- Mar 16, 2014
- 8,833
- 9,051
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
Over the years, I’ve known quite a lot of characters, from the famous and accomplished, to the street-level creepsters. One night, a friend-of-a-housemate-of-my-girlfriend (a 20-something who used to munch dexies like M&Ms because he’d faked ADHD as a teenager) turned to me and said: “Look at this. It’s Tsunami footage from Japan.”
Look, I can’t claim it wasn’t completely educational. But mostly it was terrifying.
The thing about Tsunamis is that you can’t stop them, and if you’re in their way you can’t escape them. The GWS’s original Orange Tsunami was based on the sheer glut of talent they had: elite ball user after elite ball user, runners smoother than the latest Porsche. It was less a game style or plan and more just a consequence of a playing list that Craig Hutchison predicted would win Premierships for a decade.
The new Orange Tsunami is something different. It’s the modern, attacking, game plan. Born from Richmond with their forward handball game, improved by the Mighty Magpies into a thing of grace and beauty, and now adopted by the GWS once more when they realised that their old game plan was at least five years out of date.
So this week, it’s GWS turning our game plan against us – a meeting of Tsunamis! Have you ever floated in the ocean at exactly the spot where two waves (one bouncing back off a wall) meet? That’s what we’re going to experience this week. We’ll be shot in the air by the force.
GWS: the coming wave
So much can be said about this matchup. It takes a real football afficionado to do a forensic examination of GWS because they are perennially on the fringed of the media coverage. For me, I have a soft spot for them. Toby Greene has to be one of my favourite players. He has everything: tough, a genius ability to see the matrix, the kind of leader who stands in no-man’s land fearless as shells go off all around him, and a disdain for authority that should be more respected. I’ve got a soft spot for Jesse Hogan, that “I have challenges to my mental health so pass me the beer” journeyman, once destined to be a generational key forward for Melbourne, now playing solidly, a redemption story without the glitz. I have a soft spot for the fact they play in Western Sydney, a place no civilised football lover should find themselves in. If they beat us, it’s suck the big one, but I’ll be hoping they win it all.
As far as the Prelim goes, here are some considerations:
GWS are perhaps the most balanced team left in it. That really surprised me since I assumed they’d be struggling with holes in their list. But every part of their team has winners and every part of their game is in order.
Their defence looks much like ours, featuring elites interceptors and one-on-one players. Taylor, Himmelbeg, Idun, Buckley – and then the run and elite kicking of Whitfield and Ash.
Their midfield is like a bag of mixed lollies, diverse and sickening(ly) good. Green, Kelly, Coniglio, Ward. They have brutal hardness, they have sports-car speed. At least the ruckman Briggs isn’t likely to smash us the way Gawn regularly does.
The forward line is where I thought they’d struggle. But the triumvirate of Greene, Hogan and Riccardi has improved markedly. They are now imposing, and their small men Daniels and Bedford are now A-Graders.
Forget the stats which back all this up. This is now an elite team.
There is one anomaly to all this: just what the bleeding bejesus is Lachie Keefe still doing playing AFL? It’s a miracle. It’s the Second Coming. Some revelation is at hand! The dead rise for a second time!
When Two Tsunamis Clash
On this board a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that this was the clash that gave me chills, much more than Port.
Once again, we’re battling a team that is roughly on par with the Mighty Magpies. How will it play out?
The cliché that midfields win games has always been moronic. More than ever AFL is a team game. Everywhere matters. This midfield battle worries me most though. We’ve lost our best hard nut, Taylor Adams, who because of his slightly better pace than Mitchell would have been more important this week. Had he not played that immense first quarter against Melbourne we would not have put the score on the board early. GWS will get us for hardness. Then with Kelly, Coniglio, Whitfield, Ash of they backline – they edge us in midfield battle for pace.
What then are we superior in? The potential game-breaker DeGoey is a trump card. He does things none of the GWS can do. Then we have the accumulators, Mitchell, Sidebottom, Daicos (excluding last week), Pendlebury, all of whom are just steady, reliable, dependable. We can be competitive over the game, and that’s all we need. Nick Daicos may be added as a wildcard, but I think he'll start at halfback, where he made his name.
Our forward line, though, has aces they’ve not seen. The speed of Hill, the uniqueness of Elliot, the height of Cox (when he’s there), the brutality of McReery, the game-sense of Ginnivan. If we even the midfield, we’ll cut them up with our kaleidoscope of talent.
Our defence has shown in recent weeks just how good they are. They can do it all. They can defend relentless pressure. They can handle aerial attacks, ground-ball contests. They are like a fighter who has never been knocked out. You just can’t put them on the canvass. We can handle their forwards with the one exception of Toby Greene. Maynard probably gets him, since he’s our lock-down medium defender. But Greene will still kick a few and give off more. That’s just nature taking its course.
The final advantage we have is that our game plan is one year more developed, one year more finely tuned. And we will pressure the GWS more in a quarter than Port did all game. Theirs will wobble and fracture before ours.
So, match them in the midfield and our forwards and defenders will get on top.
The Washup
The Might Magpies will carry out their destiny and shoot into the stratosphere of glory, like a swimmer shot into the sky when two tsunamis meet.
The Pies by 13 points!
Look, I can’t claim it wasn’t completely educational. But mostly it was terrifying.
The thing about Tsunamis is that you can’t stop them, and if you’re in their way you can’t escape them. The GWS’s original Orange Tsunami was based on the sheer glut of talent they had: elite ball user after elite ball user, runners smoother than the latest Porsche. It was less a game style or plan and more just a consequence of a playing list that Craig Hutchison predicted would win Premierships for a decade.
The new Orange Tsunami is something different. It’s the modern, attacking, game plan. Born from Richmond with their forward handball game, improved by the Mighty Magpies into a thing of grace and beauty, and now adopted by the GWS once more when they realised that their old game plan was at least five years out of date.
So this week, it’s GWS turning our game plan against us – a meeting of Tsunamis! Have you ever floated in the ocean at exactly the spot where two waves (one bouncing back off a wall) meet? That’s what we’re going to experience this week. We’ll be shot in the air by the force.
GWS: the coming wave
So much can be said about this matchup. It takes a real football afficionado to do a forensic examination of GWS because they are perennially on the fringed of the media coverage. For me, I have a soft spot for them. Toby Greene has to be one of my favourite players. He has everything: tough, a genius ability to see the matrix, the kind of leader who stands in no-man’s land fearless as shells go off all around him, and a disdain for authority that should be more respected. I’ve got a soft spot for Jesse Hogan, that “I have challenges to my mental health so pass me the beer” journeyman, once destined to be a generational key forward for Melbourne, now playing solidly, a redemption story without the glitz. I have a soft spot for the fact they play in Western Sydney, a place no civilised football lover should find themselves in. If they beat us, it’s suck the big one, but I’ll be hoping they win it all.
As far as the Prelim goes, here are some considerations:
GWS are perhaps the most balanced team left in it. That really surprised me since I assumed they’d be struggling with holes in their list. But every part of their team has winners and every part of their game is in order.
Their defence looks much like ours, featuring elites interceptors and one-on-one players. Taylor, Himmelbeg, Idun, Buckley – and then the run and elite kicking of Whitfield and Ash.
Their midfield is like a bag of mixed lollies, diverse and sickening(ly) good. Green, Kelly, Coniglio, Ward. They have brutal hardness, they have sports-car speed. At least the ruckman Briggs isn’t likely to smash us the way Gawn regularly does.
The forward line is where I thought they’d struggle. But the triumvirate of Greene, Hogan and Riccardi has improved markedly. They are now imposing, and their small men Daniels and Bedford are now A-Graders.
Forget the stats which back all this up. This is now an elite team.
There is one anomaly to all this: just what the bleeding bejesus is Lachie Keefe still doing playing AFL? It’s a miracle. It’s the Second Coming. Some revelation is at hand! The dead rise for a second time!
When Two Tsunamis Clash
On this board a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that this was the clash that gave me chills, much more than Port.
Once again, we’re battling a team that is roughly on par with the Mighty Magpies. How will it play out?
The cliché that midfields win games has always been moronic. More than ever AFL is a team game. Everywhere matters. This midfield battle worries me most though. We’ve lost our best hard nut, Taylor Adams, who because of his slightly better pace than Mitchell would have been more important this week. Had he not played that immense first quarter against Melbourne we would not have put the score on the board early. GWS will get us for hardness. Then with Kelly, Coniglio, Whitfield, Ash of they backline – they edge us in midfield battle for pace.
What then are we superior in? The potential game-breaker DeGoey is a trump card. He does things none of the GWS can do. Then we have the accumulators, Mitchell, Sidebottom, Daicos (excluding last week), Pendlebury, all of whom are just steady, reliable, dependable. We can be competitive over the game, and that’s all we need. Nick Daicos may be added as a wildcard, but I think he'll start at halfback, where he made his name.
Our forward line, though, has aces they’ve not seen. The speed of Hill, the uniqueness of Elliot, the height of Cox (when he’s there), the brutality of McReery, the game-sense of Ginnivan. If we even the midfield, we’ll cut them up with our kaleidoscope of talent.
Our defence has shown in recent weeks just how good they are. They can do it all. They can defend relentless pressure. They can handle aerial attacks, ground-ball contests. They are like a fighter who has never been knocked out. You just can’t put them on the canvass. We can handle their forwards with the one exception of Toby Greene. Maynard probably gets him, since he’s our lock-down medium defender. But Greene will still kick a few and give off more. That’s just nature taking its course.
The final advantage we have is that our game plan is one year more developed, one year more finely tuned. And we will pressure the GWS more in a quarter than Port did all game. Theirs will wobble and fracture before ours.
So, match them in the midfield and our forwards and defenders will get on top.
The Washup
The Might Magpies will carry out their destiny and shoot into the stratosphere of glory, like a swimmer shot into the sky when two tsunamis meet.
The Pies by 13 points!
