| 2017 AFL Round 8 COLLINGWOOD v GWS Time & Place: Saturday May 13, 4:35pm EST Sydney Showground Stadium TV: 7mate / Fox Footy 4:30pm EST Weather: Min 13 Max 21 Betting: Collingwood $4.20 GWS $1.23 |
COLLINGWOOD 1.3.9 3.5.23 7.6.48 8.8.56
GOALS - Collingwood: Elliott 3, De Goey 2, Fasolo, Cox, Moore
BEST - Collingwood: Reid, Elliott, Adams, Pendlebury
INJURIES - Collingwood: Daniel Wells was a late withdrawal due to soreness and replaced in the selected side by Tim Broomhead, Mason Cox (ankle)
REPORTS - Collingwood: Nil
OFFICIAL CROWD - 70,279 at the MCG
| 1. Pressure back on as Pies' party is spoiled This was a demolition from the arch-enemy the Collingwood faithful will find impossible to bear. That the Magpies' fifth loss for the season came on the day it chose to celebrate its 125th anniversary puts enormous pressure on the club and coach Nathan Buckley who is in the final year of his contract. It was more of the same for Magpie fans, with Collingwood's inability to score stemming from skill errors and poor decisions when entering its forward 50. The twin talls for Collingwood, Darcy Moore and Mason Cox, were ineffective with the Blues taking close to 20 intercept marks and Moore taking his first mark in the first minute of the last quarter, which led to his first kick. Alex Fasolo and then Jamie Elliott both missed set shots late just to ram home what has gone wrong at Collingwood in 2017. 2. Brendon Bolton teaching us he can coach He might not give much away when the cameras are rolling but Bolton can clearly coach. He once again manufactured a game that limited Collingwood's run through the corridor, denying it opportunities to score. He backed in his tall defenders to mark high balls and he rotated the forwards so the Magpies could not create run out of defence or rebound the ball. Add in his five wins when he stood in to coach Hawthorn, he has 15 wins from 34 games and is building a team with the right mix of youth and experience to compete and get supporters excited. He has only won one fewer game than Buckley as coach since he took over the Blues at the start of 2016. This was a demolition from the arch-enemy the Collingwood faithful will find impossible to bear. |
3. Daisy puts a nail in the coffin Having played VFL a week earlier and had his career questioned early in the season, Collingwood premiership player Dale Thomas was almost a forgotten man. His move to Carlton has already been filed away as a misstep. However, early in the final quarter with some hope remaining in Collingwood's hearts, Thomas grabbed the ball on the half-forward flank and took off. He ran bouncing the ball inside 50 and sold some candy before kicking a banana goal to stretch the lead to five majors and put the game out of the Magpies' reach. 4. Petrevski-Seton means class The No.6 draft pick is held such high esteem at Carlton he played in round one, despite not playing in a JLT Community Series game. It's easy to see why. Petrevski-Seton kicked two first half-goals on Saturday including the opener at the 13-minute mark of the first quarter but it was his class that stood out. On one occasion during the second quarter he rode the boundary line before spearing a kick inside to hit Bryce Gibbs on the chest. It came at a time when Collingwood was stabilising. He had 10 disposals in the second quarter to take control and finished the game with 22 disposals and 10 contested possessions. 5. Pies suffer from Wells' workload Despite being out on the ground in his boots checking out conditions before the warm-up, Daniel Wells was a late withdrawal when the teams were lodged. The Magpies said it was a pre-determined move with the 32-year-old not able to come up for his third game in 12 days. His loss was huge however as the Magpies were already without Travis Varcoe's run out of defence. It made their ball movement in the first half stagnant and created uncertainty in the minds of the Magpie forwards. |
| THE MEDIA | |
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Carlton's promising future shone through the MCG gloom on Saturday to snatch the spotlight from arch-rival Collingwood's 125th birthday celebrations. Tales of the Pies' rich history have been told all week, giddily coming off the back of what hinted at being a season-turning victory over Geelong a week ago. Instead it was the Blues who reigned supreme, posting a 12.7 (79) to 8.8 (56) triumph in front of a pro-Collingwood crowd of 70,279 that welcomed them with boos pre-match. Carlton banked back-to-back wins for the first time since rounds 10 and 11 last year, adding to the win over Sydney, and put a smile on second-year coach Brendon Bolton's face. Former Magpie favourite Dale Thomas, recalled for the date with his old side, rubbed salt into the wounds when he capped a multiple-bounce dash with a close-range goal. That sent Carlton 30 points clear inside the first five minutes of the fourth term to snuff out any hope of a Collingwood ambush. Alex Fasolo and Jamie Elliott (three goals) had chances within minutes of one another to bring the Pies within range, but each misfired to continue the season-long goalkicking nightmare. Last year's No.6 draft pick, Sam Petrevski-Seton, was outstanding from the outset, gathering 14 of his 22 disposals and kicking two of the Blues' goals in an electric opening half. The West Australian could easily deliver Carlton consecutive NAB AFL Rising Star nominations, after Caleb Marchbank got the nod last week. There is more where that comes from at the Blues, with 2015 top pick Jacob Weitering, Charlie Curnow, Nick Graham and Lachie Plowman also showing impressive glimpses. Usual suspects Marc Murphy, Patrick Cripps, Bryce Gibbs, Sam Docherty and Kade Simpson are accustomed to toiling away in a futile cause, but must be buoyed at what they are seeing. Carlton stood up to a brief Collingwood challenge early in the second term – the margin sliced to just one point – before shooting three-goals clear at half-time. But the Blues truly skipped away in a high-octane third quarter, benefiting from their greater efficiency going forward. Gibbs shot Carlton a match-high 36 point lead when he rode a bump, found an opening and finished wonderfully on the run before saluting the Blues' faithful. NATHAN Buckley says the critics would "have to be blind" not to acknowledge his players were tired after a disastrous loss to rivals Carlton. The Pies' third game in 12 days was a 23-point surrender to the Blues on the club's 125th birthday. With Buckley coaching for his career, Collingwood is now 2-5 with Greater Western Sydney in Sydney to come. Buckley said his side was "outbodied, outmuscled and out-grunted" by the rebuilding Blues, but pointed to fatigue as a factor after clashes against Essendon (April 25) and Geelong (April 30). The demanding schedule was deemed too much for new recruit Daniel Wells, who was a late withdrawal against the Blues. "You'd have to be blind to the reality or ignorant of that if you thought it had no influence," Buckley said. "It does surprise us because we expect more than that, but logic would tell you that with a couple of short breaks in a row that ... and a lot of our decision making was around trying to think 'OK, we're going to need fresh legs as often as we can'. "But we just looked like we'd lost a yard today, so how much impact that had I don't know. We're not going to take credit away from the opposition and they defended really well and were far harder than us at the contest, they wanted it more and executed their plan a lot better. "But it goes into the mix; it's a factor." However, Collingwood yet again butchered the ball inside 50m and overused handball in wet conditions to leave its forward line floundering. The Magpies have this season goaled from only 19.1 per cent of forward 50m entries - on track for the worst season on record. They rank fourth for inside 50m entries, yet 17th for goals scored. Carlton defenders took 13 marks from Collingwood kicks inside 50m in what Buckley said was a "system issue". "It's partially the decision, it's partially the execution and it's partially the contest. It was costly for us today," Buckley said. "Our ability to execute going forward and to keep our shape wasn't great today. Credit to Carlton, they defended pretty well and we didn't seem to have the execution or the legs to move the ball in the manner we wanted. "We knew that it was going to be a dour game, that it was going to be a contested ball game and that's where they were much better than us. "Most of our games have been really tight. At the very least we grind it out, but we want to be better than that and we've shown we can play better than that. Today we were off." |
Carlton have crashed Collingwood's 125th anniversary party, downing their old foes by 23 points in a dominant display at the MCG. The comprehensive 12.7 (79) to 8.8 (56) victory was their third from as many games. The Blues were by far the more polished side in front of a bumper 70,279 crowd on Saturday . Carlton's top draft pick Sam Petrevski-Seton delivered the best performance of his brief career, showing remarkable composure and creativity to kick two goals and deliver 22 disposals in slippery conditions. Skipper Marc Murphy led from the front with 30 touches, Levi Casboult booted two majors and Kade Simpson and Sam Docherty were rock solid down back. Jamie Elliott led the Magpies with three goals but the Magpies were soundly beaten in the midfield, with skipper Scott Pendlebury and the returning Jordan De Goey among their few contributors. So impressive during last week's win over Geelong, the Pies reverted to form with a dismal performance which will leave coach Nathan Buckley facing renewed scrutiny. It was the same old issues for Buckley's men - dreadful ball movement, ineffective forward entries and a lack of composure under pressure. The Blues led by three goals at halftime and built their lead after the break as Collingwood - playing their third game in 12 days and sorely missing Daniel Wells after his late withdrawal - continued to butcher the ball. Consecutive goals to Elliott cut the deficit to 23 points at three-quarter time, only for Dale Thomas to rub salt in the Magpies' wounds with a fine running goal against his old team. The loss is bound to raise further questions about Collingwood's forward structure - young tall Darcy Moore only had one shot at goal, which he converted midway through the final quarter. The Pies have just two wins from their first seven games and their hopes of making the finals - which Buckley last year predicted would need to happen for him to save his job - are slipping away fast. CARLTON was harder in the contest and wanted to win the ball more than Collingwood according to disappointed Magpies' coach Nathan Buckley. The blunt assessment came as the Blues upset the Magpies' anniversary celebrations at the MCG on Saturday to record a 23-point victory. Buckley said you would have to be blind or ignorant to not think playing three games in just 12 days played a role in the flat performance but it was not an excuse. "We just looked like we had lost a yard today so how much impact that had I don't know," Buckley said. The timing caused Collingwood to rest playmaker Daniel Wells, which robbed it of run particularly with Travis Varcoe missing through injury. "We don't think one player was going to make the difference today," Buckley said. "It was actually a system issue and we had too many passengers on the day to be able to execute what we wanted to do." Not only did the result ruin the day's events for the Magpies but it came close to eliminating Collingwood's flickering finals chances as it stalled near the bottom of the ladder with two wins and five losses after seven rounds. The same problems that have bedevilled Collingwood's season reappeared with Carlton's defenders marking the Magpies' forward 50 entries. That restricted the Magpies to just eight goals from 44 entries and two errant set shots late in the game from Alex Fasolo and Jamie Elliott reminded everyone of the inaccuracy that has been a consistent theme of the season. "They defended really well, [were] far harder than us at the contest, they wanted it more and they executed their plans a lot better than we executed ours," Buckley said. Elliott was among Collingwood's best with Darcy Moore having a dirty day inside 50, with just two touches up until three-quarter time while its midfield was beaten in contested ball. "We just didn't have enough winners in their position on the day and it doesn't matter how long footy has been around for when you don't get that, inevitably that dictates the result," Buckley said. The Magpies head to Spotless Stadium to take on Greater Western Sydney attempting to rebound from a loss to St Kilda having not yet lost a game to the Giants. "We're not happy with the loss today. It's a disappointing loss but we butter up and we go again," Buckley said. "It's partially the decision, it's partially the execution and it's partially the contest. It was costly for us today. Our ability to execute going forward and to keep our shape wasn't great today." |
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