Post match. Pies down to Tigers. All comments.

[watt price tully]

We simply did not work hard enough & smart enough.

negatives: the team

positives: we can look forward to the cricket.



oh wait a minute...

[Dave The Man]

[watt price tully]

When we lose we look terrible & tonight was especially disappointing. Less than 50 tackles I think.

In order to examine the issues we need to move from the general to the specific.

1. Lack of hard work included lack of pressure, lack of leading, lack of spread the latter meant we had issues as Richmond simply worked harder & smarter.

2. We have a very young team. The consequence of having a young team is that you can expect inconsistent performances.

3. Our experienced players performed poorly in the main this can hardly assist the younger players.

4. Coaching & selection was not much chop. Too slow to move Marsh away from Riewoldt.

5. Apart from a bit in the last quarter I thought that was a pretty poor performance by Pendlebury. Not honouring Cloke's lead at one point when we were heading forward was bad but turning it over was even worse.

6. In terms of Marsh & I'm not blaming individuals here but pointing out some deficiencies. He is a poor decision maker. He is fast & has closing speed but his disposal is poor generally speaking - we were to slow to put Brown on Rieiwoldt & really he was the difference between the two teams.

7. Howe & Reid looked very tired early on in the game - not sure what that was about.

8. Crocker needs to be in the VFL. he is a great kick for goal but otherwise he doesn't get the ball enough & when we are attacking he has NFI of where to lead - schoolboy footy IMO.

9. Not one of Smiths better games tonight but he needs to remain as he does have very good skills.

10. One of the worst performances by Greenwood I've seen, ditto Blair.

On the postive side of the ledger:

Wills looks very good.
Grundy did very well
Maynard was OK
Varcoe is a mean tackler.

To be sure, I haven't watched the replay & am writing this after being at the game.

[think positive]

I agree with all that, yep even the Blair bit!

Now tell me more about the cricket!!

[Sir Alan of Didak]

B. Maynard Brown Marsh
HB. OXLEY Reid Varcoe
C. Crisp Adams Sidebottom
HF. Howe Cloke Aish
F. PHILLIPS MOORE White

Rucks: Grundy, Treloar, Wills

Inter: Greenwood, Smith, DE GOEY, GOLDSACK

Emerg: Frost, Williams, Macaffer

Ins: Moore, De Goey, Goldsack Phillips, Oxley
Outs: Pendlebury (inj.), Williams, Cox, Blair, Crocker

Assuming Moore gets up, Fasolo doesn't and Pendlebury misses with the ankle, here are the 5 changes I'd make for next week's game against the doggies...

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

This is the Collingwood way....

Hold on in the media for grim life until seasons end.... slink away into the darkness and hope everyone forgets in the off season. Happened last year, same thing will happen this year.

They all must be sacked, starting with Eddie.

[qldmagpie67]

I don't think I've been so gutted by this team all season
In all the insipid performances we've turned in this year tonight's might be the worst on so many levels.
The thing that struck me tonight was the absolute unforgivable errors made by senior experienced players which were critical in the scheme of the game
IMO there were 5 of them and I'll highlight them in order

Brown free running (OK jogging) with leads coming from every direction and he gets his kick smothered kick kick bang goal to tigers momentum we had stops

Reid who normally you would have kicking for your life decides to go inboard to a contest were we are out numbered bang turnover kick kick goal 2 in a row tigers have momentum now

Varcoe for some reason decides to give off the ball to Sidebottom who from 20 odd meters rushes a kick barely makes the distance but misses everything and if not for a tiger player standing on the line would have been out on the full this from a supposedly elite kick

Time running down wee need a goal badly Sidebottom given the ball with loads of space and time to find a target give us a shot on goal and go into the break with momentum he stops steadies bang kicks it directly at the feet of leading forward giving him 0 chance of marking it

Tigers pushing forward have the ball inside 50. The balls at a contest we need to man up be the defensive side of our opponent. The ball comes free Sidebottom's man Ellis receives the ball in the clear (Sidey standing still 5m away) he runs towards goal bang goal.

Each one by itself didn't cost us the game but as a group they had a profound effect on why we lost
If it was Smith or Wills who made any of these errors you go damn but there inexperienced and will learn from that mistake but when it's senior experienced players who are supposed leaders they are unforgivable
The game has passed Brown by look at what he does compared to Rance
Reid had his worst game of the year but his body of work this year he's kept us in more games than he's had bad games so he just had a bad night at the office
Tonight showed why Sidebottom isn't a elite player or even close to it. You can put up stats saying of he's had less clangers than this player or that but truth is he has been over rated since the day he arrived at the club.
Think I'm wrong let's go through the evidence

First award his eligible for the rising star
What match did he receive his nomination in (not win the award just be nominated) ?
That's right he never received one.
He got beaten out by such football luminaries as
Jaxson Barham, Garry Moss, Jarryn Geary, Brad Dick, Aaron Joseph, Nick Suban, Jesse White, Ryan Bastinac, Todd Banfield, Jordan Gysberts, Jarrad Grant, Sam Wright
So in the 2 seasons of eligibility he had not once was he ever considered good enough to be classed as the best young player in that round

We go to the Brownlow. Prior to this season he has a total of 37 votes in 144 games. His highest season total has been 9 votes on 2 occasions and never finished in the top 20 vote getters. He has 5 best on ground votes so that about 1 for every 29 games played or every season and a quarter he is considered our best player in a game

Never won a Copeland even considering the past few years when we been injury ravaged and he's played more games other than Pendles and he still couldn't win it

AFLPA MVP voting each club nominates 3 players who are then voted by all other players (other than there own team mates)
He has been nominated twice by our club (his team mates) he finished a stunning 45th out of the 48 players nominated & 46th out of the 48 players nominated

Finally all Australian nomination. What year did he receive an all Australian nomination ? Again he never has been a all Australian

Can all these groups be so wrong about his ability ? No they can't simple fact is he is a fair player who at times does some good things.
He typifies what is so wrong with the club at the moment. We have players who we believe are good or very good when in fact when compared to the real best players in the comp are miles off the pace. He's not alone in being over rated among our players and until we get a coach who doesn't play favourites at the selection table (yes Mr Blair) and who doesn't accept school boy errors from experienced players on a weekly basis we won't win a premiership
And before the Sidey lovers bash me again about being critical of him read the above go look over all those awards and see if I'm wrong.
As for the game the less said the better. We stunk for 3/4 + 15 minutes and got what we deserved

[yin-YANG]

^ We would not have won the 2010 flag without Sidey's contribution in both GF games� he was 19 and playing top footy when it matters most!

The guy has some dinky kicks now and then - but he has super endurance and knows how to get the ball - the way the game is going with endurance athletes needed Sidey will be a very valuable player.

He had a poor night defensively and needs to make more of his opportunities as a senior player (he was not alone - and was not the worst) but who cares really about awards etc? who's votes for those BS things anyway? - if he plays well when it counts that is what matters! In that regards he is a proven winner.

He needs to go forward more often IMO and kick goals - he has great vision - a little bit of x-factor that sometimes makes you think 'what the?' but he is a champ and one of our best.

[neil]

Awful result the senior players are at fault
Poor decisions and worse disposal
Our midfield disappeared
For all those who think Cox and White were shit think if we get rid of Witts and Cloke they are the ones everyone will be relying on.
Also Cloke missed an easy shot surprise surprise

Williams are just bad as was Blair
Reid played his worse game for the year Brown did well on Reiwoldt
Sidey was terrible

In spite of this we could have won the game

[think positive]

[think positive]

[Culprit]

Once again Favorites and lose. Very predictable and will help my tipping as well as my bank balance this week as all the others tipped the Pies and I took the Tigers at $3.10. An inept performance against a fired up team is really frustrating. The zoning off to protect patches of turf is a massive fail, the players didn't know who to go to and allowed the Tigers to pass so easily at times it was annoying. Now we can all see this, how come the blokes being paid massive $$$ in the coaching box can't. Make the opposition accountable and put them under pressure. No we will zone off and protect patches of turf. If we throw in all the costly turnovers it was clearly our worse performance when you consider the opposition.

Either the players don't listen to Buckley and the coaching staff or Buckley and the coaching staff haven't got a clue when plan A fails. I struggle to explain whilst we can beat top sides and fail against shit teams.

The media got stuck into the Tigers all week and the sack Hardwick bandwagon was on a roll. Well the sack Buckley bandwagon has grown bigger and the difference is we can afford to pay Buckley out. I don't know whether that is the answer but the masses want change. Membership and attendance will continue to decline and with that drop in revenue.

Buckley, Hird & Voss, all great players and I have many memories watching these champions play. Some of the best of my time and in saying that, none of them are coaches.

Screw loyalty, the hard questions need to be asked and some tough decisions need to be made on and off the field.

[simon tonna]

Let's get one thing clear. Sidebottom is NOT A CHAMPION by any means what so ever. We have seen he's best, it's time to get trade value from this waist of unseen "elite talent". In fact our dumbarse football department have all ready missed the boat on this one. In fact he was rewarded a 4 year deal to stay for close to the same money as the skip. Even after the seasons where we need him most importantly to stand up and be accounted for on the big plays and game changing leadership moments during games. We needed him to step up to be a on field leader when as he is considered a senior listed player other younger players would look up to during this handover/rebuild period, but no he continues to play like a smart arse teenage park player. in doing so we reward him with a bullshit over the top contract that only breeds complacency. i applaud qldmagpie67 for putting the evidence out there for all to see because I wouldn't bother with the research as most but it's there to see from this elite hack of a player year in year out.

[inxs88]

[Pies4shaw]