Post Match. Lions pip Pies - all comments

[1eyedpie]

Good post yourself. On point two, I've already mentioned this but am surprised no one until you has really picked up on it: we had a total of 49 tackles for the game, and astonishingly, Alan Toovey and Dane Swan had 19 of those between them. So, 30 tackles laid between 20 other players - not good enough there. Definitely a big drop in work-rate, and a major reason why we lost.

Also on the back six, I thought Harry was very good, but Heater was beaten and Maxy also when he was forced onto Fevola (with Presti being shifted onto Brown). That robbed us of a lot of run. It came down to Brown smashing Reid in the first half, ultimately. More on this earlier in the thread if you're prepared to wade through it.

I don't want to be nit picking Piper but we had 63 Tackles for the game (Lions had 49) It has been down compared to previous weeks but it is hard to maintain extraordinary high numbers of tackles for successive weeks.

The main thing I noticed with our tackles though is a lot of them didn't pin the arms and so the Lions players were still able to get the ball to their team mate and at worst kept it moving toward their goal!

A few of our players were like turnstiles when applying their tackles.


The stats were pretty even except for the clearances, marks inside 50,Uncontested possessions and disposals over all were in Lions favor.

Clearances speak for themselves and being down in this area put our defence under enormous pressure.

Not taking advantage of our inside 50's (Not taking marks)

And allowing the Lions to out number our forwards and control their back half with tempo footy this is where their extra uncontested possessions come into it.

We need to switch from the zone to man on man when oppositions sides use short pin point passing in their back line cutting through our zone.

The other thing also when a massive flood is on we try to get it in fast this is where the players have to be a bit smarter and hold possession just out side the 50 and try to spot up a team mate at 45 with a short low pass.

No good getting it in their fast if we are going to bomb it to our forwards who are outnumbered! If they are out numbered we should have free players outside 50 and should use it wiser.

And always have Zippy fast players inside our fwd 50 prepared to tackle like they owe them money!

[Pied Piper]

Nitpick away 1eyedpie, you're right. I completely misread that stat in the total column of the AFL's website and had the two confused.

Guess we must have been chasin' tail for a fair few of those tackles, too, since the Lions had a lot more of the footy.

[1eyedpie]

Nitpick away 1eyedpie, you're right. I completely misread that stat in the total column of the AFL's website and had the two confused.

Guess we must have been chasin' tail for a fair few of those tackles, too, since the Lions had a lot more of the footy.

Tempo footy! Sides with good foot skills will slice through our zone like Cats did.

That's why I am worried about next week. Bulldogs have good skills and can cut us up coming out of their defensive area if we don't put pressure on them.

I like the zone but sometimes we need to go man on man to change momentum back in our favor!

[Pied Piper]

^ Funny, there were periods in the second and third quarter where the skills of both sides degenerated to the point it was like watching kick to kick. But we definitely had a very poor night. I see a lot of the Lions, and normally I wouldn't rate their foot skills too highly.

[1eyedpie]

^^They tend to get it in the hands of the one who can "kick" Jonstone, Mcgrath and Rich.

We controlled most of the match and I think towards the end our players went into their comfort zones before the job was done.

[jack_spain]

By the way, I don't consider myself necessarily pro- or anti-MM, or Eddie, or the current administration. It was your lumping in any of us who weren't running around like Chicken Little as part of this mythical Eddieland cult that has pissed me off so damn much.

Copyright J. Spain, 2010.

[Piesnchess]

By the way, I don't consider myself necessarily pro- or anti-MM, or Eddie, or the current administration. It was your lumping in any of us who weren't running around like Chicken Little as part of this mythical Eddieland cult that has pissed me off so damn much.

PP before yu spat the dummy, I never mentioned you by name, as part of eddieland you yourself took it upon yourself to take it thatway. You went flying off the handle, when i was not even referring to you. You really need to lighten up a bit,honestly. I make a joke about the Titanic and you go berserk, when it was not even aimed at YOU. Lighten up.

You didn't have to mention me by name, did you? You were making, as you put it, a "generalisation". Generalisations shit me. My point was, we all care, we're all Collingwood supporters, and just because not everybody is joining you and j_s in tearing the club apart when we're sitting on seven wins and three losses for the season doesn't mean we must all be from "Eddieland", worshipping at the sphinx of Mick Malthouse and accepting of mediocrity. If we were three wins and seven losses and we were having the same debate, you'd probably have a point.

As for lightening up, you could try yourself. Just because you've been following the Pies for 50 years doesn't give you a mortgage on misery.

You just cant let it go can you PP, just cant accept you jumped in and made an all time fool of yourself. You have to have the last word,still pissing and moaning, woe is me,look -agree to disagree and get over it. Carry on all you like, I wont be reading any more of it. THE END.

[HAL]

your lumping in a of us who weren't running like Chicken as part of this mythical Eddieland cult has pissed him or her off so damn much. I will take that under advisement. Do you sell them? Thanks for telling me that story, Piesnchess.

[Pied Piper]

By the way, I don't consider myself necessarily pro- or anti-MM, or Eddie, or the current administration. It was your lumping in any of us who weren't running around like Chicken Little as part of this mythical Eddieland cult that has pissed me off so damn much.

PP before yu spat the dummy, I never mentioned you by name, as part of eddieland you yourself took it upon yourself to take it thatway. You went flying off the handle, when i was not even referring to you. You really need to lighten up a bit,honestly. I make a joke about the Titanic and you go berserk, when it was not even aimed at YOU. Lighten up.

You didn't have to mention me by name, did you? You were making, as you put it, a "generalisation". Generalisations shit me. My point was, we all care, we're all Collingwood supporters, and just because not everybody is joining you and j_s in tearing the club apart when we're sitting on seven wins and three losses for the season doesn't mean we must all be from "Eddieland", worshipping at the sphinx of Mick Malthouse and accepting of mediocrity. If we were three wins and seven losses and we were having the same debate, you'd probably have a point.

As for lightening up, you could try yourself. Just because you've been following the Pies for 50 years doesn't give you a mortgage on misery.

You just cant let it go can you PP, just cant accept you jumped in and made an all time fool of yourself. You have to have the last word,still pissing and moaning, woe is me,look -agree to disagree and get over it. Carry on all you like, I wont be reading any more of it. THE END.

Nah, I think I'll take David's advice and spit the dummy more often. I quite enjoyed it actually. It's hard work trying to be sensible and rational all the bloody time. I've decided being abusive is underrated. One day I might even get me one of them yellow cards, they look pretty

[rocketronnie]

...Perspective,- i have loads of it, i hope we win our next twelve straight before the finals...

[35forever]

Just like last week and the Saints game we controlled the ball for most of the time. The fact is that we are losing to sides we are better than. People are looking for answers by blaming particular players they don't like, or throwing around buzzwords like forward pressure when the answer is right in front of us and couldn't be simpler...

When you kick the ball at the goals you need it to go between the two largest poles, the ones that are much taller and have shorter ones on either side. You DON'T want it to go between a big one and a small one, out on the full, to a player wearing a different jumper to yours, or into the man on the mark.

If you do this correctly, and do it more than the guys with different jumpers, you will win all the time. It's really very simple. Keep doing it over and over until you see a weird guy behind the goals wearing a gold coloured jacket.

Perhaps the tall poles aren't tall enough? Perhaps they should be painted a different colour to make them easier to spot? Perhaps we should make it a rule that before kicking the ball our guys have to look down at their jumpers to help them remember to only kick the ball to guys in matching jumpers?

Is it a mere coincidence that we've kicked 14 behinds in each of our losses for the season? 14 behinds would be OK if we kicked 28 goals, but not when we kick 4, 6, or 11. Even in some of our wins this problem has meant games that shoulda been over at 3/4 time have remained in the balance until into the 4th when the pressure lifts and our kicking ability returns.

That's it, the whole problem, we just can't kick straight when we're under mental pressure. So what's the answer? Gosh, I wonder? Does Tiger Woods practice his putting or work on his fitness when he's slicing his drives? No, he gets onto the range with his coach and drives several million balls. (or he goes off and screws some model, but that's beside the point).

I've been saying this here for years...KICKING PRACTICE!! lots and lots of KICKING PRACTICE!! KICK THE BALL THROUGH THE POSTS UNTIL YOU FALL OVER!! No leaving training until you've landed the ball in a 44 gall. drum from 50 out 10 times. The basic skills of kicking and marking a ball are sorely lacking, not just at Collingwood, but all over the league, however I don't want the other clubs to follow my advice, just us!

Do enough of this practice and perceived pressure will make no difference, simple muscle memory will take over, kicking straight will be automatic. Ever notice how premiership teams kick straight more often? People think being the best helps you kick straight, but its quite the reverse. Bad kicking cost us the NAB cup final and a place in the Granny last year, got us knocked out of the NAB cup this year, and has caused all three losses this season. If the Dogs beat us this week I guarantee we will have kicked more behinds than goals.

So just try it guys, kicking practice! What do we have to lose?

[Pied Piper]

Just like last week and the Saints game we controlled the ball for most of the time.

Not taking issue with the main theme of your post, but we didn't control the ball against the Lions. They had a shitload more possessions, as did Geelong, even taking into account their handball-happy style. We've got to get our hands on the ball more.

[David]

By the way, I don't consider myself necessarily pro- or anti-MM, or Eddie, or the current administration. It was your lumping in any of us who weren't running around like Chicken Little as part of this mythical Eddieland cult that has pissed me off so damn much.

Copyright J. Spain, 2010.

Do you really want to lay claim to that?