Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life 2024: Round 10 Review / Round 11 Preview

 

 

 

Well that was fun, sort of, if somewhat stressful towards the end (again) but a Win is a Win and we get the four points, and the move up the Ladder. But I’d really like the team to stop relying on the close finishes.

 

A real pleasure to meet Sal during the Half Time break and to catch up with Elizabeth (and Brian, of course) after the final siren.

 

A few surprises. We were sitting up a few rows from the boundary fence but level with the ground. A ‘Collingwood-heavy’ crowd with a few groups of Adelaide supporters around, who did get a bit excited during parts of the Final Quarter, particularly the last couple of minutes. It was a very happy crowd that exited the ground following the Win. I’m not sure that would have been the case if we had Lost from the positions we got to during the game – a 30 Point lead mid-Q2; perhaps even the 17 Point lead at the Final change. The Collingwood crowd were very generous, not rude at all to the Adelaide minority. Walking around Melbourne later every second person you walked past was wearing a Pies’ scarf or jumper. Quite a difference to our little town.

 

Round 10

 

Collingwood 12.6.78 defeated Adelaide 11.8.74.

 

Go Pies.

 

Match Report. www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/5978. Have a look at the Match Timeline here to understand just how comprehensive our play was for about half of Q2; and then you can see their response over a longer period.

 

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

 

Coach’s interview. www.afl.com.au/video/1132249/full-post-match-r10-magpies?videoId=1132249&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1716016649001. This worth watching / listening. Given the difficult circumstances surrounding the team selection he applauded the team’s ability to kick 12 goals, particularly noting the 9 goal-kickers. He also noted the contributions of Rankine and Dawson in their adversary.

 

Question. Why can’t the AFL apply texting to these interviews, like the various news-shows? While the coach’s answers are fine, the various questions are almost impossible to hear. Does anyone have a contact to pursue this?

 

Goals:

 

Q1      4 (us) / 3 (them) with a final goal giving us a 7 Point lead;

Q2      4 / 3 increasing the lead to 11 Points at Half Time. This lead was severely dented by Adelaide’s scoring three goals late in the Quarter;

Q3      3 / 2  resulting in a final change lead of 17 Points; and

Q4      1 / 3 leading to them taking the lead and holding it for seven minutes late in the Quarter totalling…

Total:   12 / 11. A Win.

 

Numbers (some statistics, with comments). The numbers should be treated with some caution because they are a record across the whole game. In this game we dominated in Q1 and into Q2, without the sort of scoreboard reflecting this. For much of the rest of the game it was a frequently’ scrappy competition. However, with some comments, they are interesting:

 

Statistic	Numbers Us / Them	Comments
Disposals	381 / 409	They dominated Disposals and Marks, below, indicating a preparedness to play a “keep’ens off” style of game. Except for the Q1/Q2 period of Pies’ domination (and scoring), it was a very scrappy game, with frequent competition on the ground (and many ball-ups).
Hit Outs (HO)	38 / 38	Not significant, as usual.
Clearances	44 / 36	Includes: 13 / 11 Centre clearances and 31 / 25 stoppage clearances. ‘Clearance to Inside 50 to Goal’ – that’s the ideal process. Here, the Midfield is dominating. See Next.
Inside 50s	49 / 58	And we’ve lost the benefit we had in Clearances. It’s been reversed. So, Adelaide had about a 10% advantage over us in recording the number of times the ball is in a position from where a score can result. But how effectively did they use it?
Disposal Efficiency (DE)	69.3% / 75.6%	Not too different.
DE inside 50	46.9% / 34.5%	The critical difference. This is where you see how effectively the teams use their entry into the 50 – and we recorded a 12% advantage over them. This was a match-winning statistic – Adelaide got the ball into the 50 more frequently than us but we used it more effectively. While the two numbers provide the basis for the overall scoring, we had an advantage when they are combined.
Players with DE of 80%	6 / 10	Interesting, but not particularly significant.
Contested Possessions (CP)	146 / 143	The measure of how hard each team is working – CP, Tackles and Turnovers combined. We hold a very slight advantage.
Turnovers	72 / 66	Really important – see above.
Marks (M)	85 / 98	Across game.
M inside 50	9 / 10	Impacts on DE inside 50 numbers.
Tackles (T)	68 / 68	Across game.
T inside 50	14 / 19	Also impacts on DE inside 50 numbers.
1 %’ers	54 / 46	Really important. Look at 1%’er numbers, Intercept Possessions and Metres Gained for our Back 6 (or so) – Moore – 7 / 11 / 207m; Maynard – 3 / 10 / 472m; Quaynor – 2 / 6 / 207m; Sidebottom – 4 / 5 / 217m; Frampton – 8 / 5 / 277m; Cameron – 5 / 5 / 207m and Noble – 2 / 4 / 535m.
Scoring	Not done as a comparison of the teams.	To have a look at what was happening at the other end of the ground, check out a selection of players’ goals scored, Goal Assist numbers and Score Involvement numbers (with some overlap to the above) – De Goey – 2 Goals / 2 GA / 10 SI; Pendles – 2 / 2 / 8; Nick D. – 0 / 1 / 7; Noble – 1 / 2 / 5; Crisp – 1 / 0 / 5; Quaynor – 0 / 0 / 4 and McInnes – 2 / 0 / 2.
Goals scored	12 / 11	All that matters.

Apart from the latter part of Q1 and the first half of Q2, this was not a great game of football. Frankly, the Eagles team last week played better footy than either team this week, apart from that period I’ve already identified. Otherwise it was a scrappy mess with way too many stoppage ball-ups and too few Frees for obvious things. Makes you wonder about the advantages of the increased umpire numbers. So three periods existed in the game:

 

• Late Q1 / first half Q2 – In this period the Pies scored six unanswered goals. Drive effectively came from the Centre and the Backline and was directed at specific targets inside the 50 from where scoring happened. The ball frequently was passed with small, close handpasses straight through the Centre corridor. The obvious perception created was one of total domination. We took control of the game. It ended with Adelaide scoring three successive goals, against the run of play to that point, stopping the momentum and reducing the Pies’ control and, importantly, the lead that had been established and we went to the HT break not “in charge”;
• Q4 – If we thought the game was scrappy up to that point, Q4 was just bedlam. Both teams, but particularly Adelaide, pursued scoring by kicking huge ‘up and under’ kicks into the 50. Their logic? if you do that often enough some will get through, get collected and score. Which happened. Adelaide established control of the game limiting the Pies, mostly, to defence. In this period Adelaide took control of the Midfield; and
• The rest – A variety of Q4, with less intensity. This was a relatively low-scoring game with teams alternating without setting any great standards.

 

The result: The Pies are now sitting 5^th on the Ladder (after a period sitting 3^rd before the Round was concluded), perhaps more importantly, half a game (maybe even another Draw) outside the Top 4.

 

Best: The ADF website identifies the following as Best – Nick D, Pendles, De Goey, Crisp, Noble and Josh D. Don’t disagree. It’s all about moments. What is significant about Quaynor’s smother at the death followed by Nick D’s pass an De Goey’s almost casual game-winner. Of course ‘casual’ is the wrong word – practised and professional are a better descriptor. Just about everyone had their moment.

 

Conclusions

 

Performance – This was a poor performance. We allowed Adelaide to control the game, most importantly apart from that Q1/Q2 period, not to allow us to control it. We need to work on getting our control back in difficult circumstances.

 

Crowd – 63,935 – Fairly good given it reflected the out-of-town aspect.

 

 

Round 11

 

Friday, 24^th May – Walyalup (aka Freo) versus Collingwood at the Optus Stadium, Perth; bounce at 8.10pm (AEST).

 

Walyalup are sitting 9^th on the Ladder based on 6 Wins and 4 Losses giving them 24 Points and a percentage of 111.8%. They are half a Win (or even another Draw) behind us sitting 5^th with 6 Wins, 3 Losses and 1 Draw for a 107.8% percentage. As such the outcome of this game will be fairly obvious.

 

Them

 

 Walyalup suffers hugely – go to www.msn.com/en-au/sport/afl/the-dockers-are-doing-so-much-right-so-why-isn-t-it-reflected-on-the-scoreboard/ar-BB1mGJg3?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=f589ffaded5b417f86ef89dabc3d48e4&ei=2.

 

The Dockers are doing so much right, so why isn’t it reflected on the scoreboard? A surprise victory against a top-eight team, and set shot jitters: How WA’s teams performed in the AFL this round. www.msn.com

 

Their performance this season has been a bit random – a good start with three Wins over Brisbane, North and Adelaide followed by three Losses against Carlton, Port and the WCE. Then two Wins against WB and Richmond, a Loss to Sydney and a Win over St Kilda bring it home. Of the matches only two Losses might have gone the other way – 10 Point Loss to Carlton at Adelaide Oval and a 3 Point Loss to Port at the same venue. A change to one of these would have lifted them up the Ladder, but not far. Criticism of their game

 

The Best campaign, courtesy their ranking, is highly contested. Note the spread of Best across the whole ground.

 

Players to watch:

 

• Serong – RR. May need to be tagged.
• Ryan – HB;
• Pearce – FB;
• Brayshaw – Rover / Wing;
• Treacy – CHF;
• Fyfe – Centre; if playing; and
• Clark – BP.

 

Us

 

Nothing needs to change from last week except further changes to account for losses:

 

• Team? The addition of a couple more to replace our two latest injuries. Your thoughts?
• Application? Possession of the ball lets you win the match – lose possession and you are fighting backwards. No change.
• Game Plan? No change to the current plan. Work on kick-in plan.
• Be happy? Much better.

 

Necessary Actions?

 

• Close attention to their Midfield – tag Serong;
• Win the Midfield battle – use the measures of Clearances and Inside 50s to assess; and
• Enjoy the Win.

 

7. TV.      Free to air coverage on 7matefrom 7.30pm.

 

Other on Kayo.

 

Weather. Showers are developing the afternoon of the game. Get the boots with stops out.

 

My prediction.          Collingwood to Win by 37 Points.

                                    BOG – De Goey with 38 Disposals, 14 Clearance, two goals and 4 GA.

 

Other

 

• VFL. Following a pretty substantial trouncing by Werribee , the VFL side has a Bye this coming weekend – great timing. This result shifts us down the Ladder to 17th, needing to get back to 10^th to play Finals.
  • rasnking recordings,Next: R10. Friday, 31^st May versus Footscray at Marvel; bounce at  4.05pm. Unfortunately, Footscray is doing particularly well – undefeated this season, so far. Go get em, boys.Anyone considering catching the game? Reports please?

 

• VFLW. Also not a great result last week against the Western Bulldogs. They are now currently sitting 9^th needing to be Top 6 to play Finals.
  • Next: R10. Saturday, 25^th May – Collingwood versus North Melbourne at Victoria Park; bounce 11.00am. 9^th versus 10^th – should be a good game.

 

• Games. Remember for those who can’t get to the VFL / VFLW games, you can watch them live atwww.afl.com.au/stream-your-team?utm_source=aflcomau&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=state_league_streaming.

 

Eddie Watch. I haven’t used that heading for a while.  Hard to keep a good man down. An interesting proposal from Eddie, and supportive local Government reaction, pushing North Melbourne to Eddie’s homeland – Broadmeadows. Yep, Eddie is a Broadie boy.

 

Ground Reports? Now I know that at least three of our Members attended this game (including us). Reports please?I’d like to hear from the armchair warriors watching from afar?  More please.

 

Always believe. Go Pies.

 

Cam

 

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