SAME TIME THIS WEEK

Now that you have had a chance to digest the sheer, blinding acuity of my analysis prior to last week's draw, we move onto today.

Talk since the draw has been about how Collingwood blew the premiership with poor kicking for goal. Collywobbles may have been mentioned.

Less talk, if any, has covered StKilda's own Collywobbles. A lone premiership in 1966 has been followed by losses in 1971 (led at 3/4 time), 1997 (led at 1/2 time) and 2009 (led at 3/4 time). The Saintywobbles, and the Saints' heavy history of failure, were the reason I was confident Geelong would win last year.

Last Saturday, had StKilda been playing one of the clubs used to winning premierships - Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, for instance - the Big Club would have been a Good Thing.

See where I am coming from? For Collingwood and StKilda the elephant in the room is the gorillas on both their backs.

Yes, the Pies blew it, but late in the game StKilda had put in a massive effort to come back, were all over Collingwood, took the lead, and still did not win.

Where does that leave this week? Buggered if I know. StKilda let Collingwood off the leash for a quarter, then did brilliantly to reel them in. If the Saints can clamp Collingwood for the whole match they should win. But if Collingwood get loose at any point, they will probably break the game open and win comfortably.

And yet. I can't help thinking about how the Saints failed to pinch the game. Scientifically speaking: that bounce that eluded Milne is the sort of bounce that eludes Saints' players, but lobs in the lap of Carlton players.

Conclusive enough for you?

Comments

[Pat]

Whilst admitting to be a publicly acknowledged GFL ignoramous, I believe the Pies will win easily, for the very simple reason that they are younger and that they, in the end, snatched a draw from defeat, whereas Saints snatched a draw from victory.

A refreshed Pies will kick on and win by 30+, as stated by me last week.

I also hope that this is the case for the game itself. The first qtr last week was entertaining and showed of those unique GFL skills we non-GFLers admire about the game. 3 goals from 50 out on the boundary. Fantastic stuff.

However, the next two qtrs devolved into an ugly rolling ruck with guts, grit and determination, sure but skill? Cloke's miss before half time spoke for the game. And on that point, again noting I haven't a tactical GFL clue, I'd be dropping that clown or, have him kick on short quickly to any other Pies player to take the shot. He's obviously a great marker of the ball but can kick as well as Israel Folau, the 2nd highest player in the GFL (no more on that topic).

Thomas for man of the match honours.

Good, informative, analysis Tones. Thanks for that. I don't want the Saints style rewarded in either code. Lots of points, good defensive hits, great marks, great goals. An end to smothering defenses. Go the Pies...and the Chooks!

[Tony]

Quite interesting grand final facts:

1966: StKilda lost ruckman Carl Ditterich through suspension.

1971: StKilda lost ruckman John McIntosh through injury.

1997: StKilda lost ruckmen Peter Everitt AND Lazar Vidovic through injury.

2009: StKilda DID NOT lose a ruckman.

2010: StKilda lost ruckman Michael Gardiner through injury.

[Sedge]

I've consulted with Nostradamus's's's chicken entrails and apparently Cometti wins by 3 goals, 6 obscure analogies from the forward pocket and 3 references to films of the 40's inside 50.

[Tony]

When you look up rugby (league & union) in the dictionary it says: "ugly rolling ruck with guts, grit and determination".

[Tony]

Sedge,

You could not have put it not better yourself.

[Tony]

Way too often when Kozzy has front pozzy in marking contests he limply allows the ball to flop over the back. Very soft in front.

[Tony]

Today shaping up as identical to last week.

[Sedge]

All over red rover. (Remember them? Rovers.)

[Tony]

Now or never, pink zephyr. Saints need to get their arses into Karmann Ghia.

[Tony]

Will that Rievoldt blunder be the story of the day?

[Tony]

Game over?

[Tony]

If Cloke kicks this it IS game over.

[Tony]

Pies will be very happy with the Davis Goldsack swap.

[Sedge]

All that glitters is not Leon.

[Tony]

No-on Leon.

[Pat]

Entertaining 1st qtr. Good to watch. The smother of Rievoldt's played on shot one to remember (or forget if the Pies lose).

Pies short kicking from the mark is full of woe, and they should be ahead by the 30 I predicted, given the amount of posession they've had.

Cloke, okay, dificult shot. But he couldn't even get the point for missing? Jehova is Lord! Come on, Pies coach (I forget his name), tell Cloke to never take a shot again and always look to kick it to someone else in a better position, even if Cloke takes it a metre out, dead in front.

Love the Pies Irishman Harry O'Brien. Typical son of Erin with his wildly flamboyant play. I bet he comes from County Cork.

[Tony]

Collingwood are all over the Saints, but just like last week have not smashed them.

Unlike last week, I cannot see the Saints reeling in Collingwood if Collingwood take a four goal plus lead into half time.

[Tony]

With the last four points in the match, the Saints CANNOT afford to blow their chances.

[Sedge]

... and if Didak gets his mojo back in the next quarter then the Sainters are in deep doo-doo.

[Sedge]

Am I prescient or am I prescient?

[Tony]

I knew you were going to say that. And I knew I was going to write that.

[Sedge]

OK - the next underplaying Magpie to retrieve the mojo. The tattoo kiddie.

[Tony]

Gilbert's got a dose of the Clokes.

[Tony]

Which tattoo kiddie? It's important to nail down the details. Or detailing, as the case may be.

[Sedge]

Chicken entrails meets Giblets.

[Tony]

If the Aints can get a couple of goals here, they are back in it. But they have to take a couple of chances.

[Tony]

Pies seven scoring shots; Saints eight scoring shots. You wouldn't think that on balance of momentum, but that's the way the Saints play.

[Sedge]

Swan, as Ugly Duckling.

[Sedge]

Last goal - cruel for the Sainters but lovely - and telling.

[Tony]

The Saints can't get goals; the Pies are taking their chances; the Saints are almost, just about, nearly in the shitter.

[Sedge]

Has Koschitzke left the building?

[Tony]

The two most telling passages:

Riewoldt misses in the first, McCaffer gets a goal at the other end. Two goal turn-around.

Milne misses a chest mark in the second, McCaffer & Jolly get goals. Three goal turn-around.

Crucial.

[Tony]

Collingwood are lucky they haven't needed Cloke to take shots.

[Tony]

Koschitzke is still in the building. Just got out-marked.

[Sedge]

Cloke marks 5 times outside 50 within 3 minutes and slots them all. After 17 minutes deliberation umpire Rob Oakeshott takes credit.

[Sedge]

Flipping between the footy and the races at Randwick. Have seen the most amazing Metropolitan Handicap win ever. Runaway leader by 10+ lengths for most of the race. Collapses and falls back through the field then wins by 3+ lengths. Show me the Pakistani bookmaker who is crying into his lassi.

[Tony]

Planes that Never Flew on the History Channel looks interesting.

Oh, there we go, an ad.

Does anyone else suffer the same frustration? Whenever I turn on the History Channel, I see 30 seconds of the show and then the ads start. Every. Single. Time. And I'm fvcken paying for it. Foxtel - pay, ads, pay more.

[Pat]

Another good qtr that could've been great had the Saints kicked their goals. Good result for the game as well since the Saints have to go for it in attack if they hope to get back into it.

Schneider looked like Kelly all those years ago, just before half time against the Roos in the GF. On the comeback, missing a vital psychological blow for his team.

Wellingham's had a great first half.

[Tony]

Saints should still be in the game, but I reckon they've blown their chance. They are extraordinarily hard to beat when they are on, but today? Not on.

[Sedge]

The Sainters look like the Collingwood teams that broke my barely beating heart back in the 60s and 70s. Lots of individual champions (Thompsons, Richardsons, et al) but when push came to shovel they didn't dig deep enough.

[Pat]

Pay TV?! That stuff's for millionaires.

I'm lucky if the Dick Smith Digital Set Top Box hasn't lost its scan, or if the audio isn't bleeding over into the telecast from the Christian TV channel.

Being extolled over and over to read Romans 1:13 gives the game a certain moral gravitas though, I must admit.

[Tony]

Crackers Keenan was hilarious on the Coodabeens this morning talking about pushing and shoveling Len Thompson during the 1977 grand final.

[Pat]

The mrs asked me what demographic was the AFL targeting their Lionel Richie selection at. Don't worry fellas, I stood up for you and remained silent, and added "I don't know."

[Tony]

Without WWII it would not be the History Channel, it would be the History Hour.

[Sedge]

The best thing about the drawn GF was another does of the Coodabeens. Last week's presence of Neil Roberts, Kevin Rose and Alan Morrow (the first non Collingwood "six footer" ruckman) was a joy to the ears.

[Sedge]

'dose' that'd be. (Apologies to Mr Contador.)

[Tony]

Football discourages the use of No Dose.

[Tony]

Gee, it's unlike StKilda to be a big game embarrassment.

[Tony]

Ahem:

if Collingwood get loose at any point, they will probably break the game open and win comfortably.

[Tony]

This just in! Saints scored another goal.

Floodgate.

[Pat]

Cracker of a goal from Didak. Awesome. That's gotta break the Saint's back.

[Tony]

The Saints were gone when Shaw smothered Riewoldt's near-certain goal in the first quarter.

[Sedge]

A bit of advice to anyone living in Carringbush. "Lock up your daughters."

[Sedge]

Non partisan comment. It's not a pretty game.

[Tony]

A thoroughly depressing day for football.

[Pat]

Why on earth would anyone "centre the ball to Cloke"? There's no point, even.

[Pat]

McAvaney: "He's been wonderful, hasn't he."

Who was he talking about?

Doesn't matter, he says it about all the front runners regardless of impact. Have I said how much I hate Bruce? "He's Shouse, isn't he."

[Tony]

Foyle's War is showing more animation than StKilda.

[Sedge]

D'ya reckon someone will bite the bullet and not award the Norm Smiff medal?

[Tony]

Phew. Lunch is over. Cricket's back on.

[Pat]

I dunno Sedge, I've enjoyed it. Going an extra fourth quarter is stretching it though. Forget about GF replays, the GFL needs to bring in boxing's "throwing in the towel".

At least there's some good news from Randwick Sedge. Poor old Wicks are getting a caning from the ref, who hates the mighty Galloping Greens, I'm sure you'll all be interested to know. It's that other game, Yawnion. Who would've known they have their GF today. No doubt about NSWRU marketing. Their as good as Cloke, 20 metres out dead in front.

[Sedge]

I hate Bruce? "He's Shouse, isn't he."

Pat, you shouldn't state the bleeding obvious.

[Sedge]

EMBARRASSING!

[Tony]

Rhyce Shaw getting a beer head start on scaly mates, Heater and Dids.

[Sedge]

Eddie will be insufferable. (Well, more lock it in insufferable.)

[Tony]

Will Pie fans be happy when Malthouse hands over the reins to Buckley?

[Tony]

I hate Harry.

[Sedge]

Irish Harry puts the icing on the kayak.

[Tony]

Look! There's Milne. Been hiding until the heat has passed.

[Sedge]

Milne wears footy shorts worse than anybody.

[Sedge]

... other than Silvagni senior - whose socks were a delight not to behold.

[Sedge]

Go Daisy, Ronnie Wearmouth's love child.

[Pat]

Speaking of Irish Harry, here's English Harry geeing up the lads, just as Brian Smith's gotta do tomorrow.

btw, did I see Eddie crying (or tyring desperately not to)?

Geez, I'm mindlessly drunk in a blackout stage before I hit that phase (and have just lost the GF, as I did last year, much to my eternal discredit).

[Tony]

To paraphrase Allan McAllister: "Mick can be coach for life... errrr, that's right."

[Sedge]

Intriguing. There was no point in the match when the Pies weren't twice the Saints score = not a good match to watch.

[Pat]

My comment intriguing? The first 3 quraters exhibited great footy from the Pies, not a rolling ruck, which, as Tones points out I can get from both Rugbys anyday, and with far more order and sensibility.

As I said it was a pity that the Saints couldn't convert their opportunities into goals, for the contest. But as it is I got to see Ozzie Rules talent, not Rugby.

In Rugby btw, you must enter the ruck from behind the ball. In both codes their is an imaginary line bisecting the field at the ball's juncture. That is the line of offside demarcation.

I appreciate a Rule's ruck, but not its constant, unremitting repetition. It's vastly different to Union which is a rolling "set-piece" when played at its best, not a rolling mess, when played at its worst as in last week's Rules game.

[Tony]

"The winner of the Norm Smith is Scott Embleyemlebury."

[Sedge]

I'm still cacking my dacks about that. (And when will Peter McKenna get a proper haircut?)

[Pat]

I don't like the way the AFL has the losing team leave the field for the winner to do its rounds. Or have they changed that?

I stoppped watching with 10 to go.

It's very unsporting, lacks graciousness, to the other team who, after all, made it to the GF. Their is no shame in defeat.

[Sedge]

Saints captain Nick Riewoldt managed just five marks and kicked two behinds in another poor grand final display, outplayed by Pies defender Nathan Brown.

C'est la typical guerre.

This time Carringbush was on the winning end,

Nick Riewoldt meets the alleged Neon Leon.

[m0nty]

Pat: union hasn't been played at its best for 20 years. The new rules and the old English have ruined that game. The only point of that game is to laugh at the All Blacks every four years as they throw away yet another world cup that should be theirs.

As for offside, that stupid rule is a relic of a bygone era. Specifically: the Napoleonic era, when wars were fought like chess and sports were formulated to emulate them. Field hockey became a much better game after getting rid of it.

[Tony]

The NRL grand final was a bust, too.

The ABC radio commentators are certainly an old fashioned bunch.