Post Match. Pies down to Lions. All comments, please.

[DT]

My brief observations

1. Coaches are very good. McRae is always insightful and his team is connected to the players who respond well. The team spirit and cohesion are good. This should not be underestimated.

2. I am tough on our top players as I expect a lot from them but I have a bit of a different view about a few of them from many others here, taking last night as an example:

Grundy, who has frustrated me hugely the last two years, is changing the way he plays. He is less focussed on himself now. Also he is finally starting to tap better and to our advantage, particularly in forward areas. What I want to see is more fight and more creativity and I see improvement in both. Yes, his marking is poor for a ruckman but that may be a combination confidence and technique, so he can improve.

Moore, whom I rate very highly, is not on it this year. He lacks competitiveness and is getting beaten too often in one on ones. His skills are amazing but needs to work on some other aspects of his game.

JDG had a fine back half of the season in 2021 and continues to be very good. He is not a Lachie Neale so don’t expect him to dominate for four quarters. He is much more consistent week to week and has hugely improved his goal kicking accuracy. I like what I see.

Maynard who is a tough and quite skilled player was not at his best. He failed to impact some contests and also had some poor skill errors. I expect him to bounce back and have a top match on Anzac Day

Pendlebury - having a fine season, what a champion

On the rest, it is clear we have some terrific young players now and I am very bullish about our future. If we recruit well this year I think we can play finals next year but managing the loss of some highly experienced players over the next two years will be a challenge. I can see a need for some more smart lateral recruitment, a la Lipinski and Krueger, but for a ‘name’ player, probably a midfielder.

Keep positive, there is a lot to like

[Big T]

That was the perfect game for us...

1. Competitive interstate against a top 4 side
2. Unearthed another youngster
3. Freddie Kruger proves astute trading
4. Fly can now make a call on Cox
5. Narrow loss, tick, stick to the plan to get a top 5 pick

Loved it. Great game for the club.

[What'sinaname]

That was the perfect game for us...

1. Competitive interstate against a top 4 side
2. Unearthed another youngster
3. Freddie Kruger proves astute trading
4. Fly can now make a call on Cox
5. Narrow loss, tick, stick to the plan to get a top 5 pick

Loved it. Great game for the club.

Yep, a lot to like and like Piesnchess would say, keep playing the kids (unless that kid's name is Brown. Stop playing him)

[Big T]

I had to laugh at Madges blatant deliberate near the end. This bloke would have been a star in the 80s.

[BazBoy]

DT a fine summary of things

Yep the view thru the windscreen is way bigger for us than the rear vision mirror

[Clifton Hill-Billy]

I like the idea of throwing Moore forward...our forward line look instantly better and more organised.

Question is can we afford to take him away from the backline. How far is Charlie Dean away and can he hold up in the backline.

Thing is that Moore hasn't been that good down back, certainly since signing his six year deal his form has been off

[mudlark]

Lions absolute premiership pretenders.Playing against a bottom four side without a forward line at home and they fall in by a goal.

As for us.A good gutsy performance.We could have dropped our heads at three quarter time but we kept plugging away and never gave up.

Not only did they 'Fall in" ,they were ably assisted by some of the most wretched umpiring I've seen in years. We were in it u to our ears when Madgen legitimately spoiled a marking contest and the ball went out of bounds on their 50mtr arc, were subsequently given a free and kicked a goal and then another a short time later after Lachie Neill deliberately kicked the ball out of bounds, the free, BLATENT. ! was NOT paid and they kicked another to get to 4 goals up. Has ANYONE ever been paid for deliberate out of bounds when punching the ball during a marking contest?? F&8king disgrace. Cox and Cameron failed to take a mark between them in the forward 50 ,Pendles, with victory well in sight, kicked straight to the man on the mark , kicked it TO him more precisely and his kicking to a team mate all night was a blight on his good name. Madgen.Please NO MORE!! Callum Brown.If this doesn't quell the admirers then they obviously see the same qualities as they saw in Josh Thomas ,which I certainly cannot see. Crisp got caught more times than not and I'm afraid Josh Daicos made a couple of very poor skill errors in our back half that cost us goals at vital times. I was at the game and saw it in living colour,3 D whatever you want Those who bagged Reef McGuiness last week should apologise.He is a special talent This kid.A gift from the umpires this one was.And Darcy Moore got his pants pulled down by Daniher and I'm afraid Roughy was rag dolled on at least 3 occasions which ALL resulted in goals.

[Pies4shaw]

I had to laugh at Madges blatant deliberate near the end. This bloke would have been a star in the 80s.

If he had any awareness, there were 4 Collingwood players free if he'd hit it towards our goal, instead, so it was a likely 12 point turnaround.

[23 YIPPEE!!!]

Any new injuries from last night

[stui magpie]

Lots of positives, I'm not putting a line through 2022 by any stretch.

If we had better converted our forward entries and some set shots to goals, we'd be undefeated on top of the ladder. That forward connection is hard to build when you can't get a settled 6 in there, but we have all the ingredients.

McInnes
Krueger
Mihocek
DeGoey
Ginnivan
McCreery
Henry
Wilson

Plus a resting ruckman to spoil intercept defenders.

There's plenty of material there for Fly to work with, just need to settle on the right combination that works with our game style and get them all on the park together for an extended run and we'll start putting regular ticks in the W column.

[What'sinaname]

Any new injuries from last night

Cameron - broken rib
Cox - Completely broken - lost his football abilities
Adams - leg and / or neuron injury - lost his ability to kick a football

[Collingwouldn't]

Competitive all night which was good to see without ever looking like winning the game which was disappointing. Was nothing to get exited about at any stage, just was never really close enough.

Bit flat on this one, I think 7pts probably flatters us a fair bit, we looked 4 or 5 goals off the pace most of the time. Hard to pinpoint specific areas that let us down, we really are a team that is 10% off on most aspects of the game. But, we are getting the ball inside 50 enough compared to our opponents, so you would have to say our forwards still let us down above all else.

Still think our defenders need to be a lot better one on one. Our mids try their guts out until they're knackered but they do seem to work inefficiently. I feel too many are running around unnecessarily and should stay spread out a bit more. Cover ground that way.

In any case, the result was a good one without winning. Not a disaster.

Some dodgy frees helped us get close early in the 4th

Wow! Some dodgy frees FOR the Pies? Unheard of!!!

[Collingwouldn't]

You don’t get points for losing but a better showing than I expected. Felt like they probably had another gear to go to - and if they haven’t then they are pretenders.

To be within a kick given the batsh1t crazy team selection we went with was pleasing. Notable Wilson and Cox spent the last 10 minutes in the bench and I wouldn’t be surprised if the sub was tactical (like every other club does) rather than injury related.

Forward line woes continue though. The truth is we don’t have the personnel but we just have to find a way to score with what we’ve got. Surely that includes ginnivan and Henry can crush it in the VFL and earn a spot back in.

Anyone still want to stick with Wilson? Not sure we can have Adams and Cal
brown in the same team either - both very similar in and unders with questionable foot skills.

With a bit of luck we see a stronger team run out against the Bombers - a win in that game is now really important.

Wilson's a volleyball.

[Mr Miyagi]

[Pies2016]

I’m not sure our forward lines woes are as bad as what everyone thinks.
There wouldn’t be to many teams averaging over ninety points a game ( we’ve also played two strong teams in those five games to date )
The game plan to hit the scoreboard is working extremely well and of course it would be even better when the quality of the individuals improves accordingly.
One of our biggest problems is that we are simply leaking to many scores.
Individually, the back six is quite strong but the issue lies with a game plan that sees them required to move the ball so quickly from defence, they are out of position on any rebounds The goals scored against us are far too easy and far too often. Successful transition is all about perfect balance of offence and defence and we haven’t found that yet. Kicking ninety points a game will win you most games … unless of course you’re inclined to concede even more.