Game day. Magpies v. Suns - Changes, comments

[Damien]

Time to reclaim our mantle as best team on the road. Need Caff to blanket Gazz and an across the board effort from all. I'm tipping a breakout game from Wittsy today. 4 goals a piece to him and Trav.

[Breadcrawl]

They have won one of their last five games.

They have lost four of their last five games.

We have been 200% more successful over our last five games.

Why does it take optimism to think we can win? Because they beat Geelong? To that I say 'Pah' and also 'Meh'.

There is a hackneyed phrase that is trotted out pretty much every week in this thread. I'm gonna use it this week.

It's a must win game.

And win we shall my fine feathered friends

[Woods]

Win this one and there can be no doubt that Collingwood is a genuine 2014 flag contender.

Lose it and all is not yet lost. But playing finals requires the kind of grit that this Suns game will require. The failure of Collingwood to grasp this watershed game by the throat will not bode well entering September.

Time for the team show its true form.

I think our defence will be key to winning it. There are enough Collingwood opportunists to kick goals, but we must deny the Suns the same opportunities.

Pies by 12.

[RudeBoy]

I like the ins and the outs (apart from Elliott).

Our midfield is faster without the aging Luke Ball and I reckon Grundy will prove a great key forward and relieving ruckman. I expect Beams, Sidey, Swanny and Pendles, to be rotated through the forward line. The return of Langdon and Williams significantly strengthens our back line. I expect Dwyer or Thomas to be the sub.

Pies by 32 points.

[think positive]

Man it's hot here! Wierd feeling for July footy

Fair bit of black and white here

[AN_Inkling]

Are we overrating the GCS?

Where's all this negativity coming from?

Sure, they're better this year but they're no juggernaut. We're every chance to win this one, even though our interstate record, under Bucks, is not quite as good as it was. The loss of Elliott is a blow, but can be covered by rotating mids as well as the inclusion of Kennedy, assuming he's not the sub.

Pies by 23 points.

[watt price tully]

Would love to see Witts & Grundy stamp their authority on the game, really impose themselves. Not too confident at all - Elliott is a big "out" given he's our leading goal kicker this year.

[Jezza]

My head says the Suns are going to win this, but the heart says that the Pies are going to produce a memorable performance and really set themselves up for the latter part of the season. One way or another, the fallout of this game will be interesting.

Gold Coast are not actually in great form if you think about it, but I don't think we've been spectacular by any means either. I like our inclusions, but losing Elliott will hurt us especially with limited forward line options at the present time. Cloke really needs another big game and our midfielders need to score some goals as well to ease Cloke's burden of scoring all our goals. I wouldn't mind having Grundy or Witts play up forward, and I'd even consider playing Sidebottom up there as well as he does a strong record as a forward so I wouldn't be surprised if Bucks went down that path with Sidey.

Unlike last year this time Macaffer must tag Ablett. Ablett killed us last year with his ball use and run and spread so it's a no-brainer that the job must be done on Ablett this time round. I think Macaffer has done really well if Ablett has 25 disposals but doesn't have much impact around the ground in general and doesn't score any goals in the process. I do worry that Ablett's pace may be too much for Macaffer but we'll see how this plays out.

I have a feeling that the boys aren't going to take the Suns lightly as we've seen during the week with newspaper articles hinting at this idea of 'revenge' especially after what happened last year at Metricon against the Suns.

I'll be an optimist and tip the Pies by 15

[David]

[mattys123]

Nervous for this game, it's one of those games again when we could get back into top 4 contention with a win, but a loss really hurts us in so many ways.

Cmon Pies start well.