Preview Collingwood v Port Adelaide, 25 March, 1.45pm MCG

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And there you go -- in the preview last week, I suggested there were lots of questions to be answered about the Mighty Magpies. The game against Geelong has answered almost all of them. Our clearance work is better thanks to Mitchell. Bobby Hill will make an impact. Our game plan holds up and is well suited to our players, and it holds up even under severe pressure. Jordan DeGoey is likely to to rise to his talent level and dominate the competition. Most importantly -- we are one of the best teams in the comp. Yes, yes, it's only one game in a long season, but it was enough evidence for me. Let's bask in the glory a little.

Still, there was one huge downer during the stellar night. The greatest mark the game has seen, Jeremy Howe, flew kamikaze-style into a spoil. He shot through the air horizontally, like a missile, and when he crashed do the ground he shattered his arm. This is a heavy blow. Howe has defied age. He leaps like a cat, he possesses incredible pace, he intercepts to start shredding counterattacks with his two-sided elite disposal. He helps organise us with his onfield leadership. We can only hope he's back before too long.

Which means.... step up Billy Frampton (sorry Kelly, I've given up on you for the moment). Murphy takes Howe's more intercepting role and Frampton takes Murphy's more lockdown one.

We still have enviable depth which will hold us in good stead for a while yet.

Opponents: The Power

The Power are a strange team. A newcomer to the competition, there's no traditional hate between us. I don't harbour long-held vendettas against them for rodent-like, deceitful, morally repugnant, behaviour (yes Carlton, I'm pointing the bone at you). But they do seem to possess some odious personalities. Kane Cornes is a professional stirrer, a kind of shock jock of football, minus the politics. I hated him as a player, but now he's more like an annoyance, the buzzing of a mosquito in my ear at night. And their President, the loathsome, middle-brow, out-of-touch, egotistical Koshi.? A morning TV presenter as President? I feel sorry for Port's coach.

What about the current team? They have a great interceptor in Alir, a good key forward in Dixon, wild-cards in Georgiades and Rioli, some inside bulls in Wines and Powell-Pepper, some elite young talent with Butters, Rozee and Horne-Francis. They were excellent at home against a highly-touted Brisbane, doing the Lions down and by doing so, proving their upper level is elite. And yet, and yet, I still don't quite know what they are. I suppose another way of looking at it is that they're pretty good at everything. They look like they'll be battling with a bunch of teams for a top-four spot.

This game then is going to ask a few more questions of us: Will McStay actually be the player we hope? He was great in the pre-season but his performance against Geelong was disappointing. Will the Cox/Cameron duo continue to fight the good fight? They were solid against Geelong but here they should be better, before the real tests come. How will the backline go without Howe? Will our better clearance work hold steady?

The Washup

The game's at the MCG, we're in stellar form, and the Power are surging but can we trust them? About as much as we can trust Kreepy Koshi and Shock-Jock Kane.

The Pies by 13 points!
 
I always feel pessimistic when we come up against Port. Most of our games have been tough grinds over the years and I think they are one of the few teams who have a winning record against us.
 
I always feel pessimistic when we come up against Port. Most of our games have been tough grinds over the years and I think they are one of the few teams who have a winning record against us.
2013 Elimination Final was peak Port. Nothing but nothing went right for us. Or even me. I had a huge blow-out with my GF and her mates at lunchtime that day. Got so "caught up in the moment" that I fell asleep before the game while grabbing my tickets. Woke up at midnight, checked the scores and then wondered why I bothered waking up so early :D
 

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Port are a fair dinkum hard working side with an honest coach and hard from the midfield out. Boak, Lycett, Dixon, Baldpepper, Alir, all tough as nails.

Geelong were a test if our mental toughness, this mob will test our bodies too.

Given the way the poor umps get undermined by Gil and his clowns they often end up going with emotion. I expect we will be adequately protected and (unfortunately) even favored as Geelong were in the first half and we were in the second last week.

Any phonies will be found out on Saturday, I think we have whole hearted players and can win but we will be asked searching questions by a fierce and united team.

Hope the surface has improved, disgraceful how Geelong got crippled and it could've been us.
Geel crippled ?
Only Stewart Missed the Carlton game.
 
Geel crippled ?
Only Stewart Missed the Carlton game.
I think they are carrying a lot of unfit guys, Hawkins and Cameron and others. Their choice, they have an older list with the quality is mostly over 30, so they can't complain.

Geelongs been that way for a while, picking up the older ones and keeping them longer copying Clarcksons recycling 2012-15. Most years they copped injuries and finished out of top 2.

Carlton is not special for knocking off the Premiers, they are a rested non finals side peaking early.
 
I think this is where we expose them.

Last week, the Port ruck contests were:
Lycett - 75%
Dixon - 15%
Jones - 6%
Wines - 2%
Drew - 1%
Marshall - 1%

We should dominate the 25% which Lycett aren’t involved in. Also, Lycett should feel threatened about having against 2 rucks.

Or their extra run and carry gives them an advantage…. Could very easily go either way.
 
I think they are carrying a lot of unfit guys, Hawkins and Cameron and others. Their choice, they have an older list with the quality is mostly over 30, so they can't complain.

Geelongs been that way for a while, picking up the older ones and keeping them longer copying Clarcksons recycling 2012-15. Most years they copped injuries and finished out of top 2.

Carlton is not special for knocking off the Premiers, they are a rested non finals side peaking early.
Poster was talking about injuries ie “crippled” due to the MCG surface - not their injury list in general.
 
Poster was talking about injuries ie “crippled” due to the MCG surface - not their injury list in general.
ah thanks for the correction, I have trouble following all the threads sometimes.

Did they cop any hits on the night? The only bit I saw was Cameron hurting himself.

This seems irrelevant but its obliquely related to Rd 2 as well, as we play on that crappy surface again and while I don't think it contributed to Howe getting hurt I'd hate for Taylor Adams or some other key piece to get a groin from the loose turf.

I do worry about their ruck, Lycett is a beefy boy and hurt us in '18 and I feel like he's worried us with and without Grundy.
 
ah thanks for the correction, I have trouble following all the threads sometimes.

Did they cop any hits on the night? The only bit I saw was Cameron hurting himself.

This seems irrelevant but its obliquely related to Rd 2 as well, as we play on that crappy surface again and while I don't think it contributed to Howe getting hurt I'd hate for Taylor Adams or some other key piece to get a groin from the loose turf.

I do worry about their ruck, Lycett is a beefy boy and hurt us in '18 and I feel like he's worried us with and without Grundy.

De Koning was on 1 leg after he fell over his own feet. Got up to play this week but on last nights showing still seems below 100%. Think there were a couple of others as well. Stengle? The distinction being spun is that they got up to play this week so that apparently mitigates the impact their injuries had on our game.... apparently. Nothing to do with the 7 day break between games.... apparently. Losing Stewart from their defence so early when they were already missing Henry and Kolojashnij, and then having De Koning on one leg, you are essentially right, they were "crippled". Not sure what role the surface played in that. We've seen ourselves the impact in-game injuries can have. They don't have to be sufficient for the player to miss the following week to be impactful. A solid corkie (for example) can cut a player's mobility but not prevent a player getting up the following week.
 
Not ruling out the surface (and I worry our guys with past injuries will injure up again playing on that crap) but Geelong have chosen an older profile of players so more injuries and players carrying niggles comes with the territory.
 

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Yeah but pretty sure that before that it was 2 PM (when they used to kick off every game on a Saturday afternoon to suit all the 5 1/2 day workers). I recall reading news reports of timekeepers and umpires delaying games until 3 pm because of monster crowds.
They'd be finishing in the dark!
 
Yes, but why?


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I’d imagine it’s pretty tight between our game an the 4:35pm start of the Crows v Tigers games so if I had to guess, I’d say it’s to minimize the possibility of overlap in the scheduling. All about the media coverage.

Edit: what unplugged said.
 
Interesting take aways from the game between Brisbane and Melbourne tonight. Given the massive contrast between how Brisbane played tonight and how they played against PA last week, it is clear that in the game against PA they were still in holiday mode. You can't transform like that in 1 week otherwise. Our victory against Geelong was not the result of Geelong's holiday mindset, since their performance in Round 2 was not dissimilar from that of Round 1.
My conclusion is that we are more prepared for the game tomorrow than PA.They had a "soft" opening round, but ours was far more realistic in terms of AFL level intensity.
 
Is it my imagination or is 1:45pm a strange start time for a Saturday game at the MCG?


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Back in the day when we had 12 teams and 6 games same time every week start time was 2:10pm. 1:45 has a pretty good retro feel to it.
 
There’s a suggestion that with Howe out, Frampton should come in and take the second-best forward, with Murphy given licence to play as the interceptor.

I’d flip that plan. Murphy is surprisingly good as a 1-on-1 defender even on bigger forwards, whilst Frampton is suspect. Supposedly Frampton’s an excellent interceptor and very good kick. So why not let him play to his strengths?


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Good call, Murphy is a gun in the making.
Seems his body is able to handle more now and hope he can limit his Kamikaze acts a bit as he is a very solid contributor in this team.
Wouldn't rule out a stint on Dixon at some stage if Frampton is out of sorts.

from my Delorean
 
Everyone seems to think Frampton is a walk up start this week, but I hardly see him as a like-for-like with Howe.

The Pies love to play a zone defence which his highly dynamic, and from what I saw from Frampton in the preseason and at the Crows (when he managed to get a game) was that he’s far from that dynamic type.

I hope that if he is included, which he probably will be, that he doesn’t slow the transition of the footy from back half to front half.

Keen to hear if I’m the only one that feels this way? Honestly thought we defended unbelievably well after Howe went down, with great team defence - the way Murph and Moore left their men at the perfect times and read the flight of the ball was awesome.

Can definitely see Billy getting exposed by Dixon at times. Hopefully I’m wrong.
I would have rather seen Big Trey come in to be honest.
I would like to see him get a 3 game block.
He has shown a bit in games to date and is more similar size and speed to Howe.
Hope to be wrong but feel Frampton will take a few games to get going and Charlie could have a day out with Marshall and Georgiades to manage as well.


from my Delorean
 
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