Post Match. Pies thumped by Cats. All comments, please.

[Magpietothemax]

5 from the Wing wrote:
Why were they physically stuffed? That sounds like a weak excuse & didn’t look at all like it was what caused the problem. They are professional athletes & they were playing their second match over about a 21 day period. They had nothing else to do but train, rest, and recover. Fully motivated teams go hard at the ball at the start of the game. If they are tired it may result in the team falling away later in the game, not two minutes in, when it was apparent that there was something badly wrong.

Why would the players be mentally fatigued? They are footballers, there’s not a lot of thought that is needed. Finals are what footballers live for. They don’t normally say “nah, can’t be bothered”.

I don’t buy the comments about how fired up Geelong were either. They were playing a final, just as we were. Why would they all of a sudden try harder to win than they had been trying before ? Geelong eased off and stopped going at 100% with one quarter to go

This makes most sense to me. I don't agree with the "mentally/physically fatigued" excuse either. It doesn't make much sense in the circumstances of an elimination final, and only one game in 21 days. Likewise, the "all fired up" argument is pretty lame as well. Even if it were true, it would not be an excuse for us. How did the coaches etc get Geelong so much more fired up than we were?
I find the way we played inexplicable.
5 From the Wing, you have suggested that we choked, like we did in the 2019 Prelim and the 2018 GF. This possiblity had not occurred to me. It is hard to believe after the performance last week that we would have choked from the very start of this game.
Probably we will never find out why this happened. But I hope our club does review it, because if we do we might gain some insight.

[What'sinaname]

Why were they physically stuffed? That sounds like a weak excuse & didn’t look at all like it was what caused the problem. They are professional athletes & they were playing their second match over about a 21 day period. They had nothing else to do but train, rest, and recover. Fully motivated teams go hard at the ball at the start of the game. If they are tired it may result in the team falling away later in the game, not two minutes in, when it was apparent that there was something badly wrong.

Why would the players be mentally fatigued? They are footballers, there’s not a lot of thought that is needed. Finals are what footballers live for. They don’t normally say “nah, can’t be bothered”.

I don’t buy the comments about how fired up Geelong were either. They were playing a final, just as we were. Why would they all of a sudden try harder to win than they had been trying before ? Geelong eased off and stopped going at 100% with more than a quarter to go. I am sure that Richmond, who haven’t choked in finals like we have, would not have been beaten by Geelong.

I was disappointed in Pendles and the on field leaders early in the match. When Madge and a few others made howlers, I didn't recall seeing the Captain going down there to settle them down, like Hodge would have. I remember seeing Hodge barking instructions and pointing furiously around the ground when his Hawthorn players made errors.

If Heater was back there, he would have been visible in his leadership.

[Magpietothemax]

Lastly, some here need to either admit they have little knowledge of psychology and how it interacts with the body, especially in regard to motivation and peak performance.

I assume this comment is directed at me. I freely admit i have no knowledge of how psychology affects peak performance. I am not a sports psychologist and have never pretended to be one. But it was clear from this game that our mental preparation was vastly inferior to that of Geelong. As 5 from the wing pointed out, if physical fatigue were the issue, it would not have expressed itself as a non-performance from the very start. It would have expressed itself as a fade out. I am not sure why you are taking so much offense. It would be good for our club to try to gain some insight into why this happened.

[5 from the wing on debut]

Lastly, some here need to either admit they have little knowledge of psychology and how it interacts with the body, especially in regard to motivation and peak performance.

I assume this comment is directed at me. I freely admit i have no knowledge of how psychology affects peak performance. I am not a sports psychologist and have never pretended to be one. But it was clear from this game that our mental preparation was vastly inferior to that of Geelong. As 5 from the wing pointed out, if physical fatigue were the issue, it would not have expressed itself as a non-performance from the very start. It would have expressed itself as a fade out. I am not sure why you are taking so much offense. It would be good for our club to try to gain some insight into why this happened.

That's exactly the thought that I have. When something goes wrong it's best to at least attempt to work out why, not to make up a fairy story, convince yourself that the fairy story was the reason for the failure, then just pretend that it never happened.

I really believe that they choked. Against the Eagles they were fit and firing. They played aggressively and at times with attacking flair. Was that because they were great underdogs, and there was no real expectation? The reports from training before the Cats game was that everything was going well. Supporters were posting on here, and elsewhere, about how much we were going to win by. Did they then run out against the Cats carrying the weight of unrealistic expectations, trying not to win the game but not to lose it? They wouldn't have been consciously thinking about that, but it may be what occurred? Once they were jumped it didn't help that there are a number of downhill skiers in the team.

[DT]

I really can’t believe some of the commentary here. Is everyone really a Collingwood supporter?

[Ronnie McKeowns boots]

Maybe someone slipped 'em a mickey

[BazBoy]

Confident many are

[shawthing]

I really can’t believe some of the commentary here. Is everyone really a Collingwood supporter?

You can't defend the indefensible.

[Lazza]

I really can’t believe some of the commentary here. Is everyone really a Collingwood supporter?

You can't defend the indefensible.

So true! Fair weather fans are really the pits. Pathetic.

[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]

I really can’t believe some of the commentary here. Is everyone really a Collingwood supporter?

You can't defend the indefensible.

So true! Fair weather fans are really the pits. Pathetic.

I actually don't think its actually possible for fair weather fans to go for Collingwood...

[5 from the wing on debut]

Lazza, I read your posts and see the Black Knight from Monty Python.

[doriswilgus]

I don’t think we choked.If you look clips of the game,our players couldn’t even keep up with theirs.It’s not as if Geelong is super quick,our players were just so stuffed they literally couldn’t keep up with them.I noticed that a lot of the time when Geelong took a mark,our players wouldn’t even stand the mark for them.They were just jogging away,not even looking at what the Geelong player was doing and letting them play on.That’s a sign of a team that wasn’t mentally or physically switched on,

[Magpietothemax]

You can't defend the indefensible.

So true! Fair weather fans are really the pits. Pathetic.

I actually don't think its actually possible for fair weather fans to go for Collingwood...

So true. Impossible to be a fanatical Collingwood fan if you are only viable during fair weather. This quote from Charlotte Bronte describes brilliantly the meteorological conditions assoicated with being a Collingwood fan:

One night a thunder-storm broke; a sort of hurricane shook us in our beds: the Catholics rose in panic and prayed to their saints. As for me, the tempest took hold of me with tyranny: I was roughly roused and obliged to live.

[Cam]

LAL filled gaps in the team by great recruiting and just won yet another NBA title. We need to do the same by recruiting real talent and piss off those who are not good enough or don’t want to be at Collingwood.

Lazza my old friend... If Treloar's missus is going to be in Qld, then the likeliehood is that Adam *may* want to be too. It would be win-win. Just saying.

[piedys]

We need to do the same by recruiting real talent and piss off those who are not good enough or don’t want to be at Collingwood.

Lazza my old friend... If Treloar's missus is going to be in Qld, then the likeliehood is that Adam *may* want to be too. It would be win-win. Just saying.

Cam, does she intend to resume her netball career so soon after childbirth?
Or is she simply homesick for Brisbane?
If she's going home, sooner than later, I'd suggest he'll be relocating too.
Interstate relationships simply cannot work, regardless of how much money you have. And with current border restrictions going on indefinitely, they have to make up their minds which state they want to live in, and expect to be anchored there for the long haul...