RICHMOND 2.2.14 3.8.26 7.12.54 12.14.86
GOALS - Collingwood: Fasolo 6, Grundy 2, Moore, De Goey, Langdon, Cloke, Aish
BEST - Collingwood: Fasolo, Pendlebury, Adams, Treloar, Greenwood, Reid
INJURIES - Collingwood: Nil
REPORTS - Collingwood: Nil
Official crowd: 72,761 at the MCG
| 1. Small forwards reign, but a ruckman steals the show Until the dying seconds of the game, it was the small forwards who lit up the MCG on Friday night. Collingwood goal sneak Alex Fasolo was brilliant in attack, providing the Pies with a much-needed focal point, with spearhead Travis Cloke struggling to find form. Fasolo booted six goals from 14 disposals and six marks. At the opposite end, it was a dream debut for 20-year-old Richmond rookie Jayden Short. He booted a goal with his first kick in AFL football, and was lively up forward all night, finishing the game with three majors. But it was Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy who stole the show. With 20 seconds left on the clock, Darcy Moore took a free kick from a tight angle on the boundary line after the Tigers were pinged for deliberate out-of-bounds. He kicked to the goal square, Grundy plucking the ball out uncontested and snapping truly, with four seconds remaining, to snatch victory from the Tigers' hands. 2. The jury's still out In November last year, Magpies recruit Adam Treloar said he chose to be traded to Collingwood over Richmond, because he thought the Pies had a "better list" capable of winning a premiership in the coming years. His comments added extra spice to Friday night's clash at the MCG with Tigers fans booing him in the opening term. As to the question of who has the "better list"? Well, neither side made a statement on that front. A scrappy first half, littered with turnovers, had many questioning whether either side was close to a premiership. But the Pies found their way, stealing the win and giving Treloar peace of mind, for now, that he made the right decision. 3. Injury carnage With the likes of star midfielder Brett Deledio, recruit Chris Yarran and ruckman Ivan Maric already on the sidelines, the last thing Richmond needed was more injuries. It started at the end of the first quarter with defender Dylan Grimes heading down to the rooms at the break with a hamstring complaint. He re-joined the huddle just before the second term but took no further part in the game. Debutant Short came off mid-way through the second quarter with a shoulder injury but managed to play out the match. Shaun Grigg (ankle) and David Astbury (hand) also received treatment throughout the game. |
4. Rough Tigers As if the night couldn't get worse for Richmond, two Tigers face a nervous wait ahead of Monday's Match Review Panel findings. Jacob Townsend was the first to be reported, for rough conduct against Jackson Ramsay in the opening term. Both players went to ground for the ball with Townsend's shoulder making contact with Ramsay's head. Six minutes later Nick Vlastuin was booked for contacting Taylor Adams high with his elbow. Of the two incidents, Vlastuin's looked worse with the 21-year-old likely to have a case to answer, while Townsend should be in the clear. 5. Ugly banner mars win Outraged footy fans took to social media on Friday night when an offensive banner was erected beneath an MCG scoreboard during the match. Emblazoned on the three-meter sign was, "Go Pies! Stop the Mosques". Security was eventually notified and the responsible patrons evicted but it left a sour taste for many footy fans. Pies president Eddie McGuire said after the game the fans responsible should be banned, while the AFL released a statement condemning the actions. The League said it will continue to work with police and security to discuss the matter further. Collingwood goal sneak Alex Fasolo was brilliant in attack, providing the Pies with a much-needed focal point, with spearhead Travis Cloke struggling to find form. Fasolo booted six goals from 14 disposals and six marks. |
| THE MEDIA | |
|
Collingwood has snatched a thrilling one-point victory from Richmond at the MCG on Friday night, with ruckman Brodie Grundy snapping the winning goal with just four seconds remaining. The Magpies had looked dead and buried with 15 minutes to play, but came to life to kick four of the last five goals of the game to notch a memorable 13.9 (87) to 12.14 (86) win. Small forward Alex Fasolo was the star for the Magpies, kicking three of his six goals in the fourth quarter, while recruit Adam Treloar played a heroic role in the match-winning play. Treloar, who was booed all night by the Tigers supporters, burst from the centre with seconds remaining to pump the ball inside 50, setting up the final play after Nick Vlastuin was penalised for a deliberate out of bounds. Darcy Moore took the resulting free and put the ball to the top of the square, with Grundy crumbing and snapping the goal, which saw the MCG crowd erupt. The final term was the only quarter Nathan Buckley's team has won out of eight this season, but it was enough to provide a much-needed victory after a tumultuous start to the year. After a first half that will take some beating this season for sheer ugliness and inefficiency, both teams got down to business and delivered a classic ending. Star Tiger Jack Riewoldt stood up for his team and looked to have played a match-winning hand with three fourth-quarter goals. But as had been the story all night, skill errors and poor decisions left the door slightly ajar for the Magpies to pounce. To rub salt into the wound, the Tigers will also have to deal with fresh injuries to Dylan Grimes (hamstring) and Shaun Grigg (rolled ankle), and a possible stint on the sidelines for Nick Vlastuin, who was reported for a high hit on Taylor Adams. The first half of Friday's primetime clash saw both team's at their worst – butchering the ball in general play, missing opportunities in front of goal and making bizarre decisions under pressure. Their combined disposal efficiency of 74 per cent didn't do justice to the poor skills on display, with errors at critical times preventing the contest from having any flow. With the team's combining for just six goals across the first two quarters, the bumper crowd of 72,761 had to look elsewhere for highlights. There was debutant Jayden Short, who stood under the ball courageously to mark and kick his first goal with his first kick in the AFL. Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury was also a class above at times, not wasting a single one of his 16 first half possessions working across half-back (he finished with 26). Bachar Houli was doing the same at the other end and entered half-time with 20 possessions. But for all their control in the second quarter – they had 108 possessions to 71 – the Tigers didn't take their chances, kicking 1.6 and taking a five-point lead into the main break. Hardwick will no doubt rue that his team couldn't put the Magpies away when they had their chance, leaving Richmond with a 1-1 record and yet to produce a creditable performance. First it was the game neither side dared to lose after underwhelming performances in round one, and it showed; the jitters were killing. Then it was the game neither side could win. It was the match Richmond frittered away, then won anyway, and then lost. It was the match Collingwood lost and then stole, and there was unbridled rejoicing in Magpie heaven, as ever for repentant sinners. In the cold light of Saturday, both sides will still wonder at what happened. Winning needs no explanation, which was as well, because there really wasn't one. Losing has no alibi, and don't the Tigers know it. "Admirable," said Nathan Buckley, trying to balance euphoria with relief. Somehow, the Magpies had ground out victory, he said, but he was not in the business of celebrating grinding wins. "We're so far from where we want to be." But at least they are less distant than they were with five minutes to play in this match, and a whole lot closer than where they were in Sydney last week. In truth, this whole night was an accident waiting to happen, or more correctly two of them, one happy, one not. In round one, Richmond had been unconvincing and Collingwood unseen. The Tigers needed a big win, and all but got one, and the Magpies any sort of win, which, at length, was what they got. Happiness is as happiness does. The first half of this game was littered with intercepts, fumbles and misses as both teams tried too hard. "I don't think either side played particularly well," said Buckley later. "We gave them a chance, they gave us a chance." When at last they settled, Richmond dominated the clearances and had the preponderance of possession and shots at goal, which should have told and did tell and then suddenly didn't. Collingwood shaded the Tigers for inside 50s, but in the final tally, only the last mattered. But how! It was a chaotic game, full of oddities, so the improbable finish should not have surprised really. Scott Pendlebury played much of the second half in the backline, perhaps to nurse a knock, perhaps to try to bring a bit of precision to that area of the ground for the Mapgies; coach Buckley was cagey. Once, he also overran the ball, as commonly seen as Halley's comet, yielding a goal. A first-gamer, Jayden Short, kicked three goals for the Tigers. Jack Riewoldt kicked three, but all in the last quarter, and they looked to be decisive. Travis Cloke played better, but kicked only one, on his right foot, if you don't mind. Alex Fasolo kicked three, which suddenly became five. And all night long, Adam Treloar was booed because he wasn't playing for a club he had never played for. With 32 touches, that added up to a lot of booing. The finish, like the match, was all crossed wires and happenstance. Nick Vlastuin was penalised for handballing out of bounds deliberately; it woudn't have been a free kick last year. Nineteen seconds remained. In the box, Buckley thought to himself that if Darcy Moore kicked to the top of the goal square, where Richmond waited in numbers, the Magpies would not score. Moore kicked to the top of the square. The Tigers were on the lookout for a high-flying Collingwood six-footer. They mislaid a 203-centimetre ruckman, and so it was that Brodie Grundy gathered the crumbs and kicked the winning goal. Coaches try to shape patterns out of chaos, but sometimes can only watch as patterns dissolve into chaos. For all the untidiness of this game in parts, Buckley was delighted with the Magpies' cool in the dying seconds, which, as it turned, out were the reborn seconds. "To be honest, the way we moved the ball in the last five minutes was the way we wanted to move it in the first five minutes," he said. For Damien Hardwick, the opposite held. He could only wring his hands as drills sharpened in many close games these last two or three seasons suddenly fell apart, perhaps because this wasn't really a close game until suddenly it was. "We played unintelligent footy towards the end," he said. Nonetheless, for the Tigers, this must have felt like the last practical joke of Aprils Fool's Day, and that the Magpies were the Joker. "The growth in 'Fas' (Alex Fasolo) personally, has seen the growth in his footy." |
THE date line seemed strangely appropriate, but at least Collingwood could see the funny side to last night's remarkable come-from-behind one-point win over Richmond. For three quarters, this match was not much better than a poorly delivered April Fool's Day joke, littered with errors and errant kicking, with each side seemingly trying to outdo the other in terms of mistakes. But in an extraordinary finish to a very ordinary game, Magpies big man Brodie Grundy was able to steal victory from the jaws of defeat, kicking the matchwinning goal of the game with only four seconds left. Collingwood looked beaten when it trailed by 17 points 20 minutes into the final term after Jack Riewoldt kicked his third goal of the term, but somehow Nathan Buckley's men were able to get themselves off the canvas. Alex Fasolo kicked goals at the 23-minute-mark and the 28-minute-mark of the last term, with those two majors taking him to a career-best six for the game. Yet as the Tigers edged the ball out of defence and with time ticking away, it seemed as the Magpies were still destined for a 0-2 start to the season for the first time since 2005. But a deliberate out of bounds decision against the Tigers left the door ajar almost as much as Richmond's woeful inability to close out a game it seemingly had in its grasp. With 19 seconds left, Darcy Moore drove the ball into the goal-square and Grundy flew for the ball, lost it, then gained it back. His snap for goal provided their first win of the season — a lifeline after such a poor performance against Sydney last week. It was hardly a win for the ages, but it might be something that they can build a season on, and the performance of Fasolo, the hardworking efforts of boom recruit Adam Treloar and Scott Pendlebury and a much better showing from the forward line, including a better effort from Travis Cloke, was encouraging. It's far too early to decide whether Treloar made the right call last year when he chose black and white over yellow and black, but he would have been pretty satisfied last night. Never mind the boos, never mind the abuse that the Richmond supporters gave him. He showed last night the sort of grit to close out what president Eddie McGuire labelled a "week from hell" for the club. Fasolo was extraordinary, and five of his six goals came in the second half. He took every opportunity that was presented to him and it was arguably his most important game for the club. Six days ago, he went head first into the SCG turf. Last night he flew without fear and finished with 6.0, not leaving out the four scoring assists he provided as well. Importantly, at the other end, Ben Reid showed just how important he is to the structure of the Magpies' team. The celebrations of the Collingwood players contrasted with the body language of the Richmond group who slumped to the ground, realising what a massive opportunity they had given up. Time and again the Tigers looked as if they would had this game in their keepings, but that will mean nothing to Damien Hardwick who deserves to be furious with both the misses early — including 1.6 in the second term — and their lack of poise under pressure. They conceded 70 points from turnovers and led for 71 minutes. Collingwood had the scoreboard lead for 28 minutes but importantly had it at the end. Trent Cotchin tried his hardest with 38 touches, Bachar Houli had 35 and Dustin Martin produced a strong second half, taking his tally to 30. But too much was left to too few. And Collingwood somehow conjured the miracle near the end that it so desperately needed. Now with games against St Kilda, Melbourne and Essendon to come, the Magpies have a chance to launch a season that looked like careering out of control at stages of last night. A CHANGE in attitude towards the end of last season has breathed new life into the career of Collingwood goalsneak Alex Fasolo. The 23-year-old stole the show in the Magpies' thrilling one-point win over Richmond on Friday night at the MCG. In a career-best performance, Fasolo wowed the crowd, kicking six goals for the match, including two crucial majors in the dying minutes of the game to give Collingwood a chance to snatch victory. With key forward Travis Cloke desperately trying to find some form, and youngster Darcy Moore well held, Fasolo shouldered the load in attack. From his 14 disposals and six marks, he not only kicked six straight goals but also had four goal assists. After a slow start to last season and some frank conversations with the coach, Fasolo was sent back to the VFL for five weeks to work on not only his game, but his mindset. He regained his place in the senior side in round eight against Gold Coast but it wasn't until the back end of the season that Collingwood started seeing an improvement in the small forward. Coach Nathan Buckley said it took "courage" for Fasolo to change his attitude to football and said he had since become a better teammate. "The growth in 'Fas' personally, has seen the growth in his footy," Buckley said after the win. "He adjusted his attitude a little bit towards footy, and where he fits at the footy club, and it's just brought him to another level. It's good to see him get the rewards tonight. "He's a better teammate than he's been before. He's more invested in what's going on around him than he has before and that's a significant shift. "All credit to him because it takes courage to do that and he's given himself a chance to find out where he can go with his footy career, let alone changing his perspective on the rest of his life." Fasolo was crucial to the Magpies' come-from-behind win over the Tigers. "I really enjoyed the opportunity down there tonight," the small forward told Channel Seven after the game. "I rely on our midfield who did a great job tonight, they move the ball so well and that helped me. "We play for each other and we don't mind who's kicking the big ones. Tonight it was me, and it was good to be a part of." The Pies snatched the four-points in the dying seconds of the match when Moore received a free kick from a deliberate out-of-bounds decision. On a tight angle on the boundary, the young forward kicked to the top of the goalsquare where ruckman Brodie Grundy took possession and snapped truly to take a one-point lead with just four seconds remaining. When asked what was going through his mind in the final 20 seconds, Buckley joked, "that we probably won't score if we kick it to the top of the goal square." The coach refused to concede the Pies stole the win but said there was plenty of improvement for the Magpies ahead of next Saturday's game against St Kilda. "The last five minutes… the leadership, communication and organisation on the field was really strong," Buckley said. "We were able to put bodies in the right places at the right time. We pressed the button on being more aggressive. To be honest, the way we moved the ball in the last five minutes is what we want to see in the first five minutes. There's plenty of learning in that for us." |
No comments :
Post a Comment