Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final GWS 7.2 9.4 11.7 14.9 93 Collingwood 3.2 12.4 18.7 19.11 125
The game
It's clear that Collingwood brought its "A" game from the beginning. Grundy got a clean palm out at the first bounce. Unfortunately it went to the opponents. Reid marked the kick. After taking a mark, Sidebottom elected to take on his opponent, started a give-and-go handpass sequence. Once again, this positive play broke down when his kick was marked by the opposition.
The ball left our F50, but soon returned after a gallant dash through the midfield by Sinclair. His kick in the direction of Cloke and Moore was not marked, but the subsequent pressure by the big blokes resulted in Varcoe kicking Collingwood's first goal in just over a minute.
GWS fought back, playing some impressive football; they kicked the next 4 goals. Collingwood also impressed, but by the end of Q1, the Giants led 7 goals to 3 and it looked like Collingwood's spark would be extinguished. Sadly, The Footy Bogan has come to expect disappointment. He elected to take advantage of the the unseasonal sunshine to catch up on some much-needed spraying of stone-fruit trees. Imagine his surprise to discover on his return that the Pies had recorded probably their best quarter for the year, a quarter in which they kicked 9 goals to 2 in a performance reminiscent of the first quarter against Geelong.
Collingwood was on the attack from the start of the third quarter. After a few impotent forward forays, Sinclair found the ball in the centre square, ran to 50 and goaled after exactly a minute of Q3 clock time. The Pies went on to win the third quarter, 6 goals to 2, then hung on in the last quarter to record a 32-point victory over a team that could have gone to second on the ladder had they won.
Positives
- Grundy 28 disposals, 28 hit outs against a tough opponent.
- Sinclair
- White
- Brent Macaffer - was given a negating forward role on Shaw who had 20 disposals - but Macaffer, playing only his third game for the year, kicked one of his delightful trademark something-out-of-nothing goals.
- One of the indicators of good play is that you occasionally get to kick goals when your man receives running back towards an unguarded goal - like when White kicked the Pies' third goal of Q2.
- When Collingwood is laying badly (most of this year), they rarely play on after a mark. Confused and puzzled by the game plan, they look around with no idea what to do next. The umpire tells the player to move the ball on. His choices are to kick to a contest along the boundary as far he can; or to drive the fans to distraction by kicking backwards. Today they threw caution to the wind, played on with confidence and usually found a team mate in a better position.
Negatives
- Even in glorious victory, Collingwood was far from perfect. You could argue that that's a positive: we have room to improve. The negative is that both behinds recorded for the Pies in Q2 were regulation gettable shots. Last week Collingwood kicked 8 goals against Carlton - for the match. In this game, they kicked 9 for the quarter; should've been 11.
- Collingwood players kept slipping over. Is there no one to crack the whip and insist that they wear boots with long stops?
- Cloke is still a dreadful shot for goal. Why can not one of the smalls do a Milne? Even when Riewoldt took a mark in a position from which he could probably slot it, he'd give off to Milne if the opportunity arose.
The wrap
We can enjoy this unexpected basking in the sun (or basking in the unexpected sun), but for this year it is all too late. I guess if Collingwood continues to play well for the rest of the year, there may be room for optimism for next year. But, lest we be accused of getting ahead of ourselves, the Pies need to show, not that they can string wins together (often against lowly opponents), but that they can string many games of good footy together.
Sources, Notes, Footnotes, References
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=6300
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