STOP IT!!!

[NICK THE PIE MAN]

Hey Guys...
Frankley im sick of your comments. So we have a new coach, we won our first 5 games, but let u not forget that we were last year's wooden spooners. So lets stop setting our standerds so high. This is a rebuliding year, We will still lose our share of games, we will have to accept it. Plus our team is very young and still coming to terms with the physical strain of AFL football. But Mick will mold them and in about 2002 we will be hot, just you wait. GO THE PIES!!!
ps: no, this is not the nick who runs this web site.

[mcsean]

hear, hear

[AlfAndrews]

Right.

I've f**kin' had this crap about "rebuilding". Collingwood had a "rebuilding" year in 1997. Everyone said we'll be hot in 2 or 3 years. We were shit. Then in 1998 we were shit again. But don't worry, folks. It's a rebuilding year. You just wait. Two or three years and whammo. Then came 1999, the rebuilding year to end all rebuilding years. We won 4 games but everyone said, "Don't worry. They're rebuilding." Hell, there were even suggestions that we were throwing matches to get the top draft picks. Ah, well. A bit of pain now is OK. We're "REBUILDING".
Then came 2000. Everyone said, "Don't expect too much this year. Don't get your hopes up." By all means pay your $500 for legends membership but don't expect to see them actually win a friggin' game because they're ... you guessed it ... re-friggin-building!
Ah, but they slipped up big time this year. They beat Hawthorn, Adelaide, Carlton, Sydney, Bulldogs. They should have beaten the Kangaroos but were robbed by shit umpiring. They led Essendon by 2 goals at half-time. So much for the rebuilding theory.
And you say to me "Don't set your standards so high!"
The fact is, the standards are high. And Collingwood is just not up to it. You've got Malthouse saying crap on TV like, "They need two or three pre-seasons." What a pathetic f**kin' euphemism for "they're going to be shit for another 2 or 3 years".

What is this about 2 or 3 years, anyway? Why is it always "2 or 3 years"? Is "2 or 3 years" just a polite way of saying "indefinitely". I think it must be. Just like that expression, "rebuilding". When a club says it is "rebuilding" it's just another way of saying it is shit. It's one of the multitude of bullshit tricks that football clubs use to get their members to keep the faith and keep coughing up their money.

Well, I'm still keeping the faith. And I'm still coughing up the money ... after all these years of "rebuilding". But never again will I get excited about a win, or a series of wins, or even a bloody premiership. Because no matter what happens ... we'll be REBUILDING !!!

**pica fornicata**

[Joel]

Alf I think you just about got it right! The simple fact is though THIS year and last we have been rebuilding. What did we ever do in the previous years to be rebuidling? Not much so therefore we weren't rebuilsing we were adding more hacks to the team. THIS is what we have done until last year and this year.

[Broadie]

Alf,

I undertsand you frustration - particulalry working with about 10 typical Tiger fans (i.e. never would know they're a fan during a loss, can't shut them up or keep them out of the "Yellow & Black" after a win).

However, I'm one of those "this is a rebuilding year" people. 1999 was the first GENUINE rebuilding year, because it was the first time that a large number of young players were introduced and expsoed to senior footy before they were really ready. I've been telling anyone who wants to listen that I expected us to finish 10th - 12th this year. Even after winning the first 5 I told people to expect us to lose more than we'd win in the second half of the year, which has come earlier than I thought.

I fully expect a season similar to Geelong's 1999:
1. Great start
2. Then the young players get overwhelmed / tired / show their inexpereince / other clubs work out their deficiencies / = we lose a big chunk
3. In the last 7-8 games the young players rediscover their enthusiasm and start winning again, providing momentum for 2001.

Phase 3 will probably occur once finals are only "mathematically possible" (I hate it when coaches start using that line).

Be patient.

Yes, we were duped in 1997 & 98.

THIS is the real rebuilding.

Line up for 2002/3 Grand Finals tickets now.

[Neil Appleby]

Hey Alf,
Chill out man....it's not as if we lost a final or anything.
Sounds like you may have had a very bad week!

[NICK THE PIE MAN]

Gee, calm down Alf,
what i mean when i say rebuilding is: we have a new coach (one of the best in the league)and our new kids are pretty good. So in time they will get older and more mature. Then we will be a GREAT side. Just keep the faith.GO THE PIES!!!
And Alf, i do know what your saying.

[Sly]

Alf,

When Y2Malty said "They need two or three Pre-Seasons," that was in reference to their physical development in comparison with the Weagles.

Somebody asked him if they (Collingwood) were a bit light, whereas at West Coast he (Y2Malty) had them physically very developed. That's where he answered something like, "That comes from two or three Pre-Seasons."

The latter years of Matthews and Shaw's tenure simply razed Collingwood to nothing. If a coach with some semblance of a grounding had been inserted after Matthews (and it would have been good had Matthews been given the flick at least one year earlier) then we wouldn't be in this situation.

But we are and the way I look at it now, we're something on a par with Port when they first entered the League.

We not rebuilding.

We're virtually (re-)beginning from scratch.

I've still got higher expectations for them then a Bottom-8 finish, but you'll have to accept the odd atrocity, (if you consider losing to Essendon, the Roos and the Lions validated by where they'll finish).

That's the way the Season has been for all teams (bar Essendon). If you go through the Ladder, every Team has been thumped to some degree and also "gone missing" for several weeks to some degree.

We'll come good.

Keep the faith.

------------------
Sly LeKoupa.
The Last Remaining Bad Guy.
The Collingwood Rant.
Don't believe the Facts until you've read the Rants!
The Unofficial AFL Ranting Board.