Post match. Pies thump Tigers - all comments please

[matrix10]

[yin-YANG]

Not sure if it was the slippery conditions or a change in game-plan but we seem to be kicking more than over-using the handball thankfully!

Pressure was very good for 3/4... when we just coast we look average. When we apply the pressure we are top 4 quality.

POSITIVES:
- I have not been a fan of Young - however he was good - kicks with good penetration and was moving well. His best game and hopefully more to come.
- Fas is back with more of his mojo... he has a good footy brain and is a damaging player with limited possession.
- White was looking good - fitting in really well given only his 4th game and showed how dangerous he will be when Reid is back and he can play with a 3 pronged forward set-up.
- Elliot is classy and can play up the ground if needed
- On-ballers doing better - even Swan
- Witts can play - just not sure if he and Grundy are good enuf to both play at the same time -Maybe Witts as the sub??? Horses for courses I guess...
- Sidey up forward is dangerous he can kick goals each week.
-McCaffer is a gun tagger!
-Frost can get a job done on the best forwards...
-Our kick-outs are looking better and we defend the opposition team kick-outs well!
- Bux is doing well with some of the team set-ups etc and the players seem to be getting the hunger and desperation back!!!

NEGATIVES
-Cloke (a confidence player) needs a few breaks - good to see Bucks stick up for him - hopefully Clokey repays the faith
- We look good against teams that move the ball slowly - trouble is there are not too many of them that are genuine contenders...
-We only beat Richmond - if we played like that last week I think we would have beaten the cats!

Bring on the Kangas... GO PIES!

[perthmagpie]

Missed being there again this week. Saving a lot of money on petrol not doing the 600k round trip though. With the rider that I only saw the game on TV in between having to listen to two nine year old girls sing songs to me about farts I thought Beamer was our best across four quarters. The whole midfield is tuning up now with Swan, Ball and Sidebottom showing some emerging form.

The concern after round one was can Buckley coach and are our players going to display the right intensity under him this year. The last three weeks have started to put those questions to bed a bit. I think we are still way off our best mainly in execution, cohesion (getting better) and knowing how our best team looks.

Our team is not going to settle till mid season with a whole bunch of players about to return: Brown next week, Seedsman, Sinclair and Reid shortly and perhaps Williams too. Most of these guys are in our best 22. Then there is Bucks taking a close look at Oxley, Broomhead, Karnezis and Freeman in the VFL shortly to see which of the flankers will add the required execution to the team.

I really hope we win at least two of our next three to stay in the hunt before we get our team settled and executing better. We have to vastly improve our kicking skills across the club in games. Hopefully that will happen as these guys return. The pressure to get a game is going to be immense. The VFL team has the same problem as the seniors, too many turnovers by foot in offensive transition. Every game in pre season across both teams has been scrappy even when winning. Still the effort is clearly there and huge improvement is possible with the depth in the list and the ability of young players to have break out seasons.

[Rick]

Grundy didn't have the greatest night, but once he was subbed out the Tigers did gain some ascendency in the centre square and were able to kick goals from centre clearances. Witts didn't give much during the last quarter and a bit. At least Grundy even when quiet does follow up and tackle and slows up play and give our defence time to structure up.

I think there's a case to argue that a 3 pronged ruck/forward combination of Grundy, Witts and White could work and allowed Witts and Grundy to run out games better.

Witts looks far more comfortable playing forward ATM. The Cloke, White and Witts forward line seemed to work for the first 3 quarters. I guess though once Reid and Brown come back all could change.

[Magpie Jack]

Fasolo was fantastic down back.
Witts played really well although I was surprised they had both ruckmen on the ground at the same time in those conditions.
The White/ Cloke combination looks very promising.
I'm amazed by the criticism of Macaffer's tagging. Softwick's winging at the press conference was absolutely pathetic. That's what they do when they're about to get the arse...blame everyone else.

[collie dog]

That was one of our best wins for years! Put a massive smile on my face, and if we didn't slacken off in the last, Hiss' 70 point prediction would have been spot on.

So many positives from last night. But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves just yet. Richmond really were a pile of dung. I believe there is a delivery truck due outside Punt Road sometime this morning.

[collie dog]

[Duff Soviet Union]

[Monco Matt]

Any win is a good win when you are clearly an average side. How shockingly awful were Richmond last night. They were lifeless and showed no spirit at all. Skills on both sides were poor, perhaps the greasy conditions played a role but still, both team fumbled all night. The ability to capture the football on the first attempt and keep the ball moving is what creates fast ball movement and can take a team to the next level, we really need to improve our hands if we are going to compete with the best.

Positives:
- Elliott's goal kicking accuracy
- Beams and Swan getting back on the goal kickers list
- General team competitiveness at the stoppages
- Macaffer as the competitions second best tagger
- Blair & Witts actually looked competent
- Four quarter effort (even though they kicked 7 in the last, we did kick 6 and still played to the end, happy with that aspect)

Negatives:
- Inability to secure the football
- Short kicks that miss the mark
- Clokes poor form continuing
- Swan still playing injured
- Is pendles carrying an injury (very quiet 2nd half for him)?
- Fasolo in defense, cost 3 goals directly from poor disposal, not sure if he is just covering for Williams/Sinclair or is being groomed as a defender.

I think our physical efforts is definitely there within the team (we are still excellent in scrappy contested football games) but we just lack so much polish that we cannot be considered a top side until we start to hit all targets when NOT under pressure and most targets when under pressure. All our ball butchers need to raise their skill levels or they will hold us back. Harry, Sidey, Swan, Fasolo, Maxwell and any player who decides to blindly kick the ball away out of panic rather than direct pressure or kick/handball the footy at kneecaps through poor execution. Fix this up and we will improve significantly.

Skill level is now the #1 separator between the best and the rest. Fitness levels are pretty even, game plans are all well known and no one game plan rules the rest. It is sure hands capturing the ball with quick and accurate disposal over four quarters which is king (even full court defensive pressure takes a back seat to this). If we have the ball and can execute then nothing else matters, if we turn the ball over then everything matters.

[the pie guy]

Good, solid effort, considering they have been touted as a final eight contender and we are nowhere near full strength. We will have a lot of players coming back in the next few weeks who will at the very least pressure the incumbents to continue to perform or be replaced.. We can/will be better!!!
DEFENCE
The pleasing thing is that it’s performing with Fasolo and Toovs, both 3 games back from long term injuries and Frost, Langdon and Keefe with less than 40 games between them.
Maxwell not finished yet - good game.
Lumumba also in very good form.
Frost has now played well against some of the leagues best and strongest, He will develop into a KPD or possibly play the Maxwell role in future. Great to see his courage at the ball.
Langdon will be good for a long time to come, but is still learning and it showed.
Fasolo, very solid but also still learning how to play in defence. Solved our kicking from fullback problem, but needs to be better in general play.
Young had his best game for us - provided good delivery.
It will be great to see Brown, Seedsman, Sinclair, Broomhead, Oxley etc, hopefully Williams and possibly Scharenberg all fighting of spots.
MIDS
Ball and Swan were much better this week, Sidey good game but I wish he would kick at the players not do does dinky little kicks out in front. Thomas, Dwyer, Freeman, Adams, will also all be fighting for games in the next few weeks.
Grundy and Witts played well. My only concern, short term, is Grundy, he seemed knackered before half time, but we forget he is very young and his body is still maturing - will need another preseason or two.

FORWARDS
Can't wait for Reid to come back, apart from his undoubted ability he will also free White to monster the 3rd tall defender. Also Karnezis, Kennedy and Martin in the wings.
Barring injuries our side could have a very different look about it come Sept..

[RudeBoy]

Apart from our game against Freo we've played well all year so far. Last night was our best effort, with an even contribution from our whole midfield brigade. Even Swanny is getting back his mojo.

A big congrats must go to Bucks for daring to play Fasolo as a defender. While he might make the occasional mistake, his run and silky disposal skills add a touch of class to an otherwise pretty dour defensive unit. While he will probably return to the forward line when we get Marley and Seedsman back, in the meantime he's the player launching most of our attacks from the half back line.

I have to apologise for calling for Ball to be dropped. I thought last night was his best game for 2 seasons. He even kicked well for goal! Maybe the wet slippery conditions suited his slower paced in and under game, but nevertheless, I thought he played a great game. Maxy is also playing well. It was also Young's best game. Maybe he'll keep his spot in our best 22 after all.

Overall, our only real worry is the continuing poor form of Cloke. Still, even if he's there only as a decoy, his presence makes it easier for White, who is going from strength to strength. It was an all-round team win. Perhaps only Blair might struggle to hold his spot - especially if Kennedy has a good VFL game.

Good to see Thomas play a great last quarter. All bodes well for the remainder of the season, especially if we can get Reid, Williams, Brown, Sinclair, Freeman and maybe even Scharenberg up and running.

[Doc63]

Absolutely wrapped with that win. To keep them to 3 goals at 3 quarter time, with our inexperienced defense, was a great effort. Not concerned with the last quarter. It was no surprise really, considering we have some underdone players, and our two best players hardly trained all week.

Pendles, Beams & Caff were just magnificent. Lumumba was also back to his best. Maxy is back to his old self - its great to see, he's really stepped up to lead our inexperienced defense.

White is going to be a very handy player for us, and when Reid is back, look out. What a luxury, having to decide which end of the ground to play him.

While Clokey continues to be crucified, he is also down on confidence. That's all, his is still as good a footballer as he was last year - he is only 1 good quarter away from being back to his best.

Caff's effort on Cotchin was magnificent. However, regardless of what we think, the media spotlight will be on him this week - he will have to be careful next week against North.

I thought Swanny was much better last night. Hopefully he has turned the corner.

If we can win 2 out of our next three, it will be a great start to the season.

[MattyD]

I was at the game last night and I’ve just watched the replay.
I know it’s annoying to some to even mention it but - dropping the ball in the first quarter, Blair’s tackle on a Richmond player, why wasn’t that paid? We just don’t get these.
I fully accept that we will never get a fair go from the umpiring. But it really is frustrating when there are many obvious frees not being paid to Collingwood and the free kick count is always skewed against us. And on top of that you have commentators like Harley who at 10-minute mark of the 2nd quarter says he would like to see more free kicks paid to Richmond.
And, yeah, Harley. He was still seething from Collingwood almost beating his precious Cats last week.
If a Geelong player played like Macaffer did last night, Harley would be crowing about how brilliant it was.
Harley was clearly barracking for Richmond.
And what a hypocrite calling for that play on call to come back after the free kick didn’t give a goal to Richmond in the 2nd quarter!! I distinctly recall losing a game to Geelong a couple of years ago where one of our players played on and missed and he wasn’t saying it should have been called back!! Wanker!!
The problem with such biased umpiring is when we play a stronger team like Hawthorn it is near impossible to win.
And how many times did Richmond deliberately knock the ball out of bounds?
In the second quarter from the 10-minute mark 7 free kicks were paid to the Tigers: zero to Pies. The umpires did this to us against Hawthorn and Essendon last year. Has there ever been a game where we have got 7 free kicks in a row without any to our opposition?
The other thing I noticed from the commentary is that the “commentators” were constantly trying to think up ways for Richmond to beat Collingwood. And Harley especially sounded so frustrated that Collingwood was in front. You never hear him sound frustrated when Collingwood is losing.
Matthew Richardson conceded Macaffer is the 2nd best tagger in the AFL and how good he was against Geelong last week. That’s a pretty good endorsement and a fair one. Harley must have been grinding his teeth with that one. And I think that explains a lot of Harley’s comments: petty biased commentating.

[didick]

[didick]

Defensive efforts and attack on the pill has changed a lot in the last two weeks. It's almost like the swarm is coming back. Totally different to the zone off and let the opposition chip it around us and go coast to coast like it was against Freo and most of last season. Promising stuff.