Round 8: Collingwood 102 Geelong 96

THE FACTS

COLLINGWOOD   5.7.37    9.9.63    11.10.76    15.12.102
GEELONG              3.1.19    5.7.37    13.11.89    14.12.96

SCORERS
Collingwood: Krakouer (3.1), Dwyer (3.0), Elliott (3.0), Pendlebury (2.1), Cloke (1.2), Lynch (1.1), Seedsman (1.0), Sidebottom (1.0), Jolly (0.2), O'Brien (0.1), Russell (0.1), Swan (0.1)

BEST
Collingwood: Krakouer, Pendlebury, O'Brien, Cloke, Sidebottom, Elliott, Dwyer

INJURIES
Collingwood: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
Collingwood: Ben Kennedy replaced Jarrod Witts at three quarter time

REPORTS
Collingwood: Darren Jolly (rough conduct) on Mathew Stokes

OFFICIAL CROWD: 66,768 at the MCG

THE MEDIA
COLLINGWOOD NEWS Collingwood has shown that it remains a premiership contender by scoring an upset six-point win over Geelong in front of almost 67,000 fans at the MCG on Saturday night. Having begun the contest in ferocious fashion, the Magpies were 28 points up late in the second quarter, only to see their lead evaporate when the Cats booted eight goals to two in the third term. Nathan Buckley's men then slipped 13 points behind five minutes into the final quarter, but two late goals to Andrew Krakouer and another to Jamie Elliott powered them to a 15.12 (102) to 14.12 (96) victory. It was Collingwood's fifth win of the season and its third consecutive victory over Geelong since the 2011 Grand Final. Help decide the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award by casting your vote now. Scott Pendlebury (31 possessions, six clearances), Harry O'Brien (31 touches, six clearances) and Dane Swan (29 possessions, five clearances) were among the heroes for the Magpies. Krakouer, Elliott and Sam Dwyer did the damage on the scoreboard with three goals each. Dwyer was also a star in the middle of the ground, amassing 27 disposals. Brent Macaffer was another Magpie who played a key role. He limited Geelong skipper Joel Selwood to just seven possessions in the first half and 20 for the game. The Cats' first loss for the year has cost them top spot on the ladder, with Hawthorn now sitting pretty atop the table. Midfielders Matthew Stokes and Joel Corey, half-backs Andrew Mackie and Corey Enright, and swingman Jimmy Bartel were the best players on the losing side. Bartel started the game in horrible fashion, gifting Collingwood its opening goal when a routine handball failed to find teammate Allen Christensen. But after making four clangers in the opening 10 minutes, the Brownlow medallist gritted his teeth and made a positive impact. Having spent time in defence, attack and the midfield at various stages, Bartel finished with 23 possessions at 78 per cent efficiency and booted two goals. Tom Hawkins, who was picked up by Ben Reid for the entire game, was Geelong's leading goal scorer with four. The big forward moved freely and appeared to have shrugged off the back stiffness the curtailed his output against Essendon a week earlier. James Podsiadly, Christensen and speedster Steven Motlop both chipped in with two majors. Geelong will be confident that it can return to the winners' list when it plays Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium next Saturday afternoon. Collingwood faces another huge test next Friday night when it hosts the Sydney Swans at the MCG. Notable - Harry O'Brien might just be in career-best form. Don't believe us? The 26-year-old won 31 possessions against the Cats; more than he had ever won in his 166 games prior to Saturday night. He is clearly relishing the opportunity to play further afield and become a real hazard for the opposition when he bounces his way through the centre. His 31 possessions included 19 kicks on top of nine marks and three tackles. - The story of Sam Dwyer continues to amaze. We've all heard about his rise from Port Melbourne to the bright lights of the Westpac Centre but his performance against the Cats takes the cake as his greatest yet. He collected a career-high 27 possessions despite appearing to labour with soreness during the third quarter and kicked three goals, none more important than the one at the start of the final quarter. Dwyer's deceptive pace and hard running paid off when he ran inside 50 to create an option for Jarryd Blair and duly goaled to bring Collingwood back within touching distance. - Brent Macaffer added another notch to his belt when he took on and quelled Geelong captain Joel Selwood. Macaffer spent most of his night in and around the centre square, restricting Selwood to only 20 possessions amongst which only six were kicks. That Macaffer managed 14 of his own and laid four tackles speaks volumes of his ability to adapt quickly and grow into his new role. - Saturday night's crowd of 66,768 was the 10th consecutive match between Collingwood and Geelong to draw an attendance of greater than 60,000. In fact, the two sides have drawn more than 50,000 in all 15 matches since 2006. The last time the two sides played in front of a crowd of less than 50,000 at the MCG was way back in round three, 2003. - In time, perhaps Saturday will be most memorable for Collingwood's all-round performance against the Geelong Football Club. The Magpies ended Geelong's unbeaten start to the season at both VFL and AFL levels with thrilling wins within only a few hours of each other. Collingwood headed into both matches as the underdog but came out on top after kicking 9.9 to half time. It was truly a day for the black and white diehards to savour. "Harry O'Brien might just be in career-best form. Don't believe us? The 26-year-old won 31 possessions against the Cats; more than he had ever won in his 166 games prior to Saturday night. He is clearly relishing the opportunity to play further afield and become a real hazard for the opposition when he bounces his way through the centre. His 31 possessions included 19 kicks on top of nine marks and three tackles." Collingwood News	REAL FOOTY Collingwood's gritty come-from-behind upset of Geelong has been tempered by an apparent setback for injured gun midfielder Dayne Beams and a report on ruckman Darren Jolly for a high bump. While the Magpies rallied from 13 points behind at three-quarter time to defeat the hitherto unbeaten Cats by six points, coach Nathan Buckley was coy about the Beams setback - believed to be some kind of aggravation to a quadricep injury that might keep Beams sidelined for longer. Beams, who was Collingwood's best and and fairest and an all-Australian last year, has not yet played since withdrawing from the team just before the first game. "I'm not the medical officer," said Buckley, when asked whether Beams, who had been slowly recovering, might be absent for the next month. "He had some scans yesterday and when our doctor is ready to make a statement about that and when we know exactly where that's at, we'll let you know." Jolly, meanwhile, was reported for a high bump in the second quarter, when he collided with Mathew Stokes. Buckley said in response to the report of his premier ruckman: "Sometimes when you're a big bloke and just stand there, people run into you. "That's what I saw. That's not a defence, that's what I saw." Better news on the injury front for the Magpies was the successful return of key midfielder Luke Ball in his first game of 2013 following a knee reconstruction and subsequent hamstring problems. "He pulled up well," said Buckley. "I'm not sure what his game time was - I think it was around 80 percent. He didn't have big numbers at half-time and we were actually contemplating whether he was the one to sub, just with his first game back. "But to end up playing the four quarters was excelllent for us, you can't define what he brings to his team mates with any kicks, marks, handballs or any stats. It's that intangible; it's great leadership, his drive, his will to win, especially when the game is on the line, he generally has an impact "He was fantastic for us and he'll just get better week to week." Buckley said the Pies had played a "courageous" final quarter after giving up half the Geelong score in the third quarter. "We gave up basically half our opposition score in 30 minutes of footy and it nearly did us in again but we were able to stick to the task and stay to the script and work our way back in. It was a courageous last-quarter effort." "We were minus 16 in contested ball in the third quarter and... we're still having fairly big swings in that number, when we're up and when we're down. So we just needed to find a little bit more run through the guts. We were able to do that and then...once you arrest that momentum it gives you a shot. We weren't able to arrest it in the third quarter." "I do think the modern game is more about momentum than anything else, and that's why Geelong will always be a hard side to beat, they love playing with momentum offensively. You know, when we were able to halt that we gave ourselves a chance." "Very rarely you'll see a four quarter game of footy...it really is important to hold the tide back when it's coming back at you." Buckley added: "if we give that effort and we give that application, we're pretty hard to beat, no matter who's out of the side." While the Pies will regain the suspended Heath Shaw for next week's huge game against Sydney, Buckley said he did not know how many of the team's best 22 were absent. "I couldn't tell you how many best 22 players we have out because I don't know what our best 22 is. We're still working at it, we're still developing." Buckley praised all 22 players, saying the Pies "didn't have a passenger," and described 26-year-old VFL recruit Sam Dwyer - who booted three goals for the match and had 13 disposals in the telling final term - as "a hungry footballer that wants to succeed. He didn't do a lot of pre-season, he came in, played with a broken leg, a crack in his leg, for the last couple of weeks in the VFL finals last year - a 26 year old who's worked really hard for his opportunity." Buckley said the Pies had wondered if Dwyer was waning a few weeks ago, but his past two matches had been his "best games" to date. AFL Five talking points: 1. Big men can't bump Darren Jolly found himself in the umpire's book for a bump on Mathew Stokes during the second quarter. His height may prove his undoing, after he appeared to make high contact on Stokes, and was reported for rough conduct. With his shoulder tucked and feet planted, the bump looked technically correct, leaving an interesting debate for the Match Review Panel. 2. Missing their X Factor Steve Johnson was a late withdrawal with a calf issue that he picked up against Essendon last week, and the Cats struggled without him in the first half. And it's no wonder, given how prolific he's been this season - the last three weeks in particular. Against Essendon he ran riot, racking up 36 disposals and an AFL Player Rating of 52. The week before against Richmond he finished with 31 touches and two goals. In round five he had 30 possessions and a goal against the Western Bulldogs. 3. Welcome back Luke Ball It's been a long wait for Luke Ball, but he finally made his return 13 months after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament. Ball wasn't the best player on the ground, but he quietly chipped away at the game to finish with 15 disposals and 72 DreamTeam points. More importantly, he got through unscathed. 4. Battle of the Youth Interestingly, both Collingwood and Geelong fielded sides boasting 8 players with less than 50 games to their names. The Magpies had five players who had played under 10 games, and the Cats had four. The Pies have had a number of injuries which goes some way to explaining those figures, but for the Cats it could be labeled a mini-rebuild, only they're doing it from the top of the ladder. 5. Unbeaten streak ends Geelong's unbeaten streak is over, but it's by no means panic stations at the Cattery. They will be favourites in their next four games, with clashes with Port Adelaide, Gold Coast, Greater Western Sydney and Brisbane coming up. Wins in those games would see them go 11-1 by round twelve. Not too shabby. "Darren Jolly found himself in the umpire's book for a bump on Mathew Stokes during the second quarter.... With his shoulder tucked and feet planted, the bump looked technically correct, leaving an interesting debate for the Match Review Panel." AFL	SUPERFOOTY COLLINGWOOD produced its best performance of the year to become the first team to upstage Geelong in 2013, kick-starting a season that had been looking decidedly wobbly in recent times. In an extraordinary match that ebbed and flowed in a pressure-packed night, the Magpies somehow overwhelmed the Cats in the final term after looking as if they had lost their way in a third quarter in which their opponents dominated. With no Heath Shaw (suspended) and Dale Thomas (ankle) missing, the only way Collingwood was going to prevail was by applying the sort of pressure that had been absent for much of the season to date. And they did that almost from the outset, opening up with five goals in the opening term before pushing the margin out to 26 points at the main interval. But as Magpie midfielder Luke Ball, returning for his first AFL game since his knee reconstruction last year, admitted after the club's six-point win, the only certainly on a night of uncertainties was that the Cats were going to fight back in the third term, even without late withdrawal Steve Johnson. Geelong's ability to own third terms this season - known as the premiership quarter - has been one of the key reasons for their outstanding start to the year. Almost on cue, the Cats added 8.4 to 2.1 in a half-hour after the main interval that changed the entire context of the match, taking their collective third-quarter efforts this season to 49.26 (320) to their opponents' 18.27 (135). From similar positions, the Cats have gone on to beat all comers so far this season – but not Collingwood. Here's where the script differed to the other matches, Collingwood simply wasn't prepared to let the issue slide and doggedly held on to a contest that had appeared to be slipping away. Perhaps that was an optical illusion; perhaps not. But when Tom Hawkins booted his fourth goal of the night, at the five-minute mark of the last term, gave the Cats a 13-point buffer, the Magpies appeared to be in real trouble. Still, they kept coming, and kept running. Unlike others who have waved the white flag after encountering Geelong's third term blitz, the Magpies faced it head on and refused to budge. The tackling pressure and run that they had displayed in the opening two terms returned in devastating fashion in the final term, and for once, the Cats began to look a little vulnerable. Harry O'Brien and Sam Dwyer epitomised the Collingwood capacity to keep fighting throughout the final term. They had nine and 13 possessions respectively in the last term, giving Collingwood first use of the ball and driving it deep in attack. Scott Pendlebury also had seven in the last term. All three were very important players all night, barring the third-term blip. Dwyer kicked the opening goal for Collingwood in the final term - his third for the night – when only three minutes had elapsed, and importantly he had a hand in several other important moves forward for his team. Andrew Krakouer played his best game this season, kicking two crucial goals in the final term - the first from a free kick in which he ran around to score and the second after a mark on the goal-line that would prove to be the last goal of the game. Squeezed in between Krakouer's goals came one from Jamie Elliott (his third) after some excellent work from Dwyer that had levelled the scores at the 16-minute-mark before Krakouer's match-winner came six minutes later. Geelong's ability to fight back after being so outpointed in the first half deserves plenty of credit. Mathew Stokes fought hard, winning 31 touches, Corey Enright was like a rock at times in defence, as was Andrew Mackie, and Jimmy Bartel overcame the first-term jitters to have a good influence on the game. Joel Selwood was well held for much of the night by Brent Macaffer other than when he was largely responsible for igniting the Cats in the third term. But Collingwood was not to be denied in a performance that would have delighted coach Nathan Buckley and given a clear message to those who had prematurely written the Magpies off this season. They have not lost to Geelong since the 2011 Grand Final, and on last night's effort, they will again loom as dangers to the Cats at the business end this year. SUPERFOOTY IS ANOTHER Grand Final curse starting to materialise? Collingwood regained its mojo last night, seemingly out of nowhere, against a Geelong side that had been the benchmark of the competition for the seven previous weeks. The intensity and ferocity that wasn't there for much of last week's loss to Fremantle had suddenly reappeared. But why now, after similarly lethargic displays against St Kilda and Essendon in recent weeks? Was it the rev-up that surely came from Nathan Buckley during the week after the coach questioned just how good his side was after the Dockers loss? Or is the 2011 Grand Final loss to Geelong still burning? The Pies won both games against the Cats last year. Last night made it three in a row. We're not up to Hawthorn and Geelong proportions yet, but as Collingwood scraped and fought their way back into the contest during last night's epic final term, it raised questions as to whether some other force was at play. Take the first 11 minutes of last night's contest, for instance. Collingwood led 4.1 (25) to 1.0 (6). The Pies were winning the possession count 40-24 yet had still managed 10 tackles to the Cats' nine. Buckley's men had won six clearances to three and had forced Geelong into making six clangers while making just three of their own. By the 15-minute mark, the Pies had executed nine tackles inside their forward half. They had averaged just 29 per game to date. When Geelong put together an eight-goal-to-two third quarter, it seemed that Collingwood version 2013 just wasn't good enough to compete with the best - at least not now, with so many players out. But when from nowhere the tide turned black and white again in the fourth quarter, it begged the question if the fact the Pies were playing the Cats had something to do with it. As good as new boy Sam Dwyer was, it was players such as Harry O'Brien, Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan, Jarryd Blair, Steele Sidebottom, Nick Maxwell and Ben Reid - players who would still be carrying the hurt of 2011 - that willed the Pies to victory. Another of the class of '11, Luke Ball, also played his part. And how good was it to see Ball, one of the good guys of footy, back in action? How he must have been feeling when he lined up in the middle of the MCG for the first time since going down with a knee injury in Round 3 of last year. It didn't take the 28-year-old long to impact the contest either, winning his first possession in the first minute, which is exactly what you'd expect from a No.2 draft pick. But the true effect of his return was felt minutes later when Sidebottom was able to capitalise on a Jimmy Bartel mistake to kick the game's first goal. In previous weeks, Sidebottom may have been in the middle of the ground to help make up the numbers in the engine room for the injury-ravaged Pies. More and more last night, Sidebottom was able to ply his trade in the forward half, without doubt a more comfortable proposition for the 22-year-old. "The knee held up fine, I'll be better for the run," Ball said on Triple M after the match. "It's a massive step-up to the AFL, especially against those blokes."