Saturday 13 May 2017

Notes from the game: 2017 Round 7 Carlton

The Pies come thudding back to earth, losing a milestone game (125th anniversary match against their arch-rivals).



Team            Q1      Q2      Q3      Q4      Final
Collingwood     1.3     3.5     7.6     8.8     56
Carlton         3.4     6.5     11.5    12.7    79 


Less than 3 minutes into Q2, Reid gets a free in his defensive goal square. He looks up and then holds his hands out in that time-honoured gesture that makes clear to one and all that he is thinking who's leading for me? It's a gesture that does not speak of a team basking in the warm glow of unity. It's never a good look; in this case it speaks volumes about where the Magpies are at.

Near the end of Q3, "Almost requiring Benny Hill music," says the announcer summing up Collingwood's woeful performance. The Collingwood players' inept incidents are just too numerous to detail.

Carlton moved the ball with run and purpose, flowing. Collingwood seemed constantly bereft of options, stop-start; when the player finally kicked, it was usually to an opponent. (They should be quite good at that by now: they've been practising it all year. It makes me think of Tootle practising: Stopping for a Red Flag Waving, Staying on the Rails No Matter What, and Kicking to an Opponent.)

Matt really enjoyed Dale Thomas's goal in the last quarter. Watching the replay, for me, it was the play of the day.

"... and he fluffed his lines," says the announcer as Broomhead fumbles an opportunity 20m out.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Less than 7 clock minutes in the game; Collingwood 24 points down and not looking at all likely; Cox runs a bit under the ball (man 1) and the ball falls into Fasolo's arms (even closer to goal if only a bit), 20m out, any angle favouring his preferred foot. Fasolo's stats for set shots this year are execrable, but this takes the cake (man 2): the boundary umpire is required to declare a behind.

Moments later, Elliot, who is probably Collingwood's best forward and has kicked 3 goals, wins a free but sprays another opportunity, this time out on the full (man 3).

Positives?


Positives? What positives? In a game that it would be hard to take seriously, is it possible to find any positives at all?

The Footy Bogan gives it his best shot. Necessarily any positives will be qualified, sometimes quite heavily.

For the first time this year, Collingwood did not kick more points than goals (8.8). Of course the 56 points final total was only one more than this year's lowest, the 55 points against St Kilda.

Collingwood "improved as the game wore on: they lost the quarters by 13, 5, 5, 0.

Disposals were close. Collingwood had marginally more inside 50s and a modest victory in clearances (35-29). However Collingwood "won" the clanger count by (61-50); and achieved so little despite a preponderance of frees (23-16).

Most puzzling, despite the fact that Carlton played some pretty good footy mostly and Collingwood played really dreadful footy mostly with just a few bright spots, somehow the Pies managed to lose by only 23 points; when those two shots were being taken late in the game, the Pies were a slim possibility of snatching the game.


The wrap


Perhaps the last word should go to the game's first (or nearly so). The Carlton banner read:

  • Celebrating 125 years since we first beat you is a bit weird... but... whatever



Sources, Notes, Footnotes, References

http://www.afl.com.au/ladder
http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=9363
http://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/2017/030420170506.html
https://www.triplem.com.au/sport/afl/news/carlton-s-banner-took-a-pop-at-collingwood-s-125-year-anniversary-today

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