it was b,b,b,b,blooody c,c,c,cold......

[Damien]

Not a helluva lot to report from Friday night, except to say it was possibly the coldest I have ever been at the footy, the cold from the concrete in the standing room area rendered me numb from the knees down. At least I was undercover, not like all the poor 'poncho-wearing' sods out in the rain.

Some observations:

Had Essendon, not got that goal right on the half time siren, we may have been a chance to win. After half time when the rain had stopped and the ball was dry for the first 5 minutes we looked OK.

Although the conditions were the worst possible for a big marking forward, Pebbles needs to try to get himself into the game more when things aren't going his way.

Although Patto has paralysis on one-side of his body, he made a case for not being traded or delisted. He can manufacture a few goals when others often struggle. A couple more good games v North and Brizzy may save his neck.

Prestigiacomo was good on Lloyd, although his three goals were worth about 6 or 7 on a normal dry night. His tactic of playing from behind has worked well this year, however with a heavy ball in the wet its pretty risky. He needs to have a plan 'B' he can fall back on. Presti should definately be kept, he may be slow, but his ability to read the play is under rated.

The umpires were back to their usual shit standard for both sides.

Lets hope for the same weather in the corresponding fixture next season. Essendon will be so used to playing under the 'Cocklands' roof that they won't be able to handle the wet.

------------------
Damien

[foxy]

wasn't as cold as some of those games out at waverley. and yeah, patto was pretty impressive, at least he was showing a bit of bite and aggression (which isn't uncommon of patto mind you, i just reckon the other players should get angry from time to time, they're too sedate). presti is slow? no way, if you watch him closely when he's playing from behind he was easily as fast as lloyd, if not faster. tape was also pretty impressive, he's a bloody desperate defender, we should keep him, he's a good example for the young guys. i thought crosisca was looking a bit tired in the last quarter, he barely tried to stop caracella kick a goal in the last quarter after he lost his feet. i reckon we might've won if pebbles had held that chest mark in the second quarter. oh well. by the way the first few minutes of the game were great, it was like a party atmosphere behind our goals, even the MCC people in the ponsford were going mental. i thought we were in a for a good one, the forwards were acting like a bunch of psychos. all the young guys were scrambling for the ball (tazza, tarks, mal, pebbles..they all looked bloody goal hungry) and rowdy was there just looking on like some kind of mentor. great to see.

[Mich@el]

Now looking at the crowd from the Essendon game, out in the open, can anyone tell me if they got the same weird impressions............

1>It looked to me like it was the biggest ever gathering of the KKK, with those crappy poncho things!!!

2>As they were white, it also made it look like the majority of the crowd were Collingwood supporters. Pity it didn't help us!!!