Most of you fellas around this board know me, you've seen my attitude towards the game and our football club. I generally have a positive outlook on most things Collingwood and if I do have a problem with any issue at the football club I try to criticize it in a constructive sense.
I can handle a loss, I can handle a player being in poor form continuously, I can handle having a coach around that has failed to deliver a premiership in the 10 years he has been at the helm, and I can handle seeing players continually selected that seem to have no real future at our club as far as winning a premiership goes.
There is one thing I cannot handle when it comes to football, and in particular the football club I support, and that thing is a lack of passion and toughness and the willingness to fly the flag when needed.
I have been to all games in Melbourne this season which is 6 of the 7. I love to go to the footy, I will turn up whether we are winning, losing, have our best 22 players up and running, or blooding kids and giving opportunities to those whom are on the fringe of selection.
Now observing each game, only once this year have I noticed the passion and hardness that is required to win a game of football. And of course we won the game of football that we focused our attention on hard work and toughness highlighted by a crunching contest in the dieing minutes when the game was still on the line by one of our more senior players.
Unfortunately concerning the other 6 games we have been passionless. We lost a game we should've won against Adelaide (most likely a bottom 8 team this season), after a average first half against the worst football side in the comp, talent and experience got us over the line relatively easily, we then played good football for parts of the night against Geelong, but when the contest went up a notch in skill level and hardness we were exposed. That's ok, Geelong are a great unit, and then came the disaster, losing the unlosable game against a club known to be our 2nd biggest rival, not far behind the mob we play this week. And of course following that we played an injury ravaged side that the Carrum Downs Falcons could beat, but didn't look convincing at stages.
I had noticed a lack of aggression by most players on the field, and a lack of passion up to this stage, and then an incident that I can still not forget that occurred in the final quarter of last week.
Steven Baker attempting to take Dane Swan's head off on the boundary line, intern putting him in doubt for this week. Not a single player, not even the captain who is just about the only player showing toughness at the moment, went over to remonstrate with Baker. Granted we were well behind, and the game was almost over, but to me that is the most important time to show you have fight left in you. At least then when it comes to reading out the positives you can say to yourself, i looked after my team mate, so next time this happens to me, he will do the same. This is how you forge relationships on the field and learn to fight and care for each other out there whether off the field you think that blokes a w***er, or are dirty on him as he is boning your ex girlfriend.
In reality we were bullied last week by a side I don't rate as tough at this stage. That is the sad point for me.
Am I wrong? Maybe. Do I care if you disagree, no, but maybe we are to disciplined on the field, but if it happens for too long team coaches will start telling their players, hey, the pies are soft, they don't look after each other, put Dane Swan off his game because no one is going to protect him.
Well Sunday is our big chance, the problem is, do we face our oldest rival as it is just another game, or do we rev up the boys and play on emotion knowing that this isn't just another game. I can guarantee Carlton would want nothing more than to smash an undermanned Collingwood, Ratten knows about it, he knows what it means to Carlton people to beat Collingwood.
We need to prove to this league that we will not be ****ed with, and what better way to do to it than against those cheating pricks. I honestly do not care if Nick Maxwell is put away for 4 weeks for striking, whether 8 players cop fines for wrestling, or Jack Anthony belts Jamison across the head, just show some sort of emotion.
Teach the boys like Wellingham, Reid, Wood, Sidebottom, Barham, Beams and any other kid in that side why we hate Carlton, why if we don't win another game for the year but beat Carlton we can all rest easy.
Do it for the blokes sitting in the stand that come and watch you every week. Draw a line in the sand, because right now it looks as though you do not care about the bloke standing beside you on the half back flank.
The day is a day built around donating money to sufferers of cancer, and I can tell you, these people do it hard, harder than any of you blokes on the field have done it, so show the sort of fight that these people do, and take it right up to these pricks on Sunday by any means necessary, because I'm getting pissed off.
I can handle a loss, I can handle a player being in poor form continuously, I can handle having a coach around that has failed to deliver a premiership in the 10 years he has been at the helm, and I can handle seeing players continually selected that seem to have no real future at our club as far as winning a premiership goes.
There is one thing I cannot handle when it comes to football, and in particular the football club I support, and that thing is a lack of passion and toughness and the willingness to fly the flag when needed.
I have been to all games in Melbourne this season which is 6 of the 7. I love to go to the footy, I will turn up whether we are winning, losing, have our best 22 players up and running, or blooding kids and giving opportunities to those whom are on the fringe of selection.
Now observing each game, only once this year have I noticed the passion and hardness that is required to win a game of football. And of course we won the game of football that we focused our attention on hard work and toughness highlighted by a crunching contest in the dieing minutes when the game was still on the line by one of our more senior players.
Unfortunately concerning the other 6 games we have been passionless. We lost a game we should've won against Adelaide (most likely a bottom 8 team this season), after a average first half against the worst football side in the comp, talent and experience got us over the line relatively easily, we then played good football for parts of the night against Geelong, but when the contest went up a notch in skill level and hardness we were exposed. That's ok, Geelong are a great unit, and then came the disaster, losing the unlosable game against a club known to be our 2nd biggest rival, not far behind the mob we play this week. And of course following that we played an injury ravaged side that the Carrum Downs Falcons could beat, but didn't look convincing at stages.
I had noticed a lack of aggression by most players on the field, and a lack of passion up to this stage, and then an incident that I can still not forget that occurred in the final quarter of last week.
Steven Baker attempting to take Dane Swan's head off on the boundary line, intern putting him in doubt for this week. Not a single player, not even the captain who is just about the only player showing toughness at the moment, went over to remonstrate with Baker. Granted we were well behind, and the game was almost over, but to me that is the most important time to show you have fight left in you. At least then when it comes to reading out the positives you can say to yourself, i looked after my team mate, so next time this happens to me, he will do the same. This is how you forge relationships on the field and learn to fight and care for each other out there whether off the field you think that blokes a w***er, or are dirty on him as he is boning your ex girlfriend.
In reality we were bullied last week by a side I don't rate as tough at this stage. That is the sad point for me.
Am I wrong? Maybe. Do I care if you disagree, no, but maybe we are to disciplined on the field, but if it happens for too long team coaches will start telling their players, hey, the pies are soft, they don't look after each other, put Dane Swan off his game because no one is going to protect him.
Well Sunday is our big chance, the problem is, do we face our oldest rival as it is just another game, or do we rev up the boys and play on emotion knowing that this isn't just another game. I can guarantee Carlton would want nothing more than to smash an undermanned Collingwood, Ratten knows about it, he knows what it means to Carlton people to beat Collingwood.
We need to prove to this league that we will not be ****ed with, and what better way to do to it than against those cheating pricks. I honestly do not care if Nick Maxwell is put away for 4 weeks for striking, whether 8 players cop fines for wrestling, or Jack Anthony belts Jamison across the head, just show some sort of emotion.
Teach the boys like Wellingham, Reid, Wood, Sidebottom, Barham, Beams and any other kid in that side why we hate Carlton, why if we don't win another game for the year but beat Carlton we can all rest easy.
Do it for the blokes sitting in the stand that come and watch you every week. Draw a line in the sand, because right now it looks as though you do not care about the bloke standing beside you on the half back flank.
The day is a day built around donating money to sufferers of cancer, and I can tell you, these people do it hard, harder than any of you blokes on the field have done it, so show the sort of fight that these people do, and take it right up to these pricks on Sunday by any means necessary, because I'm getting pissed off.
