Collingwood a Favorite for the flag. Yeah right :-(

[I@n S]

Its not just the fact that some dickhead said we are a favorite for the flag but the fact that I almost beleaved it. Ha yeah what a early April fool I was taken for. That Carlton VS Collingwood Millennium game was the worst I have ever seen. I can only hope that it is only the first game Nerves, early pre-season cup game that they are not used to and not a repeat of last seaon. With the way we played I would have to say if thats there best Collingwood can play then its worse than season 99
Happy new year and
Go Pies for god sake!!!

[foxy]

oh dear. oh dear oh dear oh dear. we're still crap! only worse! absolutely nothing to report about this game. i mean, what the hell? was i dreaming? was this some kind of strange nightmare? i'll try to make sense of it all tomorrow. or today. whenever.

we need wasley.

[ZED]

WE DID NOT HAVE A DEFENCE.
BUT I DONT THINK MM WAS REALLY THAT CONCERNED BECAUSE HE WAS NEVER TEMPTED TO SEND ROCCA BACK TO DEFENCE.
FRASER WILL HAVE TO PLAY THIS YEAR AT CHF.

[michy]

MY GOD, how crap was that game.Richardson should be dropped&Rocca should be benched(4 life).The only people who played well was willo,patterson,orchad.Buckley was held down well and Mel did a shit job on Fevola who made his debut with 12 goals it was just plain sad.One of the good points of the game
was seeing Rupert who looked good, well now that he grew his hair but he could of shaved.
Shaw could of done a better job then what MM did.i actually thought we had a good chance to win well with a new coach (who showed no change),Serious training sessions etc but nothing has changed we are still a wooden spooner team.yes,hopefully it was first game jitters but that makes no exception we looked crap and I was ashamed to be a collingwood supporter.
Rupert,u also played crap but I love ur hair and enjoyed watching u play .

49 till I die
go Rups
go pies

[NT - Pie]

Disgusting!!! Not only did they play bad, they did not try hard. The only encouraging sign is Malthouse did not look worried. Can any Pies mark the ball.Mal Michael, what a shocker. Try him up front. Couldnt eeven hold a little twerp like Fevola.
I am soooooooooooo disappointed........gimme back my membership money. This whole concept would have really hurt the club.........

[boomer]

is it at all possible that we have been training our asses off, with all types of maximal run tests etc, and are actually worn out? i know blight was always willing to 'thrash' his players and lose the odd game in the effort to bring about a more desirable 'long term result' ... thats what i'm going with anyway!!!!!!!!!

[I@n S]

Yeah well made points everyone. But I don't know why you all bag Patto. Hes much better that Richo and yet you give him a bad time when Richo should be the one to go.
Just because he is tall man!!
Thats just the way I feel anyway.
One realy good point that Tone made is that we did not have Sav, Burns, Olarenshaw, Presti and Wasley playing. I remembered Sav and Burns but not the others. Whoops sorry guys, its been a long summer. Went to the game and I noticed that the players do not talk to each other. Not calling for the ball or saying your right to kick NOTHING. My Example Willo running and then getting dumped, no one said kick the ball or anything. He just got dumped and penilised for holding the ball. Same in season 99, no talk. Don't know about most of you but I feel we traded the wrong players but we will have to see how we go.

[foxy]

hey, this is great, everyone's talking about Wasley being in our best 22. sounds just fine to me!

by the way where the hell was presti? for some reason our defence at least seems like a defence with presti down there looking all wobbly. at least he can spoil.

[Magpie mick]

I actually prepared my self for a thumping on friday night, so I was quite happy with the result. What a "complete pack of duds".Is this going to be the trend for the rest of season 2000? I hope not.

[Mike]

I agree Nuv, but we need to keep in mind that although this was an Ansett Cup round and in reality just a practice match, the time it was played and the way it was promoted made it much more than that.

Firstly it was the 'Match of the Millenium'. Promoted as such to a football starved public (first televised match for 3 months), it was very high profile, much higher than a normal home and away match.

Secondly, it was the first big game since the hype surrounding Mick Malthouse's appointment and the draft. We've been starved of success and consistency for such a long time that enthusiasm and optimism surrounding the hype was contagious and irresistable. Of course everyone (well - most people) was expecting miraculous changes and what we got was more of the same. It was to be expected, but wasn't.

Thirdly it came at a time when Collingwood is trying to establish a membership base large enough to ensure a secure position in the league. Admittedly, the true believers are still here, but had that game been won we would have converted a lot of the non-member supporters and picked up a heap of band-wagoners.

As it turned out it would have been much better for Collingwood not to have played the game at all. We've had a huge amount of publicity since the end of the season with the acquisition of MM and a successful draft. People (including me) were starting to believe that the Magpie machine was rolling again. Perhaps it is, but that game has brought us all back to earth with the realisation that it was only hype and wishful thinking after all, that you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse overnight.

Collingwood is still Collingwood, the faithfull are still there and always will be and the future's looking much more promising than it has been, but we could have had so much more had we not jumped this particular gun.

[michy]

Totally agree with u d'pie Rups will be great, he also looks great& he's always been great(well in my eyes).I can't wait till the season starts even if we are crap still,there will always be Rupert.

Go Rups
49 till I die
Go pies