Post Match. Pies down to Giants. All comments.

[Piesnchess]

OK round 0 is done, its not as bad as I feared during the match. GWS played well, we put in a bad one up on their own pissing ground, the Orange Horde al there. We had at least 10 players well down, that wont happen again. that was a big wake up call, for the whole team and Coach. We missed soda goals, they missed not one, at one stage I thought we were heading to a 60+ point loss, so to lose by 32 was at least a tad respectable. Sidey is a marvel as is Nick, hearts as big as pumpkins. Fly now has lots to work with re motivation. Back to the big MCG, unfurl the Premiership flag, re jig the team a bit, least three changes, and hit those Swans with everything and the kitchen sink. This was the loss we had too have, very early days, you learn from your defeats, and our guys an Fly have now learnt a lot. Be very different attitude next week. I have no doubt of that.

[blackmissionary]

There were a few gettable misses, but our inaccuracy tonight was down to our poor delivery inside forward 50. A lot of bombs inside 50 that ended up being fumbled over the goal line, because we could not create any space in there. There wasn't much run and carry into the forward line either, and not many times where we were able to get behind the Giants' defensive structure.

[Magpietothemax]

There were a few gettable misses, but our inaccuracy tonight was down to our poor delivery inside forward 50. A lot of bombs inside 50 that ended up being fumbled over the goal line, because we could not create any space in there. There wasn't much run and carry into the forward line either, and not many times where we were able to get behind the Giants' defensive structure.

I agree. I think the major reason for this defeat was the lack of midfield energy, ie run and carry into F50.

[Haff]

Jeezus, bit hard on the kid, FMD, first game , been injured for ages, this is just horseshit, give the kid a break.

I thought he was pretty good. Moore didn’t have a great night as the orange tsunami is very hard on defenders with no pressure on the back from the back half. Wasn’t really beaten that I can remember save one when he was caught behind hogan and slipped.
Seems a natural replacement for Howe, wasn’t overawed by any stretch.

[Magpietothemax]

I don't really agree with those who have suggested this game was relatively quite equal, but our poor accuracy on goal was the decisive factor.
The decisive factor, I think, was the poor performance of our mids, and their inability to cohere with our forwards.
GWS kicked truly not merely through luck, but because their mids were able to mesh powerfully with their forwards.

[Piesnchess]

WE had ten players down, out of sorts, GWS had not one. That wont happen again. Bring on next week, redemption time.

[Raw Hammer]

I don't really agree with those who have suggested this game was relatively quite equal, but our poor accuracy on goal was the decisive factor.
The decisive factor, I think, was the poor performance of our mids, and their inability to cohere with our forwards.
GWS kicked truly not merely through luck, but because their mids were able to mesh powerfully with their forwards.

Might not have been even but cmon, their three forwards clunked everything (mostly due to no Murphy and no Howe), and kicked 13.2 between them, from every distance and every angle.

[Magpietothemax]

Might not have been even but cmon, their three forwards clunked everything (mostly due to no Murphy and no Howe), and kicked 13.2 between them, from every distance and every angle.

OK, yeah, grant that they might have had the farmyard advantage as well. Knew how to avoid the clods of manure, and the corrugations in the turf.
But yeah, homeground advantage played a role for sure.

[Jezza]

Disappointing result. Quite a lot to get our heads around.

The overall theme was being too loose in defence, which gave GWS' forwards plenty of opportunities to score and our accuracy in front of goal was poor and really demoralised the team in the 3rd quarter.

Fly made the important point in his press conference that the game was pretty even up until late in the 2nd quarter when we conceded late goals, which gave GWS a 3-goal lead. We couldn't claw that lead back in the 3rd with inaccurate kicking in our attacking half and them kicking them from everywhere on the other end.

I actually saw enough to think we'll be fine during the course of the season, but there's plenty of improvement required if we want to win the flag again. I actually had GWS as my tip for the flag in the off season, so I can't see us facing any opponent tougher than the one we had tonight. Kingsley has them very well coached.

On the positives, N Daicos was great. Had plenty of impact and kept us going when we were down and out. Cameron was one of the few big men that can his hold his head up high. Maynard did well to keep Greene largely contained and Sidebottom's experience and class shone through.

Forward line was dysfunctional outside Mihocek. Didn't get enough from our mid-sized forwards in Elliott, Schultz and Hill. Johnson had a stinker and should be dropped for McInnes.

Down back, we were far too short. I underestimated how big the absences of Howe and Murphy would prove to be. Frampton is not in the calibre of either player, but I think some size was required and he would have provided that for us.

Not the start we were hoping for, but I'm excited that we'll get to unfurl our flag and be back in front of our home supporters next week.

Best to keep calm and not panic.

[Piesnchess]

Agree 100%. My take is we had easy ten players well below their best, poor games all of them, they had none. So we can only improve, on that effort up there, not many sides will win there now. Be very different match next week, we will be pretty filthy after that fairly dire performance, hit back hard v Swans.

[Jezza]

Fly's presser

You were in the game up until about half time and then the Giants blew you away in the 3rd quarter. What did you see was happening there?

"I thought there was a couple of critical goals late in the 2nd quarter wasn't there. Centre bounce goals that put a little bit of a margin on them. The game was pretty tight. It was a balance on the scoreboard in particular. Jeez, they played well. It looks like they've improved certain parts of their game. Contest was strong and they moved the ball really effectively. Big threats down forward, so yeah they played extremely well".

I'm sure you expected other teams to improve over the summer, but does it feel like it could be a bit of a reality check?

"It's early to sort of think that. One thing for certain is that coming into the game we thought we'd improve physically. Then you get here and you get reality that everyone else is improving. System wise I thought we were off of what we have been and what we want to be, defensively in particular. We've got to get better don't we".

On the defence, how frustrating was it to see at times Callum Brown being left unmarked and kicking a bag of goals?

"That's sort of the way we want to play a little bit. We want to be aggressive in defence and funnily enough when we weren't that's when we got hurt. We'll learn some lessons around that but the aerial threats was a real feature. I thought the Giants talls influenced the game aerially and we just didn't impact that part of the game. I thought that was really influential".

You were also having trouble up front as well. You had 60 inside 50s to 53. What do you think was going on there?

"I think we didn't connect. The stats would say we had opportunities to score well but we just didn't connect going inside 50. There's a lot of parts to that. There's chemistry, there's roles, there's opposition defending that part well and there's more rushing to get the ball inside 50 and then not be set for us and then you turn the ball over. We tried to touch on that at half time around our connection and how we could fix that. We started the 3rd quarter quite well but didn't quite capitalise and then they scored quite easy when they went inside 50 which was a bit of a trend".

It was Lachie Schultz's first game with the club. How do you think he went and did you get what you wanted out of him?

"Yeah we're going to be rapt to have Lachie in our team. He just offers a ground level support. It's probably the first time where we won ground ball inside 50 for a long time. It didn't correlate to goals, but we put pressure on. It's Bobby [Hill], Beau [McCreery], Lachie [Schultz] and Jamie [Elliott] who are quite lively for the opposition. We thought when we got the ball to ground we looked really dangerous but again we didn't capitalise on those opportunities. We didn't use the right options around at times. We'd like to get better around that".

Darcy Cameron led the ruck contest and was incredible in there and he had a really strong game from him but you didn't quite lead the clearance battle. What did you make of that?

"They're a very good clearance team. There were certain parts of the game where we didn't quite get going tonight. A lot of credit has to go to the opposition. They take things away from you. This is the reality of this competition. It's a very even one and back to the first point, is it a reality check? I'm not sure. The reality is it's a tight competition and teams are looking at what you do really well and they want to take it away from you and then the strengths and weaknesses of teams or strengths and opportunities are the Giants played a bit more to their strengths than we did tonight which is ultimately the scoreboard".

A lot was made of the Opening Round concept. It was the 5th highest game crowd the Giants have ever had. What did you make of the weekend and being involved in this?

"Well, my humbleness says I really want to say I really enjoyed it, but I'm not sure the footy world allows you to enjoy the entertainment of it. I really like the banter of footy. I like the buildup. If it means a sell out, how good. I didn't get caught up in the circus stuff around the edges of it and nor should I. I'm here to coach the team and we didn't get the job done. The circus stuff around the edges doesn't influence us and if it treads over the line then we'll deal with that. We're here to entertain by winning stoppages, and connecting inside 50 and playing our style of fun to watch and we didn't do that. I'm quite happy with the way game is bringing it up here to grow and all the stuff that's required to do that. Let the circus be the circus, and we get to work. I'm okay with a bit of banter if you like".

Are you getting a sense that the Giants-Collingwood is developing a little bit into a really nice rivalry after lots of history in the last couple of years with Prelims in 2019 and last year. There was a lot of excitement before the game and lots of fans attended?

"Yeah, that's the reality of two top 4 teams. Two prelim final teams. Who wouldn't want to go and watch that particularly at the start of the season. Great concept to come up to Sydney and grow the game. Put footy on the map up here and hopefully we all benefit from that".

Brayden Maynard went straight to Toby Greene. He seemed to have the better of that battle. Is that one he really sets himself for?

"I think Bruzzy's one of our leaders and he sets himself for every game. I don't think he sort of waivers in the way he approaches the game. Toby's such a great player. He's so influential; he kicks a goal from the boundary line that not many can do. We like to think that Bruzzy's being himself".

Charlie Dean seemed to battle hard on his debut, but at the same time does it feel like the defence was a bit undersized and undermanned? As you were saying, the Giants were able to dominate the air quite a bit.

"Yes, yes. Undersized? Maybe, I'm not sure. If you watch every one of those marking contests which I have there's not enough physicality by what I'm seeing. That's on us, but again there's players expressing themselves. Hogan's a very good mark in the air if you give him a chance to run and jump at it. We've got to get to work. Charlie showed some signs. I think it was promising. We'll look at the tape and look for opportunities for him to grow. He showed some signs, but collectively our backs didn't connect the way we would've liked".

Players have come out saying they're "going back to work" rather than "going back to back". Is that the mentality again this week?

"Look that's reality. I just said to the players just then that one of the great things about this game is we learnt some really good lessons early. We want to have deep wins and nourish those wins and we want to have shallow losses but learn the lessons really quickly. The great thing for our fans is that we come back in six days time and we play the Swans at the MCG and we'll get all our fans to celebrate [with the] unveiling of the flag, [but] we're getting back to work. We've got six days to do that".

https://www.afl.com.au/video/1085369/fu ... 9988022001

[Magpietothemax]

Very good presser from Fly.
He looked suitably angry, but containing it superbly.
Emphasized the lack of connection across the field, and not merely singling out lack of accuracy as the decisive factor. Nor any individual.
He radiated white hot anger, yet acknowledging the opposition gracefully and correctly.
In his closing statement, declared that we unfurl the flag in 6 days against Sydney at the G, and will be ready for the occasion, having received the feedback from tonight.

[i hate carlton]

Unimpressed tonight, and Im still in shock. We arent going to win the GF this year if we play like this.

[DT]

Not a great start and not unexpected for me. GWS is a very good team that is very well coached. They have better tall forwards and tall defenders than we do at the moment save for Checkers.

De Goey Crisp and Mitchell were all poor and it appears that Pendles was rested for a lot of the first half. So the midfield can improve and should do so. I'd like to see Macrae get a chance next week.

Cameron and Checkers were good but Cox, Moore and AJ were poor. Dean did a couple of nice things but has a long way to go - he will be better for the run but I'd hope Howe and Frampton return next week.

In fairness it was a week or two earlier than usual and that hits the grand finalists harder than anyone else.

Yes, last year was amazing and it is great for fans but it is a new year and all teams start from zero.

I'm sure we will see a better performance against the Swans who will also be a tough opponent.

[warburton lad]

Outplayed- pure and simple.

GWS are hungry and have a great spread of talent- it showed.

Attitude is key- how many ground-ball gets did we get when it really counted? Ditto, centre clearances.

Back to (hard) work this week against the Swans who will be very tough to beat, even at The 'G.

Outs: Dean & Johnson

Ins: Howe, Frampton

Hopefully, Murphy, who has resumed contact training, is not too far away.