Cam Hookes’ Collingwood Life 2016 – Round 2 Review

True Believers, what can you say about that?

 

For starters, from Elizabeth at the game, with thanks:

 

Report for our colleagues:

Dear Pies’ fans,

How the heck did we get out of that?!

Fortunately I stayed until the end on Friday night unlike too many of our fellow “supporters” who left when we were down 17 points. But I confess to pessimism, texting Cam that my ground report would be brief and terse.

It was a mild night, with a good crowd in (73,000 from memory) with lots of nervous fans given our dreadful performance against the Swans.

If you didn’t see the game live, don’t watch the first half. It was a very low standard game, with the Pies struggling to find avenues to goal, and making too many basic errors. They could barely tackle or spoil, and we again had too many passengers.

The second half was better but if you are time poor, watch the last 10 minutes. We won because of better intensity towards the end, Fasolo (brilliant performance), and the Tigers’ woeful kicking. Cloke was more of a presence but is still struggling. The captain was great but not at his usual standard and may be a little injured. We missed Sidebottom who is still a week away.

Grundy kicked 2 but we were beaten in the clearances and missed Witts. My best include Fasolo, Pendlebury, Treloar and Adams, and if you only watch the last 3 minutes watch for 2 key interventions by Greenwood.

We have a lot of improvement to do. Neither side looked top 8 but at least we have one win and face what should be 3 wins – Saints, Dees, and Bombers.

Regards, Elizabeth.

Many thanks, Elizabeth.

 

Were others there?  Reports/comments from others?

 

Match Reports at http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2016/2/coll-v-rich and http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-season-2016-with-19-seconds-to-go-against-richmond-nathan-buckley-thought-collingwood-had-blown-it-20160401-gnwllw.html.  Concur with Best and the application to the end (well, up 4 seconds to go anyway).  Totally agree Fas as BOG – compare his performance now with his period that led to in the VFL side a year or two back – a changed man.  Pendles (26 touches @ 84.6% Disposal Efficiency) was good, particularly early on, but faded.  Watch for an injury.  Treloar, again, had a lot of touches, but not always effective (32 Disposals @ 62.5% Disposal Efficiency).  Agree Elizabeth’s comment re Greenwood – this is the problem with ‘whole of game’ statistics, he had 21 touches @ 57.1% effectiveness but the criticality of the touches is missing.  Ramsay is also running under the horizon – 23 touches @ 78.3%.

 

Worth a quick look-see at http://www.afl.com.au/ – go to: Lessons (No 3) and Watch the 10 (No 2 – Pies; No 6 and 8 – GWS (see below)).

 

And, as per Elizabeth’s recommendation regarding the last few minutes: http://www.afl.com.au/video/2016-04-01/watch-the-last-two-minutes-coll-v-rich.

 

Check the statistics at http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2016/2/coll-v-rich. We lost the Clearances 37 to 24 and lost the Hit Outs 45 to 23.  As identified by Elizabeth, we badly missed Witts. Totally concur.  I value Grundy more around the ground, than in achieving dominance at stoppages.  We need both on the ground; in my view Witts is the more important (regardless of that goal).  If you want to see how it should work have a look at the GWS / Geelong game (which I attended).  GWS were dominant for most of the game at the stoppages and, accordingly, won.  Their tight handballs in the Centre were extraordinary; as was their application – Geelong nearly got the win based on individual performances, with little teamwork.  Also, my on-going bugbear, kick-ins – watch how Heater manages them (he still runs funny).

 

Players who have been way too quiet are Gault, Caff andMoore.  Agree Elizabeth re Trav – he did stuff but was not dominant.  I’m not sure what is happening in the Forward line; Fas was everywhere, however smarter opponents may shut him down – there was no flow into the Inside 50, or effective use thereafter (like scoring).

 

However, a win is a win is a win. Our team did not ‘click’ on the day.  They forced the win by pure application and effort, with little skill.  Buck’s statement at http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/ – “Neither side played particularly well“.  Agree, we’ll need to do better. If we want to ‘compete’ we’ve got to start beating weaker sides ‘comprehensively’.

 

Next: Saints on Saturday arvo at the G. More on that later in the week.

 

Go Pies.

 

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