2020 Round 9: Fremantle 61 Collingwood 49

THE FACTS

2020 AFL Round 10 COLLINGWOOD v SWANS Time & Place: Thursday August 6, 5:40 PM AEST The Gabba TV: 7mate / Fox Footy Weather: 11°- 23° Chance of rain: 20% <1mm Wind: E 15kph Betting: Collingwood $1.38 Swans $2.98

FREMANTLE        0.0.0   4.1.25   6.1.37   10.1.61
COLLINGWOOD  1.2.8   2.4.16   6.5.41     7.7.49

GOALS - Collingwood: Sidebottom 2, Mihocek, Sier, Grundy, Hoskin-Elliott, Stephenson

BEST - Collingwood: Sidebottom, Grundy, Noble, Maynard, Moore, Treloar 

INJURIES - Collingwood: Nil

REPORTS - Collingwood: Nil

OFFICIAL CROWD - 20,912 at Perth Stadium

What The Pies Coach Said "Around the ball they were hungrier to win it and hungrier to attack us when we won it. We’ve lacked a bit of an edge in the last couple of weeks. The last two games we haven’t been as aggressive in there as we usually are. You take the numbers away, your eyes told you they were more intent across the board than we were, which is a concern for us because we pride ourselves on that. We come up against a Sydney side that have always been rated in a trademark sense around contested ball and tackling. It’s a fitting test for us, because we need to get that right. It won’t be on the training track, it will be on Thursday night.” – Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley

Media Clippings The Age Collingwood are in trouble. At the end of round nine they're outside of the top eight, and just lost their first of four matches in 14 days across three states, going down by 12 points against Fremantle on Sunday night. Scott Pendlebury isn't likely to be back for at least one or two games, Jordan De Goey and Jeremy Howe look done for the season, and they're beset by problems they've long faced and others that are relatively new. Most concerning over the last two games has been Collingwood's poor performance in the contest. They were battered by Fremantle in both contested possessions and clearances and this was the root of the Pies problems on Sunday night. If it weren't for Darcy Moore and Brayden Maynard taking double-digit intercept marks between them the scoreline deficit would have been larger and the game over quicker than it was. AFL THIS is soooo Collingwood. The Magpies sit outside the eight beyond the halfway point of the season – Sunday night's loss to Fremantle leaving them 10th with four wins and a draw after nine matches – and yet they could still win the premiership. They are courageously playing good football without Scott Pendlebury, Jeremy Howe and Jordan De Goey. And, as always, they are playing matches after off-field actions of key personnel have created screaming, negative headlines. A social hit of tennis by coach Nathan Buckley on Friday ultimately had nothing to do with Collingwood's loss to the Dockers. But it was the AFL's highest profile COVID-19 protocols breach, the fifth by an AFL club in the past week, and followed a transgression by Magpies vice-captain Steele Sidebottom five weeks ago. Sidebottom returned against Fremantle after a sanction attached to that situation, and was outstanding. Collingwood as a club and Collingwood players as individuals seemingly always respond when under adverse scrutiny, a situation which presents itself regularly given the ability of club president Eddie McGuire to either shoot from the hip at generic AFL issues, or shoot even more pointedly when one of his own is under attack. Twice this year McGuire has made aggressive public statements about ramifications for AFL industry people who breach the AFL's COVID-19 regulations. On both occasions, the comments have been exposed as nothing more than hypocrisy, with Sidebottom five weeks ago and Buckley on Friday presenting themselves as individuals who, in McGuire's eyes, should respectively be stood down for the year or sent home from a hub. McGuire has must-listen views on all AFL matters, but he would prefer no one had heard them when they need to be applied to people wearing black and white, like Sidebottom and Buckley. Daily Telegraph The biggest issue for the Magpies in a disappointing first half was the lesson a young Fremantle midfield gave them at the coalface. Beaten to the contested ball (73-53) and losing the clearances (20-13), alarm bells were sounding early for Nathan Buckley and his men for the second straight match. Experienced midfielders Adam Treloar and Adams were lacking support at stoppages and the Dockers looked hungrier when the ball was in dispute. With captain Scott Pendlebury sidelined for at least another match with his quad injury, the Pies need to find answers in the midfield quickly. They have matches against battling teams Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne to come, but the Dockers showed their star-studded midfield is gettable. Fox Footy Fremantle has caused one of the biggest upsets in 2020 after defeating premiership fancies Collingwood at Optus Stadium on Sunday. Collingwood snatched back the lead on the stroke of three-quarter time after a strong burst of three goals, but it was all Fremantle in the last term as Nat Fyfe led his team to victory. The Dockers booted four goals to one to run out winners by 12-points, ending a horror 48 hours for Collingwood. The Magpies were fined $50,000 (half suspended) by the AFL after breaches of the COVID-19 protocols. Nathan Buckley and Brenton Sanderson will pay the $25,000 fine after the pair played tennis with Alicia Molik.