Preview Round 2: Collingwood v Sydney Swans

Collingwood News

Collingwood v Swans Saturday March 29, 7.40pm ANZ Fox Footy / 7mate 7.30pm Weather: Min 20 Max 27 Chance of rain 60%: 1-5mm Wind: SE 22kph Betting: Collingwood $2.80 Swans $1.44

It’s rare for a round two match to be played at such high stakes.
At least that’s what the pundits have been saying in the week leading up to Saturday night’s clash between Collingwood and Sydney at ANZ Stadium.
Be that as it may, all the ingredients are there for what Lou Richards would call a ‘ring-a-ding-ding’ battle between two clubs widely tipped to feature in the September action again in 2014.
The Magpies will have had 15 days to lick their wounds after suffering a 70-point loss to Fremantle in the first game of the new season, while the Swans will have had plenty on their minds, too, as they digest their loss to Greater Western Sydney on the same weekend.

Head-to-Head (since 1897)
Collingwood: 139
South Melbourne/Sydney: 81
Drawn: 1

Past Five
Round 20 2013
Collingwood 14.16 (100)
Sydney 10.11 (71)
Goals – Collingwood: Elliott 3, Cloke 2, Reid 2, Sidebottom 2, J.Thomas 2, Grundy, Lumumba, Pendlebury
Sydney: Tippett 6, Bolton, K.Jack, Kennedy, Shaw
Disposals – Collingwood: Pendlebury 35, Beams 32, Ball 31, Swan 31, Sidebottom 23, Lumumba 23
Sydney: McVeigh 35, Hannebery 21, Bird 20, Malceski 20, Kennedy 19, O’Keefe 19
Brownlow: 3. S.Pendlebury (Coll), 2. D.Swan (Coll), 1. J.McVeigh (Syd)
At ANZ Stadium

Round 9 2013
Collingwood 8.7 (55)
Sydney 15.12 (102)
Goals – Collingwood: Cloke 3, Elliott 2, Dwyer, Seedsman, Witts
Sydney: Goodes 3, Hannebery 2, McGlynn 2, Pyke 2, Bird, Jack, Bolton, Jetta, Reid, Morton
Disposals – Collingwood: Ball 28, Pendlebury 28, Sidebottom 27, Reid 24, Swan 23
Sydney: Hannebery 31, Goodes 30, Malceski 30, McVeigh 30, K.Jack 27
Brownlow: 3. A.Goodes (Syd), 2. D.Hannebery (Syd), 1. N.Malceski (Syd)
At the MCG

Preliminary Final 2012
Collingwood 10.10 (70)
Sydney 13.18 (96)
Goals – Collingwood: Cloke 3, Dawes, Beams, Johnson, Tarrant, Swan,  Goldsack, Fasolo
Sydney: Jetta 3, Bolton 2, Kennedy 2, Roberts-Thomson 2, Goodes, Bird, O’Keefe, Mumford
Disposals – Collingwood: Pendlebury 30, Beams 27, Swan 25, Blair 23, Johnson 21, Lumumba 21
Sydney: O’Keefe 34, Hannebery 33, Kennedy 30, McVeigh 30, Shaw 27
At ANZ Stadium

Round 20 2012
Collingwood 12.6 (78)
Sydney 9.16 (70)
Goals – Collingwood: Beams 3, Cloke 3, Didak, Fasolo, Wellingham, D.Thomas, Blair, Seedsman
Sydney: Roberts-Thomson 2, O’Keefe, McGlynn, Pyke, Bird, Goodes, Dennis-Lane
Disposals – Collingwood: Beams 34, Pendlebury 29, Wellingham 24, Seedsman 20, Maxwell 20, Reid 20
Sydney: Kennedy 40, Jack 28, O’Keefe 28, Shaw 23, Parker 20
Brownlow: 3. D.Beams (Coll), 2. J.Kennedy (Syd), 1. S.Wellingham (Coll)
At ANZ Stadium

Round 14 2011
Collingwood 13.21 (99)
Sydney 14.9 (93)
Goals – Collingwood: Cloke 6, Blair, Dawes, Sidebottom, Wellingham, Swan, Ball, Pendlebury
Sydney: McVeigh 4, Goodes 3, J.Bolton 2, O’Keefe 2, Jack, Mattner, White
Disposals – Collingwood: Swan 33, Pendlebury 25, Ball 24, Cloke 18, Maxwell 18, Shaw 18, D.Thomas 18
Sydney: Kennedy 24, O’Keefe 23, Bird 23, Hannebery 23, Grundy 22, Kennelly 22
Brownlow: 3. T.Cloke (Coll), 2. D.Swan (Coll), 1. J.McVeigh (Syd)
At ANZ Stadium

Stats and memories

• Collingwood’s strong record at the Olympic venue is well documented. It has lost only three of its 12 games at the venue since 2003 and strung together seven wins on the trot between 2006 and 2012. It took a red-hot Swans outfit to break the record with a 26-point win in the Preliminary Final of 2012.
• Do you remember when Jarrod Molloy took the Mark of the Year that wasn’t? The man Sandy Roberts called the D9 flew over Sydney’s Andrew Dunkley and Jason Saddington to pull down a screamer when the two clubs met at Colonial Stadium in round 10, 2001. Unfortunately the man in white ruled that Molloy’s teammate had infringed when he bumped Dunkley into Molloy’s path. He can’t have been wrong – Dunkley left the ground on a stretcher.
• The Magpies celebrated their 2000th game of VFL/AFL football in the league’s centenary year of 1996. Unfortunately, Tony Lockett spoiled the party (and not for the last time). He feasted on eight goals and six behinds in Sydney’s 34-point victory at the SCG. It set the scene for more Magpie maulings at the hands of Plugger, who bagged 10.1 on a Friday night in round seven, 1998, before kicking nine goals and breaking Gordon Coventry’s (a Magpie himself) all-time league goal kicking record of 1299 goals in round 10 a year later.
• The history between the two clubs stretches far beyond the lands of ANZ Stadium and the SCG. It was on for young and old when they fought out the 1935 and 1936 deciders at the MCG. Collingwood got the better of South Melbourne on both occasions, winning by 20 points in 1935 and by 11 points in 1936. Albert Pannam, who was inducted into Collingwood’s Hall of Fame earlier this month, kicked a game high five goals in the ’36 Grand Final.
• If you want to flip back a few pages further in the annals of history, you’ll find that Collingwood actually recorded its first premiership of any kind when it knocked off South in the 1896 VFA decider. It was only the second ‘Grand Final’ in VFA history, for both clubs were locked on 58 premiership points at the end of the home and away season. An estimated crowd of 12,000 crammed into the old East Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch Collingwood record a five-point win over the Swans. As it turned out, it was the final match before eight clubs – Collingwood and South Melbourne included – helped form the new Victorian Football League in 1897. The rest is history.
  

A foot in both camps
Those to have spent time at both Victoria Park and the Lake Oval – or the SCG, as the case may be – include, but aren’t limited to…

• Nick Davis, the man who broke Geelong’s hearts in the 2005 Semi-Final, kicked off his league career in Black and White in 1999. He went on to play 71 games for the Magpies but switched to Sydney after the 2002 Grand Final.
• Two Victorian-born midfielders returned to their home state at the end of 1998. Paul Licuria and Mark Orchard were traded to Victoria Park ahead of Tony Shaw’s final season as coach. Licuria went on to become a Hall of Famer in Magpieland (and a dual Copeland Trophy winner to boot), while Orchard eked out two unassuming but quietly effective stints at Collingwood between 1995 and 1996 and later 1999 and 2000.
• The brothers Morwood both started their days in red and white before trading it in for the famous stripes mid-career. Paul played a total of 95 games for the Swans and was on the list during the club’s shift from South to Sydney before rounding out his career with 15 games for the Pies in 1987. His younger brother, Shane, became one of the 1990 premiership immortals after two years as a Swan.
• Many who followed the Magpies during the 1980s will remember Paul Hawke fondly, as will the Sydney folk. Hawke’s career had its share of twists and turns, playing 73 games in two stints as a Swan and 41 during three years as a Magpie. Ardent Pies fans won’t forget quickly his 492-possession season in 1989 when he was runner up to Gavin Brown in the Copeland Trophy. Curiously, he did not play a game in 1990 though he was on the fringe of selection during the finals. He moved back to Sydney for one final game in 1991 before calling time on his career.
• Of the current day players, Rhyce Shaw has flourished since making the move to the Harbour City and became a premiership player in 2012, while Jesse White and Tony Armstrong were handed their first Collingwood jumpers just a few short months ago after arriving from Sydney.

Injury List
Collingwood
Jesse White (calf) – available
Corey Gault (groin) – 1 week
Tim Broomhead (wrist) – 2 weeks
Adam Oxley (ankle) – 2-3 weeks
Ben Reid (calf) – 2-3 weeks
Patrick Karnezis (Osteitis Pubis) – 3-4 weeks
Paul Seedsman (hip) – 2-3 weeks
Nathan Freeman (hamstring) – 3 weeks
Matthew Scharenberg (feet) – indefinite
Sydney
Kieren Jack (back) – test
Lewis Roberts-Thomson (groin) – test
Kurt Tippett (knee) – 2-3 weeks
Adam Goodes (knee) – 3-4 weeks
Tommy Walsh (hamstring) – 3-4 weeks
Alex Johnson (knee) – season

Next Five Weeks
Collingwood
Round 3 – Geelong at the MCG
Round 4 – Richmond at the MCG
Round 5 – North Melbourne at the MCG
Round 6 – Essendon at the MCG
Round 7 – Carlton at the MCG