Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life 2025: Round 15 Review / Round 16 Preview

G’day everyone.

 

Well, that was an experience. Thinking that I could happily leave the team in the care of the strong support of other True Believers, I headed off to the Australian Ballet performance of Carmen’ Simply outstanding. Couldn’t help wondering how the guys would go in the AFL and the girls in the AFLW. Their leaps were simply astounding – would give new meaning to the term ‘specky’. At the Intermission I checked my phone – 2 Points up, early Q3. What had been happening? Not happy, Jan! How were you feeling at that point?

 

Raced to where we were staying after the conclusion and got to watch nearly all of Q4. So, what was going on? Okay, just the boys putting us humble supporters under pressure, again. God bless Kayo; we watched the whole game from start to finish the next day. I always enjoy watching the game when I know it ends successfully.

 

What had been happening this Round? Geelong beaten, by a lot, at Kardinia Park (Did you go, mate?); North got up over Carlton – well done; Sydney beat Port, in Adelaide. I wouldn’t have got too many right if I’d been picking expected winners.

 

Have to go to a Birthday Party this coming weekend, coinciding with our next game, but I’m not too concerned; the birthday is of another True Believer, one of our group. G’day mate; see you in a couple of days.

 

A minor work thing: Emails to the following are “bouncing”:

• Gillian Sparkes,
• Mark Melvin, and
• Tony D’Aloisio.

 

If you know them could you please ask them to contact me with an alternate address (or maybe even empty their current one)?

 

Thanks.

 

Go Pies.

 

 

Round 15

 

Collingwood 16.12.108 defeated St Kilda 11.8.74

 

Scoring shots: 28 (us) / 19 (them). Given I tend to rate the same number of Goals scored to Behinds scored, that reflects pretty good kicking for goal by both sides.

 

Match Report – www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/7086#match-report.

 

Coach’s comments – www.afl.com.au/video/1348680/mcrae-post-match-r15-we-dont-want-him-to-fight-the-battles-well-fight-them-for-him?videoId=1348680&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1750511963001&references=AFL_MATCH:7086. Great focus on respect for St Kilda after their poor performance the week before and on the ‘whole-team’ performance; not just NickD, though he got a fair bit of praise. Interestingly, he considered the team were confident based on their preparation; the best prepared he had seen. Worth watching.

 

Goals scored:

 

Q1       5 (us) / 3 (them). We added three goals in the middle of the Quarter; before and after – up and down. Margin at QT +12 Points;

Q2       3 / 3. Up and down through Quarter. Margin at HT +12 Points;

Q3       4 / 3. Added three goals late after their early two goals start. Margin at the Final break +21 Points;

Q4       4 / 2. They scored two goals very early in the Quarter; we responded with four; and

Total    16 / 11. Winning with a margin of 34 Points. It could have been much greater.

 

Statistics

 

Some numbers to seek to identify where there was a substantial difference and how this impacted on the game:

 

Statistic	Numbers (us / them)	Comment
Disposals	319 / 332	A small advantage to them, but with Handballs, a notable strength of ours, a significant advantage to them – 110 /126, that wasn’t really too evident in the game. We sought to push them out to the Wings rather than allowing them to transition the ball more directly through the corridor.
Hit Outs (HO)	34 / 36	A particularly not-useful number decided by whichever ruck touches the ball first. A better assessment is ‘HO to advantage’, which I don’t have. And a much, much better measure is under Clearances, below. This number surprised me – close to fairly even. The disadvantage to us here, should have affected the flow-on in Clearances and Inside 50s and scores. It did and it didn’t. See more, below.
Clearances	33 / 40	It certainly did here. As such, you’d credit their Midfield as winning the Midfield Battle, less in the Centre, more in the stoppages around the ground: Centre clearance – 13 / 11; and Stoppage clearance – 20 / 29. This is a much better measure than the HO but still indicates a dominance by St Kilda. It should have indicated a substantial advantage to St Kilda’s next step – Inside 50s and, ultimately, their scoring. Their failure to exploit this advantage highlights the incredible performance by our Backline to blunt their Clearance dominance.
Inside 50s	56 / 52	And so it goes – a key reversal of the Clearance numbers. This is the next step in the heading to Goal and should broadly reflect the Clearance numbers. Well, they didn’t; it was reversed in our favour. Next? Well; Clearance advantage, should be reflected in an Inside 50 advantage, which it wasn’t, which should be the basis of a scoring advantage.
Disposal Efficiency (DE)	71.2% / 70.8%	Close enough. See next – it’s impoprtant.
DE Inside 50	53.6% / 46.2%	This is a really extraordinary result – here the numbers reflect a significant team advantage by us getting the ball into a scoring position. Then? This reflects hugely on both our Forwards using the ball effectively and our Backs denying St Kilda the same. This represents the game-Winning achievement.
Goals scored	16 / 11	And it did.
Player numbers with DE > 80%	8 / 6	Our number includes McCreery who wasn’t there for long. So not hugely different. I think this represents maybe a willingness to take chances with adverse consequences. I think the numbers reflect risk-taking in the game, something encouraged by the coaches.
Free Kicks	20 / 16	The numbers here surprised me. I thought it was pretty even throughout. Indeed, I thought we missed multiple unawarded Frees. Standard comment: What I saw that was critical was the failure to penalise, what I thought were obvious, incidents. I reinforce my suggestion that the umpires be invited to watch their decisions and answer “why?”? Inconsistencies are still widespread – incorrect disposal, caught with the ball, in the back, etc.
Contested Possession (CP)	107 / 128	Combined, the difference in the two measures usually reflects the team style of play. The winning of the CP by them is less significant than control of the ball through UCP domination, a marginal Win by us. Our team tended to use a much more direct approach to goal, compared with their use of the Wings. Both teams were successful for periods. I like it when the ball is locked in our attacking half.
Uncontested Possession (UCP)	195 / 189
Turn-overs (TO)	55 / 61	Fairly even. Again, I think the willingness to take risks, encouraged, is also part of this, as identified above.
Possession	47% / 36%	Across the game. A bit of a surprise the margin was so large. Last 10 minutes: 46% / 14%. Even more so?
Marks	108 / 80	Marks inside 50 – 18 / 10; and Contested marks – 12 / 6. Our domination of the Marks, particularly inside 50, is the most important of these comparisons and contributed positively to our scoring.
Tackles	65 / 46	Tackles inside 50 – 13 / 11. This, pretty much, reflected application. I have no compunction in recognising that both sides worked hard; with our boys totally committed for the whole game. This statistic gives this emphasis pretty clearly to our boys. It reflected my view of the game, even though for much of the game it was pretty even. The multiple tacklers were impressive, again.
1%’ers	32 / 41	Another surprise. Spoils and defensive actions. I haven’t gone back to add up the numbers but the general equivalence supports the contention that both sides were working hard.

 

Best:

 

The AFL website identifies Collingwood’s Best as:

• Cameron;
• Sidey;
• Pendles;
• NickD;
• JoshD; and
• Lipinski.

.

I don’t disagree with any of those identified though might regarding the order. I’d be tempted to add one – Allan ( 17 Disposals @ 88.2% DE, 321 metres gained, 4 Score Involvement, 4 Intercept Possessions, 2 Inside 50s, 5 Contested Possessions, 3 Clearances, 7 Marks and 2 Tackles). Crisp, Mihocek and Elliott each had pretty solid days at the office. I note the Round 15 AFL Coaches’ Votes gave scores to Cameron (10), NickD (8) and Lipinski (6). Current scoring has NickD 8^th on 53 points, Sidey 14^thon 45 points and JoshD 15^th on 43 points.

 

• A look at how successful Windhager’s tag on NickD is illustrative: NickD had 30 Disposals, 416mG and 1 goal. He received 4 Frees for, and 2 against. Windhager had 15 D, 101mG and 0 g. He received 2 FF and 3 against.  Noting that Windhager is a talented player, I wouldn’t have expected NickD to get more than 40 Disposals, so in this case with the different achievements, Windhager Loses the battle. I would still like to see Maynard given the task of better protecting NickD.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Crowd:      43,039. This is where the home game use of Marvel financial argument breaks down. I would not be surprised to see attendance at this game at the MCG over 65,000, the majority, of course, Pies fanatics.

 

Result: A great game that reflected well on North for the first three Quarters then we, quite suddenly, exploded into action destroying their opponents. The game reflected our ability to stabilise a situation and then reestablish our dominance. North are an improving side but are unlikely to make the Finals now. They can be expected to defeat a number of teams placed higher than them on the Ladder. Other noticeable aspects include:

 

• The team-performance, mentioned above. Everyone was involved, again;

• Clearance numbers were a major achievement by St Kilda however our advantage in the next steps – Inside 50 numbers and DE inside 50– reflected a total dominance. We had a greater presence Inside 50 and used the ball more effectively once we had it there;

• We, initially,marginally Won the Battle of the Midfield at the Centre. More importantly, related to this, the performance by our Backline and our Forwards wasquite extraordinary; and

• I thought the umpiring was again poor, though the umpire protection to players, particularly tagged players, was improved.

 

In summary, the Pies Won because we ultimately established control of the game, that we ultimately exploited Won by our dominant Forwards and Backs. The Margin could have been much larger.

 

Round 16

 

Saturday, 28^th June – Collingwood versus West Coast at Marvel Stadium (again); bounce at 7.35pm. Why Marvel again? It’s one of our home games, isn’t it. Nobody has explained why, yet?

 

This game is between 1^st place, us, on the Ladder and them in 18^th place. It would ordinarily be seen as an ‘easy-Win’ but, the balance of teams across the competition this year means no game can be taken for granted.

 

Betting? Needless to say, again we are pretty substantial favourites: $1.03 (Win by us) / $12.50 (Win by them).

 

Them

 

The Eagles have dropped progressively since their Grannie Win, against us back in 2018. Since then they’ve made the Finals twice from 5^th position (2019 and 2020) Losing against us in 2020 by 1 Point in FW1. They have gone further down: 2021 – 9^th, 2022 – 17^th, 2023 – 18^thand 2024, surging up to finish in 16^th positions on the Ladder. Last year they achieved five Wins against Richmond (Perth), Freo (Perth, of course), Melbourne (Perth), the GC (Perth) and NM (Hobart). The emphasis on home-games is clear.

 

The comparison is between us in 1^st place on the Ladder with 12 Wins and 2 Losses with a 135.0% percentage against 18^th place with 1 Win and 13 Losses with a 65.1% percentage. That said their Win was against St Kilda in Round 10 by 28 Points in Perth. They have also Lost to Essendon in Round 6 (Perth) and Richmond in Round 9 (MCG), each by 2 Points. Their most recent games against us have resulted in 63 Points (May 2024, Marvel) and 66 Points (June 2023, Perth) Wins to the Pies.

 

I have not watched any of their games this year. Would welcome any contributions relating to their style of play?

 

Players to watch for:

• Reid – Centre / Rover;
• Graham – HF;
• Baker – HB;
• Hewett – Interchange;
• Allen – FF / FB;
• Hough – Centre / BP;
• Waterman – CHF;
• Dewar – FP; and
• Ginbey – BP / CHB.

 

This collection from their Best listings is indicative of a focus on individuals across the ground with little focus on the Midfield. Accordingly, “Win the Midfield battle, Win the War” seems appropriate. Their best may encourage us to move the ball around the flanks, for once, rather than directly down the corridor.

 

Us:

 

Context?     Remember we run into Carlton in a couple of weeks time. After that the opposition starts to get a bit more serious. As such, the potential for “rest rotation program” will diminish; we should use it while we still can. Then? Which teams do you consider a threat? I’ll start – I consider Geelong and the WB threats; I don’t consider Brisbane or the GC threats – a couple of replies, but not many. Who do you think are the threats? Should Brisbane replace Geelong as the threat after their Kardinia Park disaster last weekend?

 

Changes? I’ve bowed to public opinion and left De Goey out of the team. Consider getting him super-fit and releasing him into the Finals. The others “managed” are to give them a rest, plus to blood potential replacements. And I consider Maynard’s inclusion has a hugely positive effect on the team’s aggression. And Mitchell is a Brownlow winner. Accordingly, the followingsuggestions are made:

• Out:

• McCreery – injured;
• Frampton – injured; and
• Howe, Cameron and Membrey – managed; and

 

• In:

• West;
• Steene;
• De Mattia;
• Maynard; and

 

• Your views?

Game Plan –No changes of substance from last week. A couple of points, as usual:

 

• Application. Nothing is more important. Well demonstrated in our last few games. And Attitude is King.

• Taggers. Tagging roles might be useful, including an occasional hard lock-down role on their Forwards and / or our Midfield winning the ball early? And protecting our players? That should also be key.

• Midfield Management. Pendles guidance / on-field coaching to the collective Midfield.

• Passing. Accuracy of passes by foot and hand much better. Critical – watch the individual DE figures.

• Drive. Drive out of the Backline is a key part of our game plan. Be prepared to cross the field, even to kick backwards to change the direction. Kick-ins are an issue – we need to have a plan that everyone knows.

• Kicking for Goal. This is critical. Ball delivery needs to be to the best goal-kicking position. Be prepared to acknowledge difficult shots on goal and be willing to pass the ball inside the 50 to a better placed teammate. I value GA (goal assists) more highly than actual goals  scored. This continues to need improvement – the question should be “Why didn’t you pass it rather than seeking to score the ‘impossible goal’?”.And, to get the best from your Forward ‘talls’, get them to lead to different parts of the 50; don’t compress into packs; and
• Tackles. A major success but still some opponents are spinning out of tackles. Love the multiple tacklers. The perennial complaint: “Hold your tackles!”, “never stop chasing” and be aware of who’s behind you before you ‘play-on’.

 

Our Aim?

 

• Be happy. Our team has been noticeably happier than most other teams (though this was not the case in Sydneyin the OR). They usually smile and laugh when things work and, importantly, when they don’t. They actually look like they’re enjoying the game, that they are Winners, regardless of the actual score on the scoreboard (thank you, Coach McRae). We should follow their lead and enjoy the game from our perspective, even when things don’t work.

 

Summary? Again, this is our game to Win, substantially, if we decide that and implement our Game plan throughout the four Quarters. Note, we’ve been producing Wins but not by the margins we should be. We need to Win, throughout the game, not letting up.

 

Winning Selection. Collingwood to Win by 37 Points. BOG – Pendles with 26 touches, including 8 Clearances. Goal kickers include Mihocek, Hill, Elliott, McStay and Perryman each with one goal; West gets 4. Other notable action (suggested last week, too): Maynard tags NickD’s tagger – some very solid tackling but no Reports. Well done.

 

TV: No surprise; no FTA coverage, again. Go to Kayo and Fox Footy.

 

Weather: Guys, if it’s raining, just shut the roof, again.

 

Ground Reports? Reports please (after or before)? I’d especially like to hear from the armchair warriors watching from afar? I’d love to see a Report from overseas?

 

Other:

 

• AFLW – Pencil the start date in – Thursday, 14 August, including getting to the competition’s first game: Carlton versus Collingwood at Ikon Park; bounce at 7.15pm. The draw? Go to www.afl.com.au/fixture?Competition=3&Season=84&Round=1301.
• VFL – Last game we Won against the Sandringham Zebras by 3 Points. Go towww.afl.com.au/vfl/matches/7383to have a look at the game measures, particularly the Match Timeline. Next on Saturday, 28th June – Southport Sharks versus Collingwood in Southport; bounce at 12.05pm.  Anyone from up that way? This game is between them placed 2nd and us, placed 8th, on the Ladder. Critically, the Top 10 places go through to the Finals.
• VFLW team – Another great Win by the girls against Port Melbourne by 27 Points last weekend. Go to www.afl.com.au/vflw/matches/7514to see a bit of game detail. That makes five Wins in a row – well done, Ladies. Next on Saturday, 28th June is against the Box Hill Hawks on Box Hill City Oval; bounce at 11.35am. This game is between them, placed 2^nd on the Ladder, and us, placed 5^th. Will be a tight tussle. In this competition, the Top 6 go into the Finals.
• US AFL Combine – 20 – 22 June at Dallas, USA. Apparently the principal qualification is to be at least 206 cm tall. Geelong, Hawthorn, GC and St Kilda are joining us at the event. Cox, reflecting his selection at the 2014 Combine at Los Angeles, has very big boots to fill –  211 cm, 135 games, 125 goals, 2023 Premiership and, perhaps most importantly, Australian citizenship. Any outcomes seen?
• Do you favour the return of a State of Origin series? Why?
• Anything else, everyone else?

 

Next:

 

• Round 17. Friday, 4^th July – Carlton versus Collingwood at the MCG (back home); bounce at 7.20pm.

 

 is our year. Always believe; never, ever give up! Go Pies.

 

Cam

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE