Post Match. Pies down to Dogs. All comments, please.

[rambler]

Are we overplaying or underestimating this flu excuse?
I can't recall any time in history where the flu has affected a team over three rounds.

[Dave The Man]

We where nothing short then Bloody Pathetic Tonight.

I did not get angry I just did not give a Sh*t after qtr time

[Peponi]

Playing one Brown brother is like playing with one less player. Playing two is a guaranteed loss.

Give it up, clown. Maybe tell us about your footy history for something different. At least the posts would be shorter.

You have no idea what a quality player looks like. It’s embarrassing these two are played. They’re simply not good enough for this level. You must think mediocrity is good enough. Stupid prick.

[Dark Beanie]

Also I can't believe that our players turn the ball over so much and as for kicking at goal!! I don't get it.Not a new problem either.
When they practice, can they please practice from close and in front of goal. It's just killing us..

They do, I have seen them practising at the end of training sessions.

[swoop42]

Begg is in his first season, has barely gained any VFL experience playing against men and some people have talked about him like he was already dominating games at that level.

He wasn't and that's fine because even the very best KPP prospects generally take years (let alone a rookie selection) and someone like JUH wasn't even selected for the Bulldogs tonight based on form.

With no Grundy available Cox is clearly the better option up forward and in the ruck in 2022 and Begg would be better served returning to the VFL and utilising it's main purpose of player development.

[think positive]

Are we overplaying or underestimating this flu excuse?
I can't recall any time in history where the flu has affected a team over three rounds.

tuesday 26th april i woke up a bit crap, by lunch i was on my knees, straight to bed, crawled out cooked dinner, but didnt eat, back to bed, thursday morning i dragged myself to get a full covid test, negative, i lost over 2kg in 5 days, ive had gastro bad before and lost nothing! i usually sleep 6-7 hours a night, occasionally ill sleep 8, i was sleeping 10 hours at a time. saw the doc the sunday night, gave me steroids, but my cough got worse, so bad i was almost passing out, it was terrifying a couple of times. had lunch with a friend on thursday, by the time i got home i was totalled, straight back to bed, for 2 days. back to another doc this tuesday, he gave me codeine syrup and it worked!! i cleaned the house yesterday (ive been too tired) and it zapped me right out. today i sat and did some paperwork and then knitted in front of the telly. went to the game, 1/2 way through the third i thought i was going to pass out. luckily a friend lent us her parking pass for under the ground. left with 5 min to go because both me and my daughter were feeling the tiredness. i get lots of colds all year round, rarely i take to bed for a day, usually i just soldier on. I had pleuresy years ago, it wasnt as dibilitating as this. the docs both said its plague proportion, and really effecting everyone badly. there were reports of several players getting hospital treatment. its bad, believe me, ive never been this crook, and for so long.

[think positive]

Also I can't believe that our players turn the ball over so much and as for kicking at goal!! I don't get it.Not a new problem either.
When they practice, can they please practice from close and in front of goal. It's just killing us..

They do, I have seen them practising at the end of training sessions.

they practiced pregame too, and they were killing it!!

[think positive]

Lipiniski 2024-2028 will be > than Treloar 2014-2018. Mark it down.

Similar to Crisp scenario, this kid will shine.

And while we are at it, Oliver Henry will become our seasonal leading goalkicker in a couple of years and will kick more career goals than either Travis Cloke or Anthony Rocca.

i agree

talk about karma etc though, damn treloar just standing there and the ball smacks hids chest just out from goal, i have to say i was thinking rip baby rip, ie his hammy!

cheered like mad for lipinkski!

[Jezza]

Match was lost in the first 18 minutes of the first quarter. At one stage it was 6.5.41 to 0.2.2 in favour of the Dogs. After that point in time, it was 8.10.58 to 7.7.49 in favour of the Dogs so at least it didn't blow out any further but the damage was done unfortunately.

Hate the excuses, but I do wonder whether three consecutive 6-day breaks took its toll on the playing group as well as the flu outbreak which has hit us hard along with several other clubs. We just looked very flat for a lot of the game.

The Dogs midfield dominating us and winning the majority of clearances was the big difference between the two sides. Just couldn't get our hands on the ball when the game was on the line in the first quarter.

I still have faith in Henry. He has all the attributes to be a good footballer, but he's an incredibly raw player at this stage. He needs to get physically stronger and just be more composed with his decision making.

Been good to give Begg a few games at this level. Just wonder whether it might be time for him to head back to the reserves. Poulter and Macrae didn't show as much as I was hoping. Look like VFL footballers at this stage.

Good crowd (44K) tonight, despite it being at Marvel. Highest Marvel crowd involving Collingwood since 2012.

Taking my Collingwood lenses off, the dissent rule is putrid. It's killing football as we know it and will be a real turn off for supporters if it remains a constant going forward. Another example of the AFL overcorrecting and being amorphous in what constitutes 'dissent'.

[Jezza]

True Jezza.
Massive reality check,
We had huge outs, but bulldogs had several as well, and it exposes that our depth is nowhere near the necessary level of quality atm.
All started from the massacre in the midfield. We were utterly smashed there, and had no real capacity to stymie it.
Skill errors and decision making errors no doubt flowed from the tremendous pressure exerted on our team by the Bulldogs' avalanche of clearances.
Those who have questioned Grundy's value to our team should now hopefully open their eyes.
Dont agree with those who just want to blindly play all the kids.
Smashings will not in any way benefit us.
We need to scaffold the induction of the youngsters with experience and strong bodies as much as possible.
Loss of Madgen really made me sad
He has been a cog in our defence, and a solid back up when we needed him. I find the comments of those who celebrated his injury on the game thread as quite despicable.

Good summary, MTTM.

Agree with all of that. This team is a work in progress under McRae.

I'm under no illusions difficult decisions will need to be made at seasons end with respect to list management.

[Jezza]

Fly's presser:

6-goal first quarter in 19 minutes. It was decent after that but it was a bridge too far for the team?

"It was a poor start by us, and an exceptional start by them. They just dominated us around centre clearances, around contested possession. I think we were -16 for the quarter and just lost a lot of territory from it and lost a lot of contest. It was really disappointing".

You were down in clearances, centre clearances and contested possessions, which would have made it hard?

"You're not going to win too many games doing that are you. We've got some work to do. It's disappointing. We sort of get the balance wrong sometimes. We're all trying to rush in there to put pressure on and you get beaten on the outside. There's some contested method around that we need to improve on. I just thought our fundamentals on a whole were really down today. We've been doing a lot of work on it, but we've got more to do".

A third consecutive 6-day break. Did that have an impact?

"I don't want to make excuses. I don't want to sit here and make excuses for our effort because I thought we were poor. I think anyone watching at home would say the same; just disappointed in the way we went about it. You've got to give credit to them [the Dogs]. They were all up and about and at a different level than what we were. I don't want to take away from that. I just want to be better than that. I want to put a display on. The Friday night lights are bright and they were shining on us and we were disappointing".

When you had patches of momentum, the forward line seemed dysfunctional. Would you agree with that?

"No doubting that. A lot of moving parts and some consistency around what we're trying to do. There's a strain on the youth that is playing. We're trying to get consistency in roles and in systems so it doesn't matter who plays. You could argue up until tonight that it's been okay for us. We found ways to score. I think we'd be averaging 90 odd points a game with a makeshift forward line. Checkers looked sore tonight. He's had to carry the load for a lot of the group. We've got a lot to work to do around that. We're trying to move magnets to make it look a bit better than what it does at times. The chemistry just wasn't there tonight".

Scott Pendlebury was a late withdrawal, and Jack Ginnivan was missing as well. Are there any other guys struggling with illness?

"I don't want to make excuses, I really don't because I feel like you can play with a runny nose and still execute your role. That's what good teams do. That's what you do, you turn up to play. Does it hurt our preparation? Yeah it has. We've had a lot of players who haven't trained and maybe you could argue the chemistry is not there from those things. I don't want to be a coach that puts those things out and says 'we were a bit sick, so we had lack of effort'. I go back to last week in the last quarter against Richmond who we've seen in real quality opposition last week. It was our best quarter, we were still sick so our ability to win that battle, we're not there yet".

Jack Madgen's shoulder looked nasty. What's the early prognosis?

"It looks like it's a subluxed shoulder. I don't know what that means in terms of missing. Kreuger missed 2-3 weeks if it was something similar, but I'm not sure to the extent of that. It's a shame for him".

Leading into the game, did you aim to play a bit of a slower because of the way Bulldogs play. Were you a bit disappointed from the start with how they were able to get a real flow on?

"They [the Dogs] certainly got territory. I thought for as bad as we were in the first quarter, we still had a few chances and we just didn't take ours. This game is a pretty hard one if you don't take your chances. We didn't go into the game thinking we would go a bit slower. I think the best version of ourselves is when we play fast attacking footy like we did in the last quarter where we kicked 3 or 4 goals in a row. It's not something we approached the game with".

Where do you get that effort back into your team, is it bringing back the mouth guards in training?

"Nah nah [laughs**]. We've been doing this for five months. We've been kicking to one on ones for five months. I think the group has a little bit of grace on this for me. It's not a pattern of behaviour; the contested stuff. It's starting to trend towards that; then we might need to get the mouth guards out. Right now I think they've got a bit of grace. I think there's a lot of method around. We've been doing five months of kicking to one on ones, two on twos and we want to be that team".

How did you see Darcy Moore's performance tonight. Did you speak to him about that free kick with Naughton?

"I'm not going to put a spotlight on that one moment. We had lots of those one moments. I prefer not to make that an issue".

Ollie Henry got amongst the action, but seemed to be letdown by a few composure and decision making issues. Is it something you will need to speak with him about?

"How about you speak to him about it [laughs*]. I've always thought that coaching young guys for a long time, there's a level of capability and a feeling of a sense of belonging. Sometimes it takes 50 to 70 games to feel like you belong at this level and being able to pick up the pace of it. He's played 10 odd games hasn't he, I'm not sure exactly of the total. He does something good and then does something bad. I think that's the rollercoaster we're on with some of our youth. It's going to be painful for some at times. We've just got to ride that and back him in and make him believe. The message from in there [the locker room] was that I think at the minute I believe in them more than some of them by what they're capable of. We've got to make sure it's not a pattern of behaviour and just keep that resolve nice and strong for us".

There were a few 50m penalties for dissenting which went in favour of both sides. How do you think that rule is going at the moment?

"I think it's improved. Players are adapted to it. It hasn't been a bigger issue in the last month if you ask me. I think it's a bit of a non-issue"

Do you feel like the Buku decision was consistent though? The last few weeks it's softened and tonight it was back to be strict again?

"The free kick in the back or the hands up?"

Scott Pendlebury is 34 now, and obviously you will be looking at who will be the next leader of the club. Do you feel like it was a void today that you will need to fill going forward?

"I said this in the pre-season that there's a real core of leadership that we've got at the club. There's enough there to lead from the front. I think the one thing about leadership is you need good followers. We're developing a core of followers that know how to play our system. We're 9 games into our new game plan and I must admit at times it looked like we had 14 players with Collingwood jumpers on and 4 or 5 of 'were they wearing our jumper tonight, are they predictable to what we're doing'. These are the questions as coaches that we need to get on the same page. A lot of that for me is coaching and I take responsibility for that. If we're not on the same page, then I need to work harder to make sure we do it".

You're a high pressure team, how was it tonight?

"It was good in the second quarter. It was patchy, a bit like our performance as a whole. We don't want to be described as 'patchy'"

A big test next week against Fremantle in Perth. How do you approach that? Will you be getting Pendlebury back?

"Yeah, he [Pendlebury] will likely be back. We'll notice whether Jamie [Elliott] is going to be available. He trained for the first time this week. Jack Ginnivan will be available. I think next week I will approach it like every game; with great optimism and great belief in this group that we're capable of playing some good footy. Tonight wasn't that. I'm disappointed we didn't put on a show on Friday night because we haven't had too many chances to do that. We might get shipped back to Sunday the way we're playing [laughs**]. Great optimism and belief and I truly believe this group is capable. We just need to play like we have 22 Collingwood jumpers though".

https://www.afl.com.au/video/759362/ful ... 2449504001

[Donny]

Thanks, Jezza. Excellent work.

[duggieboy]

Ditto Jezza, love reading these coaches quotes from the post-game presser.

Expectations are tempered when you realise it's more of a re build than you thought!

[What'sinaname]

Match was lost in the first 18 minutes of the first quarter. At one stage it was 6.5.41 to 0.2.2 in favour of the Dogs. After that point in time, it was 8.10.58 to 7.7.49 in favour of the Dogs so at least it didn't blow out any further but the damage was done unfortunately.

Hate the excuses, but I do wonder whether three consecutive 6-day breaks took its toll on the playing group as well as the flu outbreak which has hit us hard along with several other clubs. We just looked very flat for a lot of the game.

The Dogs midfield dominating us and winning the majority of clearances was the big difference between the two sides. Just couldn't get our hands on the ball when the game was on the line in the first quarter.

I still have faith in Henry. He has all the attributes to be a good footballer, but he's an incredibly raw player at this stage. He needs to get physically stronger and just be more composed with his decision making.

Been good to give Begg a few games at this level. Just wonder whether it might be time for him to head back to the reserves. Poulter and Macrae didn't show as much as I was hoping. Look like VFL footballers at this stage.

Good crowd (44K) tonight, despite it being at Marvel. Highest Marvel crowd involving Collingwood since 2012.

Taking my Collingwood lenses off, the dissent rule is putrid. It's killing football as we know it and will be a real turn off for supporters if it remains a constant going forward. Another example of the AFL overcorrecting and being amorphous in what constitutes 'dissent'.

You contradict yourself. If we ran out of legs, you might be able to blame flu or the 6 day break.

We had no trouble with fatigue. We simply got thrashed by a better team.

[What'sinaname]

beggs .....3 disposals.
Last week and the week before trashed.
Must be better than Cox.
Everyone keeps telling me that.

Let's compare the average over the last three games:

Aiden Begg
disposals: 10.3
hitouts: 2.3
goals: 0

Mason Cox
disposals: 6
hitouts: 3.7
goals: 0.3

You're going to struggle to convince anyone that Cox is a better option than Begg when you compare both players over their last 3 games.