FPS Report RD 4: Normal Service has been resumed; thank you for your patience.

I suppose I will reach a point where Magpie domination of one sided games becomes boring but it won’t be for a while. In sixty years of following Collingwood I don’t think we have ever looked this dominant. Both of our two previous premierships, 1958 and 1990, were followed by pretty ordinary seasons. The two years where I remember Collingwood as being clearly the best side in the competition, 1970 and 1973, ended in disaster and in neither year were we killing the opposition with the “monotonous regularity” that we are doing this year (only the point of this paragraph is that there is nothing monotonous about it)

Friday’s game was preceded by a performance by Airbourne, a heavy metal group from Warrnambool featuring the O’Keeffe brothers. If I was fifteen I would probably like their music, as it is I prefer their dad, Dennis O’Keeffe, who I first heard performing Australian folksongs when I lived in Warrnambool in the eighties, but I’m not sure that I want to hear any music before the footy apart from Dolly Gray.

My wife was delayed at work and I was worried that the game might be over before she arrived. It almost was, she got there half way through the first quarter when the Pies had kicked five goals to the Tigers’ one. She missed the start of the Daisy Thomas show. Daisy had a great first quarter, actually Daisy had a great match but in the first quarter he had the added benefit of the Tigers’ refusal to play anywhere in his vicinity allowing him to kick the first goal himself and then initiate play that ended in goals for other players.

All the critics have been suggesting that the one place that Collingwood might be vulnerable is that we have no replacement for Darren Jolly. The Richmond game was to be the test as Jolly did not play (slight knee injury). Cameron Wood played in his stead and Collingwood did win the majority of clearances but I don’t think it was due to the ruckwork. I will leave it to the Danny Roach judges to assess Wood’s game, suffice it to say that I wouldn’t want to front up with Wood against a team which had better rucks than Graham and Vickery.

In the first half all our forwards (except Krakouer) were playing well. Dawes, Cloke, Blair, Beams, Brown all played their part. The running mids, Sidebottom, Pendles, Didak, Ball, Wellingham and Swan all contributed and did I mention how well Daisy played. Tarrant in defence was beating Jack Riewoldt and he did all day despite Riewoldt’s four goals. Leon Davis looked convincing as a defender although Harry was more spectacular and Heath Shaw got more possessions.

And then, all of a sudden, Collingwood decided to let Richmond back into the game. In the third quarter suddenly Richmond’s running players, particularly Deledio, Martin, Cotchin and Jackson started beating our players to the ball. The Tigers kicked four goals for the quarter to the Pies two. It wasn’t exactly panic stations, though. At half time Collingwood had led Richmond by fifty points; at three quarter time they still lead by 26.

And then the floodgates opened for the last quarter. Everyone started kicking goals. The Magpies kicked nine for the quarter and at the end of the match fourteen separate players had contributed to the total of 22 goals. Richmond kicked two goals in the last quarter and one of them was after the siren. Normal service had been resumed.

Michael Horsburgh Medal Votes

3. Daisy. He had the same number of possessions as Dids and Pendles and a few less than Swanny but the absolute class in which he used those possessions was unmatched. He took some great marks and delivered the ball beautifully, but what I really like about Daisy is the joie de vivre that he displays when playing.

2. Swanny. Four goals, 33 possessions, what else is say!

1. Travis. I could have given the third vote to any one of five midfielders, but Travis’ seven contested marks and three goals (should really have been 5) would have been match winning against stronger opposition.

Comments

  1. Daisy is a very good player Dave.

    He will be sadly missed next year.

  2. Dave Nadel says

    Unlike young Gazza, Daisy gets on with both this year’s coach and next year’s coach. Besides, if you have escaped from Drouin, it would take an awful lot of money to make Blacktown an attractive place of residence.

  3. “Escaped” from Drouin? With it’s picturesque features, undulating hills and prime dairy country. Over the ranges you have the Prom and miles and miles of rich white sand beaches. To the east you have even more Gippsland and just down the road is the city (Pakenham). Escaped?

    Gazza’s family and Daisy both herald from the rose of the west. You don’t escape Drouin, you take it’s beauty and spread it wherever you go.

    Cheers

  4. You brighten my day Dave.

    You have, however, stumbled onto the salient point; “an awful lot of money”

    One of either Daisy or Pendles is going…..and we all know it.

  5. Stainless says

    Dave and Rick – As one who has recently settled on Drouin as the place to begin our “treechange”, I’ll definitely side with #3 over #2! I’m sure both Daisy and Gazza will have the sense to return to the “rose of the west” once their footy careers are done.

  6. Dave Nadel says

    #3 and #5. OK maybe you blokes see things that I missed in Drouin. I like Gippsland, but Drouin isn’t my favourite part of Gippy. However if you are right and it is paradise on Earth then that only strengthens my case. Why would you want to live in the remote wasteland of Far Western Sydney, where they don’t even play footy when there are so many better places to live and play footy?

  7. Andrew Fithall says

    Chris Dawes has been cited and faces a one match penalty. “The head is sacrosanct” has become code for “I will now deliberately place my head in danger so as to draw a free kick”. Now, that didn’t happen in the Chris Dawes case, but is an extension of what the AFL have brought upon themselves. A player going for the ball makes incidental contact with an opposition player’s head and cops a week. Given there is no reduction for a guilty plea, there is a very strong likelihood of a challenge.

    With the stance the AFL is taking on this, there is now no reason a player cannot be reported for making contact with his own teammate’s head.

  8. Jimmy Bartel will probably be cited. The mpv is that corrupt through selective sanctions I would not be surprised.

    I am surprised that the big boys didn’t cite Conca for making facial contact with Dawes’s hand. Some clubs are protected.

  9. i hope the report doesn’t ruin Dawesys chances for Cleo Bachelor of the year :(

  10. Don’t worry Danni. They will get himm off today. New rule. No Collingwood player to be suspended. No matter what.

  11. watt price tully? says

    Enjoyed your post match review Dave.

  12. Sean Gorman says

    Hey Dave – yes they are looking dominant – I actually picked them for the premiership early last year and obviously they are set for anothery in 2011, but they have played Port, North, Caaarlton and Richmond. Hardly what one would call a test. As for Airbourne give them another try. Or can I suggest Aphex Twin?

  13. dave latham says

    #4 Phantom, Phantom, Phantom. It’s true we are the team to raid, so thanks for the compliment, but we’re also the type of club that Pendles and Daisy will not leave. Geelong is another matter entirely. Selwood wears his hair shirt with aplomb.

  14. Peter Flynn says

    At the minute, Collingwood are playing fantastic football. Up tempo, ballistic, skilful football.

    I enjoy watching them play.

    There is a long way to go however.

    It all boils down to winning 3 finals.

    Until then, who knows?

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