Notes from the game: 2014 Round 3 Geelong

The Footy Bogan watches Collingwood lose the battle of the cliches.

The game encapsulated

The Pies failed to kick a major in the first quarter. At first, the second quarter was similar. Then Jamie Elliott's early contender for mark of the year brought the fans to their feet. Elliott slotted the shot. Suddenly Collingwood was up and about.

The last two goals of the half were opportunistic. That renowned goal kicker, Toovey picked up the crumbs and kicked perhaps his 16th career goal. Then, with the clock ticking down, Pendlebury snaffled a spill after a boundary throw-in and kicked goalwards from about 35m. His shot failed to make the distance, Cloke failed to take the mark, Elliott pounced on the spillage and kicked truly from the corner of the goal square.

Note that none of these goals (3 of a total of 11) was the result of any system.

Cliches abound

That was the story of the night, the battle of the cliches. For much of the game, Collingwood's disposal was dreadful, players missed targets by hand, handballing to the feet of tall players (Toovey to Grundy), handballing behind the running player (someone to Swan), kicking short to an outnumbered player (Toovey again - in fact, apart from his goal, Toovey had a pretty dirty night). Then there was kicking to Cloke when he was stationary and outnumbered, failing to kill the ball in defence (twice) - and this in our only good quarter (the second). As well as H played, he was sometimes guilty of trying to do too much. Grundy scragged McIntosh in a ruck duel in their F50, giving away a free and goal - really dumb play.

Geelong on the other hand produced cliches of their own: numbers to the ball (in quite frightening proportions, all around the ground; at one point I wanted to stop the game and call for a head count); kick out from defence straight down the guts (successfully); win the centre clearances and get it in to the leading forward quickly (and successfully several times in the last quarter).

Analysis

So why were we in with a sniff with about 5 minutes to play? If we were so bad and they were so good, how come it was so close?

My first observation is something that surprised me: the first time we played the game, we looked much worse than on replay. Clearly, the live game seen without the aid of optical assistance is quite a different spectacle from the televised game. The camera (strictly the director) is selective. Off-the-ball stuff is often not captured for the replay (and often missed by many punters). On TV a player may appear to be alone with plenty of time to make a decision; at the ground, not so much.

So, watching the replay, I was impressed that the players showed a lot of endeavour. It wasn't so obvious at the game. Nevertheless, we lost important statistics: number of tackles, clearances.

But I suspect our major tactic was bringing the opposition down to our level. The generous might argue that that was a result of our pressure. Perhaps. As a result, similar to last week's game, the opposition also made plenty of mistakes - just not as many as we did. They butchered the ball especially in front of goal. Their final tally included 5 more behinds than ours, and more behinds than goals (27 scoring shots to 21). When comparing Behinds Kicked and Rushed Behinds, footywire has Geelong kicking 13 behinds to our 6 - that's some serious inaccuracy. They went inside 50 56 times to our 42.

In fairness, when Geelong were kicking towards us in the stands (Q2, Q4), it was clear that Collingwood's defence stood up pretty well. Our attack on the ball and the ball-carrier was fierce.

A new play?

I've talked about playing to the conditions in the past, eg playing percentage football when conditions are greasy. Last year's Suns game comes to mind.

But last night I think I saw something new. Oh, you've seen it from time to time in the past. But last night, it was like a new tactic, or perhaps an instruction from the coach.

In addition to Geelong getting numbers to the ball, they also maintained a fine line in not taking possession (and getting tackled) but rather tapping it to a free player. Collingwood player's tried to do it from time to time, but mostly without success. Geelong did it more often and I can't recall a time when it failed.

Backtrack

After last week's game, I thought Clinton Young might be the Leon replacement product. Watching him kick in straight to an opposition player (admittedly outside 50), I was much more doubtful. It's now the stuff of folklore that Leon didn't miss a target all year, but even adjusting for apocrypha, that's a long way from landing the ball in an opponent's arms without a single Collingwood player within cooee.

But perhaps not as bad as having the kick-in smothered (Fasolo) - clearly not a cliche since I cannot recall ever having seen it before.

But on the subject of Young, I have to wonder if he's not the natural successor to Simon Buckley - the player we least want with the ball in his hands. Perhaps I'm being unfair. I make allowances for Toovey because he is coming back from a serious injury, and because he has a redoubtable record in black and white. Young is also returning from injury, but he has no Collingwood background to fall back on.

Late in the third quarter, he kicked into F50, over Beams's head. It would take a leap of faith to suggest that he contributed to Sidebottom's subsequent goal.

I have seen one or two amazing kicks by Young, but mostly I don't think he justifies his salary. The brains trust must like him: he was preferred to emergencies Kennedy and Clarke.

Positives

Was there anything to be taken out of the game?

Several players could walk off with their heads high: Elliott (5 goals), White, Harry, Goldsack. Maxwell was outstanding (8 relieving marks). Although his opponent, Hawkins, probably won the match for Geelong in the last quarter, I thought Frost did well. There are some things a defender cannot stop and the blame lies on his own midfield.

Although Collingwood won the clearances, I think Geelong's ball use and directness were better.

Source

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=5780
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