Floreat Pica – Collingwood v West Coast – Best Win of the Year (to-date)

At the conclusion of Saturday night’s game, West Coast Eagles players quickly showered and then headed for the airport. They would back in Perth in the early hours of Sunday, head home and then get some sleep. They adopt this strategy because after a game of football, players find it hard to sleep anyway, so they may as well use that wake-time travelling. By the time the mind has settled, ready to rest, the player can be back on their own bed. As a supporter, I have the same sleep trouble. Without the need to take a four-hour flight from the MCG to my own bed, I figure the best way of filling those hours is to re-watch the game. So it was, I returned home with the family, sent them all back to bed and settled in to enjoy again what was Collingwood’s best win for the 2012 season……to date.

On the wing, MCC side, up the back of ground level, our seats provided a pretty good view of the ground, although the precaution of booking undercover was unnecessary. The night was mild, dry – perfect for football. The party comprises two Collingwood supporting children, a Geelong-supporting wife who is perhaps seeking retribution because I barracked against her team the previous week against Fremantle, and guest-of-honour, Floreat Pica founding president Steve Fahey. My expectation was diminished. Hope rather than belief. We were coming off a hard-fought loss against the flag-favourites; our opponents off a soft 96 point win. On the positive side was the extra two days break we enjoyed between games. A negative was the white shorts.

Last year when we met West Coast in the qualifying final at the MCG, the feeling was we should win and West Coast were just looking for a good showing. This year the expectations were tipped on their head. The general forecasts of this week’s finals matches is that the teams coming from the fifth to eighth had the best chance of tipping a couple of teams out in straight sets. The previous evening Adelaide had already discounted one of these by beating Fremantle. West Coast came to win. For Collingwood, what had at various times throughout the year been a promising season, could be gone.

That forecast seemed to be on-the-money when West Coast kicked the first four goals of the game. Actually, Collingwood did kick a goal within that sequence, but apparently the AFL had introduced another two rule changes without actually telling anyone. The first one is called “the crowd appeal”. As not stated in any rule book of I have seen “if within 30 seconds of a score (by Collingwood) being registered, if the opposing supporters can make enough noise, then the umpires must go to a video replay to see if there is any opportunity to make that small section of the crowd happy again”. The second part of this unwritten rule is that even if the video is not definitive enough to justify changing the decision, and even if every one of the on-field game officials thought the original adjudication was valid, the decision can be over-turned. Thanks Giesch – you idiot.*

After a Goldsack set shot miss, Collingwood’s first goal came from a Harry O’Brien snap. “Good finisher off one step” is the astute comment from my FP colleague. The second came quickly as the centre clearance finished with a Pendles mark and goal. A Goldie poster and then the ball travelled to the other end. It was in this play-phase that the AFL demonstrated an ability to change the rules not just in the preceding week, but within the one quarter of football. West Coast’s first goal had come from Heath Shaw backing into a contest to get exactly to the fall of the ball. Apparently this is called shepherding. Then the rule changed – if a player is waiting at the fall of the ball, as Nathan Brown was, then the opposing player with no eyes on the ball is allowed to run straight at that player and first player must not do anything to protect himself. Free kick to Cox. Goal to West Coast. Jolly marking and goaling brought the margin back to nine points at quarter time.

The umpire with the Gomer Pyle haircut – and it seemed to be the same number 17 whose name I have not bothered to look-up making the serious errors throughout – continued his good form when he paid a free to Swannie. Couldn’t even get that one right when he paid it as a high tackle, when it was obvious to everyone that he had been tripped and had fallen into the tackle. We took the goal anyway. A non-paid Reid mark (#17 again) and West Coast restored their margin. A low scoring quarter had the Eagles up by eleven points at half time.

The start of the third quarter and the game took a turn for the positive as Daisy lit up the G. When Fasolo found him with a beautiful long kick to the non-obvious target, Steve commented that Daisy’s set shot record this year had been disastrous. I think Daisy heard the slur, and slotted it. A brilliant Pendles clearance finished with a Daisy snap and Collingwood lead for the first time in the game. The third came from a free kick. The lead extended when a West Coast kick-out found the boundary, and Blair made the shot. West Coast’s only goal came after the siren when Darling outmarked Toovs. The four goal to one quarter had the Pies up by ten points at three-quarter time.

Elliott replaced Didak. This was Didak’s first stint as a starting player for quite a few weeks and his input, while not outstanding at any point in the game, had waned somewhat in the third quarter. Early in the final quarter West Coast reduced the margin when Jolly gave away a free kick to Natanui. When Kennedy marked a Darling shot for goal, and goaled himself, West Coast took back the lead – but that was their final score for the match. Collingwood regained the lead when Embley completely stuffed a clearing kick and the return found Goldie who goaled. Swannie dropped a mark, recovered, and goaled and the margin was out to ten points at the thirteen minute mark. This was the final major for the match. The last fifteen minutes were a slog. Steve’s initial call over this period started as “one more goal and the game is ours” and eventually came down to “even just another point will win it now”. That point came from Sharrod. The siren sounded with the Pies winning 73 to 60.

I haven’t mentioned him in the write-up, but Ben Reid was brilliant. Played in front and marked everything. His kicking was back to 2010 standards. He certainly fulfilled the defence captain role normally played by Maxwell. Jolly was the other significant factor. Didn’t dominate the ruck but completely negated the positives that the dual West Coast rucks normally bring – the contrast with the equivalent game a few weeks earlier when Jolly was absent was stark. And it was the return of the forward pressure that was most welcome. We showed some of it against Hawthorn; in this game it was back to its effective best. West Coast forwards just did not get the opportunities – as pointed out by Bucks, WC had only nine scoring shots in the last three quarters of the game.

The midfield had come under fire for poor performance in recent games. This week they were back. Zero goals from Cloke, Dawes, Krakouer (except the one previously highlighted – which wasn’t a goal – under the new rule) and Fasolo was compensated for by the mids hitting the scoreboard as well as the stats sheet. Beams and Sidey were back towards their best. Pendlebury was brilliant with some of his clearance and around-the-ground work breathtakingly spectacular. Nathan Brown had a return to form. There were no weak links. This was a win for the ages.

The Horsburgh medal votes have been made in camera, and for the 379th time in succession, they did not include an opposition player. Extraordinary.

FLOREAT PICA

*There was actually a third new rule implemented in this game: the crowd can also appeal an out-of-bounds decision. As it was, the crowd was correct on this one, but the umpires/video review had not yet been given the authority to overturn the decision. That may well change this week.