Aftermath of ANZAC Day

[ytry4]

Good effort by the players today, although couldn't keep up the tempo throught the four quarters. We are, after all, a very young and inexperienced side, but in the end, Essendon were just too good. Just wish we had A Rocca, Mal Michael and Presti...

What does everyone who saw the game think about Sav's game. Dermie and Sammy kept pointing out that Sav wasn't leading well, which I tended to agree with. He wasn't leading hard from the square, insted, hoveriung around the 30m mark and giving half leads. Why wasn't anyone telling him to lead hard from the goal square? Or if someone was, why didn't they drag him? I don't want to be too critical, but he does seem to rely too much on confidence. However, some of the comments made by Dermie WERE a little too harsh. C'mon Sav - do the things which made you such a great forward in the first place!

Also, what does everyone think about Tyson Lane this year. He hasn't been performing as well as he did last year. Malthouse hsn't really given him too many chances...he always seems to be on the bench...

[Mr_Plow]

Firstly on Sav, i though he did try a lot harder in the 2nd half. Early on he was terrible, and he does seem reluctant to go up the ground to get the ball, which was playing right into their hands because they had plenty of numbers in their defensive 50.

Overall it was always going to be a hard day for him and when you consider we play Freo next week that will be his best chance to get a bag.

Tyson Lane has to make the most of his opportunities. Both he and Nick Davis are struggling in their roles off the bench. It's hard for midfielders playing limited time but Damien Adkins is doin just fine.

Scotland will add some more run next week.

[Greg J]

Sav was a real disappiontment. He did not lead at the right times enought. But then again so was the disposal into Sav, as was the absence of enough crumbers.

Lets face it, Fletcher has come a long way and is undoubtably the best spoiler in the game (although Johnson the Smaller's [#1] effort to thwart Willow's screamer was pretty spectular, but it was a once off). Sav was not going to get any (or many) marks when Fletcher was in position. There should have been an army of our crumbers at the fall of the ball every time he went for a mark.

I think Sav has not played particularly well all season (exceptions, 2nd half of Adeliade game and in the Carlton game their defence made all our forward line look good) but in the last three weeks has seemed to have dropped his bundle. He just does not seem to know where and when and how to lead. And when he finally has made a good lead, his teammates seem to prefer any other option and only kick to him as a last resort.

Hopefully he is just having problems adjusting to the new game plan and is not carrying an injury. I thought he looked proppy against Footscray. But against North he was not given enough opportunity. I thought he played alright against Micky Martyn, who is getting older and slower and should have been exploited by a now stronger Sav. But they did not even try and kick it to him even though he did lead a lot better in that game than the last one. I saw Buckley ignore him at least twice (although in one case it could be said that Rocca had got open too near the boundary and maybe too close).

The Collingwood Rant offers an indepth opinion on Sav's leading and you (and Sav) should read it.

[Joel]

I was actually going to post something on Sav ( I had actually typed it up etc) before the the game but decided not to after thinking that everyone would have a go at me if I did. I mean, how many goals has he kicked all season from 7 games? About 20 I suppose. That isn't too good. I suppose its almost 3 a game but Buck's is averaging that much.

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CARN THE PIES!!!!!
Collingwood is all about togetherness. "We live or die as a side," Buckley said. "Everything we do now is as a team."