GEELONG 7.1.43 11.4.70 12.8.80 15.10.100
SCORERS - Collingwood: Cloke (2.2), White (2.2), Swan (2.0), Pendlebury (1.1), Crisp (1.0), Blair (0.1), Elliott (0.1), Grundy (0.1), Langdon (0.1)
BEST - Collingwood: Brown, Pendlebury, Oxley, Swan, Grundy, Langdon
INJURIES - Collingwood: Sam Dwyer (leg)
SUBSTITUTES - Collingwood: Sam Dwyer replaced by Tim Broomhead at half time
REPORTS: Nil
OFFICIAL CROWD: 52,152 at the MCG
| 1. The Carlton jinx continues Before Friday night's clash, Carlton's past 14 opponents had lost the week after playing the Blues. It's an unusual and largely unexplainable run that dates back to round 14 last year, but one that has been stretched after Geelong defeated Collingwood by 41 points. The Magpies entered the game as favourites after an impressive 75-point win over Carlton last Friday night. But Geelong's brilliant start – they kicked seven goals to one in the first term – put the Magpies behind the eight-ball all night. Their late recovery – Collingwood kicked six goals in the second half to the Cats' four – gave Chris Scott's side a scare, but they were able to withstand it. 2. Varcoe turns foe Two-time Cats premiership player Travis Varcoe came up against his old team for the first time since crossing to Collingwood during last year's trade period. It won't be a game Varcoe reflects upon too fondly, nor will many Magpies. Varcoe was far from Collingwood's worst player in the heavy defeat (he gathered 18 disposals and seven tackles), but every player who leaves one club wants to perform the first time they come up against former teammates. Captain Scott Pendlebury and youngsters Adam Oxley, Tom Langdon and Taylor Adams helped pull the Magpies back to a closer margin after half-time. 3. Cowan's cruel run continues Geelong's Josh Cowan personifies the side of football few see and even fewer want to experience. The 24-year-old last played for the Cats in round 18, 2011, before ongoing Achilles and hamstring injuries plagued his career. The gap between his third and fourth game was nearly 1400 days, and Cowan had to wait a little longer to get into the action on Friday night, when he started on the bench. Cowan helped set up a goal to Steven Motlop in his first foray forward, and he collected four disposals in the first 20 minutes. But that was where the good news ended. Late in the first term, Cowan was subbed out of the game with a right hamstring strain, in what was a bitter blow given his poor injury luck. |
4. Gregson gold All of the big names contributed in Geelong's blistering seven-goal first term, but alongside Tom Hawkins, Joel Selwood and Mitch Duncan was a small first-year forward more than pulling his weight. 18-year-old Cory Gregson kicked two smart goals in the opening term from seven disposals, and continues to add some classy finishing and speed to the Cats' forward mix. The 175cm South Australian was the Cats' second selection at last year's draft down the order at No.47, but has played every game this year, so credit again goes to list manager Stephen Wells, recruiter Michael McMahon and the club's scouting team for finding a promising player beyond the top 30. Gregson's 18 disposals and three goals should see him strongly considered for the round six NAB AFL Rising Star nomination. 5. What does it mean? Did everyone overrate Collingwood's early form this season? Were we too quick to write off the Cats as genuine top-four contenders? Cats coach Chris Scott said last week he was still trying to work out who the best sides in the competition were and where the Cats sat. Friday night's result perhaps further complicates things, given the Cats' slower start to the season and the Magpies' previously good form. The game proved how a team can be only a couple of notches off its best form to be pegged right back. The Pies made their run and got within 23 points when Jesse White kicked his second goal in the last term, but the Cats steadied and deserved their strong win. The Magpies entered the game as favourites after an impressive 75-point win over Carlton last Friday night. But Geelong's brilliant start – they kicked seven goals to one in the first term – put the Magpies behind the eight-ball all night. |
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Geelong has survived a second-half comeback from Collingwood to run out 41-point winners at the MCG on Friday night. The Magpies entered the match as favourites after their impressive 4-1 start to 2015, but the Cats flew out of the gates to kick the opening seven goals of the game, an imposing burst that set up a 15.10 (100) to 8.11 (59) win. Geelong undid Collingwood with a hard-running high-possession game plan that saw it rack up 425 possessions to the Pies' 341. The Cats built their win on an 11-goal-to-two first half, earning their 52-point half-time lead with daring dash through the centre corridor that enabled them to get the ball into their forwards quickly. Collingwood closed to within 35 points at three-quarter time after a spirited third term when it rammed on four goals and held the Cats to just one. And a unlikely comeback suddenly seemed possible when Travis Cloke and Jesse White kicked the first two goals of the final term to cut the Cats' lead to 23 points at the 14-minute mark – the closest the Magpies had been since the Cats' opening burst. At that stage, the Cats had kicked just one goal in the second half and looked wobbly. But after Mitch Clark sent a set shot out of bounds on the full at the 17-minute mark of the final term, the Cats piled on three goals in less than three minutes through Nakia Cockatoo, Steven Motlop and Cory Gregson to snuff out the Pies' challenge. Mitch Duncan was outstanding for the Cats with a game-high 38 possessions and seven clearances and four inside 50s. Motlop returned to his best with 26 possessions and three goals and was supported in attack by the lively Gregson (three goals). Tom Lonergan kept Cloke to two goals in his 150th game, Mark Blicavs ran tirelessly all night alternating between the ruck and manning Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury, and Tom Hawkins (one goal and four goal assists) helped set up the Cats' win with an outstanding first term before fading. The Cats' win was soured by a hamstring injury to comeback kid Josh Cowan, who was playing his first game since round 18, 2011 after recovering from a series of Achilles tendon and hamstring injuries. The 24-year-old looked lively with four disposals before he was substituted out of the game at the 23-minute mark of the first term. Magpies skipper Pendlebury overcame a slow start to the game to be instrumental in his team's second-half comeback, giving his team plenty of midfield drive and providing a dangerous option in his regular forays up forward. Nathan Brown stood up in defence for Collingwood after moving on to Hawkins late in the first term, holding the star Cat to one goal and taking several telling marks deep in defence. Adam Oxley and Tom Langdon also gave the Pies run from defence and Jack Crisp battled manfully on Cats skipper Joel Selwood. The Cats got off to a flying start, kicking the game's first seven goals as they dominated possession and sped the ball through the corridor at every opportunity. Hawkins was instrumental to Geelong's early dominance, the spearhead having a hand in six of the Cats' first seven goals. Hawkins kicked just the last of those goals, but set up his teammates brilliantly with his bullocking work and clean hands. Geelong had 131 disposals (at 83 per cent efficiency) to the Pies' 82 in the first quarter, as Collingwood stars Pendlebury and Swan managed just four touches each for the term. Swan finally broke the Magpies' goal duck at the 26-minute mark, but that was their only major for the term as Geelong took a 34-point lead into the first break. The Cats' continued to control the game in the second term, kicking four goals – two of them to Clark – to the Pies' one to take a 52-point half-time lead. Collingwood cruelled its chances of getting back into the match in the second quarter, with Cloke, White, Pendlebury and Jamie Elliott also missing set shots they would have expected to convert. Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says the Magpies ''lost shape'' and did not play well as a team when jumped by Geelong in their 41-point loss on Friday night. Buckley, whose Pies conceded the first six goals and trailed by 11 goals to one early in the second quarter, defended his decision to start Jack Frost on Tom Hawkins, who was instrumental in Geelong's stunning six goals to nil opening quarter, but was subdued after Nathan Brown was switched on to him. ''I feel absolutely confident in that decision being right and I feel absolutely confident that the decision to make the switch when we made it was the right decision. Hawkins is a great player. Frosty is a young defender who is still learning the ropes....I've still got great confidence in him.'' Buckley said the Cats were ''harder'' than his team, which cut the 60-point margin to 23 points in the final term before petering out. ''We lost our shape – our forwards played high, we gave their defenders too much space and they were able to rebound and score heavily off us early in the match. ''I think it was done at ground level, in transition through the midfield, we were out-numbered. ''They were harder, they worked harder. It's a pretty simple game. When we improved our work-rate and we were prepared to go a bit harder at the ground ball, we squared the game up as far as the contest goes and the scoreboard started looking after itself. But early on we were off, and they were on, and we need to learn from that.'' Buckley said the Cats ''came out with far more intensity. Their attack on the ball was fantastic, contested ball went against us. By the 10-minute mark of the game, we were five goals down. So it's not the way we wanted it to begin. ''We want to be better than that. we need to be better than that, if we want to perform the way we want to perform. We were out-hunted, at centre bounces in particular, and (for the) second week in a row our centre bounces were poor.'' The Collingwood coach said he didn't think either team's set-shot kicking was great — Travis Cloke and Jesse White both missed important shots — and acknowledged this required improvement. ''It's an area we need to improve. I thought we lost connection, we didn't play well as a team, for the majority of the game. ''We're grown men, we're not going to succeed all the time. We'll fall over at times and we've got to be mature enough to be able to learn from those and to be better next time we back up.'' Buckley said the Pies wouldn't regain Steele Sidebottom (broken thumb) against the Tigers next weekend. ''We won't put a player that's half-baked in.'' Paul Seedsman (glute) would be helped by the nine-day break, which ''gives us a chance to assess that". |
COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley has downplayed the extent that poor goalkicking contributed to the Magpies' loss to Geelong on Friday night, but admitted it was something his team needed to improve. Travis Cloke's pulled set shot from 25m out at the six-minute mark of the final quarter was the most glaring miss on a poor night for Collingwood in front of goal. At the time, the Pies were riding a wave of momentum that had seen them kicked five of the last six goals to cut the Cats' lead from a game-high 60 points late in the second term to 30 points. Jesse White would goal eight minutes later to bring the Pies back to within 23 points, but Cloke's staggering miss at such a crucial time had to suck some life out of the Pies' bid for an unlikely comeback win. Cloke's error was far from the only one for the Pies. In a six-minute patch late in the second term, White, Scott Pendlebury and Jamie Elliott all missed set shots they would have expected to kick, allowing the Cats to go into half-time with a 52-point lead. White's miss was particularly galling because the Cats rushed the ball down the ground from the following kick-in to set up a coast-to-coast goal that was converted by Mitch Clark. Asked after the match whether Cloke's last-quarter miss had deflated his team, Buckley downplayed its significance. "We kicked 5.8 from 14 set shots on goal and Geelong kicked 4.4 from 10 so I didn't think their set-shot kicking was great and I didn't think ours was great," Buckley said. "We obviously flitted away more chances than we'd like to and even when we weren't in the game early we were missing chances just to keep us in touch. "We're all looking for a pivotal moment, but it's an area that we need to improve." Buckley defended his decision to start young defender Jack Frost on Geelong's Tom Hawkins despite the huge influence the spearhead had on the Cats' game-winning seven-goal first term. Hawkins had a hand in six of those first-quarter goals, kicking just one himself but setting up his teammates brilliantly with his bullocking work and clean hands. Frost had also conceded three goals to Hawkins in the last quarter of the Pies' 11-point loss to Geelong in round three last year. However Buckley did not regret starting Frost on Hawkins even after Nathan Brown largely curtailed the big Cat when moved onto him late in the first quarter. "Frost was playing his fifth game of footy in [round three last year] and he's had a full season since and we've backed him with great confidence against all comers," Buckley said. "He's been our best defender for the last 12 months and I feel absolutely confident in that decision being right and I feel absolutely confident that the decision to make the switch when we made it was the right decision. "Hawkins is a great player, Frosty is a young defender that's still learning the ropes but he's stood up time after time. "I've still got great confidence in him and he'll do some great jobs for us going forward." Buckley said Steele Sidebottom, who has been sidelined since round one with a broken thumb, would not be ready to return against Richmond next Sunday. "He's only just getting a handle now on where his thumb's at after getting the guard off," Buckley said. "We won't put a player that's half-backed in." The Magpies coach said Paul Seedsman (glute) would be assessed in the nine-day break before the Tigers clash. WARNING signs flashed before Nathan Buckley’s eyes shortly after he settled in the Collingwood coaches box. His defence that conceded only six goals to Essendon and then Carlton in the past two rounds had leaked five inside the first 10 minutes. And the intensity, such an admirable trademark so far this season, was powerless to stem Geelong’s ball monopoly. Admittedly, it’s tough to lay tackles when you’re groping at Cats’ tails for most of the night. Geelong had a staggering 50 possessions to Collingwood’s 25 after just nine minutes. Not only did that dominance establish an early scoreboard buffer, it set the trend for most of the contest. And, by half-time, the disposal discrepancy was nearly 100. Given the ease that the Cats waltzed inside the attacking 50, no wonder the lead was already an invincible 52 points. Once again, it reinforced the notion that a week is an eternity in footy. Different opposition, different circumstances, different mindset. Geelong handed out similar treatment that the Magpies inflicted on the hapless Blues at the same venue in similar conditions the previous Friday night. Stout defence, unrelenting, overlap running, fierce heat at the ball and ball-carrier and a vast spread of options in the forward half. Collingwood had 15 goalkickers in the romp against Carlton — eight Geelong players were on the scoresheet by the long break while the Pies had a measly two contributors. Game effectively over. Perceived pressure can be a lethal tool as much as a crunching tackle. It’s why Magpie big man Jarrod Witts spilt an uncontested mark on the top of the goalsquare in the opening quarter, gifting Cat Tom Hawkins a goal. And it explained previously sure-handed Geelong players, like Hawkins, fumbling when the heat was turned on them in the second half. Inevitably, Collingwood would mount a challenge once it lifted the workrate to apply pressure. After all, the Pies had won eight of 10 quarters after half-time to the Cats’ just two in the previous five rounds. Whatever Buckley preached at half-time, his men absorbed and applied as the endeavour transformation was remarkable in the second half. Geelong defenders Tom Lonergan, Harry Taylor and Jared Rivers, who mopped up at will in the first two terms, found themselves enveloped in a black and white blur amid the quicken tempo. And the mindset switched ... the hunted became the hunters. The Magpies’ never-quit work ethic breathed life and hope of an unlikely steal, only to concede three goals in as many minutes late in the last quarter totally against the run of play. Travis Cloke's pulled set shot from 25m out at the six-minute mark of the final quarter was the most glaring miss on a poor night for Collingwood in front of goal. |
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