Match report...thank God for fox footy.!

[ed healey]

Once again apologies for last weeks non report due my lack of willingness to watch the debacle after hearing it on radio.
But this week thanx to fox footy i could watch it live.
In WA today every tv station and radio channel had the wet toast game on and barely a mention of coll v haw was going to heard.
But now i have them tricked,i have fox footy.
Fridge full,bbq fired up so lets play.

The opening bounce and Mckee jumped and landed about 4 feet from the contest and then fell over,hawks went forward,i quickly devoured a stubby and thought here we go again.
It took 11 minutes for us to enter our 50 zone,Burns and Nick davis were strong in defence but we just couldnt get a forward movement going.
But then it started to get going.
Rupe passes to Ant and we are on the board with a goal.
Taz then had a purple patch and kicked 3 goals in a row.
2 from free kicks,as an old pie fan from way back i was suspicious of this and thought they were just suckering us up for later when the hawks would get the frees.
barracking for the pies for as long as i have makes me never really feel that we have a game won and i am ready at any stage for a turnover and a change in the swing of the game.
But we are applying pressure 100% of the time and the Hawks obviously dont like it.
the one constant in football is bad and confusing umpiring.
today was the goal umpires turn.
players would celebrate a goal and get one finger and others would mutter the F word that we can see but they dont realise it and still get the 2 fingers.
To finish the qtr Nick davis made something out of nothing thru sheer persistence and Rupe hanballed at a million miles an hour to Didak for an easy goal.
qtr time 5 goals to nil
the players on both sides are slipping over so often i was expecting steven bradbury to skate thru and grab the gold again at any minute.
Crawford starts to get a lot of the pill and they get an early goal thru dixon and my fears of throwing away a lead resume but then the hawks turnoveritis becomes rife,a mirror image of us last week and boofa chips in and presents Taz with his 4th major.
Joel Smith gets moved off taz and Hay gets him,so Taz welcomes him with a whack that i didnt see and gets reported.
Its the little 1 % things that are making the difference this week,we are committed and working together.
turnovers are still happening but the pressure we are putting on them is paying off and they have just as many t/os.
then Mcgeough celebrates his first goal in AFl and the G ump spoils the party with 1 finger and then Crawford sparks the Hawks into 3 time on goals,. but just on siren time mcgeough pases to Boofa who goals and we turn 4 goals up.
Tom hafey can be heard somewhere sayin.its the Chasin and Tacklin.
pies are harder at the footy.

After the break schwab makes a few moves,hay to FF,and it works immediately,the hawks goal in first 30 sec and are getting a lot of the ball.
But Clement decides to get in on the action and sinks a LONG BOMB from 60 out.
Now the large lady should be gargling by now but as usual when its time for her to sing ,we cant get her on stage.
taz misses 2 set shots and Bucks misses a couple.
then Mckee went for a slow motion run and has 4 bounces but only gains about 20 metres and its Lonies turn to miss a snap.
Bucks then says bugger it,the lady wants to sing let her sing!.and sinks a 50 metre goal.
lekkas scrambles a goal but 15 sec later Nick davis goals from Bucks sharking another of Mckees losing taps.
Its now Magic Time as leon produces his weekly ripper goal.and Freeza should have sunk one on siren time.
but i am used to us missing those.
I wish i wasnt tho,as life as a pie fan would be much better without the missed shots.

the final stanza and Hawks goal in first 20 sec again.
somehow im still nervous,it comes from years of frustration.
But Ant chops in for a goal after they turn it over again and im now ready to relax.
Ant is rucking but looks like he s not enjoying it.
even tho mckee is slow and lumbering and not a ruckmans arsehole.he just allows fraser and Ant to play other roles and mckee does fill a hole down back quite well at times.
fraser is sadly out of form,dont know how he will back up for thursday.
McGeough finished the match off with his 2nd career goal.
its over now so lets all singalong.!!!!!
votes
3 bucks
2 licka
1 rupe
1 nick davis
1 burns
1 tarrant
1 mcgeough

the 4 changes to last weeks side made a lot of difference to the side.
we still turned it over a plenty but so did they,probably because they are no good and we never let up on them.
thursday will be a different prospect but if we play 100 minutes of 100% acountability again we can make it interesting.
gopies.

[MargOZ]

I agree with you Ed, in hindsight we had the game in our hands all day but as a Maggies supporter it's difficult not to be nervous unless we're at least 16 goals up - past history still haunting us I guess! And we're definitely missing too many goals - something we'll need to improve on for Thursday, as we could have completely buried the Hawks and bumped up our percentage quite nicely.

Geez, I was sure we must have paid the Umps in the first quarter - or as Ed said, they were lulling us into a false sense of security!!! But in all seriousness, the team that's harder for the ball and plays in front should get the free and that's exactly how we played for most of the match.

We're still not playing our best and are still not at full strength or fitness, but if we keep playing with that type of endeavour and confidence we can beat anyone. And when we do hit our straps we'll be finals material without a doubt.

It was such a great team effort that I thought it was hard to pick out just a few individuals, but guys who put in an awesome performance were Bucks (he is everywhere - will be even more damaging if he could slot a couple of goals every week), Tazz (given plenty of space and made the most of it - great to see the Umps finally notice how often he is scragged and reward him), Burns (what a champion!), Nick (showed the quality player he is and will continue to be when he's fully fit), Lica (his best game so far this year), and McGough (what a first match, those few mistakes will disappear with experience and he'll be a future star).

The backline may not have appeared to stand out but they did a fantastic job and one of the highlights of the game was our running the ball out of the backline and moving it down the ground quickly. Guys that played well and put in all day were Rupe (that performance should easily keep him in the seniors - great effort all day), Clement (ripper goal), Leon (is it in his contract to do something spectacular every week!!!), Didak (solid game and would like to see him with more seniors time to really take that next step).

Holland (didn't star but worked hard), McKee (we know he's not the no.1 ruckman in the league but he does work hard especially around the ground and gives us other options), Presti (doesn't star but always solid down back), Rocca (great start to his year, wasn't the match winner but he works his butt off, should always kick for goal!), Wakelin (great match), Cloke (solid match and still shows heaps of potential), Lockyer (tried hard but not as damaging as he can be).

Lonie (not at his best yet but will keep improving with more match fitness), Scotland and Steinfort (didn't star but good supporting players), Freeborn (didn't have a big impact on the game).

And Josh always gives 100% but still no-where near his best - should we be playing him or resting him?

Not sure what Mick gave the players during the week but they moved the ball quickly, improved their skill level, had far less turnovers compared to previous weeks and made the Hawks pay for their sloppy turnovers. They gave the forwards plenty of room to run and lead, they ran hard and backed each other up, got the ball out of the centre, ran the ball nicely out of the back line and I loved seeing the encouragement and pats on the back throughout the match.

If we can reproduce yesterday's effort on Thursday AND kick straight the Bumbers will have a match on their hands!

3 - Buckley
2 - Tarrant
1 - Licuria

GO PIES!
Marg