2018 Second Semi-Final Collingwood 69 Greater Western Sydney 59

THE FACTS

2018 AFL First Preliminary Final COLLINGWOOD v RICHMOND Time & Place: Friday September 21, 7:50pm EST MCG TV: Prime7 7:30pm / Fox Footy 7:00pm Weather: Min 9 Max 18 Chance of rain 10%: < 1mm Wind: WSW 8kph Betting: Collingwood $2.85 Richmond $1.42

COLLINGWOOD   3.6.24   4.9.33   6.12.48   9.15.69
GWS                        0.2.2   4.2.26     7.3.45     9.5.59

GOALS - Collingwood: De Goey 3, Thomas 2, Hoskin-Elliott 2, Mihocek, Varcoe

BEST - Collingwood: De Goey, Sidebottom, Howe, Treloar, Maynard, Adams, Langdon, Phillips

INJURIES - Collingwood: Nil

REPORTS - Collingwood: Nil

OFFICIAL CROWD -  72,504 at the MCG

TALKING POINTS

1. Maynard walks the walk in Greene battle Toby Greene entered the finals series underdone after injury limited him to just seven games in the home and away season – the Giants won all those games bar one, which they drew – but starred in the elimination final win over Sydney with 27 possessions and three goals. With Josh Kelly out injured, Greene loomed as the one Giant the Magpies just had to stop. Collingwood defender Brayden Maynard declared in the lead-up to the game that he was up for the challenge and the 21-year-old backed up his talk on Saturday night. Maynard held Greene goalless, while restricting him to just nine possessions and one mark. Greene was forced off the ground briefly during the second quarter to have an ankle injury assessed, but that did not take anything away from Maynard, who performed his defensive role to near perfection. 2. De Goey stands tall in Magpies' attack On a night when Collingwood's giant, Mason Cox, was cut down to size by Giants co-captain Phil Davis, Jordan De Goey gave the Magpies the aerial target they needed in attack. What De Goey, 187cm, lacks in height he more than makes up for in game sense, forward craft and brute force that often draws comparisons with Richmond bull Dustin Martin. De Goey ran direct opponent Matt Buntine ragged on the lead, taking eight marks for the night. He was also deadly at ground level, expertly roving the crumbs of a spilled Rory Lobb mark to snap a clever goal right on the half-time siren. When he kicked his third and final goal at the five-minute mark of the last quarter, the Pies were 21 points up and, for all intents and purposes, home. 3. Whitfield enhances his growing reputation The Giants entered the semi-final knowing their record without Josh Kelly in 2018 was dismal. Before Saturday night's game, the Giants had won 12 of 16 games with the superstar midfielder in their team, but just two of the seven games they had been without him. With Kelly again on the sidelines through injury, GWS needed someone to cover his class and outside run. Enter Lachie Whitfield. The former No.1 draft pick had already taken his game to a new level in 2018 after settling across half-back and he was again outstanding against the Magpies. Running tirelessly all night, he racked up an equal game-high 31 possessions, eight rebound 50s and four inside 50s, delivering the ball with his usual pin-point precision. Although the Pies' weight of solid contributors through the middle eventually proved too much for GWS, Whitfield, more than anyone, ensured they were a sneaky chance of pinching the win right up until the dying minutes. 4. First term sets up Collingwood's win When the ball was bounced to start Saturday night's cut-throat game, the Magpies were out of the blocks quicker than Usain Bolt, while the Giants trudged off the start line like Cliff Young in concrete gumboots. The Pies smashed GWS in every facet of the game in the first term, winning the possession count 103-72, contested possessions 35-24, clearances 8-3 and inside 50s 21-9. They also locked the ball inside their forward half for most of the term, denying the Giants defenders options up the field and forcing them into a spree of haphazard turnovers. Collingwood held the Giants scoreless for the first 14 minutes and goalless for the term, but didn't fully capitalise on their dominance, finishing with 3.6 for the quarter, including an after-the-siren major from Will Hoskin-Elliott following a fortunate free kick for a hold by Zac Williams.  Fortunately, the Magpies' wastefulness didn't come back to bite them. 5. Tempers flare as Lobb rises and falls GWS big man Rory Lobb played the hero and villain in the space of a minute at the end of the second quarter. First, he showed superb judgment to mark strongly at the back of a seven-man pack and then coolly converted with a curling set shot from 40m. The goal cut the Giants' deficit to just one point, which was somewhat hard to believe given Collingwood's complete dominance in the first quarter. However, Lobb blotted his good work soon after when he botched a marking attempt inside the Pies' forward 50m arc. Unfortunately for him, Jordan De Goey swooped on the crumbs and snapped truly right on the half-time siren to give Collingwood a much-needed boost ahead of the main break. Magpies Taylor Adams and Jaidyn Stephenson did not hesitate to let Lobb know he'd messed up, which sparked an all-in melee that did not break up for several minutes.

THE MEDIA

SUPERFOOTY (Mark Robinson) TALK about colossal. It’s Richmond versus Collingwood on Friday night in the preliminary final and for the next six days all of Melbourne, and all of Victoria, will froth with anticipation and more than likely frustration. The hunt for tickets will be as furious as Charlie searching for the golden ticket from the friends of Willy Wonka. Ticket prices will soar as scalpers, thought to be outlawed, multiply the price. Brothers of friends who are daughters of the bootstudder at both Richmond and Collingwood will be asked for favours. Fans will beg, borrow and steal — and no pun intended in the face of a million jokes — to get themselves to the MCG. There will be tears and ecstasy as fans celebrate and commiserate, and fingers crossed Ticketek doesn’t blow a gasket. When these two teams last met in a big final — the 1980 Grand Final which was attended by 113,461 fans — the teams probably had 5000 members. Today, it’s 100,000 for Richmond and 80,000 for Collingwood. If the ‘G was big enough, they’d get 150,000 on Friday night. For all their history fuelled by suburban hatred across 120 years, they have only played nine finals matches with Richmond winning six and losing three. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire was thrilled. “We’re going Tiger hunting,’’ he said in the rooms. Collingwood won through to the blockbuster weekend by beating Greater Western Sydney by 10 points. It was a slog of a game. There were massive moments from the first bounce, massive quarters from individual players and massive performances from individuals. None more so than Brayden Maynard who kept potential matchwinner, Toby Greene, to nine touches and zero goals. Coach Nathan Buckley was thrilled. As the players sung the song after the game, the coach sung into Maynard’s ear. It was classic post-match show of appreciation and recognition. In the final quarter, when the bodies were screaming for energy, it was Magpies who had the belief. They kicked the first three goals of the quarter, via Travis Varcoe, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Jordan de Goey, and while the Giants never wilted, they will be disappointed. They made mistakes. Himmelberg missed a goal, Cameron missed another, Buntine kicked out on the full, Coniglio had a shot at goal and kicked out on the full. The Pies also missed chances, but they also had major winners. Adam Treloar’s second game back from injury was inspirational. He had 12 disposals, two clearances and four score involvements. Tom Langdon had seven intercept possessions and four intercept marks. He was magnificent. De Goey played the sort of final which was hoped for. He was too quick and too smart for Buntine and Haynes and had a game-high 11 score involvements. Steele Sidebottom was probably best afield and his battle with Lachie Whitefield on a wing in the second half was classical — two champs going head-to-head. In the chaos which is finals football, Sidebottom was the calmest. It was 10 points in the end, but the game rode waves of momentum. The first quarter was Collingwood’s to keep, but their domination was thrown away because of wayward kicking, not unlike Hawthorn in the second quarter the night before. It was an incredibly tough and dominant quarter from the Pies. They won contested ball, possession and inside 50s — at one stage it was 16-2 — but at quarter-time only led 24-2 when it should’ve been 42-2. Their 22 inside 50s for the quarter was the equal most recorded in an opening quarter of a final. The Pies have had grunt under Nathan Buckley for several seasons, but this was relentless. They had the Giants under siege for one of the few times this season, so much so the Giants defence folded by foot. Time and again, they gave the ball back, via Phil Davis twice, Zac Williams, Lachie Whitfield, Rory Lobb, Stephen Coniglio and Sam Reid. It was seven clangers for the quarter, when the AFL average is one. Still, the Pies didn’t use it. Josh Thomas kicked two goals, Mason Cox dropped marks, Jordan de Goey missed, Treloar missed, Stephenson kicked two behinds. Twice Collingwood kicked goals on siren in the first and second quarters — to Hosking-Elliott and De Goey. If there was blood in the water, the Giants didn’t sniff it. They reclaimed the game in the second quarter and at one stage kicked six of seven goals. The turnaround was both extraordinary and frightening, and if it was how far the Pies in the first quarter, it was how to stop the Giants in the second. We saw the joy of Rory Lobb and the disappointment of Lobb in a matter of a minute, the latter sparking a large melee after the halftime siren. Lobb took a mark and kicked the goal with a minute to play, shaking Mason Cox as an opponent and beating Grundy in the air. Seconds before the siren, Lobb dropped a mark in defence and handed a goal to de Goey. Sensing mental disintegration, the Pies piled on Lobb. Both teams kicked five goals after halftime, so that first quarter was pivotal to the outcome. But not as pivotal as the first six minutes of the final quarter. It’s when the game was ultimately decided and when all of Melbourne, and all of Victoria, started thinking of next weekend. Gee whiz, those tickets will be gold. AFL COLLINGWOOD has booked a blockbuster preliminary final against reigning premier Richmond at the MCG next Friday night as it hunts a first Grand Final berth in seven years. The Magpies dominated semi-final opponent Greater Western Sydney early on Saturday night, but were horribly wasteful and found themselves in a dogfight at three-quarter time. But a three-point Collingwood edge at the final break blew out to 21 within five minutes as goals to Travis Varcoe, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Jordan De Goey – his third – snuffed out the Giants' hopes. The pro-Magpie crowd of 72,504 erupted when the siren confirmed a 9.15 (69) to 9.5 (59) triumph that earned Nathan Buckley's men a crack at the all-conquering Tigers. "We didn't get it perfect and we will learn from that," Buckley said afterwards. "I did say at the box at the end, 'Can you be dissatisfied with a finals win?'. I don't think you can, but we can play better than that. "We should have kept GWS to a lower score than 59. We defended well, so there's still a lot of upside from what we saw." De Goey threatened all night to be the match-winner, with neither an outmatched Matt Buntine nor a leg issue that forced him off the field in the opening quarter curbing his influence. His slick handball to Varcoe kick-started the final-term splurge, while Hoskin-Elliott was another hero when it mattered and the hard-running Adam Treloar amassed 12 of his 29 disposals in the last half an hour. GWS kicked the last two goals of the game to slash the margin, but never recovered from Collingwood's five-minute blitz. Steele Sidebottom (equal game-high 31 disposals, six inside 50s and five clearances) capped his All Australian season with another magnificent display, while Jeremy Howe was a rock in defence. Howe also took a skyscraping mark over Giant Harry Himmelberg to add to his extraordinary highlight reel. The Toby Greene-Brayden Maynard match-up dominated pre-match discussion, but was ultimately a fizzer, with the Pie restricting Greene to a scoreless nine possessions. GWS coach Leon Cameron bemoaned his side's start and the opening minutes of the last quarter, as well as the final 158-136 contested possession count in Collingwood's favour. "The first 10 minutes of the game and the first 10 minutes of the last quarter they imposed their will on us, and we are disappointed we didn't respond, so credit to them," Cameron said. "We were a little bit lucky to go into quarter-time probably 18 or 20 points down. "We fought our way back in the second and third (quarters) and even to the end … but we gave them too much momentum at times, which gained their ascendancy on us and that was the disappointing part. "But on top of that, you can't win finals if you're negative-25 in contested ball. "That's been the thing we've hung our hat on in the back half of the year – we pride ourselves on that – and … you can't get any field position if you can't win the footy." GWS loomed ominously when Jeremy Cameron's first major gave the visitors their first lead inside the first six minutes of the second half. The Giants had kicked six of the last seven goals at that stage and seemed set to punish Collingwood for not knocking them out in the opening term. Instead, De Goey bobbed up to nail a set shot before mature-age rookie Brody Mihocek slotted a superb checkside goal to steady the ship further. The Magpies jumped out of the blocks, but repeatedly turned the ball over going inside 50 – Taylor Adams was one of the chief culprits – and sprayed many of their scoring chances. A dubious free kick that gifted Hoskin-Elliott a goal after the quarter-time siren improved Collingwood's tally to only 3.6 compared to GWS's two behinds. It was a surprising turn of events, given the Pies entered the night as the AFL's most accurate team in front of the goals. The Giants were incredibly fortunate not to be further behind, after a series of panicked defensive kicks saw the Sherrin come right back. But GWS willed itself into the match through the ever-reliable Stephen Coniglio and midfield bulls Dylan Shiel and Jacob Hopper, while Lachie Whitfield was outstanding all night at half-back. They helped address the significant opening-quarter discrepancies in clearances and contested possessions, and soon the scoreboard was corrected, too. Rory Lobb became the man of the moment. The Giants ruckman pulled down a towering pack grab and kicked truly, only to drop a similarly difficult mark down the other end that enabled De Goey to swoop and goal on the half-time siren. Ex-Giants Adams and Adam Treloar's decision to let Lobb know all about it sparked an all-in melee that ignited the crowd. MEDICAL ROOM Collingwood: Jordan De Goey pulled up slightly lame after marking on the lead in the first quarter, and went into the Magpie rooms for treatment shortly after. But he was back to wreak havoc again about seven minutes or so later. Brayden Sier tried to play through a corked thigh in the second term, but eventually wilted. He started the second half on a stationary bike, briefly came back on, went back into the rooms then returned for good. Scott Pendlebury also went off in the final quarter with a left leg injury. NEXT UP Collingwood: The Pies, who won their most recent flag in 2010, will try to reach their first Grand Final in seven years when they face reigning premier Richmond at the MCG on Friday night. REAL FOOTY Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has declared Richmond are beatable ahead of Friday night’s preliminary final between the clubs. The Magpies booked their place in the penultimate weekend of the season with a 10-point win over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night. Attention has quickly turned to Friday night’s meeting of the traditional rivals, a clash likely to draw more than 95,000 to the MCG. The Tigers finished two games clear on top of the ladder this year, and haven’t lost at the ‘G since midway through last season, but Buckley insisted the reigning premiers could be toppled. “They’ve been the best team in the comp since a month or two months leading into the finals series last year,” Buckley said. “And they’ve finished top in the home and away this year. Everyone’s waiting for them to fall over, they’re not going to fall over. They’ve got to be beaten. We believe they can be beaten. We believe our best footy will stack up, but talking about it and doing it are two different things. Buckley also played down the potential impact of a six-day break between games for the Pies, compared to Richmond, who will enter the match off a 15-day break. “They might be a bit dusty,” Buckley pondered. “Too long without playing. Who knows? I mean you can write it up however you want. But we know what our break is, we’re looking forward to the challenge. They know what their break is, they’re looking forward to the challenge, and whoever wins gets an extra day of preparation for the granny.” He also suggested the Pies didn’t run themselves into exhaustion against the Giants. “We didn’t have to run our guts out necessarily. We still had to work hard, but I think we were relatively efficient in what we did. “What you do is you recover them, and you give them the chance to get over the game. And you handle it the same way you handle it in home and away.” Star forward Jordan De Goey kicked three goals against the Giants despite going off the ground early with what Buckley said was a rolled ankle. Midfielder Brayden Sier also spent time off the ground with a corkie, but the Pies appear to have emerged from the win without a serious injury. Buckley lauded defender Brayden Maynard, who kept Giants star Toby Greene goalless. “I thought he won the contest convincingly," Buckley said. “Brayden was set for the match up pretty early in the week, I told him not to tell anyone and he tells the world. That’s the type of kid he is.” The Pies wasted a heap of opportunities, ending the game with a score of 9.15 (69). Buckley acknowledged the Pies had made life harder for themselves than it needed to be. “We dominated the game tonight, but there was areas that we didn’t do well that meant that we needed to win it a couple of times, so it was a pretty strong performance. “I did say in the box at the end, ‘can you possibly be dissatisfied with a finals win?’ And I don’t think you can, but we can play better than that.”