Post match: Pies lose thriller. All comments please.

[HAL]

[mackasmatt]

I was at the game. Two junk time goals were the difference. Too many times we bombed to Cloke when he had two opponents. Elliott misjudged a few marks that he would normally take, and one bad out on the full.

Goldsack was not very effective. We were always going to struggle to contain either Walters of Ballantyne. Toovey showed intent. I woud love to see if Sinclair or Ramsay can get back into the side.

The next time we play could potentially be against the Eagles or Dockers in a Final if things go our way (winning a VIC elim). We would go into that game with some confidence that a win is possible.

[RudeBoy]

[didick]

Great game, unfortunate to be on the losing end.
Plenty of upside for us. Of the two teams we definitely have more growth and development left in us. My belief is that Freo will drop away as the year continues and won't win the big prize. I think this year is Lyons best chance with Freo but can't see it happening.
Plenty of upside for us. Finish off this year gaining more experience and toughening up further and we go into next year in a good position.
Also, swap in Reid and Greenwood for maybe Goldsack and Broomy (good developing player but Greenwood may provide better grunt out of the centre) and we could have pinched it last night. Get them in for the rest of the year and we could go quite deep into September.

[Holbrook Bloke]

A great game of footy between two top 4 sides. In the end, their experience and harder bodies was the difference. Always thought the free kicks would even up - they invariably do. Just about everyone contributed. Tooves and Frosty were hard, as was Varcoe - what a bump! De Goey showed the class and poise of a 50 gamer. Our boy Witts more than held his own against Andre before fatigue understandably set in - Grundy would have been useful. I hadn't seen much off Fyfe this year but understand why bookies are paying out on Charlie - he was brilliant.

This was a hard, intense game and I fear we will not back up against the Hawks next week.

[Culprit]

You can't be disappointed in what transpired last night. Screw the galant in defeat tag, we lost and it hurt. The turnovers cost us at crucial times and whilst I would love to stick the boot into White, his shocking kick late in the game was not why we lost. 6 times we were clear running down the wing and bang fricking out on the full and each time it came back and 3 goals were scored from those turnovers. The Dockers along with the umpires held us out in the last quarter. That's football.

Varcoe showed so much physicality it was rubbing off on his teammates, 94 tackles? That normally wins you the game. We have improved and now we rest up for the next challenge.

[yin-YANG]

Great effort - even the guys who were down e.g. Goldsack had terrific attack on the footy. Pies are building a team that will play well in finals conditions!

Unlike a few others I thought Seedsman did well when subbed on - that goal was fantastic - Oxley was pretty quiet by the time he was subbed - although he looked dangerous early.

Some sloppy kicks cost us late in the game (please Brown handball) and i thought early on we were a little dumb with our kicking in the fwd line. Cloke kept bombing/passing it to the goal line with no talls there for us at all??? When we looked around we carved them up.

Plenty of ups really - Pendles did not seem a 100% nor Sidey, Grundy would have given Witts that chop out he needed later in the game. He did a great job early but clearly tired against a mature and leading ruck man in Sandilands. White and Cloke were pretty poor - but so were their talls - with the conditions and ball movement not helping the KPF's. Our clearances were good but could go up another level with Greenwood in there I suspect. Faz, Elliot and Blair competed but never clicked like they can - lots of up there also.

Varcoe, Adams, Crisp continue to impress.

With that kind of effort and team structures we should be playing finals footy and if we can keep healthy we are in the mix.

Big Ins - Reid, Greenwood and Grundy

We need to play with that kind of intensity every week for every qtr - against good teams… that is what finals are all about - this next month is a lot like the kind of draw you would get in the finals. It was a good start, but I believe they can do better.

[BBHS]

Would have been nice to see what happened if White had of slotted that last shot oh well........great effort pies

[Johnno75]

94 tackles says it all to me. They had a real crack and gave it their all, you can't ask more than that. Save for Walters 2 goals with less than 10 seconds to go twice and we win.

To think we hardly got anything out of Cloke, White and Elliot and players like Steele, Pendles and Swan were serviceable without being near their best and we only lose by 7 points at the house of pain.

This team reminds me a lot of the 2002 group just in their attitude and what they want to achieve as a group.

I know he has to earn his spot but we do need Greenwood in this team. The extra hard body will be needed against the quality teams.

Ch 7 spastics were crowing on about McPharlin's game on Cloke but no love for our boy Brown's job on the Pav. Impressive again and a smokey for the AA team.

Well done pies.

[think positive]

Well we didn't get trashed after the bye, so that's a positive, funny, doesn't feel like we really lost, I guess this is what's called an honourable loss! I expected to get creamed, oh and glad someone above mentioned seeds goal, after reading the seeds mans a dud thread, I thought I was so drunk last night, I imagined it!

Didn't see the first half (junior was in a mixed netball GF, we won!) only caught it's of the game on my iPhone, but was pretty happy with the endeavour of the second half. Really, a seven point game is anybodies and freo should be more worried about the result than us. I feel much better about playing the Hawks this week after watching this week!

And today we are still top 4! Hawks will kill the druggies, so probably be 5th, can't see GWS doing Richmond by enough to catch us!

Considering so many had us as cellar dwellers or close to it, well, I'm happy with my bottom 8 prediction. And I'm more than happy with the effort and heart the club is playing with. It's 2009 folks, I'm loving it!

[Mugwump]

That game proved that if we finish top 4, we can win it.... add Greenwood and Reid, light blue touch paper, and stand back....

[inxs88]

W are a team of goers! With a tad more polish and poise we can build a great team. Like many, the inclusion of:

* Reid
* Greenwood
* Grundy
* Karnezis (give him 6 matches in the starting 18: get our answer on him)
* a fit Scarenberg
* Ramsay

over the next 2-3 weeks could give us that extra tonic to beat and contend against the very best.

The following MAY need to make way:

* White
* Seedsman

Vulnerable:

* Blair (unlucky)
* Witts (unlucky)
* De Goey (manage work load)

Great to have depth!

[TimetoFly]

Very proud of the boys but gee that one hurts... I think we played better dominated possesion and those late crappy goals killed us in the end. Also our kicking in last quarter wasn't great.

But some amazing signs

[simon tonna]

sandelman and the tap backward to space resulted in a clearance every single time to the fockers. he got on top with the same play just about every contest during the last and therefore the tide inversely changed. thats a tactic of theres, a third man up to help out witts may of stopped some of the bleeding. witts when he jumped into the ruck looked intimidating. keep it up lad.
greasy conditions throughout the game resulted in a slugfest which was always going to benefit the fockers more than us. they want to utilise there main weaponry and win the clearances for there the best stoppage team in the land and we couldn't stop the dominance for more than a half. I'm certain they only scored from stoppages in the first half and maybe had only two set shots for the whole match but they still won. we were gallant but lacked a little bit of poise with the slippery pill.

[Lazza]