Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final Richmond Tigers 1.2 9.5 12.6 16.9 105 Collingwood Magpies 4.4 7.5 12.7 15.10 100
Q1, 4:30 left on the countdown clock, Collingwood has just kicked its 4th unanswered goal. In the stands, someone remarks that Richmond could go through the game without scoring. We all agree and even feel a little sorry for Richmond, so complete is Collingwood's domination. To some extent we've gone to school on Geelong and are repeating in cameo their first quarter performance last week. Fittingly, the notable similarity is that this week we have unattended players in F50 queuing up to receive and goal.
Where did it go wrong?
Less than 2 minutes later, White snaps from about 25 out in the pocket - and misses. His is not the only miss of the first quarter, but one is tempted to contemplate these in the light of a 5-point loss.
And then, less than 30 seconds later, Collingwood commit their first genuine clanger: Vickery mark and goal.
From the restart, a long kick by Witts is marked 15 out, almost directly in front by White. But White has been going to school on Cloke and he misses the gimme. (Recall that we lost by 5 points.)
It took the Tigers 12 seconds to kick the first goal of the second quarter. Suddenly Collingwood's Q1 domination was represented by a modest 14-point lead.
And now it was Richmond who had numbers free in F50. Even when one of their players failed to notice an opponent who tackled, another contrived to kick the next goal with more than 18 minutes left on the clock. Around then, Collingwood lost Toovey.
Q2, 14:30 left on the countdown clock, Richmond has just kicked its 6th unanswered goal (including the last of the 1st quarter). What's happened? Once again, I lament the fact that the Pies seem unable to stem an opposition run-on. Who is there to feel sorry for us?
Finally, White manages to find the main opening. Within a minute, Cloke had kicked one of his trademark goals: 55 out on the the wrong side: never looked like missing.
Elliott snapped the next one to put Collingwood 8 points up (and the majority of the quarter yet to be played). Elliott soon marked in F50 and lined up for a gettable set shot which went wide; but the Tigers answered with the next 3 to make it 8 for the quarter.
The Tigers went on to kick the first two of the third quarter, giving them a second batch of five unanswered goals, and a 24-point lead.
All through the periods when Richmond was in the ascendancy, Collingwood's pressure was almost non-existent. Very few tackles stuck. The Richmond player was able to handball or, in the case of Dustin Martin who had one arm held, drop the ball onto his boot for a short pass, kick, mark (Riewoldt) and goal. Often the Pies gave away really silly an unnecessary frees. Offensively, they managed to work themselves into trouble. Goldsack intercepted a bad kick by Cotchin; several handballs later the Pies had made no forward progress and conceded a throw-in.
As seemed to be the pattern for the day, Collingwood grafted the next four goals to regain the lead by two points. However, the Pies might have been a bit worse than the score suggests: they had benefited from several Richmond turnovers. Not to be outdone, Collingwood found ways to butcher the ball.
And then Richmond scored through Cotchin; but Swan produced a quick reply.
With 25 seconds left, Collingwood holding a 1-point lead, Grundy marked about 15m out on an angle (about 45 degrees). He went back for his kick, but chose to pass across goal to Seedsman further out, but perhaps on a better angle. And you would normally expect a much better kick. Seedsman did not trouble the scorers. (Recall that we lost by 5 points.)
Early in the final quarter, Crisp performed a little magic and got the ball to Cloke, 30 out, slight angle. Cloke had kicked 3 straight, all difficult shots, but this regulation goal was beyond him. (Recall that we lost by 5 points.)
Following the pattern of the game, Richmond got two goals in a row from Deledio, the Pies kicked the next two, the Tiges got the next two and hung on to an 11 point lead until Witts kicked a goal on the siren.
Impressions
I thought many of our players lacked intensity. Grundy was good maintaining his enthusiasm for the ball and the contest. I think Cloke was also up and about. But at times, there were players who just didn't have much appetite. And, every now and then, perhaps most notably as they tired in the last quarter, players tried to do too much and lost the plot.
You can teach skills and game plans, but how do you influence intensity? How do you instill in players (mainly defenders) the mental discipline to maintain touch with their opponents?
And how do you generate synergy?
Grundy watch
A few weeks ago, the Bogan suggested that Grundy practice timing his leap at centre bounces. TFB is gratified to notice that Grundy has heeded his advice and now meets the ball at his (Grundy's) highest point more often.
Brodie, if you're still reading, consider my next suggestion. Baby steps. At the moment, you are palming the ball directly downwards. Sure, one of your rovers (Swan, Pendles) is there to receive; but so also is the corresponding opponent. Lose the subtlety. Take a leaf out of Clark Keating's book: just bash the ball as hard and as far towards your goal as possible.
Later, as you get better at the leap and the timing, and outreach your opposing ruckman by 20cm or more, you can return to emulating the awesome team play of NicNat and Priddis or one of the other West Coast rovers. You seem better able to do something like that around the ground, just not at centre bounces. Yet.
Keep up the good work.
The wrap
It wasn't a bad game. Hell, despite the clangers by both teams, it was a good game. This game showed how much improvement Collingwood needs to be competitive with good teams. Although Richmond were awesome in the first part of the second quarter, they seem, like Collingwood, to have trouble maintaining consistency.
Sources, Notes, Footnotes, References
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6025http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-match-centre/afl-live-richmond-v-collingwood-20150517-gh3hpt.html
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