Jon Ralph in today's Herald Sun

[mattys123]

Yep, Melbourne by far has the easiest draw, but they didn't even go close to making the eight last year, so it's about time the AFL did them some favours.

As for them as top 4 smokies, please, please make the top 4 Melbourne, would be the easiest final in living history (ignore 2010 results vs the Dees, we simply didn't come to play against them).

 

[Ed D]

Next he'll be saying Pies have it easy because they don't play the 2010 premiers while every other team does...

 

[vjknight]

I don't see what's wrong with the article. He's pointing out the ease of our draw which 95% of people would agree with.

cmon beez - that figure is about 80% - 20% of the population love us to death LOL

"Their interstate encounters are far from challenging - they play Sydney, the Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and Fremantle in their four trips spaced over the last 10 weeks."

ok so we missed on meeting interstate the eagles & lions in 2011 (probable bottom 2 in 2011) and adelaide, who struggle against us in their home town.

this journo is clearly NOT the cleverist fella to roam this earth.

 

[jonbe54]

cmon beez - that figure is about 80% - 20% of the population love us to death LOL

"Their interstate encounters are far from challenging - they play Sydney, the Gold Coast, Port Adelaide and Fremantle in their four trips spaced over the last 10 weeks."

ok so we missed on meeting interstate the eagles & lions in 2011 (probable bottom 2 in 2011) and adelaide, who struggle against us in their home town.

this journo is clearly NOT the cleverist fella to roam this earth.

Definitely 3 sandwiches short of a picnic.

 

[millsie]

I agree that the draw is easy for us, if you take into account that we play both Carlton & Essendon twice.

 

[davywap]

This is just a classic case of some talentless footy-journo going for what they know will get the great unwashed going out of their way to read and get all pissed off about, and this particular golden opportunity only comes about once a year - fixture day. Its vintage HUN, vintage Ralph, vintage Collingwood bashing to get attention.
I reckon the writers at the HUN must have a ballot between themselves each year for which one of them gets to pen the article about 'Collingwood's dream draw'.
It's really quite simple, when it all boils down writers like Jon Vomit do not have any more f***ing clue than anyone else about football, but they are experts in mongering hate against us, because it's so frickin' easy. Honestly, it's like training your dog to lick its own balls - it's a no fail opportunity.
Just go to the HUN website and you'll see 160+ comments about his article (possibly the most since the Didak/Shaw incident of 1998) and you'll see what I'm talking about, if you didn't already know.
It's just the nature of the beast, it gives you the shits but you also kind of get used to it after a while.

PS. There was one thing accurate in the article though, our interstate trips next year are far from challenging, but it's not our fault we're so much better than all these teams. A bigger advantage would have been to give us games against the other interstate teams as well seeing as we shit on all of them and win most interstate games.

 

[KissStephanie]

But my goodness, Jon Ralph's article in today's Herald Sun about our draw is just the most blatant of anti-Collingwood bias.

I like Jon Ralph, and he does seem fair most of the time regarding Collingwood, and I think his preference was to see Collingwood beat St.Kilda in the Grand Finals. I do think the draw is pretty good too, but the criticism I see is that he doesn't compare the draw to a number of other teams, which also have a good go, and he doesn't mention the difficult draw we had this year.

I suppose Collingwood stands out more because all teams request to play us twice, and also because we won the premiership, and are the best team at the moment and very capable of beating all others. The idea of playing both Geelong and St.Kilda twice looked more daunting this time last year than it does now.

 

[rose jam]

It's a bit weird from Jon Ralph, who's the only one in that paper that really gets into stories and is balanced, and I think he's a Pies supporter too.

But travelling 4 times in the last 9 games is not what you call the best draw.
And what about "easy" interstate teams. Well they're all easy these days. We miss West Coast, Brisbane and Adelaide. 2 of them are terrible and depends what cycle Adelaide are in they'll either be good or terrible.

And does everyone forget that Geelong, then 2009 premiers, had the softest of 2010 draws.

I don't get why people don't hammer Geelong over their draw, they get 7-8 soft games every year by playing on their suburban training base. It's the single biggest bias in the draw.

 

[Magpie Ink]

It's a bit weird from Jon Ralph, who's the only one in that paper that really gets into stories and is balanced, and I think he's a Pies supporter too.

I'm almost certain that he follows the Tigers.

Most of these articles are written well before the fixture is even released

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Michael Horan is the HUN's resident Pies man.

 

[charmer]

Michael Horan is the HUN's resident Pies man.

Yep. As well as Matt Windley and Jackie Epstein. The Herald Sun offices were going off after we won it! There is a massive Collingwood presence as well as a huge Dane Swan poster...bigger than life size!

 

[Us3]

Yep, don't let those journos get to you, they target the biggest audience for their slander to get the biggest sales .

love your avatar mate

 

[Stifler's mom]

The Saints got a negative X next to their draw for playing us and the cats twice and the GC once.

We have that same scenario and it never got mentioned.

Plus we have the toughest last 5 matches of any side leading into the finals. Headline could have read "Pies tough run home" but that wouldn't have got as much publicity.

Apparently the timing of our byes were even an advantage for us. WTF!
Would have loved a bye after round 20 instead!

 

[you idiot sheehan]

I like Jon Ralph, and he does seem fair most of the time regarding Collingwood, and I think his preference was to see Collingwood beat St.Kilda in the Grand Finals. I do think the draw is pretty good too, but the criticism I see is that he doesn't compare the draw to a number of other teams, which also have a good go, and he doesn't mention the difficult draw we had this year.

I suppose Collingwood stands out more because all teams request to play us twice, and also because we won the premiership, and are the best team at the moment and very capable of beating all others. The idea of playing both Geelong and St.Kilda twice looked more daunting this time last year than it does now.

I agree. I like Jon Ralph too. I definitely don't think he's anti Collingwood. I remember he tipped us for the flag in 2008 before it was fashionable after our efforts in the 2007 finals. In the end he was only two years too early.

I remember reading that article on Friday and just smiling. It's a softer draw than last year, and part of their job these days to stir up the supporters. Stirring up supports = interest in the newspapers.

I follow Ralphy on twitter and he's good value. For the record he's a Richmond supporter. His twitter is @RalphyHeraldSun