Game Day 2023 Grand Final : Pies v Lions

[burger09]

Last quarter game on the line.

Degoey and Sidebottom nail great goals.

Danihar and Hipwood don't.

GAME OVER MAN!

It came down to reliability and metal toughness. Collingwood had the edge. Oh and the home ground advantage.

 

[TylerDurden]

Pendles, 11 touches in the last, and Mitchell, carried em over the line.

One will be 36 next year, and the other 30.
Sidebottom 32.
Crisp 30.
Howe 33.
Elliott 31.
WHE 31.
Mihocek 31.
Cox 32

A lot of reliance on Daicos, which is fine when protected by the senior guys.

I'd prefer our demographic. We've got a wave of young talent all coming through at once.

 

[2OLD 2SLOW]

I can't help but think Brisbane lost this at selection. Gunston and Lyons should have played.

Also they were strangely defensive. No risk or bravery in their game (neither really did Collingwood) neither team tried to really win it just hoping the other team would stuff it up.

To that end the norm smith went to the right player, the one true spark on the field for the whole game

Also shows that in these contests that X-factor is crucial, Buddy, Roughy, Hodge, Burgoyne and Cyril all had it in abundance

Totally agree. A Brisbane team that is normally direct and efficient played safe time and again.
The commentators put it all down to Collingwood's set up behind the ball, but Brisbane ignored so many opportunities to play on quickly, and rarely tried to bite off a kick with any kind of difficulty. They did get within a kick, so all power to them, but it didn't make for a high quality game.

BTW. Interesting to read a lot of posters saying what a great game it was. I have a feeling the bar has been lowered over the years by so many shitty blowouts on GF day. Anything close makes people happy (myself included, given I was going for Brisbane).

The disappointment for me was that the Collingwood-Brisbane match-up had the chance to be a corker if Brisbane had played their normal game (it would have been so much more open). Perhaps previous experiences (losses) at the MCG put paid to that.

 

[Gaston]

The after goal s**t he does is painful but that’s good to know he’s a good bloke off the field

Abso-bloody-lutely.
Considering he played basketball, did he carry on with cr@p after every basket?

Amazing to think that even his team mates don't pull him up, not like he destroys games off his own boot.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Hard not to look at that premiership forward line and just be amazed.

Great coaching.

 

[Yardie]

Pendles, 11 touches in the last, and Mitchell, carried em over the line.

One will be 36 next year, and the other 30.
Sidebottom 32.
Crisp 30.
Howe 33.
Elliott 31.
WHE 31.
Mihocek 31.
Cox 32

A lot of reliance on Daicos, which is fine when protected by the senior guys.

I'd prefer our demographic. We've got a wave of young talent all coming through at once.

Their demographic was pretty good for this year. Will be interesting to see how Wright goes about now he has some hindsight.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Pendles, 11 touches in the last, and Mitchell, carried em over the line.

One will be 36 next year, and the other 30.
Sidebottom 32.
Crisp 30.
Howe 33.
Elliott 31.
WHE 31.
Mihocek 31.
Cox 32

A lot of reliance on Daicos, which is fine when protected by the senior guys.

I'd prefer our demographic. We've got a wave of young talent all coming through at once.

Two ways to look at this Id say.

One is that yes the Pies list is aging and a lot of their stars are the wrong side of 30.

Other way is that for two years in a row now the flag has been won with very experienced teams which shows the value of experience in this league.

And we only have basically three players I would classify as having similar experiences levels (Sicily, Wingard and Bruest) and one of those has just done his Achilles.

Look at what happened when Sicily was suspended this year, we were like a rudderless ship.

But if the Pies lose Pendles for a couple of games they still have Sidebottom, Howe, etc to fill the leadership void.

Be interesting to see next year how we develop a leadership structure with such a young group.

 

[Dewnior]

Hard not to look at that premiership forward line and just be amazed.

Great coaching.

Mihocek is ridiculously under-rated. Elliot is a star and Bobby Hill yesterday too.

That 2012 Swans forward line was worse.

 

[Kanga Commando]

Hard not to look at that premiership forward line and just be amazed.

Great coaching.

They have a great system that works given the forwards they have

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Mihocek is ridiculously under-rated.

He’s a bang average mid-sized forward, but he competes consistently.

 

[arupist]

This thread is soooo yesterday.

 

[killerspud]

Hard not to look at that premiership forward line and just be amazed.

Great coaching.

Yep

But remember who the coach is. Craig McRae was an awesome brilliant small forward.

Then remember he was at Richmond - in 2017 other than Riewoldt that was a small fast forward line Castagna, Rioli, Edwards, Butler

McRae knows forward craft particularly small forward craft. I think teams benefit from having a specialist small forward on the coaching staff (Eddie Betts last year at the cats for example)

 

[H00t]

Was a very close game all day. Which is all you can really ask of for a grand final. Lions were very lucky to be as close as it was though.

Felt to me like the game was won in the middle. Pies had the better of the midfield battle even if clearance numbers didn’t favour them they were getting more quality looks from the centre.

When Oscar is getting the same number of clearances as Neale and Dunkley combined, lions were always going to struggle. Oscar’s clearances go nowhere.

 

[HedgeFund]

Hard not to look at that premiership forward line and just be amazed.

Great coaching.

Exactly - was posted here preseason when the FoxFooty (?) Pies best 22 was published, and many smirked at the line-up.

I remember it clearly. Couldn’t understand the criticism then, and still don’t now.

The Pies got multiple goals out of Crisp & De Goey, plus singles to Pendles, N. Daicos & Sidebottom.

That’s 7 of their 12 for the day.

They have excellent goal kicking mids who know when and where to get used inside 50. Opposition midfields simply don’t defend that often enough.

 

[CaptainWorpedo]

McRae did a good job, but the pies list was never as bad as the Hawks / Roos / Eagles!

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Exactly - was posted here preseason when the FoxFooty (?) Pies best 22 was published, and many smirked at the line-up.

I remember it clearly. Couldn’t understand the criticism then, and still don’t now.

The Pies got multiple goals out of Crisp & De Goey, plus singles to Pendles, N. Daicos & Sidebottom.

That’s 7 of their 12 for the day.

They have excellent goal kicking mids who know when and where to get used inside 50. Opposition midfields simply don’t defend that often enough.

They averaged less than 10 goals a game over the finals.

It’s still one of the worst forward lines on paper, but it got the job done.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Mitchell was superb. He was the missing piece in their midfield.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Pendles in the second half, what a legend.

 

[grumbleguts]

In the last 64 years, Hawthorn and Collingwood have appeared in 34 grand finals without meeting each other once.

More than 50% of all grand finals since 61 represented by 2 teams.

 

[Brishawk]

In the last 64 years, Hawthorn and Collingwood have appeared in 34 grand finals without meeting each other once.

More than 50% of all grand finals since 61 represented by 2 teams.

That is an incredible stat.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Mitchell was superb. He was the missing piece in their midfield.

I see a lot of similarities to when we got Brian from the Doggies.

A veteran gun player, seemingly on the outer at their old club gets moved across to a contender to fill a positional need for peanuts and helps them win a flag.

As soon as a I heard he was going to Collingwood I thought that's a very smart pickup by the Pies.

 

[grumbleguts]

That is an incredible stat.

Even more so when you consider that both teams only played in one GF each in the 90s. So it reduces to 32 grand finals out of 54 if picking the eyes out of data is your wont.

 

[Books]

In the last 64 years, Hawthorn and Collingwood have appeared in 34 grand finals without meeting each other once.

More than 50% of all grand finals since 61 represented by 2 teams.

Go back to 1952 and it is 40 / 74.
Including 2 draws.

 

[grumbleguts]

Go back to 1952 and it is 40 / 74.
Including 2 draws.

Yeah, but my way, Hawthorn's doing the heavy lifting instead of Collingwood.

 

[bigmaxi]

Exactly - was posted here preseason when the FoxFooty (?) Pies best 22 was published, and many smirked at the line-up.

I remember it clearly. Couldn’t understand the criticism then, and still don’t now.

The Pies got multiple goals out of Crisp & De Goey, plus singles to Pendles, N. Daicos & Sidebottom.

That’s 7 of their 12 for the day.

They have excellent goal kicking mids who know when and where to get used inside 50. Opposition midfields simply don’t defend that often enough.

They have excellent goal kicking mids who know when and where to get used inside 50. Opposition midfields simply don’t defend that often enough.

I see us getting a lot of growth in this next year, goals from our mids are such a bonus. Newcomb, Worp's, Day (will improve front of goals) MacDonald Ward Mackenzie with Hustwaite and Amon's left foot. Kicking goals from 50 out was a great advantage for the Pies yesterday, we have a few who play thru the middle and can do just that!
Plus Sammy and MM trading in a few more speedy left footers.