Round 2: Collingwood 117 Carlton 100

THE FACTS

COLLINGWOOD   3.3    5.5    10.10    17.15.117
CARLTON             3.0    7.3     12.8     15.10.100

SCORERS
Collingwood: Elliott (5.1), Blair (2.0), Pendlebury (2.0), Sinclair (2.0), Shaw (1.3), Goldsack (1.2), Dwyer (1.1), Clarke (1.0), Sidebottom (1.0), Swan (1.0), Cloke (0.2), Macaffer (0.1)

BEST
Collingwood: Lynch, Elliot, Shaw, Clarke, Dwyer, O'Brien

INJURIES
Collingwood: Jolly (ribs)

SUBSTITUTES
Collingwood: Darren Jolly subbed out for Paul Seedsman in the second quarter

REPORTS: Nil

OFFICIAL CROWD: 84,247 at the MCG

THE MEDIA
COLLINGWOOD NEWS A spirited Collingwood has overcome injury for the second straight round to notch a thrilling comeback win over Carlton and keep former Magpies coach Mick Malthouse winless at his new club. Small forward Jamie Elliott kicked five goals, including two in the last term, as the Magpies stormed back from 10 points down at the last change to win 17.15 (117) to 15.10 (100) in front of a crowd of 84,247. As well as his own contribution on the scoreboard, Elliott dished a handball to Steele Sidebottom that set up the sealer with less than a minute to play, with Scott Pendlebury ramming home another major in the final seconds. The Magpies had seemed in big trouble early as Carlton's Andrew Walker kicked the first three goals of the match and Collingwood ruckman Darren Jolly went down with a rib injury in the opening minutes. Jolly returned briefly to the field at the start of the second quarter but was soon subbed out, meaning key forward recruit Quinten Lynch had to spend most of the day in the ruck. He was thrashed in the hitouts by Carlton's Matthew Kreuzer but worked valiantly at ground level, picking up 24 disposals and six clearances. It also meant Travis Cloke, who was kept goal-less by Michael Jamison, had to play largely a lone hand as a marking target in attack. But with Cloke failing to fire, Elliott stepped into the breach beautifully while small midfielder Jarryd Blair also chipped in with two goals. As in last year's two clashes between these sides, Carlton's small forwards were very dangerous and looked set to prove match winners, with Chris Yarran and Jeff Garlett kicking three goals each. Together with Walker's early haul and strong midfield showings by Marc Murphy and Chris Judd, it was enough to help Carlton lead for most of the day. But goals to Magpies Ben Sinclair, Elliott and Blair in the first eight minutes of the last term gave Collingwood a 10-point lead. And despite Garlett responding with a sensational snap from outside 50m to narrow the gap to less than a kick, they never gave up the lead. Heath Shaw, Dane Swan, Sidebottom, Pendlebury and recruit Sam Dwyer were all important midfield contributors for the Magpies. Lynch He wasn't recruited as a ruckman but Quinten Lynch's performance as the sole Collingwood big man was "huge" in the Magpies' 17-point win over Carlton at the MCG on Sunday, says coach Nathan Buckley. Lynch had to take on Blues' big man Matthew Kreuzer for nearly the entire game after the Pies lost Darren Jolly to a cracked rib in the second quarter. Jolly suffered the injury in a rucking contest with Kreuzer in the opening three minutes of the game and spent the first quarter trying to overcome it. But, a duel with the big Blue on the boundary shortly after the start of the second term saw Jolly double over in pain and be substituted out, before going to hospital at half time. "Quinten was huge to be able to work as basically the sole ruckman through the last three and a half quarters of the match," Buckley said. "We didn't recruit him for that but he was fantastic and showed a lot of guts, and I thought the players as a whole in the last quarter when the game was on the line wanted to win the game, which was more than encouraging." Buckley is unsure how long Jolly will be sidelined for but the feeling within the club is that the two-time premiership ruckman has cracked just the one rib. The Collingwood coach said Lynch did what he needed to do with 19 hitouts and six clearances, plus seven inside 50s, after Jolly's injury threw their structure out. "We're not expecting him to be a 90 per cent game time ruckman, but best laid plans can go awry and the fact was that all of our players had to make adjustments to the flow of the game, to the demands of the game," he said. "You wouldn't have thought when you woke up this morning it was going to be wet but it was. "That's what footy throws at you - plenty of questions and you've got to find the answers. "Q in particular was great and I thought the balance of our list did what they had to do." Second year forward Jamie Elliot stood up as the Pies' leading goal kicker, in a side that is still missing Alan Didak, Dayne Beams, Alex Fasolo and Dale Thomas. Buckley said the 20-year-old was making the most of his opportunities with his five-goal bag. "Jamie's had a breakout game last year when he's had 10 forward 50 tackles against Freo midway through the season and we saw his defensive pressure," he said. "We've seen his marking ability and this is the first game where he's hit the scoreboard and taken most of his chances. "You put all those little bits together and he's a dangerous proposition for us."	REAL FOOTY Mick and the Magpies never did cross paths at the MCG on Sunday. Before the game, while supervising Carlton's warm-up, Mick Malthouse spared the Collingwood players not even a backward glance as they jogged by. Counterpart and former collaborator Nathan Buckley steered a diplomatically wide berth. After the game, both Malthouse and Buckley made themselves publicly scarce, neither wanting to make a scene or steal one. Tacitly, they reaffirmed their constant message, that Collingwood versus Carlton will always be bigger than any two men. Their sides crossed paths; oh yes, they did. With no beg pardons, nor "after yous", at last they played a blockbuster that busted the block. Collingwood won it with a seven goals to three last quarter, the epic way to triumph. Specifically, diminutive Jamie Elliott won it with five goals, plus a handball to Steele Sidebottom for the clincher, and so claimed a place in the folklore of this rivalry that will be remembered when the Malthouse-versus-the-Magpies meme is long forgotten. This damp and at times apocalyptic evening became the day of the small forward, exploiting the hither and slither. All but three of the Magpies' goals were kicked by players shorter than 185cm; the lumberers had no impact. Equally, Chris Yarran and Jeff Garlett had looked likely to win it off their own low-slung boots for the Blues, until Collingwood's withering last quarter burst. You could argue that the Magpies jumped out of the ground to win this. Carlton's supposed advantage was that Malthouse knew Collingwood inside out. But one of football's joys is that sometimes teams do not even know themselves, until chance and circumstance reveals it. Did Malthouse anticipate Elliott's five goals? Did Buckley? Both will tell you they knew it was possible; it was why they had drafted him. He was always highly rated in Magpieland, but in 15 previous games had kicked a total of six goals. For both Malthouse and the Magpies, this was both the day they dreaded and yet could not come too soon. Everything that preceded it during a somewhat hysterical week was a game; this was THE game. The cheer squads up the ante. Collingwood's banner reprised an old theme about the club it loves to hate. At the Carlton end, a maverick group unfurled an unoffical banner that read: "Welcome MM, from the club of scum to club No 1." It was quickly folded away. Malthouse cut a decades-long familiar figure in the middle of the MCG. In his bearing, he always looks taut and tensed up, even on days off. Almost certainly, he is; coaching is not for the happy-go-lucky. With a football tucked under each arm, he picked out players here and there for last minute instructions, micro-managing, the wont of coaches everywhere. Buckley was no less intent, but did take a moment to test those infamously hamstrings one last time. But once the match began, both were lost to mind and sight, except on television. Here was the moral of the day, and week, and of the last six intriguing months. These were the ringmasters, not the acrobats, the puppeteers, artful but invisible. Out there, it wasn't Malthouse and the Magpies, but Murphy versus Maxwell. After Andrew Walker gave Carlton a three-goal head-start, a deluge swept the ground, changing the terms and conditions. Simultaneously, veteran Collingwood ruckman Darren Jolly suffered a ribcage injury, made a grey-faced and valiant attempt to return to the fray, then was whisked away in an ambulance. On another day, this might have decided the match, for although football and footballers are more robust than ever, their eco-system is delicate and the balance of it easily tipped. Collingwood adapted, via Quinten Lynch, playing two men in one. Lynch was not at the club when Malthouse was, nor, admitted Buckley, was he recruited for this locum role. Again, he was a factor outside the agency of the coaches, yet was match-winning. Three times, Carlton chiselled a lead of nearly three goals, each time threatening to bolt, and each time was dragged back by Collingwood, in the manner of a desperate defender clutching at jumper. At three-quarter time, it was 10 points. Football has no more war-like aspect than the last break in a blockbuster, each team gathered in tightly-circled encampments, touching distance apart, but separated by a metaphorical trench. Two forces well known to Malthouse animated the last quarter: Collingwood's relentless football, which he taught them, and the gale from the stands, which once blew for him. For once, knowledge was not power. As Carlton coach, Malthouse could not circumvent the Magpies on the field, nor silence them in the crowd. The club was bigger than individual after all. At day's end, this much can be concluded: football, like art, frequently is greater than its artists. For this enormous canvas, Malthouse and Buckley could do no more than supply the brush-strokes, then perhaps marvel with everyone else at the image emerged. But football protocol knows only the determinedly prosaic. Later, Buckley said all that mattered to him was that the Magpies won. Malthouse's reaction channelled Ned Kelly's. "It's life," he said. None the less, a new chapter in this old rivalry was written: This was Mick versus the Magpies, and the Magpies won.	SUPERFOOTY MICK Malthouse says Collingwood may be the best side in the competition, with the Carlton coach last night moving to ease the pressure on his winless Blues. Malthouse was keen to give a "little lesson in history" on the recent form line of both clubs after Carlton was run down by the rampant Magpies in the last quarter at the MCG. The Blues lead by 18 points nine minutes into the third quarter and by 10 points at the last change. But they were outworked and out-thought by Collingwood in the last half-hour, conceding seven goals to three. "What went wrong? We played probably one of the best sides in the competition. "They might even be No.1,'' Malthouse said. "They were better when it counted most. "They were smarter with the footy and they just worked a bit harder.'' Collingwood's runners surged into space in an irresistible last quarter assault, racking up 27 uncontested marks to 11. Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan and Steele Sidebottom all finished strongly. "They're a very good football side," he said. "I think sometimes we just need a little lesson in history to say, 'Well, they were on top of the ladder for a long time last year, they finished third or fourth, we finished ninth or 10th or whatever and there's a gap and we've got to close that gap','' Malthouse said. "We've got to be better and we'll approach every week to get better and smarter and do something about it. "There's no joy in getting beaten by 17 points, but I know we can match it for periods of time with one the best sides and that's the most encouraging thing about this. "We will work to lengthen that time from 10 minutes to 11, from 15 to 20. "In the last two weeks we just haven't been consistent, we haven't been smart enough with the footy at times and we haven't probably been running hard enough." Carlton captain Mark Murphy said: "Their good players got on top ... it's pretty disappointing. "We played in parts and against good sides you've got to play for the full four quarters to get the win." Asked if he was happy the match and the momentous build-up was over, Malthouse shrugged his shoulders. "That's life. I've been in big games before, it's the way it is," he said. The Blues face Geelong, West Coast (away) and Adelaide in the next three weeks in a daunting opening to the season, but Malthouse strongly believes his side are getting there. "I'll walk out of here disapppionted and tomorrow ... I'll be as positive as I know I can be with this group of players," he said. "They are nearing it and we're getting better and we'll get better each week and at some stage that result will click over to a victory and it will give us the confidence to go forward."