Post Match. Pies down to Giants. All comments.

[Charlie Oneeye]

I think Framptons experienced fist would have helped with Howe and Murphy missing.

We should also consider the shape and size of the Engie stadium. Our run and carry is effected on a shorter narrower ground, and the home team knew how to defend its space much better than us.

Maybe a good cause for our sloppy, uncharacteristic performance, is simply we didn't have the space we train for. And then, bad kicking and all that follows.

[lazzadesilva]

I just think we had a shocker, and the vagaries of the game like bad bounces went against us. That’s footy. Reasons like having a shorter off season than normal due to winning the GF and the early start to the season are valid but are not excuses. GWS played better and deserved to win.

[qldmagpie67]

Watched the replay again (I’m guessing I like torture)
I see people just read possessions and say oh they must have been our best players
Other than Cameron the stats are massively misleading this week
I won’t bang on with the obvious that many have mentioned but here’s some stats that should really worry us

Inside 50’s connection
Nick D 8 inside 50 attempts 2 connections
Sidey 7 inside 50 attempts 1 connection
Schulz and Josh D 5 inside 50 attempts 0 connections
JDG 4 inside 50 attempts 1 connection

That’s 29 inside 50 attempts for just 4 connections

We had 61 inside 50’s to 52 and lost by 32
Our kicking in front of goal was nothing short of atrocious
Seriously in the space of 4 minutes in the 3rd term when the match was still winnable we had 3 shots no more than 35m out and basically directly in front and missed all 3
Kick those and all of a sudden the score line is we are down by 16

Dean did ok but we failed him as a team
GWS where smart they drew Moore and Maynard upfield and left Dean deep with Hogan ans Cadman deep
Never should he have been left as our last line of defence not in his first game

The biggest questions I have are
1. Why did it take so long to move Crisp into the middle ?
2. Why when it was so obvious our defence was in such a mess we didn’t move Pendles back to HBF in place of Crisp to be the general in Howe’s absence ?
3. Why did we persist in going around the boundary when they showed us the quickest way to goal was down the middle ?
4. Why didn’t we plant Cox deep in the goal square and give checkers some more freedom and put Johnson on the bench bringing Noble on ?
5. Schulz was brought in as a goal kicker but spent loads more time on the ball. Why didn’t we move McCreery into the ball and let Schulz stay forward with Hill and Elliott ?
I would stick with Dean until Howe is right to go he showed enough to think there’s something to work with there
Frampton must be considered as second ruck as he can also play either end of the ground effectively if needed especially after Cox’s shocker
McRae should come into consideration but it would be hard to pick which mid should go out as there was a couple at least who didn’t earn there keep on the day
Don’t be mistaken GWS are a very good team who are well coached and play a very good style of football
If I counted right they had 17 top 1st round picks in the 22 last night
That’s scary when you consider who didn’t play as well

[What'sinaname]

^ Enough has been spoken about Cox and AJ. But McCreery needs to be put under the microscope.
What is his actual role? I am not even sure he knows what position he is supposed to play.

[Piesnchess]

Mcstay was,and is, a big loss for us, big man forward, that is certain.

[piffdog]

I tipped them - super hungry for redemption and up on their dung heap. They’re a good team and I think they will be right there in September.
Dont care for the predictable chat about not recruiting a key forward. Can’t do anything about the list now and the forward line we had last year made us a formidable team.
Would have made it a little more interesting if we kicked straight, but the final score flattered us.
Not sure what was up with Pendles - had 2 disposals to half time and was everywhere at the start of the third. Jordy and Josh were just ok and Crisp was enterprising when moved into the middle and Noble came on.
Back line looked a bit of a rabble at times - although I thought Greene was well held. Dean looked ok for a debutant. Sorry about Moore when he has to play in somebody - so the back line needs to be set up so that’s not required.
Whole team looked a bit fumbly at times (Schultz in particular) - it looked super humid. In situations like that contest wins the day and the coach lamented this in his presser.
I thought Darcy Cameron was our BOG.
The only thing that really gave me the irrits watching from home was the spot up kicks they had going inside 50 to a man 20m in the clear. It was like we were half asleep…

It’s gonna be a long season and history tells us we’re unlikely to go back to back. As I fan I’ll need to remind myself that we’re not gonna win every game. The Swans this week, however, we should beat them. I just don’t get the hype about them. Will be good to be back home again and hopefully it’s 16 degrees!

[masoncox]

Is it me or did Schultz look over weight?

[masoncox]

^ Enough has been spoken about Cox and AJ. But McCreery needs to be put under the microscope.
What is his actual role? I am not even sure he knows what position he is supposed to play.

The great trouble with MCCreey is that he does not have clean hands.
He fumbles.
Fix that and you would have a great player

[Duff Soviet Union]

I wasn't that upset by the performance. I think Howe and Frampton in for Dean and Johnson would improve things a bit.
The reason we lost is basically that GWS didn't miss in front of goal. It's basically the opposite of last year where we won a few games we shouldn't have won due to bad set shot kicking by the opposition. That kind of stuff always turns around.

Notes on a few players.

Schultz will be fine. He just missed on a few kicks inside 50 and missed a couple of goals he'd normally get, but he's not normally a bad kick so he'll get that fixed up.

The big concern for me is our "dad's army" midfield of Sidey, Pendles, Crisp and Mitchell. They were all down last night and I hope that's just a fluke.

Nick Daicos misused the ball a bit more than he usually does, which just added to the "preseason game" feel of it all.

Lipinski looked better than he did last year and can hopefully get back to 2022 form. I always hate it when guys get injured in preseason. Even when they come back, it always seems like they're behind the 8-ball for the whole year.

Our defence just looked a bit out of sorts, exacerbated by super accurate goal kicking. I'm guessing Howe and Murphy would have helped there.

I'm not really a fan of Markov and Noble should take his place.

De Goey had a shocker, but I think he'll be fine.

[Pies2016]

^ Enough has been spoken about Cox and AJ. But McCreery needs to be put under the microscope.
What is his actual role? I am not even sure he knows what position he is supposed to play.

The great trouble with MCCreey is that he does not have clean hands.
He fumbles.
Fix that and you would have a great player

He attended 8 centre bounces but didn’t get a possession inside the square. Obviously the club are looking to add another dimension to his game but he’s simply not a clearance player. He may find himself further up the ground as the weeks roll on but as part of a centre square set up, it was like starting one short for those centre bounces.
I’m starting to see why they recruited Sullivan, he’s a natural ball winner with that sixth sense of knowing where to go next to get a kick when it’s in dispute. That’s very difficult to teach but if Mitchell continues to be subbed out over next couple weeks and Pendles takes some time to return to his peak, MacRae or Sullivan will get their chances much sooner than later.

[Take_a_Screamer]

I'm not really a fan of Markov and Noble should take his place.

The evidence for Markov says otherwise!

[magpieazza]

Macrae had a brilliant preseason, we shouldnt be holding him back any longer. McInnes ditto. Frampton should come in as it looked like we were down one tall.
No use panicking just yet, lets just get some hungry players in the side.
Not sure what it is about McCreery but I havent liked what Ive seen of him this pre season... complacency ??

[MatthewBoydFanClub]

^ Enough has been spoken about Cox and AJ. But McCreery needs to be put under the microscope.
What is his actual role? I am not even sure he knows what position he is supposed to play.

The great trouble with MCCreey is that he does not have clean hands.
He fumbles.
Fix that and you would have a great player

He attended 8 centre bounces but didn’t get a possession inside the square. Obviously the club are looking to add another dimension to his game but he’s simply not a clearance player. He may find himself further up the ground as the weeks roll on but as part of a centre square set up, it was like starting one short for those centre bounces.
I’m starting to see why they recruited Sullivan, he’s a natural ball winner with that sixth sense of knowing where to go next to get a kick when it’s in dispute. That’s very difficult to teach but if Mitchell continues to be subbed out over next couple weeks and Pendles takes some time to return to his peak, MacRae or Sullivan will get their chances much sooner than later.

Mitchell doesn’t have the stamina to get through a long season. Sam Mitchell worked that out two seasons ago which was the reason Hawthorn was happy to clear him to us and pay part of his salary. Tom Mitchell naturally wants to play every game but from a team angle, you’d want to play him at the pointy end of the season to run him into form before the finals. Therefore it didn’t really make any sense to play him in the first game when you’ve got a guy like Fin who’s burning down the training track. Also I think Noble was the choice for sub as insurance for not having Howe and Murphy out there. That was a failure as well. McCreery isn’t a mid. However he justified his position against GWS because he offers physicality on the field. I agree with Sullivan. He’s a genuine clearance player. I’d be looking at his VFL form before considering to play him in the senior team. And coming back to Dean, it was unfair to play him again Hogan. I would have played Frampton against Hogan, Dean against Cadman and Darcy against the weakest tall, Ricarddi. I thought Fly was basically outcoached on Saturday.

[Magpietothemax]

Mitchell doesn’t have the stamina to get through a long season. Sam Mitchell worked that out two seasons ago which was the reason Hawthorn was happy to clear him to us and pay part of his salary. Tom Mitchell naturally wants to play every game but from a team angle, you’d want to play him at the pointy end of the season to run him into form before the finals. Therefore it didn’t really make any sense to play him in the first game when you’ve got a guy like Fin who’s burning down the training track. Also I think Noble was the choice for sub as insurance for not having Howe and Murphy out there. That was a failure as well. McCreery isn’t a mid. However he justified his position against GWS because he offers physicality on the field. I agree with Sullivan. He’s a genuine clearance player. I’d be looking at his VFL form before considering to play him in the senior team. And coming back to Dean, it was unfair to play him again Hogan. I would have played Frampton against Hogan, Dean against Cadman and Darcy against the weakest tall, Ricarddi. I thought Fly was basically outcoached on Saturday.

Great post MBFC. you raise some excellent points which explain alot in the GWS game.

[Collingwouldn't]

No injuries right. Could have been worse. Fly’s face before half time said it all. He already knew to be real concerned about v the result at that point. We got some junk time goals to get off the bottom rung of the ladder. At least no major injuries right?

Despite all the gloom Dean got through and will be better for it. Pendles under done but somehow had an influence late in the game. Cameron was close to our best player with Sidey and WHE. The Daicos bros were serviceable as was Maynard.

Game pressure aside, it’s amazing how the scoreboard lies. We only lost by 32. WHE nails a sitter and Ash misses a finger and the score is 20points. Elliot and Schultz nail their set shots in the third quarter and it’s 8points. Lipinski and it’s 2 points. And with a bit of luck you never know.

Taking away nothing from GWS however they looked the better team for most of the night and deserved the scoreboard win

"Taking away nothing from GWS however they looked the better team for most of the night and deserved the scoreboard win"

- What was this, a 'moral' victory? Are you ... Ben Stokes?