Post Match. Pies win thriller . All comments.

[Rex]

Cox’s lack of marking and presence is disappointing, but what are options? McStay would be first choice, but not for another 10+ weeks. Frampton was reasonable last year when both rucks were out and in general he’s playing so much better so I expect he’d ruck well, but we need him down back (and he’s not great up front) - I see him as a Leroy Brown type; not brilliant, but serviceable in various positions. Johnson has played the smaller, agile ruck role, but is so out of form at the moment. I reckon Steene might get a go, but is a month away with concussion (I assume, given he’s not back to contact). The only other choice is Begg. He’s ok in the VFL, but not really big enough.
So we stick with Cox at present, then Steene when he’s back. I thought Josh Ayre looked good as a second tall down back. If he pushes for selection then I believe we’ll see Frampton rucking.

[slangman]

What does it say about our development program if Begg, Allan, McCrae etc are deemed raw and not AFL ready when so many senior players are not currently worthy of their spot in the AFL side.

I saw some snippets of Begg in the Rd 1 VFL game that would warrant selection ahead of Cox.

I’m still at a loss as to why McCrae seems to get dropped for anything less than a 10/10 game whilst others have been performing at 3/10 all season so far and keep getting selected.

[piffdog]

^ "love and care"?

[K]

[K]

[Charlie Oneeye]

A while ago, I looked up some recently retired big bodied Rucks about 199cm who had good careers, to my surprise all the ones I looked up started playing earlier than I expected, mainly from age 20/21.

By age 23 they were regulars. As the years wore on, their stats improved.

Begg is 21, no need to rush him in yet, a bit of a concern in that I don't know how the coaches rate him. I would have expected to see him get another couple of games by now.

[Piesnchess]

Last season, we a PREMIERSHIP TEAM, LOST to the Hawks badly. THIS season , we beat our bogey team, in a close match, but we WON.
Take it, bank four points, and can we please move thefuck on. I have. !!

[lazzadesilva]

[Gerry Cooper]

[lazzadesilva]

[quote="Gerry Cooper"]^/quote]
😳 🤔 WTF? Where above have I mentioned true and false Collingwood supporters? Your dreaming 😴
Also I happen to think that at AFL level, the disparity between teams depends on the particular players who are injured or suspended and cannot be picked. So I don’t agree with the view that we are better than some teams at all times. Many posters defined this game in the pre game discussion thread as a danger game. So where did this “we are much better than them” come from? I don’t get why a game against a team seen as being inferior to us is deemed a danger game? Can you?
And where have I ever had problems with processing other people’s opinions? I agree or disagree but I always say “to each their own”.
And if you want to bring up my support for Bucks, by all means I’ll happily repeat that I fully supported him and my opinion that really serious injuries to very good players stuffed the clubs flag aspirations still stands. But I’m not sure how bringing up that stuff from years ago is remotely relevant to the issue you are berating me for today 🤔 I think you need to smell some roses and chill Mr Cooper 😏

[Magpietothemax]

I agree that Mason Cox's game against Hawthorn was not satisfactory. He did not take the marks he should have, and his impact around the ground was insignificant. At times, there was lack of co-ordination between him and our forwards, as they seemed to interfere with each other. However, that is not necessarily on Cox alone.
Howver, in the game against Brisbane his game was influential. His previous three games were not great, but that was the story for most of the team. I am not about to rip apart our entire Premiership ruck structure just because Cox did not dominate against Hawthorn.
Way to go here.

[Magpietothemax]

P2016 argued in a previous post that what really changed after half time was our lack of pressure. We could not stop Hawthorn's momentum because we could not generate a suffficient level of pressure.
Absolutely true. This is evident on watching the replay and comparing our first half with the second.
'The questiion is then, why?
In Fly's post game presser, he emphasizes that in close games we go into "auto-pilot" when we have a narrow lead, and defend it automatically by forcing stoppages, etc.
However, he - and the entire team - need to reflect on why we also seem to go into autopilot low pressure mode in at least one quarter per game - and last game, for an entire half.
Against Brisbane, we maintained the pressure for the entire game. What went wrong against Hawthorn?

In 2022, I remember there were theories circulating that we were conserving energy, which explained losses in pressure (generally in third quarters, to be followed by massive effort in final quarters to overcome scoreboard deficits at 3/4 time).

I for one had some belief in this theory. Not sure if we are trying now to do the same, due to the high proportion of 30+ players on our list, and still getting the balance right?

We are clearly implementing a rotation process for our older players, and because they play a huge role in generating onfield pressure as well, perhaps we are attempting to rationalise the on field pressure as well by varying the tempo of the game? Maybe atm we are still refining this strategy, and at this stage have a long way to go in mastering it.

[Piesnchess]

[quote="lazzadesilva"]

[The Black and White Lion]

Hi all, I need some help. I watched the game. I saw the first half improvements. I saw all those long high disposals to the forward line. Cox’s infringements and I saw De Goey get a lot of ball at 50odd percent disposal efficiency and those 2 hospital balls resulting in injuries to Mitchell and Pendles. I saw those points in the last and the two that dropped short earlier in the match.

How on earth did the coaches give DeGoey 10votes this week? What did I miss

[think better]

Okay so I've calmed down now. Here's my take - over the last 2 years we have played ordinary football for half a game and come storming home to win on a number of occasions. These are seen as great wins.

Against the Hawks we stormed out to a good lead and played an ordinary half of footy.

The same in reverse, but seen as a a bad win.

In the end I am going to take out the positive and say it was a goodish win in that we held on. The first half gives me some good vibes - the mojo might just be there. As Felicity Shagwell puts it -

"You've had your Mojo all along. You've defeated Dr. Evil, you've saved the world. And believe me, you're gonna get the girl."

......or something like that.