Not just Pendlebury.
Pies are missing 4 of their 5 best players: Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Howe and De Goey.
Put Grundy at the top of that list and that is the Pies 5 best players in that order.
Take 4 of the 5 best players out of any team and they are going to really struggle as the Pies duly did.
You mean like we are?
Yep - we are missing 4 of our best 6: Daniher, Shiel, Stringer and Heppell. (Merrett and Saad would round out our Top 6).
That’s why I always thought our game against the Crows as line ball.
In some respects, we have done very, very well to be 5-2 albeit we have beaten 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th and the Pies who are now 7th but had only 2 of their top 5 (Sidebottom and Howe) missing that night.
But for the ball bouncing on Liam Jones head on the goal line and Hooker sitting strangely nearly 2m behind the goal line watching, we would be 6-1 and equal top with a game in hand.
We have made up for missing talent with a monumental focus on, and lift in, tackling and overall pressure around the ground.
It would be a hilarious indictment on the comp if we were 6-1 and sitting 2nd.
Well just on your position on the Pies injuries, that in itself doesn’t excuse the complete capitulation yesterday after 1/4 time. They have also been doing this all year, playing well in the first then stopping dead, even with Pendles playing. Their midfield was once considered the best thing out there and their pressure was off the charts. Now it is a shadow of itself.
Something, other than injuries, has gone wrong.
It would be but it would more be a reflection of two things:
We have become a team that scraps with the best, similar to Richmond in 2017.
This premiership race this year is as wide open as it was back in 1993.
■■■■ coll… They always have 3 extra players on the field anyway.
You could make an argument that Orazio, when fully fit and healthy is in our top 5 most valuable players. We’re also missing Ambrose and Hooker from our spine. And have been missing McKenna for much of the season to date
Agree.
And the results of the umpiring dilemma are in.
Weagles at home vs Collingwood
21 free kicks each.
That’d make Collingwood one of the only teams to not lose the free kick count vs them in Perth this century.
At the start of the year Pies looked like they were a strong flag chance. They lose 4 of the 5 most important players and become an average side (Sidey, Howe, De Goey & Pendles)
You can replace role players but can’t replace class.
Pendlebury looks to be out for 4 games (not weeks)
BOOOOOOOOOO…
I hope Sidebottom goes to commiserate him
Seen their draw?
They’ll go 4-0
Freo in perth - 50/50
Bin Chickens at the Gabba - yeah theyll rinse them
Crows in Adelaide They’ll win that
Melbourne at the Gabba- 50/50
Can see them going 2-2
Eddie McGuire can GAGF.
Fremantle - Home ground advantage - have to say Dockers in a close one
Sydney - Short turn around and travel - Sydney with a recent win against Hawks. Close but have to say Swans
Crows - They are due. Crows in a tight one
Melbourne - Demons have been playing well. Pies down on confidence with recent losses. Dees in a close one
0-4
Anyone tipping the Dockers must have missed the game yesterday…
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir described Collingwood as “impenetrable” last month.
The Magpies were yet to concede 40 points in a game and Fremantle’s new coach knew their defence better than most, having served as Collingwood backline coach for the past two years.
“They’ve got a really mature back six that have played a lot of footy together,” Longmuir said.
The Magpies have since lost intercepting weapon Jeremy Howe (knee) and let through the biggest score of 2020 on Sunday, when West Coast piled on 18.3 (111).
But they are still the AFL’s No.1 stopper and, despite playing one extra game, have leaked fewer points than Melbourne and Essendon.
For the most part they are as tight as piano wire. Structurally they set up so well that opposition entries are usually slow, predictable and without a threatening patch of open space on offer.
The key words being “for the most part”, because an alarming trend has emerged where Collingwood falls asleep at the wheel.
FAST STARTS HIT THE WALL
Quarter 1
Average 24.1 points (No.1 in AFL), 268.1% (No.1)
Quarter 2-4
Average 35.4 points (No.17), 84% (No.16)
Source: CHAMPION DATA
In Round 1 the Western Bulldogs pinged through three goals late in the second quarter to cut the margin from 48 points to 30.
It was enough for Dogs coach Luke Beveridge to tell his players at the last two breaks that they had a pulse.
No damage was done, but it foreshadowed what was to come.
In Round 2 the Magpies conceded four-straight majors against Richmond in a game that finished as a five-goal apiece draw.
In Round 4 it was the Giants’ run of three majors after scores were level at halftime that probably decided the match.
In Round 5 Essendon converted a three-goal deficit into a five-goal buffer it never relinquished.
On Sunday the Eagles went on two game-changing blitzes.
A four-goal burst to get back in the game and then a 13-goal charge that finished in the record books as the most consecutive goals the Magpies have conceded since Champion Data started in 1999.
MAGPIE LAPSES
Consecutive goals conceded
Rd 8, 2020 v West Coast 13 - most Pies have conceded since Champion Data’s inception in 1999
Rd 8, 2020 v West Coast 4
Rd 5, 2020 v Essendon 8
Rd 4, 2020 v GWS Giants 3
Rd 2, 2020 v Richmond 4
Rd 1, 2020 v Western Bulldogs 3
PF, 2019 v GWS Giants 7
It would be no surprise if Longmuir writes “Magpie lapses” on the whiteboard this week because at some stage, most likely after quarter-time, they will give Fremantle a look.
There is no team that starts faster and then slams on the brakes as quickly as Collingwood, with a disproportionate 40.5 per cent of its scores coming in the first quarter.
Ironically, it’s not the defence to blame for the lapses. Essendon champion goalkicker Matthew Lloyd put it on the misfiring forwards.
“Your defence can only stand up for so long. You’ve got to put scoreboard pressure on,” Lloyd said.
Collingwood games average just 110.6 points, which is the fewest in the AFL and just below Fremantle’s 111.8 points.
It magnifies the importance of those lapses.
Port Adelaide and St Kilda have conceded runs of three or more goals five teams this year, only one less than Collingwood, but they are playing in games producing close to an extra two and four goals respectively.
The damage for those teams is diluted, whereas in Collingwood’s dour strangleholds landing a knockout blow is rarely far away.
anyone else notice the lumumba thing has been swept under the rug again?
