Post Match. Pies lose to Dogs. All comments, please.

[magpieazza]

FWIW Im expecting a bounce back next week. I havent watched the game but going by comments here it doesnt sound promising, however we didnt lose by much.
The team will have to have some sort of belief in the game plan and in eachother, more so the latter.

Do they have belief in eachother ? Do they have a strong team ethic ? Have they forged a relationship and a team mantra to go through thick and thin together no matter what ? Have they had history together in going through heartache and tough times ?

The answer will come clear soon and I had high hopes we could hit reset over the summer break and go again, however I think there will be a couple more years of development before we can get some sort of resilience, cohesion and belief ( and not the type of spin that is spun for the media but real belief )

Hope that the leadership group can pull us through this season and we hit em hard next week..fingers crossed.

[Born to Pie]

I hope that a couple of players will be better for the run, including Howe (although he was pretty good he was not at his absolute best) and Adams after interrupted pre-seasons.

WHE seems devoid of confidence, time in the magoos may help.

Henry and Ruscoe were passengers, it's hard being a forward and game time adds to their experience, one or both need to be dropped.

Cameron played well in the VFL practice match apparently and may come in for Henry. But can we afford Grundy, Cox and Cameron in the one team especially with our lack of speed.

Obviously the posts about Sier are clear, and Jay Rantall is knocking on the door not like for like, but mid for mid.

Thomas's touches need to be gold as a senior player with only 13 touches, and they were far from that.

Possible ins are Mayne, Greenwood, Cameron, Rantall and Murphy based on the VFL report but I doubt very much that we will make more than a couple of changes.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

How. Poor coaching that’s how

He (Sier) and the team in 2018 had a good mix of coaching who coached the team as a team of coach,s

But gradually autonomy worked its way back with its old friend nepotism

If persay Bucks was to get the chop ( or honourably walk) would our interim coach be Sando / Harvey or Harvey / Sando

Gezzzzz hope not

Losing Longmuir and Whiskers was laughable - I'd have either of them before the rest of the coaching staff inc. Buck's

[Magpietothemax]

Should not make too many changes after first game, even though it was bad. We selected our best available 22 at the time. Do we have so little confidence in them based on the first game after 5 months ?
I would replace WHE with Sidey. I agree that one of Ollie Henry or Trey Ruscoe needs to be dropped. I would say Ollie Henry makes way.Given what Pies2016 said regarding Henry, i think he needs more development time.
We clearly cannot afford to play Cameron with Cox and Grundy, just too slow given our loss of leg speed around the field. I would not yet drop Sier.Our entire midfield was disengaged last night, and Grundy's inability to connect with them and theirs with him, was not solely due to Sier.I would be tempted to bring in Rantall as an extra mid. With the new rules, midfield depth is more important than ever.

[Monco Matt]

I was not surprised to see that game unfold last night. Looking at the team we had on paper, the midfield line-up in particular did not give me high hopes that we could control the flow of the football for longer periods than their midfield. I mean, to have Noble, Thomas & T. Brown playing through there in place of Treloar, Sidey & Phillips is not going to deliver improved results. As it turned out, we struggled to regain and hold possession and move the ball consistently with purpose. We were rushed much of the time with the remainder spent chasing them around. Hence, the very large possession differential.

The defence has been our saviour and rock of Gibraltar for a few years now. Once again, last night it was excellent but it seems to be showing some signs of frailty. To be constantly under pressure defending huge i50’s counts is going to test the greatest defences. Now that our midfield has weakened from 2020, this is going to become an increasing problem as each game ticks by. The dam wall is going to break once the efforts starts to slide and it will. Moore, Rough, Maynard, Isaac, Madgen etc. are only human and cannot sustain huge efforts week in week out. Our midfield is going to be the reason why we will lose many games this season by these two or three goal margins. It will be the difference between scoring 2 goals for us and now 2 goals going the other way, just by losing Treloar and Phillips, these are holes we have not looked liking filling any time soon.

The forward line. Oh, dear, what a calamity this area looks like continuing to be. When the ball does finally make its way in there, our guys prefer to get in each other’s way whenever possible. Either we are fighting each other over the ball or we are not there at all. Not communicating with each other, not in-sync, not playing cohesively or strategically. There is no understanding of what their roles are. Who goes up in a contest and who stays down? Who leads up and who drops deep? What are the running lanes i50? Who moves with Cox inside 50 to crumb? Who do I look for inside 50 when I have the ball outside 50? Who should be making space, who should be presenting? In most cases, the options just are not there so the ball carrier either has a ping or just bombs it in anywhere; these are our only options outside of the occasional rebound out the back goal, which is not reliable.

Our goals come from hard work and getting lucky with random events unfolding favourably, not much is crafted. There is no system here full stop. Why is that? To put it bluntly, we have no physical structure. Since 1890 we have all known that you need one or two power forwards (Reiwoldt/Lynch, we have none sadly) to target up with one or two genuine mid/small forwards (Rioli/Caddy, we have Miho no reliable second) around them with one midfielder sweeping though for support (Dusty/Castagna/Bolton, we have DeGoey reliably). Our forward line personnel and structure is severely under-manned and under-prepared. Elliot, WHE, Thomas, Ruscoe, Cox etc just simply do not have what it takes to consistently turn opportunity into scores.

Yes, it is only Round 1 and yes we have time to address all these areas, but does anyone really believe that we will? A long year coming up sadly, I cannot see this list making finals, we have regressed in talent and that will mean a drop off in output. Last year we finished eighth, this year how can we improve based on the early signs in 2021? It is very hard to see right now.

Like many others my faith in Buckley is pretty much non-existent these days, show me something to get excited about? He should probably resign at some stage during the season if things regress. As some have said, we should be sweeping the broom through now, take all the pain in one hit just like we did at the trade table and begin a thorough rebuild. Get back to being a Collingwood club, one that makes great decisions in all areas of the business. It starts with a new President, a new coach, new ideas, new goals, new game plans, new players, a commitment to success and that will end with a premiership or three, just ask Mr Gale.

[BazBoy]

Yes and here’s a prediction and out on the limb one at that

Freo under Justin will make finals in next three years

[Mr Miyagi]

How. Poor coaching that’s how

He (Sier) and the team in 2018 had a good mix of coaching who coached the team as a team of coach,s

But gradually autonomy worked its way back with its old friend nepotism

If persay Bucks was to get the chop ( or honourably walk) would our interim coach be Sando / Harvey or Harvey / Sando

Gezzzzz hope not

Losing Longmuir and Whiskers was laughable - I'd have either of them before the rest of the coaching staff inc. Buck's

How the duck do you add 1 + 1 and get Buckley wants total control so Longmuir, Hocking, Boyd all had to go for Buckley’s ego? Seriously read some dumb shit on nicks, but this takes the cake.

At one point the ball had spent 70% in the dogs forward line, for the whole game. THAT is the issue, our famed midfield can’t get the ball at centre clearances.

[RudeBoy]

Let's stick with Henry for a couple more weeks to give him a chance to adjust to the pace and intensity of senior AFL footy. The kid obviously is talented and should be persevered with, in what is looking like a re-build year for us.

Please do not bring in Mayne or Greenwood. Play the kids and use this year to build a foundation for next season.

FWIW, I expect JDG, Daicos, Adams and Grundy to have much better games next week.

[Pies2016]

So half on here want us to play the kids after round one and the other half weren’t impressed with Henry after one game ( and Ruscoe ) and want them dropped.
Let’s hope we can all be a little more tolerant and objective when those kids who haven’t played a competitive match in 18 months, don’t set the world on fire in the opening minutes.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

How. Poor coaching that’s how

He (Sier) and the team in 2018 had a good mix of coaching who coached the team as a team of coach,s

But gradually autonomy worked its way back with its old friend nepotism

If persay Bucks was to get the chop ( or honourably walk) would our interim coach be Sando / Harvey or Harvey / Sando

Gezzzzz hope not

Losing Longmuir and Whiskers was laughable - I'd have either of them before the rest of the coaching staff inc. Buck's

How the duck do you add 1 + 1 and get Buckley wants total control so Longmuir, Hocking, Boyd all had to go for Buckley’s ego? Seriously read some dumb shit on nicks, but this takes the cake.

What are you talking about? Maybe you've misunderstood me so I'll explain because this is not about control, it's about ideas.

A coaching panel 'is a brain trust of ideas', we the club or whoever makes these calls decided that some of that brains trust was expendable, but results clearly dictate otherwise... both names mentioned hereinabove have freakishly coincided with the only semi successful period we've had in the last 10 years.

Nothing to do with ego... at all - you made that up all on your own.

[Magpietothemax]

So half on here want us to play the kids after round one and the other half weren’t impressed with Henry after one game ( and Ruscoe ) and want them dropped.
Let’s hope we can all be a little more tolerant and objective when those kids who haven’t played a competitive match in 18 months, don’t set the world on fire in the opening minutes.

So you would keep both Trey and Ollie in for next week?

[BazBoy]

If we keep Ruscoe and Henry and blood kids next week who (say two) make way for who (which two kids)

[BazBoy]

A forward with goal nouse,a defensive side to his game and able to tackle

SANFL forward with the highest tackles in fwd 50. Me Creery and hardly a kid fresh from under 18,s

[Alex]

1 change for me, Sidey for WHE.

Our list is still strong, its the gameplan that is the problem. Ruscoe and Ollie Henry were horrendous last night but you cant drop the kids straight away, younger players are supposed to be inconsistent. Assess them after 3-4 rounds and see if they deserve to be in our team then.

On a side note, does that count as Callum Brown's 50th game?

[Raw Hammer]

We failed to kick two goal in a row all night. The reason? We can’t get the ball out of the middle once it goes back there after we score a goal. Reminds me of much of the final in Perth where we’d kick a goal and WC would answer immediately due to their centre square dominance. Until you sit atop the top deck of the MCG and see our centre square and even winger set ups you can’t fully appreciate how woeful we continue to be at centre square bounces. Like amateur hour ridiculous.