Autopsy So so so close (Please read OP)

[BPikkers]

I thought Bucks was spot on when he said he thought we lost our ‘daring’ play. Understandable given it was the first GF most of kids played in. But playing that fast, chaotic, risky game was going to be the only way to combat their superior aerial strength, particularly in our forward line.

Sier really is a bull. I’m really looking forward to him taking another step next year.

I think we are only a couple players off being premiers. A fit Moore would have made a significant difference.

I still don’t believe Aish is best 22. He laid some good tackles but is slow and gives us absolutely no run and carry.

 

[BIGGUS 64]

7) To the knob Eagles supporter that sold my 14yo daughter a $1000 ticket (face value $250) for a seat you told us was at the front of level 4, rather than the 2nd last row at the top, you didn't deserve your side to win.

That really sucks @rse. Scalpers are scum, cashing in on people's excitement, devotion and desperation. They should be tarred and feathered if caught (black and white feathers in this case).
Even worse, ripping off a kid like that.
It just angers me. They keep talking about getting tough on scalpers, yet it still happens.

 

[Doashuey]

They were the definition of inconsistent in my book. Too many occasions where substantially the same play on two different

except for the ruck frees, 6 nil deficit. That one in the last quarter when we went up by 2 goals was a huge momentum changer.

So what you are saying is we got 7 to your 17 frees around the ground

 

[Brad Goodman]

Amazing that we only missed by that much when you consider our main key defender on the day has been a third tall the majority of his career and did his ACL seven months ago...

 

[ksardog]

I’m worried about not being able to back it up next year bloody this hurts more than 2011 cause I reckon that year mm screwed us purposely

You do understand we were 24 points up in that game against a far better side than WC and we had more players with injury concerns playing on the actual day. Not sure how he screwed us.

This will be a true test of the club, we had the premiership in our hands and let it go, again. Depth of our squad isn’t an issue when fully fit, do we chase a key position player or do we put faith in that Moore can get his body right. We are definately a top 8 side next year, but can our improvement and determination match those of others coming from beneath us.

2019 will be as much about our mental strength as it is the fitness of our list.

 

[Brad Goodman]

Family day scheduled from 12-3, anyone know when the players will be presented?

 

[cleomenes]

It's so hard to balance the disappointment with the satisfaction for a great year. After the first two games I lost faith that we would do well this year and only slowly regained it. The team has been unbelievable in its management of the successive injury crises.
Good stories from the grand final are Langdon and Mayne, who should be criticism free from their many detractors at least for a while.
Players names also come up in the bad stories, but I am not meaning to ascribe blame here.
Sidebottom was successfully tagged out of the game, a credit to his opponent. The obvious counter plan was tried and they were ready for it. A few cm in reach from Schofield was all that stood between Sidebottom and a mark and goal that might have changed things. There was no other plan that I saw.
Grundy was team tagged into a moderate game. Again, this was as expected and there didn't seem to be any way to overcome it. The lack of a tall defender was important here.
Treloar was not very effective. He got a fair bit of the ball, but as in the other finals, his explosive exit from congestion was not on show.
Again, as in the other finals, Pendlebury looked slow. He has never been fast, but it may be the first creak of the curtain.
De Goey did some great things, but his lairising play on and checkside kick that missed may have been the game changer.
Cox has been shown clearly. The rules about blocks, shepherding and opponents keeping eyes on the ball in marking contests don't apply to him. He will have to wear it. The umpires view his height as an unfair advantage, and allow opponents extra leeway in combating it.
West Coast were better most of the day. Bad goal shooting looked like making them unlucky losers, until an umpiring failure gifted them a win that they had earned in other play.
The umpiring was pretty dire for most of the game. Packs were left to sort themselves out long after a throw up was required.
There was much shepherding of marking contests, and only a few were paid.
Many instances of time wasting as balls were not returned at frees and marks. The only 50m awarded came
out of the blue.
Half a dozen almost marks. Two awarded and the others not.
The ball dragged in a number of times and let go. A few others paid.
The story is one of inconsistency, with a bad decision deciding the match, but at least one could say that it decided it in the right team's favour.

 

[Adz]

49 hit outs...fair effort for a Ruck isn't it?

If I had said this people would be killing me.

 

[TKiL]

Thoughts from a discombobulated and sleepless mind:

Emotions have ebbed and flowed since the game, mostly I feel a sense of great pride and gratitude for the privilege of being a Collingwood supporter, particularly during this season. It’s meant a lot to me this year, even more than it usually does, we really do have so much to be proud of. The sense of pride dulls the pain of losing, until I remember I also would have felt all of that pride had we won, and then the disappointment returns

It’s strange to think that the difference between winning and losing could have been the fitness of a 30-something Melbourne reject, from when they were crap. I’m no tactical expert but it doesn’t take a genius to see that we were missing a key back today. I couldn’t be less interested in recriminations over selection, but can’t help but feel a fit Dunn today would have made a difference. Please get well soon.

Small comforts but at least we can be proud of our efforts and relieved that we lost to a team who were worthy winners and due our respect.

yep - with Dunn, Scharenberg and Elliott def out, Reid and Moore just not match fit, the sum of these injuries was always going to hurt

 

[10571z]

Don’t forget eagles felt exactly what we were feeling in 2015. They are bloody hard to win but you just have to go again because our time could be next year, a couple down the track or 30 years from now.

Let’s see how the players react but I just want to go again already and get back there!!

 

[TKiL]

Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger - calling bullsh*t on this today. Barracking for Pies is an existential drama destined to end in tragedy. Magpie landed on the front gate as I was driving in this morning - I wound down the window and told it it was a f***ing disgrace!!
Will never give up on the Pies but they test every nerve, tendon, sinew, neurone to the max!!

Thanks to the supporters of other clubs who have made generous, sporting comments here - well done.

I am going to try and hate other clubs less - except Melb and Carlton ....

 

[HedgeFund]

yep - with Dunn, Scharenberg and Elliott def out, Reid and Moore just not match fit, the sum of these injuries was always going to hurt

This is it in a nutshell.

You played exceptional exciting footy for the whole year despite carrying the most devastating injury list. West Coast were able to lean on Barrass/McGovern down back and Darling/Kennedy/Vardy up front to get them out of trouble time and again.

The Dogs and Tigers GF wins can never be discounted but the trend to go small and quick in your forward line is more a fad, which ultimately gets found out. Mihocek and Cox have been huge for where they were as footballers 2 years ago, but they’re not the ultimate answer. Same with your undersized defence obviously.

Get back two key talls, one at each end and some quality back up for Grundy and you’re the flag favourites next season IMO.

Well done Pies, you’ve been a joy to watch this year.

 

[Magpie Monopoly]

Not having a go at you MM but that is easy to say in hindsight.
If whoever it was that kicked that arsey goal to win them the game had missed and we had won the game I think you would be playing to a different tune.
Selection was correct. The coach backed the group that got them there (beating the premiership favourites along the way)

Here's my post on the team selection thread early last week:

As much as it sucks, in my opinion, someone needs to make way for Moore.

He is simply too good a matchup for Kennedy. Although Goldy did a decent job on him for 3 Q's in the QF, he got off the chain a bit in the 4th Q and essentially got them back into the game when it looked like we were going to push away with it. Simply can't allow that to happen again.

I love the romanticism of keeping the same squad, but logic needs to dictate selection this week, and logic suggests Moore is a significantly better matchup for Kennedy than Goldsack. Think Aish will make way and Goldy will take Darling. Left Howe/Crisp run riot in defense.

Absolutely sucks but is what it is...

Been saying it all week. With Moore peeling off and crashing packs, Darling and Kennedy don't take so many ass marks, and imo that goes a long way to us winning that game.

 

[ksardog]

49 hit outs...fair effort for a Ruck isn't it?

Ruck taps as a number means little unless they result in clearances.

I think everyone was hoping Grundy would dominate, not enough respect for Lycett. Grundy was ok, perhaps broke even, but not having his link play definately made our midfield less dominate, thought he was harshly dealt with by umps in ruck contests on more than a few occasions.

 

[mike123]

I reckon we erred by leaving Fasolo in the VFL similar to Medhurst back in 2010 but didn’t get away with it time.

Would have allowed De Goey to spend more time in the midfield which would have been really handy since Pendlebury and Sidebottom didn’t show up and Treloar abd Grundy well below their standards.

 

[Unknown Identity]

I cant believe how important Sier has become for us.

When he's not in the middle we really lack grunt and feel like clearances start going the oppositions way.

21 touches yesterday but had the least playing time for us, only 55%

Really strange considering it was a Grand Final.
His fitness must be nowhere near what it needs to be.

 

[Magpie Monopoly]

What the ? You don’t think Moore not being fit to play had something to do with it ?

As has been said many times. Moore is fit, however the coaching staff doesn't trust him to run out a game until the figure out what sparks his hamstring tightness. He has been training at full stretch for 3 weeks now. They weren't willing to take the gamble, that's fine, they preferred to take the gamble on Goldy controlling the best KPF in the comp.

That's fine but they need to wear that that probably didn't work out. Darling was out of the game, a couple of ass marks got him back into it and went a long way to us getting done.

 

[ksardog]

Adams was brilliant and the reason he was down there was because he ran end to end all day. He busted his ass and his errant kick pales into comparison to the poor game of Grundy or the 2 turnovers a week that Howe is guaranteed to cough up by foot within 50 metres of goal.

The Howe kick out from back pocket was shocking, his foot skills aren’t great either but I’d rather it be a long mistake than a short mistake even though the result was the same (goal against us)

I could see during the year that the players who kept on making the same errors week to week would be the ones who would do it on the big stage too. It cost us the game

Only player who disproved me was Mayne, was actually surprised he played so well.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

yep - with Dunn, Scharenberg and Elliott def out, Reid and Moore just not match fit, the sum of these injuries was always going to hurt

The killers were Dunn just for his pure aggression size and defence talent.

Scharenberg for his poise and skill.

Elliott well that kills

 

[ksardog]

I cant believe how important Sier has become for us.

When he's not in the middle we really lack grunt and feel like clearances start going the oppositions way.

21 touches yesterday but had the least playing time for us, only 55%

Really strange considering it was a Grand Final.
His fitness must be nowhere near what it needs to be.

He had a few knocks through the previous finals games so perhaps that had something to do with it.

 

[Unknown Identity]

He had a few knocks through the previous finals games so perhaps that had something to do with it.

His game time always seems to be 60% and under though.

 

[ksardog]

The killers were Dunn just for his pure aggression size and defence talent.

Scharenberg for his poise and skill.

Elliott well that kills

Dunn’s kicking was definately missed. I cringe when I see Howe taking kick outs from behinds. Missed Dunn’s depth of kick and also how fast it travelled to get to target, none of these high loopy kicks.

 

[ThePhantom777]

Still me today

 

[ksardog]

His game time always seems to be 60% and under though.

Doesn’t play anywhere other than midfield though, has to develop his game where he could maybe go forward for 5 minutes a qtr. He and DeGoey interchanging through midfield and forward is hopefully the future.

 

[HeavyPop]

It gets lost in the feelings of losing a GF, but it sucks even more when you realise there isn't another AFL game until March (not including AFLX or JLT Cup)