Three things I have learned-round 1 v Collingwood.

[Twodogs]

So what three things did the reigning premiers teach us today?

[GVGjr]

Bump

[bulldogtragic]

1. Our 'Ins' will be as good as we've hoped for. Murphy, Suckling, Crameri & Cloke all showed good signs first up.
2. Fletcher Roberts is raising his game. Good on him, I've had my doubts, but very good on him.
3. We need to play a first string ruckman, with Boyd helping out.

[Twodogs]

1. Any win is sweet. Some are sweeter than others.
2. Keithy Boyds helmet makes him look like a robot.
3. We can't concede centre clearences like we did tonight and expect to win. Again.

[westbulldog]

1. We needed the run, looked a bit underdone, the extra day break before Sydney next Friday night is a plus.
2. Varcoe deserves 2 weeks, maybe more.
3. Darcy Moore kicked 0.1, good effort Fletcher Roberts.

[1eyedog]

1. Treloar is a.jet
2. Boyd can't sole ruck
3. Travis Cloke kicking a massive goal at a Pies home game to quieten the boos = hilarious.

[Remi Moses]

1. Does the Robert Rose cup know where the Lexus, westpac, Holden centre is ?
2. Our mids won't get outworked and outplayed like that again
3. Collingwood are still to easily scored against, it's like a hot knife through butter

[bornadog]

1. 5 wins in a row against Collingwood, something we haven't done since the 50's

2. We won the premiership in 1954 and then won the opening in 1955 against Collingwood. History repeats.

3. Few guys needed the run and will get better.

[Sedat]

1. In the last couple of years we have been brilliant at sucking the life out of sub 3 goals games in the last 10 minutes
2. Quick handballs are so 2016 - it's all about tap-ons now
3. We get a more even contribution across 22 players than any other team

[AndrewP6]

1. We need a dedicated ruck.
2. We can get better.
3. Starting the season as reigning premiers feels amaaaaaaaazing.

[SlimPickens]

1. Collingwoods midfield will trouble a lot of teams. Our mids were up against it last night.
2. We missed Roughy a lot last night, TC a must in.
3. Murph hasn't lost any of his class and poise. The game slows down around him even with the manic way footy is now played.

[G-Mo77]

1. Collingwoods midfield will trouble a lot of teams. Our mids were up against it last night.
2. We missed Roughy a lot last night, TC a must in.
3. Murph hasn't lost any of his class and poise. The game slows down around him even with the manic way footy is now played.

After listening to the presser I took out of it the Bevo wanted to experiment with it. I feel the same as you but he did talk in length about non traditional rucks.

[SlimPickens]

That's fine. What we missed was Roughies marking around the ground. It is too much to expect Boyd to be able to ruck a full game.

[1eyedog]

That's fine. What we missed was Roughies marking around the ground. It is too much to expect Boyd to be able to ruck a full game.

Exactly, it is that tiring for a player his age, size and lack of preseasons that he can barely get off the ground in the second half of each quarter.

[ratsmac]

1. Third man up rule was purely brought in because we were the best at it and we used it well to help win the flag. It hurt us last night.
2. Great teams can play bad and still win. We are a great team.
3. Our defenders are also forwards. Bob forward brought back memories. JJ looked dangerous streaming into our forwardline.

FOOTY'S BACK BABY!!!

[ledge]

1 pies have a great midfield but nothing else. Why they got rid of Cloke is beyond me.
2 We missed Dickson and Roughead tonight.
3 Hunter is great as an outside receiving runner . Not a knock at all, he knows when to run forward, he reads it very well.

[Greystache]

1. We might have to grind out some early wins until we find out best form. I think we can do it.

2. We'll need to do some work to on our stoppages with the new rules. We can't afford to give away midfield advantage to good teams like we did last night.

3. You can sense this team knows it can turn it on and take the game away from the opposition in rapid time.

[comrade]

3. You can sense this team knows it can turn it on and take the game away from the opposition in rapid time.

It's like when Neo finally learns how to control the Matrix.

[Greystache]

It's like when Neo finally learns how to control the Matrix.

It's funny we lamented how we'd control games for long stretches for no scoreboard return under BMac, now we can be outplayed for larges patches and punish the opposition with a brief stint in control.

[Eastdog]

1. 5 wins in a row against Collingwood, something we haven't done since the 50's

2. We won the premiership in 1954 and then won the opening in 1955 against Collingwood. History repeats.

3. Few guys needed the run and will get better.

Regarding point 2 this time will be different :)

[Bullies]

1. Our 'Ins' will be as good as we've hoped for. Murphy, Suckling, Crameri & Cloke all showed good signs first up.
2. Fletcher Roberts is raising his game. Good on him, I've had my doubts, but very good on him.
3. We need to play a first string ruckman, with Boyd helping out.Without the third man up we have no choice but to play a ruckman. We will get killed at the stoppages/centre bounces as we did last night.

[comrade]

It's funny we lamented how we'd control games for long stretches for no scoreboard return under BMac, now we can be outplayed for larges patches and punish the opposition with a brief stint in control.

It was definitely a trend throughout the JLT series & it continued last night. Is it by design or circumstance?

[Daughter of the West]

1. Being in bed sick when your team, the reigning premiers, are playing their first game on the season on a Friday night at the MCG is balls.

2. The TV commentary floating up the stairs all sounds the same until Bruce says "Strrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnggggeeeerrrrr!"

3. Winning is still fun, even if I didn't get to see it.

And bonus

4. The clip of Clokey nailing that goal set to the music of Titanic is hilarious

[Eastdog]

1. Being in bed sick when your team, the reigning premiers, are playing their first game on the season on a Friday night at the MCG is balls.

2. The TV commentary floating up the stairs all sounds the same until Bruce says "Strrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnggggeeeerrrrr!"

3. Winning is still fun, even if I didn't get to see it.

And bonus

4. The clip of Clokey nailing that goal set to the music of Titanic is hilarious

Need to recover quick DOTW for our first home game when we unfurl our premiership flag.

[SonofScray]

It was definitely a trend throughout the JLT series & it continued last night. Is it by design or circumstance?

I think there is something at play here, it is being manufactured to some extent by the way we are rotating players through the midfield and interchange. Feels a bit like ice hockey tactics. For people who don't follow the sport the players have incredibly short stints on the ice in designated lines (3 forwards to a line, and multiple defensive pairs). The top line is usually the most productive and you put them out there knowing that they'll win most head to head battles. Sometimes you hold them back and let the 2nd, 3rd and if you are a Champion team, often a forth line grind down the clock and absorb the pressure of the contest. Keeps your guns fresh, ready to punch when the mismatch gets created by a penalty or poor change up from the opposition.

Adams, Treloar, Sidebottom were the Pies top line last night. They were in the middle almost exclusively.
We rotated so many payers through, I gather it'd be hard to define who was intended to be our top line.

Point being, I think we are carefully managing workloads in game and creating match ups that are favourable to us at certain points.