played on a HFF.Could be used as a forward defensive tagger and his boot would be a major weapon.

i think he has talent,but not in the backline

 

[Optimax]

said this in 2010,and still say it.Buckley should be played on a HFF.Could be used as a forward defensive tagger and his boot would be a major weapon.

i think he has talent,but not in the backline

He's dumb as dog shit, his one trick is roosting it 60 and thats all well in good if he at least roosted too the right areas, instead of just blindly bombing.

He's getting a game because Johnson has been injured, along with minor injuries to shaw and toovey. It's now time he gets dropped

 

[wicksy]

He's dumb as dog shit, his one trick is roosting it 60 and thats all well in good if he at least roosted too the right areas, instead of just blindly bombing.

He's getting a game because Johnson has been injured, along with minor injuries to shaw and toovey. It's now time he gets delisted

Edited for accuracy!!!