Hey when did they change the goals at the MCG?

[Greg J]

That was the first thing I noticed when I got into the ground was that they seemed to have moved the goal posts!

The second thing was the four empty seats (starting from the aisle too), right at the point where the 2nd tier started overhead, meaning they were half undercover, all if the rain was blowing towards the Punt Rd end.

Normally if I sat there I would have been in between the point posts, but I was right behind the goal posts. I was directly opposite Joffa getting interviewed by the voice of the Gee. We was waving Joffa, did you see us through the rain.

The third thing I noticed was that I was sitting behind the Geelong cheer squad.

Onto the game. The first quarter was less than inspirational. Geelong were terrible, and an O'Bree snap got us off to a good start.

The ball was slippery, but our guys were doing a lot of work. Even protecting the ball carrier for the first time for a while. I just love the way Browny throws himself at the contest.

The hallmark of the second and third quarter (besides the rain and cold) was our blown chances. We could have wrapped the game up. Although losing the hitouts our midfield was dominant and the defense solid. The problem was we did not use the ball effectively, too many times we won the ball, only to dispose of it poorly. When we finally did get a shot for goal, we were wasteful. How many points did we kick in the third quarter? Five or six, half of them could have been goals and the game would have been over. But it did not seem to matter at that stage, we knew we only had to get one more goal and Geelong would cave in. I even yelled out to Pebbles that he only needed two more points to make a goal (some Geelong lady was counting them out loud for us all). One more goal and Deano and I were going to give the Geelong cheer squad a chorus of "We're Black, We're White ..." But we did not get the next goal. Instead Geelong got four in the last 10 minutes of the third quarter. I knew we were in trouble after the third one, as I saw Tarrant head back to his position and give a shake off the head to Mal Michael (who was stranded at full forward). They knew the pendulum had swung.

I do not want to talk about the fourth quarter, but I guess I have too (for therapy). It was obvious to me that every time Geelong had the ball they had four to six players free, but when we had the ball we could find noone. The ball was stuck in our defensive 50 for minutes at a time. We are lucky we did not get steamrolled. To put it plainly, our guys got tired, and could no longer keep up with the Geelong midfield, nor could they get away from them. I do not remember a single clean gather by a Collingwood player the entire quarter. Even Browny fumbled. Nor did we once use the centre corridoor, even when we were behind in the dying minutes. Poor Jacotine (he was on Bhudda in the last quarter), he was under considerable pressure, and could find noone to help.

This loss was heartbreaking. Just when you think it can not get any worse ...