Post Match. Pies punish Cats. All comments please.

[E]

Maybe a Scharenberg back in and down back thus releasing Roughead forward. Reid can never play again unfortunately.

i hate to say it, but this!

[bokka]

"gave Geelong a sniff" Snoop ??

Did you really expect the number 1 team in the comp. to lie down ?

But they were a false number 1 Donny. Their second half of the year is 6-6 and only got top place thanks to a favourable easy draw.

Don't get me wrong, everyone put their bodies on the line tonight, especially Moore when he came back on. There you go Darcy, you can do it! But let's not kid ourselves. We need to improve 100% to be any chance against the Tigers or Eagles. One goal in a half of football is surely a worry.

We definitely need to play better, we need a genuine target up forward without JDG, we're screwed otherwise and that's probably taking a punt on Reid.

You can talk about Geelongs poor 2nd half record, but they didn't need to go hard because they did the damage early, they coasted to top spot just winning enough games to stay ahead of the competition. It probably hurt them tonight because we jumped them as they hadn't really played tough footy for a while, but I'd back them to bounce back next week and beat the Eagles.

I'd rather sew up top spot and coast than be having to win everything for the last 6-8 weeks and playing hard, tough games every week heading into finals. Its why I expect the Dogs to come undone, they'll be shown up in finals as they've had it tough just to get here.

Collingwood had the perfect mix, had their shit month 2 months ago and cruised into finals in good form over the last 4 weeks.

I think pressure aroudn the ball is the most important factor in deciding finals - and of course the ability to stand up under great pressure. Geelong's pressure was elite last nite and I think it will probably be too much for WC, esp as they will be breathing fire after losing that one.

[bokka]

How good was the chant in the last 30 seconds of the game!!!!

m

It was $$%^%%$ unreal!

Like 45,000 people putting on a gold jacket

[bokka]

Going in with just 1 tall forward is workable with de Goey in the lineup but without him Reid must come in to provide a physical presence and a legitimate key forward target.

The longer the game went on without de Goey the more we struggled to find a marking target and this was only amplified with our go slow approach in the last quarter.

I thought it was clear that the side is used to having a tall target, they kept bombing it in to the hot spot which almost never worked. Should have read Nick's forum advice to liberally employ chaos balls into deep forward, that woudl hve given us much better chances.
But yeah prob to late to redrill the side for a short forward line at this stage.

I'd say DArcy was jsut as suspect as Reid and that worked out fine so def worth the risk. DeG I thought was the least likely of the "fragiles" reid, darcy and elliot to break down, so you never know till you have a go. SAme applies to WElls, these guys only have to last 2 games now.

[bokka]

Is it a certainty DeGod is out. Has two weeks to get his hammy right. Hopefully it wasnt too bad. Even half fit id play him.

I'd guess 40:60 for the prelim, and 70:30 for the granny.

[bokka]

Incredible win. Courage and desperation personified. Tackling pressure was immense. Tay and Wombat were immense on the inside, and created the foundations for Pendles and AT to impact on the outside. I will have to watch the game again to decide on votes, because that was an extraordinary, full team performance where every man just lay down everything on the line to win. I thought Elliott's game was magnificent, and likewise Howe in defence. Noble had a brilliant final as well. Just got better as time went on. A very important statistic mentioned during the game is that we are no. 1 in the AFL for speed in transition back to defence. This is why we are so difficult to score against. We are playing an amazing team defence that all players understand and execute with total commitment. Hawkins was totally nullified as a result of it, plus the brilliant intercept marking of both Moore and Howe. Maynard was also amazing in our defence.
Credit to our coaches as well. They clearly had a plan for smothering Ablett and nullifying the likes of Ablett, Kelly, Duckwood. Dangerfield got loose, but if he is the only one to do so, that is not an existential threat.

Will be interesting to see how Ablett goes next week, because from this game I was wondering if maybe he is now past it as far as finals footy.

that does a disservice to Maynard!!! He was magnificent tonight. Very physical and just blanketed Ablett whenever he went near the ball.

Nobody agrees with me, but i thought him getting cleaned up in the Grand Final was a pivotal moment for us.

IF Ablett stars next week that will be an even bigger conpliment to Maynard.

I don't even remember Maynard getting taken off in the granny but that definitely could have been enough to make the difference. Not that WC floodgates opened exactly, they just scraped that extra goal.

[K]

...
Sure, we'll miss JDG, but Varcoe can play the same role and is capable of being just as effective.
...

Many exaggerate the Googs influence, but no, Varcoe can't be just as effective.

Of course, we wouldn't need to worry about this stuff if we didn't have an injury crisis at the club.

[TassiePie1990]

Good win by the boys. Credit to Moore, his confidence really grew when he came back on and judged the ball nicely.
Without the injuries tonight would of won by considerably more, that switching of the play really drained the cats midfield and defence.
Wills was awesome, exactly what you want in finals.
If Jordan doesn’t get up Reid must play as a target. Mihocek didn’t get the goals but battled hard, halving contests and taking a lot of body hits. All in all great hard fought win.
Would love to meet lions in PF and hope they play that fast attacking aggressive slingshot game style that teams have tried to stifle out of us. Could be very interesting

[bokka]

Good win by the boys. Credit to Moore, his confidence really grew when he came back on and judged the ball nicely.
Without the injuries tonight would of won by considerably more, that switching of the play really drained the cats midfield and defence.
Wills was awesome, exactly what you want in finals.
If Jordan doesn’t get up Reid must play as a target. Mihocek didn’t get the goals but battled hard, halving contests and taking a lot of body hits. All in all great hard fought win.
Would love to meet lions in PF and hope they play that fast attacking aggressive slingshot game style that teams have tried to stifle out of us. Could be very interesting

surely Moore's best ever game, esp considering it was a final against the minor prem's who had almost a full list.and not even taking into consideration coming off a longish break and it being his first ever final. Did he make a single mistake?

[mgh3536]

If you think about the return of the messiah Ablett and his all Australian squad year ...’

Just goes to show how good Maynard was last night...

Ripped Ablett apart.. brilliant effort

[Mossi]

Can't wait to hear Scotty sooking in his presser.

I couldn't either! Love how he went on and on about missing Duncan and didn't mention Pies loss of De Goey or Levi!

[Raw Hammer]

Now, the Channel 7and Fox commentators. McAvaney, just retire please, or just concentrate on w#nking yourself over racehorses. Carey, from glassing your girlfriend to a media career...classy. "That's a goal...that's a goal!!" both Bruce and Duck claimed as the Bunker replay showed the Hawkins kick clearly touched before crossing the goal line. Idiots.
Couple of weeks ago the Fox commentators led by that Sarah Jones the Essendon supporter were complaining that the Magpie song was on constant repeat after the match. How dare they. Huddo is just cringeworthy. Russell just a complete tool. He regularly says so and so team "needs a safe word" when getting beaten badly. Lovely, equate to losing a footy match with getting raped. I'm' going to stop listing them because the next one is worse than the other, just as Alistair Lynch flashed into my mind. What a pathetic lot.

Best thing I’ve ever read!

[TassiePie1990]

[\quote]
surely Moore's best ever game, esp considering it was a final against the minor prem's who had almost a full list.and not even taking into consideration coming off a longish break and it being his first ever final. Did he make a single mistake?[/quote]

Right up there I reckon. That defence is unreal and really play for each other.
Moore can be so good with a little luck with his body. Aish is tracking nicely so probably an OK in for Levi.

[Raw Hammer]

Game Day. Pies v. Cats. Late changes, comments.

“Magpies by 10.” -Raw Hammer

You’re welcome.

[watt price tully]

Noble was terrific.

I agree. He played a ripper and got us out of trouble on a number of occasions. Their little players can rip teams apart & he played his role with aplomb minimising his opponents impact. He’s fast and a very good kick on both sides of his body (most of the time)