Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life: Round 8 review, Round 9 preview

 

Greetings to all. A Win, regardless of not being too impressive, still gets you 4 points.

 

Round 8

 

Collingwood 14.10.94 defeated North Melbourne 11.10.76:

• Match Report – https://www.afl.com.au/matches/3039; and
  

AFL – News, Fixtures, Scores & Results – AFL.com.au Australian Football League. All the latest AFL news, video, results and information www.afl.com.au

• Buck’s comments – https://www.afl.com.au/video/610391/full-post-match-magpies?videoId=610391&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1620467705001.

Full post-match: Magpies www.afl.com.au

Yep, a Win.

 

 

Extraordinary things we saw (interestingly sourced from our players this week):

• De Goey leading;
• Moore back – 28 Disposals, 19 Marks, including 11 Intercepts, 2 Tackles and 480 metres achieved;
• Mihocek’s mark – textbook; outstanding; and
• Pendles goal. So smooth. Do you recall anything?

 

 

Some statistics and comments:

• Hit Outs – Ignoring this number as irrelevant.
• Clearances – 29 (us) / 24 (them). Well, for once we Won this. But then?
• Inside 50s – 52 / 55.
• Disposal Efficiency – 80.3% / 78.0%.
• Individual Disposal Efficiency – 12 / 12 players with a DE equal to or over 80% and 0 / 0 with an individual DE equal to or under 50%. Indicative of the application by both sides.
• Disposal Efficiency Inside 50 – 48.1% / 47.3%. No significant difference.
• Contested possessions – 133 / 119. An important Win.
• Tackles – 49 / 44. With CP, as an indication of application, that’s better.
• Scoring Shots – 24 / 21.
• Winning margin – 18 Points.

 

North’s application was solid throughout the game. In particular their application in Q3 adding four straight, unanswered, goals was impressive. Importantly, for us, so was the acceptance and fight back, very close to negating their initial success. This responsiveness by the team shows significant maturity.

 

 

A comment on the ‘new’ game. Unlike previous weeks we Won the Disposals 427 / 378 and Uncontested Possessions 288 / 258, though Marks were very similar. Maybe this “keep-ens off” style of play, as demonstrated by these numbers, is indicative of what we need to continue doing. As I’ve said any number of times, get possession and keep it and don’t turn over possession and the quickest and surest way to handover possession is to kick the ball to an opponent in the 50 or to kick a Behind – not value for effort.

 

Best: De Goey, Moore, Pendlebury, Cameron and Maynard. Again, I have no problem with this list. Many of the rest of the team contributed.

 

Lessons:

• Application. Pretty good. The ‘come back’ after their four quick goals was impressive.
• Back 6 – Moving Moore back restarted Collingwood’s defensive DNA (listen to Buck’s interview if you don’t understand my comment).
• Ball Handling. Better, but not perfect. We have a way to go.
• Forwards, the previous week’s breakdown on entry into the 50 was critical. This week the ball was frequently passed to a target, not at risk of handing over possession.
• Crumbing packs, both behind and in front? Nice goal by Hoskin-Elliott. Needs to be emphasised.
• Tackling and one-on-one. Better, but still too many opponents ran out of tackles and in one-on-one competitions.
• Midfield success? Technically, we Won this.

Plus?

 

Experts – 89% expected a Pies’ Win. Go to http://whotippedwhat.com/round/afl-2021-round-8/.

 

 

 

Round 9

 

Collingwood Magpies versus Sydney.

 

Saturday, 15 May at the SCG; bounce at 1.45.

 

Them

 

Sydney started the season with four Wins. ‘Experts’ were pointing to their young guns and saying how influential their application was, but have a look at their opponents in the first four weeks and subsequently. There are a couple of surprises – they don’t always Win when Buddy Franklin is in the team (and vice versa) and their Win over Geelong jumps out:

 

• Round 1 – Win over Brisbane 125 / 94 Points;
• Round 2 – Win over Adelaide 121 / 88;
• Round 3 – Win over Richmond 117 / 72;
• Round 4 – Win over Essendon 83 / 80;
• Round 5 – Loss to GWS 69 / 71;
• Round 6 – Loss to GC 60 / 100;
• Round 7 – Win over Geelong 90 / 88; and
• Round 8 – Loss to Melbourne 58 / 67.

 

With some luck, Sydney could have Won a couple of the games they Lost. In essence, Sydney can compete with any team for periods. Based on their games this year, 17 players have made their Best list. Players to watch:

• Mills – Ruck Rover;
• Hickey – Rover;
• Parker – Centre;
• Lloyd – HB; and
• Franklin – CHF.

And purely for family reasons, Reid – HF.

 

 

Us:

 

Team & Tasks. I think we still need a couple of changes:

 

Ins:

• Lynch – Ruck, alternating with Grundy (FF) setting up a much taller Forward line; and

Outs:

• Thomas. Your thoughts?

Game Plan. We need to focus on (same as nearly every week):

• Application. High intensity commitment for four Quarters. Watch the Contested Possession and Tackle numbers. The chase and tackle must be maintained for four Quarters, and when we tackle, we have to hold on;
• A different approach. As suggested above, replace Grundy with Lynch as the principal ruck (noting that this happened when Cameron became Ruck last week); move Grundy forward into the FF role supported by Cameron and Mihocek and De Goey and the other smalls;
• Winning the Clearances. Dominate Inside 50s and look for a better placed goal-kicker; and
• Note the likely aggression and pressure from Sydney – we need to be prepared to pass wide or back and be patient. We can Win this if we get in control and keep control.

 

 

Conclusion. We can Win this, but there’s a few things we have to get right.

 

 

My picks. Collingwood to Win by 17 Points. BOG – Crisp – 25 Disposals @ 83.9% DE; 7 Clearances and four Tackles; De Goey, Cameron and Mihocek each get three. Your thoughts?

 

 

Experts. Go to http://whotippedwhat.com/round/afl-2021-round-9/. This could be interesting too – I’ll bet Sydney is the ‘experts’ choice. Check it out later in the week.

 

AFL 2021 Round 9 – Who Tipped What – Who Tipped What Round 9: AFL 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Home Away Print Less Stats The Verdict View Round Summary All… Blogger Commentator Computer Predictions Ex-Coach Ex-Player … whotippedwhat.com

 

 

Weather. Dry; wear what you want. Is anyone else astounded by the amount of slipping and sliding by players even under the roof?

 

 

1. TV. With a game in Sydney the FTA channels all think that that’s what you want to watch. So FTA coverage see Channel 7 and 7HD from 1.30. Routine for FOXTEL and Kayo.

 

 

Other:

• Injuries. Go to https://www.afl.com.au/matches/injury-list.

• Footy Almanac. Go to https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/. Check out others’ comments under this – always interesting.

 

Go Pies.

 

Cam

 

 

 

For more from Cam Hooke, click HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

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