Post Match. Pies beat Bombers . All comments please.

[K]

I still wonder whether he's the only one at the club who calls Jamie "Bill" (no "-y")!

[DT]

Howe should not be suspended- it was not a sling tackle. It is footy and accidents happen.

[thebaldfacts]

Visions of a repeat of the GF, but thankfully we came out on top when the siren blew.

After last week's bruise free game, it was good to have a tough hard fought win.

Thought we pretty much controlled the last quarter, so would of been disappointing to lose.

Still need to take advantage of our dominance and out it on the scoreboard.

Lost the clearances after 1/4 time, so need to be better at that.

[Jezza]

Great win. We were excellent in the first quarter and a half and should have been 40 or 50 points up at that stage. We struggled after that but our ability to withstand Essendon's constant attacks into our under siege defence was great. They're an incredibly fast team, so that was always a worry heading into the match but we absorbed it well.

Fantastic game by our captain. He was involved in everything and a worthy winner of the medal today. Disgraceful by the Essendon supporters to boo him especially in a moment when he was thanking the crowd and paying tribute to the significance of the day.

Impressive return game for Hoskin-Elliott. I was worried about his fitness as he wasn't match hardened, but he held up well and made the absence of Elliott easier to adjust to. He's clearly a best 22 player when fit.

Starting to become a bit worried about Beams. I've wondered whether we should play him as a half forward flanker rather than through the middle. He doesn't win many clearances and he's not a great two way runner either. He's a very handy player and will provide a solid contribution to the team, but I don't think he's greatly enhanced our team from last year. It will be interesting to see how he progresses as he begins his adjustment to the team.

Losing the clearances on a regular basis has become a pressing concern for mine. I don't know what the story is with him, but I think we're missing Sier more than we realise and he would go some way to addressing this problem.

Overall, it's a very good sign that we're grinding out victories even if we haven't played our best football yet. It's a sign of a strong football team. We're building nicely, but we've got plenty left to give.

[Cam]

[Cam]

[Cam]

[Cam]

[Jezza]

[jatsad]

[jatsad]

[Pies2016]

[think positive]

[swoop42]

While the coaches will examine the game in fine detail to digest what went right and wrong and the media scribes will no doubt focus on the umpiring decisions for a simple fella like myself the key moments that allowed Essendon back into the game was the poor entry inside our forward 50 during the second quarter that limited our ability to capitalise on our dominance. We simply bombed the ball long and high all to often when we needed to lower our eyes.

This inability to take our pound of flesh off Essendon during the second quarter was only compounded when we fell into our old habit of not running out quarters and allowed red time goals. Ouch!

Not surprisingly our biggest issue of the day was of course our set shot goal kicking.

A lot might have changed over the decades in football but one thing that will always remain the same is that you need to take your chances more often than not in front of goal and ending the day with more goals than behinds showing on the scoreboard is always more advantageous.

Missing set shots can not only rob a team of valuable momentum that is often translated into a run of goals that win games it can also hand it straight back to the opposition if they can reply with a goal of their own in a timely manner.

The scoreboard will say if we kick a point and the opposition kick a goal it will equate to a negative 5 point differential.

If you think it through a little further though if you have the opportunity to extend let's say an 24pt lead to 30pts, miss and the opposition then score a goal what could have been a 5 goal buffer is suddenly little more than 3 goals. That's an 11pt turnaround.

Repeat that outcome enough times in succession like today and what could have been game over is suddenly game in the balance and the opposition have gained the momentum.

[Piesnchess]