Round 18: Collingwood 130 North Melbourne 64

THE FACTS

2018 AFL Round 19 COLLINGWOOD v RICHMOND Time & Place: Saturday July 28, 1:45pm EST MCG Fox Footy 1:30pm EST Weather: Min 8 Max 15 Chance of rain 0% Wind: SE 13kph Betting: Collingwood $3.10 Richmond $1.37

COLLINGWOOD           7.2.44  13.3.81  15.5.95  20.10.130
NORTH MELBOURNE  2.3.15    5.6.36    7.7.49      9.10.64

GOALS - Collingwood: De Goey 4, Mihocek 4, Hoskin-Elliott 3, Stephenson 3, Grundy, Adams, Phillips, Greenwood, Cox, Thomas

BEST - Collingwood: Pendlebury, Adams, De Goey, Howe, Sidebottom, Mihocek, Hoskin-Elliott

INJURIES - Collingwood: Moore (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Daicos

REPORTS - Collingwood: Nil

OFFICIAL CROWD - 50,393 at the MCG

TALKING POINTS

1. Collingwood responds to Richmond challenge So much of the talk after Richmond's Friday night domination of St Kilda was about how the Tigers were clearly the best team in the competition. That's hard to dispute, but the Magpies had their say against North Melbourne, making the Roos looks second rate. There were worries about how the backline would cope after the very late withdrawal of Darcy Moore, but it didn't matter because Collingwood owned the football in the opening quarter and didn't give North a sniff. The clash next Saturday afternoon at the home of football between the Tigers and Pies is one to savour. 2. Moore hamstring worries Darcy Moore suffered a hamstring issue for the third time this season and was withdrawn from the side after taking part in the warm-up. He was replaced by Josh Daicos and while that swap didn't change the result, the signs are concerning for the out-of-contract swingman. His value is surely limited if Collingwood can't rely on the 22-year-old's body, especially so close to finals time. In terms of the on-field impact, Ben Brown seemed set for a field day when Jeremy Howe lined up on Coleman Medal leader. However, despite giving up 10cm, Howe took the points in that contest, keeping Brown to two goals. 3. North's top-eight odds go south This was a particularly important clash for North as it looked to claim an unlikely finals berth. The odds of that happening lengthened though after the Roos were soundly beaten. Losing has obvious implications but the percentage drop, from 114.2 to 108, hurt a lot as well, considering the logjam of teams scrapping to make the eight. With West Coast (Blundstone Arena), the in-form Brisbane (Gabba) and Adelaide (Adelaide Oval) all to come in the run home, and needing three victories to lock in that 12-win mark that typically assures a finals spot (although perhaps even that might not be enough this season), Brad Scott's men will need to come home like a steam train to book their spot in September. 4. Horror day for Thompson It's been a good year for Scott Thompson and the 32-year-old will probably receive another contract from the Roos, as the club's football manager Cameron Joyce seemed to indicate to AFL.com.au. Against Collingwood though, he had an absolute nightmare. On three different occasions he had to leave the field bleeding profusely from his nose, sporting bandaging around his head for much of the contest. With blood spurting everywhere, Thompson required multiple changes of his jumper and shorts. Things didn't go much better for him otherwise, as Brody Mihocek and Jordan De Goey both beat him in one-on-one contests deep in North's defence as the Magpies ran rampant. 5. Pies skipper comes up with his own form of bird control Winged creatures have long been a blight for spectators at the MCG. Matches have sometimes seemingly featured more seagulls than players, and the sight of birds flying out of the area as the football comes their way happens reasonably often. After different attempts to keep them away, including wires over the top of the ground and even fake eagles to scare off their smaller cousins, Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury took matters into his own hands on Saturday. With a pigeon providing an obstacle for the midfielder as he looked to send the ball deep into the forward line, Pendlebury went to bounce the football and collected a pigeon right on its head, sending it to the ground. For those concerned, the bird made an impressive recovery and flew away, seemingly unharmed.

THE MEDIA

SUPERFOOTY NATHAN Buckley told a fans forum late last year that his Collingwood 2018 side wasn’t going to copy reigning premier Richmond’s handbook. He was surely having a lend of us. If you disregarded the black and white colours at the MCG, and just focused on the manner of Collingwood’s dominant performance against North Melbourne, you would have been forgiven for thinking it was Richmond feasting on the hapless Kangaroos. Fast ball movement, relentless pressure all over the ground, ferocious tackling, multiple scoring options in attack and the ability for 22 players to connect … all of those elements combined to deal a savage blow to the Kangaroos’ finals aspirations. The day after Richmond put St Kilda to the sword, Collingwood shook off a rare poor performance against West Coast last week with one of their most complete games of the season. Now it sets up a mouth-watering clash with the Tigers next Saturday afternoon. So what’s changed since the Tigers finished like a freight train in Round 6 to overrun a tired but extremely competitive Collingwood to win by 43 points? Plenty. Whether it’s enough to bridge the gap between the two teams remains to be seen, but a swelling crowd of 90,000-plus — which would be the highest between these two old foes since the 1980 Grand Final — is about to find out. This time Collingwood won’t be coming off a four-day break, which perhaps accounted for part of the Tigers’ eight-goal-to-three final term on that April Sunday afternoon. Leg speed wasn’t an issue for the Magpies against the Kangaroos, and the ballistic, blistering style in which they ran with the ball is surely going to be needed if they have any hope of breaking Richmond’s extraordinary 17-game winning streak at the MCG. Back in late April, Jordan De Goey had only played three games for the season, was still uncontracted for 2019, and had kicked only three goals for the year, including one against Richmond. Since then, he’s not only locked in two more seasons, he has become one of the most dangerous players in the competition. He’s not Dustin Martin, but as he grows in confidence, there are similarities, and he was outstanding with four goals (one in each quarter) on Saturday. Collingwood had seven different players in the team that beat North to the one that faced Richmond in Round 6. Sure, they have lost key players such as Adam Treloar, Lynden Dunn and Ben Reid, but they have found some along the way, too. He will be front and centre on Saturday after kicking four goals, and you can see why Buckley resisted the temptation to push him back when Darcy Moore was a late withdrawal. The Magpies had 10 goalkickers yesterday, with Will Hoskin-Elliott continuing his best season with three more goals, and Jayden Stephenson put another significant down payment on the AFL Rising Star award with three goal Josh Daicos played his best game in Collingwood colours and combines pressure with some poise, Taylor Adams missed the Tigers’ game last time and was enormous yesterday, while somehow the Magpies’ back half — led by Jeremy Howe, Matt Scharenberg and Tom Langdon who did good jobs on their opponents — stands up under pressure, despite the injury issues. And the midfield of Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Adams and Josh Thomas, Brodie Grundy and others is a difficult proposition for any team. Richmond against a resurgent Collingwood who has modelled itself on the Tigers? In a year in which the style of the game has been an endless and often negative source of discussion and debate, that’s gotta be a good thing. AFL COLLINGWOOD has consolidated its top-four spot and severely dented North Melbourne's finals aspirations with an imposing 66-point victory at the MCG on Saturday. The Magpies emphatically rebounded from their flat round 17 loss to West Coast, rocking the Roos with an opening six-goal burst that effectively ended the contest after just 21 minutes. The Pies did not let up after that, outclassing the Kangaroos with their ball movement and rattling them with their manic attack on the ball and man to inflict their biggest loss of the season. Increasing their lead at every break, the Magpies romped to a 20.10 (130) to 9.10 (64) win that underlined their status as a credible premiership contender and set up a mouth-watering contest against reigning premier Richmond next Saturday at the MCG. Midfielders Scott Pendlebury (30 possessions and four clearances), Taylor Adams (28 possessions and a game-high 10 tackles) and Steele Sidebottom (24 possessions) set the tone for Collingwood from the get-go, while Brodie Grundy (17 possessions, 28 hit-outs and one goal) won an entertaining ruck contest against Todd Goldstein. Collingwood again had a good spread of goalkickers, with Jordan De Goey (four), Brody Mihocek (four), Jaidyn Stephenson (three) and Will Hoskin-Elliott (three) far more than North's embattled defence could handle. After Darcy Moore withdrew 15 minutes before the game with hamstring tightness, Jeremy Howe was given the big job on Ben Brown and rose to the occasion, holding the Coleman Medal leader to two goals, while he was well in defence supported by Matthew Scharenberg. The Magpies' win was their fourth from their past five meetings against the Roos, and their eighth from their past nine games this year. North has now lost three of its past four games, while Saturday's thumping slashed its percentage by more than six points (114.16 at the start of the round down to 108.0) and made its finals bid that much harder. Ninth at the start of the round, the Roos slid to 10th, below Hawthorn (113.97 per cent), with the Hawks still to play last-placed Carlton on Sunday. North's previous biggest losing margin this year was 37 points, against Melbourne in round three and Geelong in round 12, with its improved defence one of the features of its outstanding first half of the season. The Magpies' score was the biggest the Roos have conceded this year. Ben Cunnington (30 possessions, five clearances and seven tackles) was North's best on a horror day for the club, while Shaun Higgins (33 possessions and seven clearances) never stopped trying and Robbie Tarrant was valiant in holding Magpies spearhead Mason Cox to one goal despite Collingwood's inside 50 dominance (57-44). But it was Scott Thompson who summed up North's day. The veteran sported a bandage around his nose after a first-quarter clash and was forced from the ground under the blood rule on numerous occasions as he – and the Kangaroos – struggled to stem the bleeding. With Adams, Pendlebury and Sidebottom dominating in the midfield, Collingwood controlled the ball in the first term, winning the possession count by a remarkable 47 (116-69) and the inside 50s by eight (18-10). The Pies capitalised on that dominance with slick and assured ball movement that tore through North's defences and presented their forwards with regular gift-wrapped opportunities. Mihocek was the main beneficiary in attack, kicking four goals. Collingwood's finishing was clinical too. It converted its opening six shots on goal – North missed its first three shots – and led by 35 points before two late Roos majors helped reduce the quarter-time margin to 29 points. The Magpies stretched their lead to 41 points when they kicked the opening two goals of the second term. North then showed some fight, kicking three of the next four majors – the first two via Ben Brown – to close the deficit to 27 points at the 21-minute mark. But Collingwood quickly snuffed out any hopes of a Roos revival, piling on three late goals through Cox, Stephenson and Hoskin-Elliott, to go into the main break 45 points up. MEDICAL ROOM Collingwood: Darcy Moore was late withdrawal with hamstring soreness just 15 minutes before the opening bounce. NEXT UP The Magpies face ladder-leader Richmond at the MCG next Saturday, having lost five of their previous six games against the Tigers. REAL FOOTY The first shock for Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday wasn't a pleasant one, when defender Darcy Moore was a late withdrawal, having completed much of the pre-game warm-ups ahead of the clash against North Melbourne. The second was far more palatable and came soon after, when Brody Mihocek emerged as the unlikely first-term star, booting three goals. When the Magpies had another surprise, this time enjoying their best opening term of the season, booting seven goals against one of the better defensive sides, it was clear this was to be a day to remember for the black-and-white faithful. And so it proved, as the Magpies strode to a 66-point win, strengthening their hold on a top-four berth, while leaving the Kangaroos dealing with their heaviest defeat of the season and facing an increasingly tough battle to make the finals. The Pies' victory also added to the anticipation ahead of next Saturday's blockbuster against the league-leading Tigers at the MCG. There were several reasons for the Pies' dominance, established when booting the opening six goals, while storming to a 45-point break by half-time, but it was hard to go past their meticulous kicking for goal. The Pies converted a stunning 11.1 from set shots in the first half, the Roos left to lament their 4.5. Mihocek, criticised for his inability to make Eagle Jeremy McGovern accountable last week, had a burst he won't forget in a hurry. In his seventh senior match, the mature-age recruit snapped the opening goal, followed up minutes later with a mark over Scott Thompson and goal, and capitalised on a bullocking Steele Sidebottom play later in the term to mark and goal. He finished with four majors, equalling the tally he had on debut against Fremantle in round 11, and was one of 10 goal-kickers. When the contest was on the line in the first term, the Roos failed to lift. The Pies had 11 more contested possessions and 32 more uncontested possessions and, most damning of all for their opponents, even led the tackle count 11-7 by the first break, extending this to 82-46 by the final siren. Despite this, coach Nathan Buckley was still unhappy with his staff on the bench, and made his feelings clear during the break to the point he was late returning to the coaches' box in the second term. The Pies meant business. The Roos showed greater purpose in the second term, and a 14-7 advantage in contested possessions highlighted their renewed vigour as Ben Brown booted two quick goals. But the Pies rebounded, and this contest was effectively over. The Roos' medical staff deserved double pay for the regular assistance they gave their bloodied players, in particular the heavily-bandaged Thompson, who had a horror afternoon on Mihocek and De Goey. The latter was at his brilliant best, reinforcing why the Roos had sought his signature. He began in the midfield before pushing forward and creating havoc, finishing with 19 touches, six tackles and four goals. De Goey's ability to trap the ball early in the third term and successfully snap from about 45m was a highlight. Pies skipper Scott Pendlebury and Taylor Adams were in the thick of things. They were tough at the contest, tackled hard and set the tone. Sam Murray, returning to the side, provided great run on a day when the Magpies spread an opponent lacking the run to stay in the game. Josh Daicos, having replaced Moore, had arguably his best game, claiming a career-high 23 disposals, while Will Hoskin-Elliott was dangerous up forward. Jaidyn Stephenson was also lively up forward, to the point defender Marley Williams thought the best way to stop him would be with a crude round-arm hit. All that did was result in a free kick and goal, with the incident to be scrutinised by the match review officer. "It was a good, solid team performance, strong over the majority of the game," Buckley said. Todd Goldstein, another of the bloodied Roos, and Brodie Grundy had an entertaining battle in the ruck. Each pushed forward to convert and essentially negated each other. Missing the injured Jarrad Waite and Mason Wood, the Roos again sent Majak Daw forward. He was a lively foil alongside Brown but the supply was poor. Shaun Higgins and Ben Cunnington worked hard but skipper Jack Ziebell had a day to forget, having only three touches to half-time and 10 for the match. "We got caught holding the ball then had our tackles broken. Probably Ben Cunnington was the difference in terms of how strong he looked in the contest. He was near on impossible to tackle today but he was a bit of a lone hand in that part of the game," Roos coach Brad Scott said. "Probably the over-riding thing for me is that we haven't lost any faith in what we have done this season ... today was just a really bad day, a really bad day. The interchange bench looked like an emergency ward and, unfortunately, all the blood rules were significant. They required stitching so they were off for long periods of the game."