Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final Richmond 2.4 3.5 9.8 14.15 99 Collingwood 2.4 4.9 7.13 11.14 80
The game
For the second week, Collingwood brought deficiencies to the game. Last week, it was no glue; this week no run, no purpose, lots of fumbling - and shocking inaccuracy (but that's a long-standing trait).
Some examples of the failings. Five minutes into Q2, Fasolo marks 65 out. You'd think that the pressure would be on Richmond, but, no, somehow the pressure is on the Pies. With Collingwood strangely static, no one offers him anything; without any creativity of his own, he dithers, finally selecting to kick in vague hope towards an attended teammate. The mark is intercepted by another opponent.
A minute later, Fasolo takes possession on the wing. He's much more decisive and purposeful as he takes a bounce, then runs his full measure and kicks directly to Rance at least 30m in the clear. "Rance just read that beautifully," says a clearly overpaid commentator (Ling?). And then, to mask his ineptitude, he repeats the comment, subtly altering the order of some of the words. Twice as much drivel for the same price.
With 5 minutes left, Fasolo is in the action again. He spoils an unattended teammate, fails to hold the mark, dithers again and is caught holding the ball by Rance.
Soon after, the commentators spend several sentences eulogising Sidebottom - who's just kicked into the post! Sure, he's a great player, but the praise would sound more convincing if he'd goaled from 25m.
Moore has been struggling. He was pretty accurate last year. Today, after taking an uncontested mark 35 out, he misses.
What happened to time-wasting? Under strong pressure, Moore takes a terrific mark at 45. The ball drops to the ground as the players collide. The umpire has blown his whistle and signalled a mark. The Richmond player picks up the ball preventing Moore from taking possession. The umpire is a metre away as the Richmond player lets the ball drop to ground. That used to be a 50m penalty. For the second time in the quarter, Moore butchers his shot.
Lots of fumbling: repeatedly Collingwood players fail to land 3m handpasses.
All the errors in one play - a static F50, indecision, failures of judgement and execution: Hoskin-Elliott (generally a very good player) marks outside F50 on the outer side of the ground. He has various opportunities to square the ball to true CHF. It's not clear what he decides because the result is so abysmal. I think he was trying to pass to Schade in the very centre; the ball hits the wrong part of his foot and wobbles, ironically, to CHF, which is now crowded. Caddy marks unopposed; the subsequent forward sweep results in a goal to Cotchin. (To his credit, Hoskin-Elliott has followed up and it is him we see forlornly and desperately trying to intercept the ball as it is swallowed by the goal mouth; Hoskin-Elliott crashes into the fence.)
I don't care too much about Richmond's problems, but here's a little stat that comes up on the screen:
Scores from SET SHOTS
SET SHOTS SCORE
Richmond 5 (0.2)
Collingwood 7 (0.5)
Hardly an endorsement for kicking skills, but it must be a little gratifying to learn that we are outdoing Richmond in one statistic.
Meanwhile, back at the game, halfway through Q2, Fasolo crumbs at about 30 - and misses the snap. Again. 2.9-3.4 Buckley is losing hair by the minute.
Treloar marks on the flank, just inside 50, runs to 35 - and misses everything. More hair loss. A little later, Pendlebury snaps from about the same place (but on his wrong foot) and also misses everything. Finally, with less than 2 minutes in the half, Moore takes possession in about the same spot, but with much more clear air, runs in and kicks a goal. The teams have kicked a combine 6.13. Mayne goals after the siren so when play stops this moves to 7.14 for the half. Collingwood have played unwatchable football. This is the half that Richmond coach Hardwick, mixing metaphors and technology, has described as, "We certainly won't be rushing to the video store to get that first half on tape."1
A sign of malaise or ...? Perhaps from the can't-take-a-trick department: 7 minutes into Q3, after a Riewoldt goal, the umpire's bounce is badly off and heads towards Grundy completely unopposed. We know it's going to be recalled, but is it a sign that Grundy's tap goes directly to a Richmond player. If your ruckman can't tap to advantage when his opponent is 10m away, what hope do you have?
Jesse White kicked a goal from a free near the the start of Q3; then Treloar missed a regulation goal; after which Richmond kicked 6 goals to 2 to go into the break ahead by 7 points. The Tigers kicked the first 2 majors of Q4 by which time the game had slipped away from Collingwood, even though Hoskin-Elliott bobbed up with three goals for the quarter.
Musings
I don't understand what's happened to Collingwood's defence. They have Reid as the only genuine tall defender. It seems only yesterday, they were so spoilt for choice they used to let Reid float forward (something I'm sure Moore would welcome these days). They let Brown slip; Tarrant is long gone; Keeffe hasn't been seen. They have an unknown 23-year-old kid playing his 22nd game (Schade). And Goldsack is playing on Riewoldt. Now, I am a big fan of Goldsack, but he's not a key defender; he's more of a Nick Maxwell. Yes, he did a pretty good job on Riewoldt for three quarters, but ...
I think Howe is outstanding - and perhaps the only reason to keep me coming to games when much of the time Collingwood plays unwatchable footy. Even if he makes no contribution to the team, he reliably produces several candidates for mark of the match, mark of the round and mark of the year. If there were a little more substance to Collingwood's defence, Howe could be an X factor to spice up the forward line.
Keeffe in defence could provide some ruck support without robbing a forward line enfeebled by the loss of Cloke (and, in this match, Cox). And there's another line in trouble. Oh how the mighty have fallen! Gone are the days of Cloke, Dawes and it doesn't matter who the third tall forward is - or even if there is a third tall forward. It makes me weep when I think about the dynasty that might have been. In the off season, I watched 2011. What a team! But I digress.
The wrap
There are various reasons why the fans come to the footy. Early in the year, hope is probably the dominating motivation: the teams have not yet experienced failure (eg for the first round). As the losses mount, the fans look for other reasons. This supporter is down to two: loyalty and the prospect of more excitement from The Howe Show.
Sources, Notes, Footnotes, References
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=9316
[1] I actually heard him on the radio. Quoted in http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richmond-highflyer-ben-griffiths-upanddown-night-against-collingwood-20170330-gvaj2i.html
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/2017/041420170330.html
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