Notes from the game: 2015 Round 13 Fremantle

In a thriller which lost them no friends, the Pies suffer a narrow loss to the ladder leaders.

Team            Q1      Q2      Q3      Q4      Final 
Fremantle       3.2     7.4     9.6     12.8    80
Collingwood     3.4     7.6     9.6     11.7    73 

Pendles and Swan understand each other instinctively as seen late in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Toovey and Varcoe showed the opposite as they muffed a simple handpass at half back, resulting in a forward foray by the Dockers. Isolated examples prove nothing, but I was struck by the fact that, Varcoe, playing his 150th (and generally a pretty good) game got it wrong while later Blair's handpass to De Goey was consummated impeccably.

Early Witts did very well against Fremantle's Goliath (not that Witts is any sort of David). In the ruck, he found front position around the ground and got many hitouts. Later he received a handpass from White after Sandilands spilt a mark; his kick to Fasolo I50 was excellent.

Collingwood held the lead for the majority of the game; it was Fremantle who was constantly playing catch-up. The Pies were far from outclassed.

Fremantle had one successful "play" all night: whenever tackled, they managed to keep their arms above the tackle and were able to handpass almost with impunity. On one occasion at least, it looked like the player chose to move forward into such a tackle with the sole aim of handpassing over his opponent.

Collingwood's enthusiasm for the ball was so powerful, it struck me that there was at times evidence of panic among the Dockers.

The big Subi ground was a tough ask for Witts, who probably would have welcome a hand from Grundy.

Fremantle kicked two goals in the last 4 minutes of the first quarter; and a goal with less than 20 seconds to play in the second quarter to bring the margin back to 2 points. It was that sort of a night.

Around the ground, when the Collingwood ruckmen, mainly Witts but also White, were able to start away from Sandilands and get in front, they got a reasonable number of hitouts; but when they started off too close, Sandilands would push them away. Again (it happened in the GWS game), I thought that was illegal (shepherding in the ruck), but Sandilands (anyone) is going to keep doing it as long as he gets away with it.

Little team failures cost us on several occasions. Adams kicks to Swan in the centre, Pendlebury goes for it but spills it, the moment is lost and the ball goes towards Freo's goal.

On the other hand, old compatriots tended to play more effectively as a team. A little later, Sidebottom's kick on the wing to Swan was, in Dennis's words, centimetre perfect. Several minutes later, it was Sidebottom to Cloke.

Crisp is an exception, a new player who has slotted in as if he's been playing with the others for several seasons.

Collingwood often managed to get the ball to about 70m from goal; the next play was problematic. On this night, it was often a high kick into F50. I have said repeatedly, that a high kick at almost any time is an act of desperation, arguably justifiable when coming out of defence, rarely when a set kick into F50. I don't know what the answer is, but I do recall, in a game a lifetime or so ago, against a heavy Sydney flood, Collingwood was able to move the ball patiently in an arc 70m-80m from goal until an opening appeared: kick, mark, goal.

A stat appeared on the screen supporting this observation; conversions from I50 for Q3: Freo 1.2 from 4; Pies 1.0 from 11.

Paradoxically, when Freo was surging forward, if Collingwood was able to disrupt their play and send the ball back quickly, the forays forward were more fruitful as the Pies were able to penetrate a sparsely populated F50.

With 14 seconds to play in the third quarter, Fremantle kicked a goal. If you think the previous sentence sounds familiar, you're right. Both times it was Walters; he finished with 4 of his team's 12 goals.

I don't say he's a great man... He's not the finest character that ever lived... Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.

- Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller [egregiously out of context]

The teams went into the final break with scores level. I was concerned: Freo had lost the first quarter by 2 points; had drawn the second quarter; and had won the third quarter by 2 points. A simple arithmetic progression. Had White kicked a 20m set-shot near the end of the game (2:32), Freo might have won by about the 4-point expectation (7 points was not much of a discrepancy). But there might just have been enough time for a Magpie win.

Going in, if you'd have offered me level scores at three-quarter time and a 7-point loss, I wouldn't have hesitated. As the game played out, I was left to rue lost opportunities. All night the commentary had suggested that Collingwood had failed to realise on the scoreboard their superiority during the play.

As the game progressed, unsurprisingly, Witts was unable to maintain his performance against Sandilands. Not only do tall players not get any shorter, bulky players get no lighter. Perhaps Cloke in the ruck might have provided some variation and hope. It was not a night that suited him (not his fault). Perhaps he would have served Collingwood better had he played further up the field for most of the game. I suspect only a NicNat or a Paddy Ryder can provide a genuine contest for Sandilands. Perhaps a spare tall of such ilk, used as the sub, could have been brought on in the last quarter. Sandilands wasn't looking all that fresh; the game had taken a toll on him also. Perhaps Mason Cox could have played the role. As a rookie, would he even have been permitted to play?

Even Jesse White's attempts to join Witts around the ground proved impotent.

Some culpability must be put on the midfield and/or the coaching staff. There's another side to Santayana's, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."¹ Call it The Footy Bogan's variation:

Those who cannot learn from their historical successes will fail to reproduce them.

In the days when we could rely on our ruckman to be largely ineffective (Josh Fraser, I believe) the Bogan and his mates used to note how successfully our midfield players were able to shark the hitouts. It might have been a reasonable game plan for this match, at least in the last quarter, especially when we were trying to protect a lead.

In the last quarter, as players tired, errors crept into Collingwood's play. First Varcoe then Elliott, even Crisp and Brown, sent forward thrusts out on the full. (On the Crisp occasion, the umpire demonstrated a failure to grasp the rules, allowing Freo to start play inside the boundary.) Also, Brown, normally reliable, managed to kick to an uncontested opponent. That's a lot of mistakes in a game lost by just 7 points. Remind you of Richmond?

Collingwood refused to lie down. Freo's one-goal lead seemed insurmountable. Then Elliott found the goals on his left from 40. With about 11 minutes to play, sub Seedsman intercepted a rebound from Freo's defence and kicked a goal to put the Pies 5 points up. It was to be our last hurrah; the Dockers kicked the last two goals of the game. Had the quarters been a minute or two shorter, who knows?

Seedsman's goal also demonstrated the difference tiredness makes: he easily covered a distance the kicker judged was too great, then burned off a would-be tackler. Sure, Seedsman is naturally quick, but this seemed unnatural.

In the last quarter, Fremantle showed more discipline in holding up play and protecting their lead than Collingwood had in the previous quarters.

The wrap

It's not fashionable to rejoice in honourable defeats. On the other hand, all year long Buckley has been telling me that he, his coaching team and the players do not look at ladder position. They are looking to develop a process. By that yardstick, Collingwood's game must be accounted a huge success.

Sources, Notes, Footnotes, References

http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6066
http://www.afl.com.au/video/smart-replay

[1] There are many sources for the general sentiments. Ten are listed here: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/doomed-to-repeat-it

What strikes me as odd is that invariably these quotes talk about history as being riddled with mistakes. My personal experience relates to many examples of people failing to understand, or misreading, the factors leading to their successes - and consequently failing to be repeatedly successful.