Collingwood V St.Kilda

[AlfAndrews]

Dreadful game, I thought. I'm very thankful that I don't barrack for St.Kilda.

Ah well, I guess if we play enough games we're bound to eventually find a team that is even worse than we are.

Not much to get excited about.

Fraser played what was probably his best game so far. He showed great maturity at one point when he pushed Anthony Rocca away from a potential punch up with a St.Kilda player after Josh had marked and the St.Kilda player had fallen on top of him.

Leon Davis got plenty of the ball and showed a ton of pace. But his disposal is probably the worst of any player in the team.

Now I pose this question (for all you football experts out there):
Will Leon Davis's disposal skills improve with experience or are disposal skills the sort of thing you're supposed to learn BEFORE you become an A.F.L. footballer?

Great game Buckley.
I liked Ukovic tonight.
Johnson excellent.
Pebbles is on the way back.

Did anyone else start getting a horrible sinking feeling early in the 3rd quarter?

There wasn't much excitement in the crowd after the match (with the exception of the Unofficial Cheer Squad, God bless 'em). Where I was sitting nobody seemed very impressed. Hardly anyone sang the song.

I wish I could feel good about tonight. I really want to. But I'm afraid one unimpressive win against sub-standard opposition does nothing to erase the pain of 9 straight losses and another wasted season. All I can feel is dread at the thought of what Hawthorn are going to do to us next week.

Sorry.



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**floreat pica**

[NICK THE PIE MAN]

Hey Alf,
Yeah, i agree. Not much to excited about. But you must admit we did play well in the 2nd Quarter. Yes, i did feel very sick early in the 3rd Quarter! I was thinking shit,this could be the bloody Geelong game all over again! Put we held on. Even MM didn't look too happy in the coaches box after the game. And the boys wern't that excited when they sang the club song in the rooms after the game. There is alot of room for improvement, and MM knows it.
CARN THE PIES!!!

[Neil Appleby]

At last!
And didn't I enjoy this one....well the first half anyway.
When a team suffers a long losing run, the problems are two fold.
1. They lose all confidence and 2. They forget how to win.
I hope we remember this one. It obviously will do the younger blokes a world of good.
Skill doesn't just walk out the door after a few losses. Opposition coaches and players scrutinise and formulate plans to negate those skills.
In our case a]blanket Buckley b] blanket Willo...pretty easy, just apply liberal amounts of pressure and c] target the young guys.
Oh and Sav usually takes himself out of the game by applying the pressure to himself.
After last night, a little confidence should return. The players know that their ability is still there AND they did whollop Hawthorn about 9 weeks ago....we're some chance.
Gee even Alf must surely,in the deepest, darkest recesses of his currently adled,confused and depression-hazed brain, harbour a tiny spark of confidence.
I agree Alf, Fraser played his best game last night....showed poise, self control and a ton of skill.
"Steroids" Johnson oozes class. That was easily his best game...not a lot of touches, but everyone counted; beautiful disposal.
One of Richo's most consistent games...I was almost starting to rely on him down there....sheesh!!!!!
Buckley, great game thank god. Hope he's seen the back of his mediocre form of late.
Sav and Pebbles will take a bit of confidence away too.
I liked Dimma's game too. His disposal isn't always good but he just keeps getting where the ball is.
Rupes had a very good first half when the game was there to be won.
I'm not convinced about Davis either.
His disposal is not up to league standard; he just keeps turning it over so easily.
Licca's disposal was miles better last night.
I hope that continues 'cos he's just a real goer.
The players were strangely subdued when they sang the club song weren't they?
That worries me a bit....I know the second half was very ordinary , but I would have thought they would have been elated at finally cracking it.
Heads up people, we've weathered the storm, now on to a few more good wins.
We're already 2 up on last year with heaps of reasons to like the idea of 2001.
"Floreat!!!!"

[foxy]

i don't doubt neon's skills at all. i think he's just waiting to explode. he has sublime kicking skills, it's just that, at this stage, his kicks inside 50 are always chopped off by the spare man in defence. if the spare man wasn't there, he'd always hit a forward on the chest - look at last week when he hit tazza on the chest in the first half with a brilliant pass. he needs to get some AFL nous.

[Spidergirl]

I agree Alf, it was a bit of a shitty game although i was very relieved we had a win (it just had to be against one of my other teams though didn't it - poor Sainters)

Yeah i got that sinking feeling in the third quarter.

Well up our end with the outer cheersquad there was a fair bit of celebrating after the game. In fact our cheersquad paid a little visit to the Saints cheersquad rubbing the victory in their faces which was quite funny.

#8 RoCkS
Go RiCkY!

[Spidergirl]

p.s. how cool was that fight with Josh Max and some of the other players!

[Newelly]

now listen spidergirl support of Collingwood is like a US citizenship - you revoke all other citizenship/support when you take it on. So you see you can't support anyone else but Collingwood

[NICK THE PIE MAN]

Hey Spidergirl,
That fight wasn't cool! we all think its cool, but its not when anthony rocca or someone gets suspended for wrestling for a week or 2!

[ytry4]

quote:

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Originally posted by AlfAndrews:
Leon Davis got plenty of the ball and showed a ton of pace. But his disposal is probably the worst of any player in the team.

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Are you kidding Alf? His diposal skills are one of the better ones at the club. Just turn your mind back to last weeks game and you'll see what I mean. And I don't seem to remember when he turned the ball over on Friday night...

Also, Johnson had a lot of touches, 12 kicks and 10 handballs, though I also thought he had less than that.

[This message has been edited by ytry4 (edited 18 June 2000).]

[Broadie]

I wasn't nearly as disheartened by this WIN as others here (by some people's posts you could be forgiven for not realising we actually won by over 5 goals). There were very promising signs almost everywhere. I won't bother repeating the positives noted already in this thread, but here's a few different thoughts:

What about Richo? His was an absolutely 1st class effort - completed nullified his opponents and started some great forward thrusts with long kicks out of the backline.

Josh showed the around-the-ground skills that will make him a champion as soon as he bulks up a bit and someone actually teaches him the art of rucking. For a guy who's so tall I couldn't believe how often he was beaten by players almost 10cm smaller than him. Oh well, he'll learn.

AS for Neon, well every tiume he got I felt the sort of adrenalin rush that only Daics used to bring out in me. I don't think his disposal was that bad, either. I can appreciate Alf's comment re: disposal skills being natural / learnt. I'd love to know what some senior coahces think about it. I know a lot of junior coaches (TAC Cup) basically believe that if the skills aren't there by the time they leave u/18 comps then they will never be there. How to find the ball is a different matter.

Johnson finally looks promising - gutsy, fast and good skills.

As for Hawthorn next week, well writing this I have the benefit of seeing some of the Hawks pathetic capitulation to Melbourne. They will be rock-bottom in confidence and ripe for the picking.

As Bucks noted, the next 5 weeks shows exactly where we are and how much the other teams have improved.

PREDICTIONS:
v Hawthorn WIN
v Adelaide "HONOURABLE" LOSS (it is in SA)
v Carlton LOSS
v Sydney WIN
v Wetern Bulldogs WIN (under a goal)

[MAGPIE MANIAC]

C'Mon Alf - Brighten up!!! You're starting to depress me! We won - that's a start and the players probably weren't that excited about it because they know they can do a lot better than that.As Mick Malthouse keeps reminding us most of the players are only kids! I mean Josh Fraser - his first year in AFL - 18 years of age and he is our number one Ruckman. Give them a break - accept the fact that we are a very young side with some promising young players . I have been upset, heartbroken and frustrated throughout the season . I have only missed one game played in Melbourne this year and I will go to as many remaining games as I can for the year.
I feel that Leon Davis has been overawed by it all and is starting to settle down now. Sav should be feeling a bit more confident and what happens now is up to him. I don't care what anyone says I think that Sav plays better when Anthony is in the forward line - they would have played plenty of footy in the backyard and know how to deliver the ball to each other - I thought this looked pretty obvious when Ant delivered it perfectly to Sav to set up a goal . Shane O'Bree has been consistent for us and Richo is finally "doin' it!" Dimma is showing a lot of courage and is having a red hot go and Tarrant and Chipper are a shining light for us. I think we have a lot of talent coming up so Alf - hang in there and I feel that we will be rewarded - ONE DAY!

[nikki]

it was a great game cant see how you could a win is a bad game.... have some faith in collingwood i wonder about you all sometimes... having no faith in our team, i bet you were all blowing the trumpet when we won at the start of the year now when we are going through a rough trot you are no where to be seen, great supporters some of you are!!!!

i'll be there through thick and thin and the bit about people not sing the theme song, how dare you call yourselves collingwood supporters!!!

GO PIES

[Joel]

Most of the comments so far have summed up the game what happened throughout the game. I'm more dissapointed in the fact that we didn't go on with is and annihilate them. The second quarter was absoloutely sensational and Sav and Anthony has pretty good games. What must be noted is though was Sav's team thinking tonight, very good, perhaps the time in the ressies was a good idea, another thing when Anthony knocked the ball out of the ruck chased and went for goal was sensational (too bad he missed). Overall I think there were some good signs throughout the game but we must keep a sustained effort throught the WHOLE four quarters to win more games.

[Joel]

Oh, forgot to mention Josh. This guys has class! While he might not win heaps of ruck contests at the moment, he masde up for it all around the field, I think it was the last quarter, he was finding space everywhere, and took a nice mark on the lead (too bad he missed). Um, also I Leon Davis looked good but some of the bombs into the forward line perhaps could have been better (and yes he did do it a couple of times), however he was very good and his pace is unbelievable. Johnson was absoloutely fantastic, great game indeed, he also has heaps and heaps of pace, and is very hard at the ball. Well done to "hot hands" Richo. I think that is enough, I could go on about the whole team but that will take to long!

[AlfAndrews]

ytry4,

You say you "don't seem to remember" Leon Davis turning the ball over on Friday night!!!

I think you must have spent too much time at the bar. He turned the damn thing over nearly every time he got it.

Look, I like the kid. He's an exciting player to watch. He could even be a champion one day. But he's going to have to learn to use the ball a bit better. I would have thought that was obvious.

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**floreat pica**