SYDNEY 3.4.22 5.6.36 8.9.57 13.9.87
SCORERS - Collingwood: Elliott (1.2), Cloke (1.1), Crisp (1.1), Pendlebury (1.1), Reid (1.1), De Goey (1.0), Moore (1.0), Swan (1.0), Varcoe (1.0), Williams (1.0), Sidebottom (0.2), Adams (0.1), Blair (0.1), Fasolo (0.1), Langdon (0.1)
BEST - Collingwood: Swan, Elliott, Pendlebury, Williams, Frost, Sidebottom
INJURIES - Collingwood: Nil
SUBSTITUTES - Collingwood: Ben Reid replaced by Levi Greenwood in the final quarter
REPORTS: Nathan Brown (Collingwood) for high contact on Luke Parker (Sydney Swans) in the second quarter.
OFFICIAL CROWD: 38,408 at the SCG
| 1. Were the Swans playing ducks and drakes? Ruckman Mike Pyke returned to the Swans' side this week after missing the past two games with a knee injury, but he was nowhere to be seen in the pre-match warm up. The big man has been struggling with his knee for the past two months, and when the team's emergency James Rose was seen kitted up in the players' race, the buzz around the SCG was that Pyke was going to be a very late withdrawal, handing Rose his senior debut. When the Swans emerged to crash through their banner the Canadian was amongst the group and took his place at the first bounce in the Swans' forward line. His impact on the match was minimal until a crucial set shot late in the final term, but it seems his dodgy knee is still far from 100%. 2. Brown headed for MRP trouble, Parker's season in doubt It's becoming a familiar story whenever Luke Parker takes to the field, and his courage might be starting to give his family, teammates and coach cause for concern. With no regard for his own well-being, the reigning club champion ran back with the flight of the ball in the opening quarter and was almost split in two by Magpie Nathan Brown. The Collingwood defender will have some worries with the MRP, but another heavy knock might have some repercussions for Parker down the track. The footy world loves the way the 22 year-old plays his footy and so do the Swans – he's the youngest player ever voted in the club's leadership group – so hopefully Parker fearlessness doesn't hurt his longevity in the game. Parker's night was to get far worse when he eventually left the ground on a stretcher with what looked a serious leg injury after an awkward tackle early in the final term. Jarrad McVeigh was pessimistic after the game on Parker's chances of playing again this year, while John Longmire said that the midfielder had likely suffered a broken ankle. |
3. The battle of the Reids Sam and Ben Reid were one of two sets of brothers trotting around on the SCG in round 20, with Kieren and Brandon Jack also part of the Swans' line-up alongside the younger Reid. While the pair have spent plenty of time in defence for their respective sides, they both played forward and hit the scoreboard in the opening half. Sam eventually finished with 15 touches, six marks and kicked two important goals for the Swans, while Ben was subbed out in the last quarter without having any significant impact on the game. The Swans won a vitally important match and the younger Reid took the bragging rights. 4. Mitchell brings his own footy Swans midfielder Tom Mitchell has always been a ball magnet, but he took it to a new level on the Friday night stage. The nuggety left footer burst out of the blocks with 14 touches in the opening term, and went into the long break with 27 to his name, and on track for a half century at the SCG. He ran out of steam after half time however and didn't get to raise the bat, finishing with 15 kicks and 26 handballs for a total of 41 possessions, 18 of them contested. It was a fantastic individual game from the 22-year-old, and in such a tight contest his first half exploits were just about match-winning. 5. Pendles hobbled but all class The Collingwood captain looked hampered by a lower back problem all night and just didn't look himself, but battled through. Pendlebury spent plenty of time on the bench, and at times looked like he might be subbed out of the game. The skipper went forward in the final term and kicked an inspirational goal for the Pies to give them a lead, but despite a 31-possession game he couldn't will his men over the line. The loss just about spells the end for Collingwood's season but it was through no fault of their leader. |
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Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says he hopes his side has learned a lesson after the Magpies' finals hopes were dashed by the Sydney Swans on Friday night. The visitors gave the Swans a hell of a fright and led early in the final term, before eventually losing by 11-points at the SCG. Buckley was clearly disappointed that his team had come so close to pulling off an upset against the Swans, yet had again failed to grab the points. "We set ourselves for this week and treated it like a final, and it feels like we've lost a final because really our finals hopes were on the line tonight and we weren't able to get the result we wanted," Buckley said. "It's not a great feeling when you perform ok but you fall short, it's not acceptable, it's not going to get us where we want to get to, so we need to do better." The Pies dominated the third term for long periods and led by nine points twice in the quarter before giving up six of the last eight goals of the game, when they looked like the better side. Collingwood had more contested possessions and won the inside 50 count but kicked a wasteful 4.7 in the third quarter when they had all the play. Buckley said his team needed to get the basics of footy right. "The best sides do the little things well all the time, and the message to the players after the game was that it just doesn't happen," Buckley said. "You don't go from where we are, a competitive side, to a consistently winning side without making that step yourself. "No one else does it for you, the opposition aren't going to make it easy for you. "We need to kick the goals when they need to be kicked, we need to press up on a forward and spoil the ball when it needs to be spoiled, we need to hit targets when they're there to be hit. "It's quite a simple game but it's done under severe pressure and it's done against teams that are trying to prevent you from doing the basics well, so we've still got to get better at that." With three rounds to play this season the Pies coach refused to give up on the year, and said how Collingwood finishes off the season will carry them into 2016. "As far as I'm concerned we want to put pressure on ourselves and we want to be challenged by games that have high pressure in them," Buckley said. "We'll end up playing top eight sides in the next couple of weeks and we'll go into next week treating it like it's a game that we desperately want to win. "Our pride is a bit wounded at the moment but we dust off and go again."" THE SYDNEY Swans have overcome a final-quarter deficit and the loss of gun midfielder Luke Parker to injury to keep their teetering top-two hopes alive, grinding out an 11-point win over Collingwood at the SCG on Friday night. The Swans used a three-goal burst after losing Parker to a likely season-ending right ankle injury in the final quarter to take control, running out 13.9 (87) to 10.16 (76) winners. With the victory, the Swans temporarily jumped back inside the top four at the expense of the Western Bulldogs. Tom Mitchell had a career-high 41 possessions (26 handballs) for the winners, who improved their record to 13-6 and won for just the second time in their past five matches. The defeat almost certainly ends Collingwood's finals aspirations, and the loss was the seventh in its past eight games. The Pies held a lead of just over a goal several times in the second half, but could never land the knockout blow as they fell to 9-10 for the season. It was yet another heartbreaking defeat for the Pies following narrow losses to Hawthorn, Richmond, Fremantle and Port Adelaide. Dane Swan was at his prolific best for the Pies with 38 possessions, while Steele Sidebottom (32 possessions) and Jordan de Goey (11 tackles) were prominent. The returning Travis Cloke grabbed four first-quarter marks, but ended the night with just 1.1. Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said the loss was another example of the Pies not taking their chances in front of goal. “Goal kicking is part of the game, and it’s something that’s cost us on a couple of occasions," he said. “It probably cost us the Hawthorn game, and it’s probably cost us this game. We kicked 3.5 from 15-30 metres out from set shots, and it’s bad footy." The match was the first at the SCG between the teams since round four in 2000, with the previous 13 clashes played at ANZ Stadium, Collingwood winning 10 of them. The Swans came into the match without spearhead Lance Franklin (back), and as well as Parker going down, held firm despite Isaac Heeney struggling with an apparent hip injury after falling hard in a fourth-quarter marking contest, and Dane Rampe on and off the bench in the final term. Parker immediately clutched at his right leg after a heavy tackle by Taylor Adams in the centre of the SCG, and the ashen-faced midfielder was taken from the ground on a stretcher. Earlier, the Pies dictated terms in the third quarter, doubling their half-time score and taking a five-point lead at the last change. Gary Rohan kept Sydney in the game with two booming set-shot goals from outside 50 metres, and veteran Adam Goodes added his second of the night. They were among four players to kick two goals for Sydney, with no-one managing more than one major for the visitors. Swans coach John Longmire was pleased with the ability of his side to fight back after Collingwood dominated the third quarter. “It looked as though they were well on top of us, so it was a good sign to be able to fight back from that," he said. “They were clearly on top, and we were a little bit fortunate they didn’t kick those opportunities that they had in the third term.” The Swans coach felt his side had periods where they handballed far too much. “We should have taken the opportunity to go forward a bit more by foot, and that put pressure on us and forced us to over handball," he said. The Swans took a five-point lead into half time, with Collingwood managing to turn the tables after a lacklustre start. The Swans booted the opening three goals and clearly looked the better side in the first term, keeping Collingwood without an inside 50 for over 13 minutes. But the Pies rallied late, Jamie Elliott's classy finish on the run from the boundary line helping his side reduce its deficit to seven points at quarter-time. Nathan Brown was reported for the Pies early in the second term for a crude challenge on Parker in a marking contest, but his side continued to make the running, De Goey slotting a great finish on his left foot to bring the visitors back within a point. The Swans continued to set up much of their attack off half-back with Rhyce Shaw the spark, but Collingwood's increasing pressure caused Sydney to over-use the handball the longer the quarter went, negating their slingshot approach. The second term turned into a slog more akin to a wet-weather contest, Goodes' set shot 13 minutes into the quarter the final goal of the first half as Collingwood couldn't quite get its nose in front. |
THEY have struggled for the best part of two months but there is still life in the Swans after a courageous 11-point win over Collingwood at the SCG. The gutsy come from behind win was in front of the biggest crowd for the year (38,408) and keeps their top four chances alive with three games to go and puts an end to the Magpies finals hopes. Nathan Buckley’s men have now lost seven of their last eight matches with their only win coming against Carlton last week. But Sydney’s win came at a high price with star midfielder Luke Parker suffering what looks to be a season-ending injury. Parker became tangled up with Magpie Taylor Adams in a last quarter tackle in the middle of the ground which trapped his right leg underneath him and bent in a way it shouldn’t. The game was held up for five minutes while he was treated by medical staff and stretchered off the field. Scans tomorrow will determine the level of the damage. Co-captain Jarrad McVeigh said after the game Parker had told him he’d broken something when he was lying on the ground waiting for the stretcher. Evidence of just how serious the injury must be came two minutes into the second quarter when Parker was hit with a very high and very heavy bump from Collingwood defender Nathan Brown. Most players would have been knocked out but the force of such contact if not taken a few minutes to recover. The Swans best and fairest bounced to his feet and played on apparently unaffected. Brown could be spending some time on the sidelines himself in the coming weeks. The bump looked worse than the one Essendon’s Adam Cooney put on the Giants Stephen Coniglio last week. Cooney received just a one week suspension and Coniglio was concussed while Parker looked unaffected the AFL spoke out strongly during the week saying the tribunal should have enforced a longer ban. The injury looked to be a turning point in the match which Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury goaled minutes later to put his team in front by six points. The home side responded to kick the next three goals for the match through Sam Reid, Brandon Jack and Lewis Jetta. Jamie Elliott had a shot for goal in the last minute which would have tied the scores but rushed the kick and pulled his shot wide. Tom Mitchell was the star of the night for Sydney racking up 41 possessions including 18 contested in a career best performance. The Swans midfield responded after a bad loss to Geelong with Kennedy (34 disposals), McVeigh (34) Hannebery (31) and Jack (30) all getting plenty of the ball. Brandon Jack had his best game as well kicking two important goals and making the tackle of the night. In his first game back at the SCG Adam Goodes was booed by a section of Collingwood fans and while it wasn’t loud it was clearly noticeable. The same group of supporters also waved tissues at the Swans champ who kicked two goals but had a quiet night touching the ball just 14 times. In the first game between the Swans and Magpies at the SCG in 15 years both teams made the most of it sharing the ball around and not overdoing the defensive part of the game with a massive 836 disposals for the match. They say you learn the most about your character under extreme adversity. Sydney's moment of truth came early in the last quarter and what they produced in the following half hour showed they will not give up this year's flag without an almighty fight. Sydney are back in the top four and Collingwood's season is shot after the Swans showed all their trademark heart and courage to produce one of the most stirring victories of the year. The Swans' 11-point win, however, has come at a huge cost after reigning best and fairest winner Luke Parker was carried off on a stretcher with what appears to be a serious leg injury. Parker had his right leg caught in a tangle after a hard but fair tackle from Taylor Adams. The Swans midfielder was writhing in agony though it was unclear whether he had hurt his knee, lower leg or ankle. The incident came moments after Isaac Heeney landed heavily in a marking contest and with Jeremy Laidler already subbed out, the Swans were left with just two fit men on the bench, one of whom was Heeney. But just when all the odds were with the Magpies, the Swans tapped deep into their reserves. Goals to Sam Reid, Brandon Jack and Lewis Jetta turned probable defeat into an inspiring victory. Senior Swans Dan Hannebery, Kieren Jack, Jarrad McVeigh and Josh Kennedy amassed massive numbers but it was Tom Mitchell who rose most, collecting a career-best 41 disposals. The Magpies, despite the best efforts of Dane Swan and Steele Sidebottom, bowed out but lost no admirers, however, they will be ruing a string of narrow defeats against some of the competition's elite. The Swans, as they did in their last SCG appearance, started with energy and purpose. Led by a midfield desperate to atone after a torrid night in Geelong, the Swans were fierce at the contest, found space when they had the ball and were manic when they did not to win it back. It took Sydney nine minutes for their first goal but by time on they were 20 points up. The lead, however, should have been far greater had Heeney, proving dangerous with his speed and strong marking, converted his early dominance to goals. A one-act affair beckoned but the Magpies, hitherto dictated to by their more experienced opponents, hung on. Jamie Elliott found space inside 50 to goal and moments later Travis Varcoe, after a mistake from McVeigh, screwed one in from the boundary line. The Magpies' intensity lifted in the second term to a level more in keeping with a side playing for their season. An arm wrestle ensued. Every possession was hard earned and metres not easily gained. Key forwards playing as well as Travis Cloke in such circumstances are priceless. He was leading Ted Richards a merry dance but fortunately for the Swans he was needed higher up the ground, otherwise he would have had more than one goal in the first half. If the Swans thought they were under pressure, it was to increase again after half time. The Magpies were not just challenging, they had become the better side. They hit the front through Darcy Moore, who was playing some game for one in his first season, and their belief grew further when Marley Williams goaled on the run. Able to break the lines with fluency early, the Swans were now finding roadblocks. Their most meaningful incursions inside 50 were coming from centre breaks following Magpies goals. Gary Rohan was proving their talisman - and he needed to be with Kurt Tippett splitting his time in the ruck and forward and Lance Franklin in the stands. Twice he marked hard on the lead in the third term and both times he goaled but consecutive goals were proving hard to come by. When Pendlebury kicked the first of the last term to give his team the lead the odds were in the Pies' favour but the game was about to take a dramatic turn. |
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