What's wrong with Collingwood?

[HFF]

Collingwood injuries:

Cloke - over-rated (2-3 weeks)
Davis - hot and cold but a good player (test)
Didak - good player (1 week)
Fraser - average ruckman (test)
Johnson - average player (3-4 weeks)
Medhurst - good player (test)
Rusling - not a senior player (test)

6 senior players injured, most not long-term. Didak and Medhurst are good players missing, Davis also a reasonable player out, should easily cover the others.

We went in against Geelong without Harvey, Wells, Campbell, Smith, Hansen, Pratt, Rawlings. Others missing as well who are not quite in our best side yet. We aren't making lame injury excuses though and weren't playing a second rate side either.

Harvey- good player.

Wells- hasn't done anything since drafted. Can't even play under any duress. Your coach said so.

Campbell- who?

Smith- very much like Rusling, can't stay on the park. If Rusling ain't a senior player, then neither is this bloke.

Hansen- good emerging player. Not better than CLoke however.

Pratt- battles above his weight

Rawlings- makes O'Bree look like a star.

Lets face it, the Collingwood outs are far superior to the NM outs. Didak, Davis, and Medhurst are all A-grade players. Cloke is thereabouts. Thomas, an emerging star was also missing today fwiw. Fraser is our #1 ruckman and has been in solid form this season. Don't rate Johnson and Rocca, however, despite them both missing. Rusling is in our best 22 when fit but he has had shocking luck with injury.

Having said all that, you expect the players out there to show some heart and "do something". Run, carry, take the game on, something.

Problem starts at the top IMO. Time for Mick to move aside.

The Bucks express is gaining momentum.

 

[Primetime Pricey]

Lets just be honest.... we are not good enough.

Sure some people on here want to have pot shots about culture and this and that, clearly they are just w***ers but in reality we have 5 or 6 players out there that are not AFL level and its hurting us.

Toovey and Leigh Brown must have photos of Mick in a dodgy position cause surely they wouldnt even get games at Melbourne.
Ryan Cook is a dumb footballer, made a A-Grade effort in that marking contest with little Eddie Betts....
Corrie is useless, Ben Reid is too slow once he gets the ball.

Presti, Pendles and Sidebottom are pretty much the only guys who can say they played well. Maybe Anthony, he didnt stop trying.

1st qtr Judd was just running free and Mick did NOTHING! Decision making by all parties was hopeless.

Sad to say but Carlton are miles in front of us

 

[Gavin Excell]

granted they had significant injuries.

But the Malthouse gameplan is being exposed on almost a weekly basis now. If they don't have a plan B and some of those injured players take time returning, bottom 4 is not out of the question.

Making the 8 is fanciful

 

[janiek]

They are a team of very few stars that relies on a strong, consistent team effort week-after-week.

They're not giving that at the moment.

i think the team thing was a big factor in today - as per the example highlighted by the commentators Sidebottom takes on 4 or 5 carlton players
no other collingwood players seemed to try & get there to help out or to say well done to the young guy for having a go

 

[KnaveyBlue]

There was no hard tag on Judd. Game over.

 

[SA HAWK]

Injuries are a fair part you would think.

Even with a full strength team i don't think they would have beaten Carlton but when you take out 4-5 important players it really hurts. Collingwood don't have the depth to cover those players.

Dane Swan looks injured and Heath Shaw is way out of form too.

 

[AndyLucimitis]

Virtually missing their top 6 players - I don't care who you are, in such an even season you just cannot cover that.

Even Geelong would struggle. Carlton did what they had to do but I don't think you can read too much into this game.

 

[Cuzz09]

We really should beat Collingwood this week!

Can see them beating us though.

We put in such a great effort vs Sydney that I can see them being a bit down this week.

Collingwood have a great record away and an away trip could bring them together.

Also guys like Medhurst, Didak, Davis etc seem to always kill us.

We "should" win though - GO EAGLES!!!!

 

[HFF]

granted they had significant injuries.

But the Malthouse gameplan is being exposed on almost a weekly basis now. If they don't have a plan B and some of those injured players take time returning, bottom 4 is not out of the question.

Making the 8 is fanciful

Very fair and spot on IMO.

Mick and his game plan is being exposed almost exclusively.

Crawf is even talking about the game plan to Maxwell on MMM as we speak.

Time for change.

Bucks is gaining momentum every week.

 

[Henry Jr]

Dont shoot the messenger, I never said Hawthorn had a premiership hangover. In fact the thread is not about HAwthorn so how about pulling your head in.

I never said it was about Hawthorn. Just pointing out the excuse you were using.

Seems some supporters can use injuries as an excuse when it suits whilst for others, its just poor form rather than personal.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

I never said it was about Hawthorn. Just pointing out the excuse you were using.

Seems some supporters can use injuries as an excuse when it suits whilst for others, its just poor form rather than personal.

Not making excuses, just stating facts.

I said injuries were the short answer ie temporary reason. Our entire forward line is missing, meaning we have to find our fifth and sixth choice forwards to fill the gaps. And our only ruckman is missing - or at least the only one Malthouse chooses to select.

I said Malthouse and his gameplan and selection policies are the long answer ie the main reason.

 

[Jimmy C]

If they don't win next week against the Eagles at Subiaco, they can almost forget about the 8 for this season. They were bound to have a down season soon anyways, it happens when you have young players and below average experienced ones (e.g. Fraser, Maxwell, L. Brown, Rocca). Shaw has been very poor this season, same goes to Cloke and many others. Can't believe they recruited Corrie and Brown, made their list worse off.

Very true and well said

In addition we are basically an ordinary list that needs everything to go right to get a win on any day

 

[Collingwould]

Injuries are a fair part you would think.

Even with a full strength team i don't think they would have beaten Carlton but when you take out 4-5 important players it really hurts. Collingwood don't have the depth to cover those players.

Dane Swan looks injured and Heath Shaw is way out of form too.

Shaw lining up on the fwd line doesn't make me comfortable, made his name rebounding.

What also worries me is we have kids, no I mean our players look like kids against everyone else, or is it just me?

did they spend so much on media training and electronic games at the Lexus Centre that they didn't have enough for weights???

 

[Zvim]

Mick called Leigh Brown fantastic in the post match conference. Mick reminds me so much of Laidley it isn't funny.

 

[Jimmy C]

There was no hard tag on Judd. Game over.

No one hard tags judd numnuts cause it doesn't work - hard tags are thing of the past anyway with the way footy is played today - get up to speed champ

Judd could have had 5 possies today and still carlton would of won

Pies not good enough (not just today)

Carlton just average but were always going to win today - and easily as happened

 

[Soul_Pie]

Injuries, players out of form, and Malthouse's increasingly predictable, one dimensional play style means we are in a pretty poor position at this stage. Our players just look flat, dispassionate and lacking in focus. I would be surprised if we made the finals at this rate.

 

[Nankervis brothers]

8 outs in one week, the majority through injury. Few if any teams would cover that and win. Geelong, maybe.

 

[Madblue]

Bottom line is even with the outs today Collingwood just don't have the list to be a class team. They were way overated at the start of the season to be a top 4 team. Malthouse's gameplan doesn't help either !

Lean years ahead for the Pies.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

8 outs in one week, the majority through injury. Few if any teams would cover that and win. Geelong, maybe.

There were probably another 2 or 3 who shouldnt have played due to injury as well, Shaw being the most notable but also Davis and Swan.

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

Be interesting to see the Pies half back line pick through the Eagles zone next week. Thought the problem was having no one to finish off the good work by O'Brien Shaw Clarke etc. this week. That game was heavily skewed by a 80-90% fit Swan looked like he should have had a rest but took some Cortisone for the team.

 

[HFF]

Bottom line is even with the outs today Collingwood just don't have the list to be a class team. They were way overated at the start of the season to be a top 4 team. Malthouse's gameplan doesn't help either !

Lean years ahead for the Pies.

Going into this game we were like most of the competition on 3-4.

Just remember, whilst we have half-a-dozen or so players out, you are ONE injury away from a bottom 4 finish.

Agree on Mick and his game plan though.

 

[raman]

They've won one premiership in 50 years.

What, was the thread title a serious question?

 

[Zvim]

lol Shane Crawford on MMM gave the 3 points for worst on ground to Mick.

Leigh Brown has got 3, 3 and 2 in the last three weeks for worst on ground. I like Browny, he is a great guy. If only he was good at footy. He has the ability, the size for footy, it just isn't working for him unfortunately.

 

[Black Flag]

Injuries, players out of form, and Malthouse's increasingly predictable, one dimensional play style means we are in a pretty poor position at this stage.

Having a poor, shallow list doesn't help either.

 

[Nankervis brothers]

lol Shane Crawford on MMM gave the 3 points for worst on ground to Mick.

Leigh Brown has got 3, 3 and 2 in the last three weeks for worst on ground. I like Browny, he is a great guy. If only he was good at footy. He has the ability, the size for footy, it just isn't working for him unfortunately.

Yeah, LOL. Shane Crawford has become as big a tool as his hero Sam Newman.