Pre-Match. Magpies v. Power. All comments.

[Pies2016]

[lazzadesilva]

[think positive]

[dalyc]

[Piesnchess]

[inxs88]

[inxs88]

^ Village idiots? It's 2024 now and unfortunately Cox has been underwhelming all year. Last week's "non-effort" and free kick-a-thon rucking to Meek was just that, meek!

[lazzadesilva]

[Magpietothemax]

Just watched Essendon vs Dogs, where Essendon absolutely smashed them off the field in the second half.
I think this demonstrates that the true strength of PA is not to be correctly estimated by how they destroyed Essendon last week.
Essendon's performance tonight showed that the game against PA was not the result of PA's incredible superiority, but instead was the result of Essendon's own issues.
The PA midfield is not all conquering - we can equalise it if we bring our pressure.
Would love the Maestro, Pendles, on the field, but it will depend absolutely on how he recovers, and while my heart wants him to play, reason says that he would benefit from a 2 week break.
So we need to watch the VFL closely for how Finn, Sullivan, and others perform.
We are in a difficult situation. We urgently need to win games, but we also urgently need to develop our young midfielders.
Today, Essendon's young mids nullified Bontompelli, Liberatore. That is, young no namers were able to negate Bulldog legends and Essendon's Merrett as a result had a field day. We are lagging I feel in that influx of young talent introduced directly into the game.

[warburton lad]

Good Morning Mr Magpietothemax...

Introducing new talent and winning games are not mutually exclusive.
In fact, bringing in the young ones often is the adrenaline shot teams need to find a new (higher) level.

I would certainly introduce Allen and Sullivan, sooner rather than later.

Whether we can still win remains to be seen, but I think the team needs a little boost of speed and grunt at present.

I still believe we will beat Port to bring the season back to a win/loss equilibrium.

[Clifton Hill-Billy]

I hope you are right Lad because if we continue to turn in the tripe that we dished up against the Dawks in the 2nd half and get crushed against Port then face an Essendrug side full of juice then Anzac day will be even harder to win devoid of confidence.
Cox has been a liability this season but I do have doubts about whether Cameron could ruck solo for an entire match and who we'd bring in to replace Cox as I don't think Begg etc are ready to step up.
Pendles should rest until 100% I broke my ribs mountain biking in NZ in January and it took about 8 weeks to feel alright and still doesn't feel 100%

[RickyWatt23]

I agree that Coxy had a shocker against the Hawks but his game against the Lions was good. He did a lot of small things that don't show up in the stats and his value to the team is in backing up Darcy Cameron and allowing him to play to his best. Hopefully the Cameron-Cox combo will help our mids get first use of the ball against Port and negate their recent mid field dominance. If Cox can hold a few more marks, esp in the forward line that will be a bonus. Pies by 15 points!

[Said by Zed]

Big chance for someone to step up and impress tomorrow in the VFL. There’s a lot of opinion on here about playing youth and for what it’s worth I agree. The injection of a ‘young gun’ rejuvenates a team but the reality is our cupboard is bare of talented youngsters.

So far Reef has shown enough to be worthy of persistence. Unfortunately Finn hasn’t and some of the others who have been touted as likely improvers this season (Allan, Carmichael, Begg, Ryan) have been average at best - TBH I don’t hold much hope for any of them I’m afraid. I desperately hope to be mistaken and that one or two of the aforementioned really light it up!

So over to you Sullivan, Bytel and Richards. Have had good starts to the year so go out there tomorrow and rip it up…put your case forward for inclusion.

For mine if Pendles is okay we go in unchanged against Port - WHE the sub. Otherwise if Pendles succumbs to his rib injury and needs another week or two, I reckon Sullivan must come in.

As much as everyone rates their midfield, I think we can at least match them in that department. It’s going to be up to whoever backs can hold up the best. Watching Port’s against Freo, I’m putting my hard earned on our back six or seven to be the difference.

In a game of shifting momentum where both teams will equally dominate and be dominated should be a close hard fought win for the Mighty black and white stripes (suck it Koch and the rest of the Port whingers). Pies by 8.

[Magpietothemax]

Having watched the Port-Freo game, it is clear that pressure will decide this one. Fremantle always had numbers at the contest, and this prevented the PA mids from getting off the leash. Rozee, Horne-Francis, Butters no longer looked like invincible titans, but instead normal, mortal human players - very good - but contained by pressure.
I was also very impressed by Freo's structuring off the ball. They ran and positioned themselves so that they were always able to bring numbers to the ball, wherever it went.
We did that in spades last year, and showed it also against Brisbane and for 2 quarters against Hawthorn. Need to make sure that we do it
for 4 quarters against PA. We bring our pressure on the contested ball, and we are in a position to win this game, like Freo was.
Freo has a brilliant young forward in Treacy, and a combination of other dangerous forward players, but their forward line is not as potent as ours. However, their pressure, and their general skills frequently cut up PA's defence. With our skilled smalls, we have the necessary foundation to create havoc in F50 against PA's defence. Need to make sure we don't bomb the ball in, but kick intelligently so Checkers/Cox/ Reef can get the ball to ground so that Bobby, Lachie, Jamie can get to work against the likes of Alia. Zerk-Thatcher. PA's defence tonight looked vulnerable to speed, fast ball movement, small forwards.
They have a tall forward line, so we need Darcy Moore to step up this game.

Pendles definitely should not play: he needs a rest (he is the only veteran who has not had one) and has a fractured rib!!
The best VFL performer to come in... chance for Sullivan, Richards, Harrison to win senior selection.

[Charlie Oneeye]

I don't see any youngster in the reserves killing it ATM, so why do we think it will be any different in the firsts.
That's not to say I don't wish to see youngsters introduced, but I would like to for the right reasons, and right now we are fighting to regain a spot in the 8, not a time for development and experimentation IMO.

A win against port puts us at 3-3, and a few teams above us are playing against each other next week. If we fail in the next month, we have half a season to get some games into the kids.

Addendum : If someone can add value, let the normal selection process dictate the changes.