Match Report.I can do one weekly if you want them.

[ed healey]

match report
Another title could be
Sunday morning footy at 9am is a health hazard.

As usual on a sunday morn i was up at sparrows awaiting to be collected by my mates for our sunday morning 9 holes of golf.
I was in a good mood as Carlton had lost the day before,and we had arranged for a bbq after golf as we watched the footy.
Six months had passed since id watched us play and i couldnt wait for it.
Jack turned up an hour late for golf so we gave it a miss as we wouldnt finish before the footy and so it was into the bbq straight away and decided that as it was midday in new zealand we may as well have a beer.
we were all busting to watch a pies game,the four i play golf with are all pie fans.

So the game began
Wakes was dumped by plugger before it started and then led him to the ball and outmarked the big bastard in the swans first sorty,but plugger gave him a piledriver and wakes played no more.
In between stubbies and snags i made some notes but now that its over the quarter by quarter dont matter much.
As usual sydney played the flood,if MM had a plan to beat the flood he must have forgot to tell the players.
Early the game was scrappy,Brodie Holland got a bit of the ball and seemed to be the only one that could find a target with a pass but sadly the goals didnt come for us and the swans would clear and the pies didnt touch the ball before they goaled on several occasions.
Barry Hall seemed to be on his own all day and cut us to ribbons,as sydney played much more direct and their disposal was far superior to ours all day.

Half the ground was wet and the other half dry,when Dunkley won the toss he must have said we will have the dry bit and the pies can go the flanks and play the wet all day.
Thats what happened.
Every sorty forward by the pies was haphazard or slowed down by over handballing which only played into the swans hands.
So many turnovers and Licka didnt play.
Now some positives.
If its between Cloke and Kinnear for a spot on todays performance i vote for Cloke.
My first look at Didak today and i am impressed,but his disposal and picking of options is poor.
McKee lost 5 ruck taps in a row in the 3rd qtr and sydney went bang bang bang bang bang.before we touched the footy they had 5 goals.
Richards won some taps and actually wasnt it great to see a collingwood ruckman actually get his feet off the ground.
I would stick with Richards and dump Mckee now.
Bucks as usual was good and when he went down forward he was strong and created opportunities.
Cummings was hopeless,but he had 3 opponents all day so why did they even look for him?
Sydney didnt look for lockett much,they used hall and Stevens and hit them on the chest all afternoon.
it was pathetic in the 3rd qtr to see cummings lead with 4 swan players all over him and we still passed to him and of course they cleared and goaled.

good players
Leon tried hard,Didak got plenty of the footy.
Brodie was very good and would get my 3 votes
tarks tried hard give him 1 vote and Bucks gets the 2 vote.
Clement was ok and i liked some of what davidson did but his disposal is shocking too.
Posaidly was given a tough job and was beaten.
I was disappointed that he went the punch when in front on a couple of occasions when a mark would have been better and they goaled from the crumbs anyway.

We have a lot of players that will come into the team but if that is going to be the game plan for the season i hope MM has a plan B up his sleeve.

Well im going back to the patio now as another carton has just arrived.
gee i dont know how many of these 9am games i can stand,especially if we play like that.

[PeterWH]

I agree with your match review.As I said in another entry,the guys played like it was a practise game.There was no 1/2 forward line,the centre was next to useless and Plugger.....well what can you say.
As you say if the boys are going to play like this all year,they will have to wait til 2003 for the flag.

PeterWH
PIES FOR PREMIERS 2002

[Mike]

Thanks Ed

Do we want them weekly? - bears and woods.

First game of the year and I had to be at... wait for it... bloody pony club - and none of my kids ride ponies. Apparently I'm the only one that can managed their high-tech scoring system.

Well if I had to miss a game, I would probably choose an 80 point thrashing in the pre-season comp - so that may have worked out. We managed to bounce back from our pre-season thrashing last year, so lets hope that this is a repeat and that, this time, we can hold onto our improved form a little longer.

Good news about Richards, I've been waiting for him to grow up for too long - perhaps the time is finally near. We didn't go overboard in our efforts to get hold of a decent ruck, so lets hope that Richards can vindicate that decision.

[Black_White]

Damn 3rd qtr comeback failed .

-Craig

We Are Collingwood and you're NOT!!

[London Dave]

Thanks Ed, keep em coming mate!