Pre-Match. Pies v. Tigers. All comments

[Piesnchess]

It seems to me that injuries are not the main reason for the current performance levels. We’ve a few playing injured but all teams have that. Our “out injured” list in terms of numbers, is about average compared to other teams. We certainly don’t have the players out that Carlton or Brisbane do. Look at our missing and you will see that there are only a couple of first choice players there. The rest are fringe players at best. Richmond have 19 players missing or being tested. If they beat us it’s because something else is going on. Players that were stars last year are duds this year - I’m looking at you Moore, Quaynor, Maynard. Others haven’t improved at all or have regressed.

WE have had a horror run, the second most amount of injuries, never ending, compared to the Tigers and look where they are, rock bottom. To say players out for long times, like De Goey, Elliott, McStay, Mihocheck, Cox, dont equal Blues outs is arrant nonsense, rubbish. We get two back, lose two more, shultz out, comes in, then Krooge out, a **** door, the team has not had a dogs hope in hell of being settled, whole season. Add to that, Murphy retiring , hit us very hard, and some players way out of form, for whatever reason, and we are where we are. Personally im not even thinking of Finals, I just want to beat the Tigers, then play our own "Grand Final " against the Blues for Pendles 400th milestone. Beating them, is all I want now, whatever comes after, is a bonus.

[lazzadesilva]

Maybe it’s time to question some “truth mantras” that may not be so truthful these days. We were always told that “form is temporary but class is permanent” but Collingwood is proving that to be wrong! Players mentioned above and a few more have lost their “class” and are being beaten by so called “lesser” players. My guess is that this is due to ageing players not getting any better but whose performances are dwindling. The danger here is that a possible victory over Richmond will wallpaper over the cracks and we’ll fall into the same trap as in “We are back” claptrap which always happens. No we won’t be because the issues wouldn’t have gone away. Only if we beat the opposition in the next 3 - 4 games and look good doing this will we be able to say that we are back in the flag winning position again. I think we can still do this but our form and class have to combine with confidence and assurance to win games.

[Piesnchess]

^ True Lazza, confidence is a wonderful thing, it can move mountains, but right now ours has been nigh on shattered, its all above the neck. We need a big win over Richmond,just to get some confidence back, some belief in ourselves, give the players a boost, we smashed Melbourne last month, with a depleted team, not so long ago, really, we have to get back to that level. I put my faith in Fly, this is his biggest challenge yet to get the team believing in itself again.

[shawthing]

^ What you say about a win against the Tiges is real Lazza. But no need to worry about that because we're going to be done like a dinner. In some ways I hope so. Because then it will be impossible to hang on to hope for this season and we can get on with the business of tanking this season and preparing to bounce back in 2025. Get De Goey some surgery and rest and anyone else who needs it. Get our list sorted out and most importantly allow the players five more weeks of rest before the start of the pre-season. Win-win it seems to me because even if we snuck into the eight, we are not going anywhere. It would be wasted effort.

[Durka]

It seems to me that injuries are not the main reason for the current performance levels. We’ve a few playing injured but all teams have that. Our “out injured” list in terms of numbers, is about average compared to other teams. We certainly don’t have the players out that Carlton or Brisbane do. Look at our missing and you will see that there are only a couple of first choice players there. The rest are fringe players at best. Richmond have 19 players missing or being tested. If they beat us it’s because something else is going on. Players that were stars last year are duds this year - I’m looking at you Moore, Quaynor, Maynard. Others haven’t improved at all or have regressed.

WE have had a horror run, the second most amount of injuries, never ending, compared to the Tigers and look where they are, rock bottom. To say players out for long times, like De Goey, Elliott, McStay, Mihocheck, Cox, dont equal Blues outs is arrant nonsense, rubbish. We get two back, lose two more, shultz out, comes in, then Krooge out, a **** door, the team has not had a dogs hope in hell of being settled, whole season. Add to that, Murphy retiring , hit us very hard, and some players way out of form, for whatever reason, and we are where we are. Personally im not even thinking of Finals, I just want to beat the Tigers, then play our own "Grand Final " against the Blues for Pendles 400th milestone. Beating them, is all I want now, whatever comes after, is a bonus.

Do you know anything at all about any of the other teams? Stop focusing on injuries every week and look at the whole reason for where we are. We were hit hard with injuries at the start of last season, but we were winning. We had most available at the start of this season but we were horrible.

I hate Carlton as much as anyone else here does, but they currently have about 11 players missing that can easily slot into their best team if available. We have probably only McCreery, Mihocek and Schultz who are guaranteed starters. There's not much else. Begg will not make it. Far too short to be a ruckman and hasn't shown that he can play in a key position. Dean has L plates on and the jury is out. Mitchell is slow and was regressing, even last season. We struggle having really slow players like Pendles and Sidey in the midfield as they can't defend any more, so you can't add Mitchell to that mix (whether Pendles and Sidey should go again next year is a real issue). Kreuger has potential but he's not there yet and history is against him. You can't really complain about his injuries though - we only picked him up because he was so injury prone and he has not changed. Steene won't make it either unless something remarkable changes.

One thing that's certain is that all teams will be resting more players more frequently due to concussions which is probably the most frequent injury now.

[think positive]

It seems to me that injuries are not the main reason for the current performance levels. We’ve a few playing injured but all teams have that. Our “out injured” list in terms of numbers, is about average compared to other teams. We certainly don’t have the players out that Carlton or Brisbane do. Look at our missing and you will see that there are only a couple of first choice players there. The rest are fringe players at best. Richmond have 19 players missing or being tested. If they beat us it’s because something else is going on. Players that were stars last year are duds this year - I’m looking at you Moore, Quaynor, Maynard. Others haven’t improved at all or have regressed.

WE have had a horror run, the second most amount of injuries, never ending, compared to the Tigers and look where they are, rock bottom. To say players out for long times, like De Goey, Elliott, McStay, Mihocheck, Cox, dont equal Blues outs is arrant nonsense, rubbish. We get two back, lose two more, shultz out, comes in, then Krooge out, a **** door, the team has not had a dogs hope in hell of being settled, whole season. Add to that, Murphy retiring , hit us very hard, and some players way out of form, for whatever reason, and we are where we are. Personally im not even thinking of Finals, I just want to beat the Tigers, then play our own "Grand Final " against the Blues for Pendles 400th milestone.

Beating them, is all I want now, whatever comes after, is a bonus.

perfectly reasonable IMO!! this will do

[think positive]

My main concern is that JDG's injury can't be overcome with a week or 2 rest. He will either need 2-3 months rest and/or surgery. So, we'll have to manage him as best as we can, knowing that he'll only be playing at 80-90% capacity, until the end of the season.

yes i said this earlier, personally i think if we still look crap this week, even if we win, send him to the doc now

[think positive]

I'm not sure if all this nostalgia for fire and brimstone coaching is valid or not. There were plenty of firebrand coaches who achieved very little in their tenure I recall. McRae's methodology works as we have seen and will probably work again, once we sort out the game plan and some of the more glaring personnel issues - Because that is what needs fixing more than anything I feel.

I also wonder if giving Degoey 2-3 more weeks may have helped his overall fitness, as it seems he was brought back too early, the same as with some others. There has been almost an air of desperation to some of our selections with the coaching panel this year looking like it chasing immediate wins over other concerns. I can understand that you are only as good as your last game in the footy business, but given our current progress, our win lose record may not have been much different if he was out for some recent matches.

Hopefully this coming game will see some adjustments to our game plan as the current version seems to be well worked out now. We need a more defensive mindset but that seems to be a bit of a stretch, given the way we play this year...

as someone who endured the hafey GF losses, i concur!

[think positive]

Hands up if, like me(many times in 50 yrs), you have made your way to the ground on a stormy ice-cold miserable afternoon, and then having endured frozen hands and ass you watch the side get thrashed, and you walk back to your car and wonder where the improvement will come from.

You start counting the players worth keeping on one hand,

Only to get back into the ring a week later and the team looks nothing like the week or weeks before. Premiership like performance.

Me!!

and im still so pissed at all the shit supports who have marched out early the last 2 weeks

someone had it in their byline

something about their mother and we are better than that son!

and yes we ****!

[think positive]

It seems to me that injuries are not the main reason for the current performance levels. We’ve a few playing injured but all teams have that. Our “out injured” list in terms of numbers, is about average compared to other teams. We certainly don’t have the players out that Carlton or Brisbane do. Look at our missing and you will see that there are only a couple of first choice players there. The rest are fringe players at best. Richmond have 19 players missing or being tested. If they beat us it’s because something else is going on. Players that were stars last year are duds this year - I’m looking at you Moore, Quaynor, Maynard. Others haven’t improved at all or have regressed.

hey, whats Maynard done wrong?

Moore, something is going on, physically or between the ears, or maybe in the heart.

Quaynor got to bulked up

[Piesnchess]

^ What you say about a win against the Tiges is real Lazza. But no need to worry about that because we're going to be done like a dinner. In some ways I hope so. Because then it will be impossible to hang on to hope for this season and we can get on with the business of tanking this season and preparing to bounce back in 2025. Get De Goey some surgery and rest and anyone else who needs it. Get our list sorted out and most importantly allow the players five more weeks of rest before the start of the pre-season. Win-win it seems to me because even if we snuck into the eight, we are not going anywhere. It would be wasted effort.

never ever, ever, ever, ever in my life have I actually hoped the team will lose, tanking and all that shit , no wonder people on other magpies sites tell me they got out of Nicks, one saying its a "dreary and depressing site.full of negative so called fans " their words, now I see what they mean.

[Piesnchess]

It seems to me that injuries are not the main reason for the current performance levels. We’ve a few playing injured but all teams have that. Our “out injured” list in terms of numbers, is about average compared to other teams. We certainly don’t have the players out that Carlton or Brisbane do. Look at our missing and you will see that there are only a couple of first choice players there. The rest are fringe players at best. Richmond have 19 players missing or being tested. If they beat us it’s because something else is going on. Players that were stars last year are duds this year - I’m looking at you Moore, Quaynor, Maynard. Others haven’t improved at all or have regressed.

WE have had a horror run, the second most amount of injuries, never ending, compared to the Tigers and look where they are, rock bottom. To say players out for long times, like De Goey, Elliott, McStay, Mihocheck, Cox, dont equal Blues outs is arrant nonsense, rubbish. We get two back, lose two more, shultz out, comes in, then Krooge out, a **** door, the team has not had a dogs hope in hell of being settled, whole season. Add to that, Murphy retiring , hit us very hard, and some players way out of form, for whatever reason, and we are where we are. Personally im not even thinking of Finals, I just want to beat the Tigers, then play our own "Grand Final " against the Blues for Pendles 400th milestone. Beating them, is all I want now, whatever comes after, is a bonus.

Do you know anything at all about any of the other teams? Stop focusing on injuries every week and look at the whole reason for where we are. We were hit hard with injuries at the start of last season, but we were winning. We had most available at the start of this season but we were horrible.

I hate Carlton as much as anyone else here does, but they currently have about 11 players missing that can easily slot into their best team if available. We have probably only McCreery, Mihocek and Schultz who are guaranteed starters. There's not much else. Begg will not make it. Far too short to be a ruckman and hasn't shown that he can play in a key position. Dean has L plates on and the jury is out. Mitchell is slow and was regressing, even last season. We struggle having really slow players like Pendles and Sidey in the midfield as they can't defend any more, so you can't add Mitchell to that mix (whether Pendles and Sidey should go again next year is a real issue). Kreuger has potential but he's not there yet and history is against him. You can't really complain about his injuries though - we only picked him up because he was so injury prone and he has not changed. Steene won't make it either unless something remarkable changes.

One thing that's certain is that all teams will be resting more players more frequently due to concussions which is probably the most frequent injury now.

Name all these so called injured Blues players, damned if I can think of many, tho I concede old Saad was out for awhile, they seem to have near their best side now, as I heard on SEN radio, other day. I am only quoting a fact that I also have read and heard , as even Sam Edmond confirmed, we have had the second worst injury run of any team aside from Richmond, so take it up with them, genius. they said it, as did Connally on 3 AW, and hes a respected footy journo. We have debuted 10 kids this season, due to the injury crisis, and btw, I dont recall last season like this at all, on the injury front, we had a few , but nothing like this trauma. and revolving door.

[stui magpie]

I believe in shanking a opponents hand win lose or draw at all times
I don’t believe in hugging and joking with them

That might not go down too well these days, unless you're playing in the Prison league.

[qldmagpie67]

I believe in shanking a opponents hand win lose or draw at all times
I don’t believe in hugging and joking with them

That might not go down too well these days, unless you're playing in the Prison league.

Ooops shaking might be more appropriate

[qldmagpie67]

I agree with a lot of posters here winning it’s important but right now I think physically is only part of our problem. I think mentally we have struggling as well.
Some players seem to have lost that “it factor” in there performance and some have been well below expected output due to injury as well.
Our injuries has definitely hurt the continuity of selection week on week which hurts and also I don’t think the coaches or selection panel have been ruthless enough in punishing poor performances of established players the same way they have with younger players