Post Match. NAB Challenge - Pies smash Hawks

[Neil Appleby]

[Bob Sugar]

One knock of his u18 days was his composure under pressure, and it showed again last night, I'm happy to cut him some slack though, it was his first decent hit out for a year or so, reckon he'll come good as the season wares on, lots more positives than negatives overall though.

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

Modern AFL is evolving so quickly these days that if you miss a season of footy it takes about another year to catch up. Interesting how Clark will go at Geelong. We need to cut Freeman some slack, but it's fanciful that Freeman will be in the starting 22 come the first AFL match.

[RudeBoy]

It's early days, and we played a very young Hawks outfit, but there was a lot to like about our performance.

The hardness at the ball was ferocious and something we've lacked for a couple of years. If we can maintain that intensity throughout the long physically demanding season, we'll do alright.

I was particularly pleased with White, Adams, Sinclair, Karnezis, Fasolo, Crisp, Grundy, Greenwood, De Goey, Gault and Kennedy.

We certainly seem to have a lot of midfield depth and our small defenders in Sinclair, Williams and (surprisingly) Ramsay were terrific. Only Brown and Frost were a bit rusty, but they'll improve, especially once Reid slips back to CHB.

If White and Gault can continue to make their presence felt like they did last night, our Achilles heal - a lack of KPP depth - might not be so bad after all.

All in all, we have to be pleased with that showing. Bucks seems to have the players committed to his brand of football. Go Pies!

[thompsoc]

I thought Thomas game was interesting.
He is on a slow burn.
Each year he seems to get a little better and I
think he is getting close to his best.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

Plenty to like without getting too carried away. I think it's fair to say they had a bit more out than us but we did we what we had to do and did it fairly impressively. I think it's also fair to say that probably only Jed Anderson aside, our kids look way better than theirs.

[qldmagpie67]

[Bob Sugar]

Wouldn't worry about Siddy, I've noticed over the years he often takes a week or 2 to hit form and I'm talking round 1-2 here, not NAB games, he had an absolute shocker in rounds 1-2 a couple of years back, I actually called for him to be dropped, but he was in my bests pretty much for the remainder of the season.

Just takes him a while to warm up that's all.

[Dave The Man]

[Flashman]

Sidebottom has plenty of credits in the bank that allows him a so so NAB cup outing, namely an outstanding 2014 and a history of producing in big games (something a certain Brisbane recruit of Sidey's vintage can't lay claim to).

I don't know what you're talking about saying Sidebottom "plateaued" last year. He took his game to another level in terms of consistency and was our hardest worker week in and out bar none. He was arguably our best player and at worst our second best as the Copeland count attests to. Certainly better than your cheap possie accumulating, blind kick around the corner mate.

Constantly belittling Sidebottom because he's proven to be a better player, clubman and bloke than your mate Beams is so obvious of you as to be embarrassing.

[Bob Sugar]

He still has disposal issues by foot, and it seems to go in stages, he can be pretty good for 6 weeks then be poor for 6 weeks, looking at his ball drop I can understand his inconsistancy, but one things for sure overall he's a vastly overrated kick of the footy IMO.

[Flashman]

I don't know about that.

Without knowing his exact figures I'd say his field kicking is very good when you allow for his gut busting two way running (many clangers are caused by fatigue rather than skill errors imo) but I will allow his set shot kicking for goal lets him down at times. Going by last year he made about half as many clangers as Beams and even Pendles but he does play a different role to those two.

His disposal is sound generally I'd say.

[qldmagpie67]

Flashman I wasn't trying to belittle sidey I just stated my opinion after watching the game 3 times. My opinion has nothing to do with comparisons to Dayne Beams they are completely different players playing vastly different roles.
Maybe I expect to much of him and maybe defender is right he takes some time to get going.
He is now supposedly our 2nd best mid fielder and with that rating comes a high expectation for mine and on last nights performance I thought he was below his best.
As I said I hope I'm proved wrong and he has an outstanding season maybe get a AA jersey and a top 10 Brownlow finish and win a Copeland 3 things he has failed to do so thus far unlike Dayne Beams !!

[Bucks2014]

Hi all,

Great to have footy back, I thought the skills were pretty good being the first game. Langdon is becoming one of my favourites, tough as nails, reads the play beautifully had a couple of clangers last night but generally a good user.

My first real look at Freeman, has missed a lot of footy so will form an opinion after a few more games. Degoey was also one player who impressed me, what a great debut.

I thought Varcoe was very rusty and was of the belief he was quicker than appeared last night. Surprised he was named in the best, I was actually disappointed with him.

Gault has a good leap on him and seems quite clever ie: his goal right on the goal line did it beautifully.

Jesse, well I wrote glowingly in his first outing last year and the rest was a disaster. He was very good last night attacked the ball and one grab marks. Can he do it when the pressure is on? I hope he can.

I'm a Fasolo fan and he showed last night what he can also do. Hoping he can have an injury free year and show us the x factor we need.

Liked Grundys game too, seems fitter.

Loved our want at the footy, I know it didn't mean much but it was good to put a win on the board against the team, correct me if I'm wrong but haven't beaten since Sept 2011.

Cheers

DK.

[Az]

Most pleasing thing to see was our refusal to take the foot off the brake right down to the last second. Boys ran HARD both ways all night and it looks like the "cheating" Pendles talked about is way past us. The pressure for spots is full on at the Pies so I hope whoever makes it into the seniors better keep it up all season long.