No team is immortal

So many people had already penciled in Richmond for the 2018 Premiership but it was not to be. Collingwood were absolutely outstanding on Friday night and I donโ€™t know if the Tigers were complacent, they werenโ€™t hungry enough or if it had something to do with playing one game in three weeks, but Collingwood blew them out of the water and nobody saw it coming. Not even their supporters. The Tiger dynasty was short-lived but it was still impressive. Do they have what it takes to get back up to the pinnacle next season? Only time will tell.

Collingwood are definitely the real deal

I think we can safely say that Collingwood are the real deal now and they have peaked at the right time. Everything seems to have clicked and what theyโ€™re doing this finals series is exactly like Richmond last year and the Bulldogs the year before. Imagine saying to someone at the end of last year that 12 months later Collingwood would be going into the Grand Final as favourites. Nathan Buckley has got to be the coach of the year.

Dustin Martin should not have played on Saturday night

Richmond said Dusty was carrying nothing more than a corky going into the game on Friday night but that must have been some hell of a corky because he was horrendous. Itโ€™s hard to say whether or not another player coming in for him would have had more of an impact, but I donโ€™t think they could have had any less of an impact on the game than Dusty did.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 21: Dustin Martin of the Tigers in action during the 2018 AFL First Preliminary Final match between the Richmond Tigers and the Collingwood Magpies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 21, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)

The Demons didnโ€™t make the trip to Perth

Donโ€™t be disheartened Demon fans, they played an unreal finals series, but they just didnโ€™t get up for the game in Perth. The players they needed to stand up, Jordan Lewis in particular, went missing. It happens, and they will no doubt learn from the experience and come back bigger and better next year and have a good crack at the flag.

The age-old Grand Final venue debate will be the talking point of the week

Almost since the second the siren went at Optus Stadium on Saturday, Eagles fans were complaining about having to play at the MCG next week despite West Coast finishing higher on the ladder than Collingwood. It happens every time an interstate team who finishes highest on the ladder makes the Grand Final but could you ever imagine it played anywhere else but the MCG? It would just be wrong.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Couldnโ€™t feature the eagles at all and how they pulled apart a melb team that pulled apart a Geelong team? And how good year they had? And surely Adam Simpson should be considered for coach of the year considering everyone in the footy world couldnโ€™t see them making the top 8 this year, Only comment on our whinging fans? Buckley has been poor at best at getting the most out of his team until this year!

  2. What a load of crap whinging about playing collingwood at the MCG please
    We smashed collingwood last time we played at the MCG and Nic nat went down with a knee injury in the first quarter takimg away a rotation early
    We have then followed up to beat collingwood again in the final
    Which collingwood fans comprehensively cried about having to leave melbounre and the whole saga of venues needed changing and schedules

    Further more not once has anything decent been said about west coast all year from victoria

    So believe me when i tell you the whole of Australia outside of victoria are hoping collingwood get flogged

    Its No longer the VFL its the AFL now the surrounding teams pulled the VFL out of the gutters a long time ago so start respecting that imstwad of being so 1 eyed and living in the past

  4. That is probably not the biggest load of tripe that I have read lately but it is in contention. Unfortunately it is totally representative of what has been presented as reporting over this entire season by the so-called experts from Victoria. The only people to have given any credit to what the Eagles have achieved this year have been Gerard Healy and David King. The rest of the “experts” have, without fail, lined up to laud the magnificent job that Buckley has done and proclaim time and again how the Eagles will fail when the challenge has been presented. Just listen to Wilson, Niall & crew on their podcast. Or Ben Dixon and his motley crew on their betcast. If Dixon is not the worst judge ever presented as an “expert” he is certainly in the conversation.
    And as for this contention that Eagles fans were whinging as soon as the siren sounded! Come on! Who? When? Where? This is just more un-researched tripe parading as journalism. We have long come to terms with the fact that GFs are played at the MCG. We have long come to terms with being whacked unmercifully for airfares whenever we want to attend big games in Melbourne (as opposed to the bleating Melbourne fans who wanted a Royal Commission into ticket gouging when they had to travel just once). We have long come to terms with being unheralded and under-rated when it comes to the pathetic Victorian press.
    The reality is that we don’t rate many of you “journalists” because you are mostly just glorified fanbois.

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