Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life 2025: Round 18 Review / Round 19 Preview

G’day True Believers.

 

Okay, a Loss. Is that the end of the earth for us? I don’t think so. Does anyone actually believe that that game, played at the MCG, would have had the same result? Do any of you note the strange way that strange-shaped ball bounces at different times (also called “luck”), and how this can influence a game outcome? Does anyone think that if we’d started our come-back a bit earlier than halfway through Q3, we might have established a sufficient margin to defeat their future fight back? We, now, have been beaten by only three teams this season:

 

• GWS – Opening Round by 52 Points in Sydney. I still have no idea why we played so badly in Sydney
• Geelong – Round 8 by 3 Points at the MCG; and
• Gold Coast – Round 18 by 6 Points at the Gold Coast.

 

Neither of the Losses to Geelong and GC constitute substantial Losses Neither is unbeatable, particularly when played at the G. GWS was substantial, but their season has collapsed. We are in a very positive place. See the comments, below about the importance of the VFL side continuing to play into the Finals.

 

There’s still a way to go to finish the H&A season. Let’s push to keep our Top position on the Ladder.

 

Go Pies.

 

 

Round 18

Collingwood 8.15.63 were defeated by the Gold Coast 10.9.69.

 

Scoring shots: 23 (us) / 19 (them). That reflects appalling kicking by us and fairly average kicking by them. See Disposal Efficiency, below, around the ground during the game but more importantly, when inside the 50 – some verry important differentials.

 

Match Report – www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/7109#match-report.

 

Coach’s comments – www.afl.com.au/video/1362098/mcrae-post-match-r18-i-want-to-focus-on-what-we-did-do-instead-of-what-we-didnt?videoId=1362098&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1752241353001&references=AFL_MATCH:7109.  An interesting focus on the narrow Loss, very clearly distinguishing between the 1H and the 2H.

 

Goals scored:

Q1       0 (us) / 2 (them). They started well; we started poorly. Margin at QT – (negative) 13Points;

Q2       0 / 4. More of the same, but worse – they scored 4 goals in the Quarter; we scored 4 Behinds. That said, we did start to control the game late in the Quarter, without scoring any goals. Margin at HT – 35 Points;

Q3       3 / 2. The change continued from about midway through Q3; and we started scoring goals. Margin at the Final break -28 Points, an improvement;

Q4       5 / 2. Better. This continued with us taking the lead for a very short period. GC recovered with two late goals that we were unable to counter; and

Total    8 / 10. Losing with a margin of 6 Points.

 

Statistics

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

 

Statistic	Us / Them			Comments
Disposals	330 / 339			Not hugely different. Handball – 154 / 147.
Hit Outs (HO)	43 / 43			A 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 – I thought we were routinely beaten – the equivalence wasn’t evident watching.
Clearances   Centre clearances: Stoppage clearances:	33 / 46     9 / 7   24 / 39			Their domination of Clearances is evident. This should have been of concern. This is a much better measure than the HO and should have indicated a serious disadvantage to us in the next steps – Inside 50s and, ultimately, our scoring. Broadly speaking, this didn’t happen – we took control of the Inside 50s, particularly in the 2H.
Inside 50s	53 / 43			Their Clearance advantage, above, was not reflected in an Inside 50 advantage. We took this positively reflecting that we had more entries into goal-scoring positions. See DE below regarding how we used them.
Disposal Efficiency (DE)	69.1% / 69.9%			Across the whole game. Not a significant difference.
DE Inside 50	47.2% / 48.8%			This difference is not huge, but it is significant. They have an overall advantage. Linking Inside 50s and DE inside 50 mean we got the ball into the 50 (broadly, into a scoring position) more frequently, but they used more effectively (scored). This represents the overlapping of the different statistics.
Player numbers with game DE of 80%	7 / 3			A bit different.
Free Kicks	28 / 24			This surprised me. Again it was the offences not identified rather than those that were and consistent areas of concern – caught with ball, failure to dispose correctly, in the back in tackles, etc. There were a number of ‘late pushes after a mark’ not penalised; and some that were.
Contested Possession (CP)	136 / 139			Interesting – they dominated both CP and UCP but only by a small margin. It reflects well on us when you add Tackles into the comparison. Both sides worked hard. I like it when the ball is locked in our attacking half, of course.
Uncontested Possession (UCP)	184 / 191
Possession	40% / 41%			Reflects the above.
Marks   Marks inside 50 Contested marks	59 / 67   15 / 10 10 / 7			We were seriously out-marked in the 1H. These numbers, applicable across the game do not indicate our dominance in 2H following theirs in 1H. The Inside 50 numbers contribute to scoring (usually – we missed a very large number of routine scoring shots).
Tackles   Tackles inside 50	76 / 66     13 / 9			Highlights our boys’ application. Importantly, the numbers Inside 50s, as above, contribute to scoring.
1%’ers	41 / 57			Spoils and defensive actions.

 

Best:

The AFL website identifies Collingwood’s Best as:

 

• JoshD,
• NickD,
• Elliott,
• Schultz,
• Maynard, and
• Cox.

 

I’ll be interested to see the Coaches’ Votes. Not available yet.

 

In addition to those identified above, I’d suggest adding Crisp and Mitchell to the list. Each had very respectable numbers, particularly metres Gained and Clearances. Further, Cameron, Moore and Pendlebury (well, half for him) each made outstanding contributions to the team.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Crowd:

 

Result: This was a great game for each side for periods – GC for 1H, us for 2H. There were, of course, periods in each Half when the other side prevailed – their defence and scores in the final 10 minutes of the game. Some messages:

 

• I watched the 2H replay; couldn’t bring myself to watch the 1H.
• We need to accept the potential outcomes of taking risks in the manner of our game – sometimes these will fail.
• We badly need to put together a ‘Kick-in’ plan, both as a negative to stop their kick-ins and as a positive to facilitate ours. The kick-in following the scoring of a Behind is a cheap way of transferring ball-possession; the most critical part of using the ball.
• Pendles’ presence in the Midfield is critical to managing the Midfield. We badly need to gain control of the Midfield.
• NickD’s ability to shift between FF and Midfield works well.
• High kicks into the 50 to packs is not the best avenue to the Forwards (or out of our Backline). Better solutions are lower kicks to targets.
• This game was against opponents who were equally committed as our team usually is. We need to be able to match this.  A further challenge is to work out a plan to better counter this. We started to achieve this late in Q2, even though unable to score goals until the middle of Q3.

 

What else was I pleased about? The manner in which our players greeted Noble at the conclusion of the game. Both sporting and professional. Well done to all.  Good to see Noble included in their Best list. I would have included Witts as well – thought he was a rock.

 

In summary, we Lost because we failed to establish control of the game until late in Q2 and, in reality, were unable to start scoring until halfway through Q3. In a game with quite clear periods of dominance it is not hugely useful to consider the numbers across the whole game; it would be better to consider the separate periods in isolation.

 

 

Round 19

Sunday, 20^th July – Collingwood versus Fremantle at the MCG; bounce at 3.15pm.

 

This game is between 1^st place with 14 Wins 3 Losses with a 136.1% percentage, us, on the Ladder and them in 9^th place with10 Wins and 6 Losses with a 108.8% percentage.

 

Them

Freo finished last year in 10^th place with 12 Wins, 10 Losses and a percentage of 111.9% one place below us on the Ladder. Their 2025 season is reaching towards matching that, so far 10 Wins, 6 Losses with a percentage of 108.8%. Most recently, they’ve had one Loss against Sydney (in Sydney) and six successive Wins preceding that, noting that these Wins have been against St Kilda, Essendon, North, the GC, Port and GWS, many of which were played in Perth. Importantly their R18 game tonight is against Hawthorn. We’ll see what happens. I might even watch it.

 

Players to watch for:

 

• Brayshaw – Rover;
• Treacy – FF;
• Clark – HB;
• Jackson – Ruck;
• Serong – RR;
• Bolton – HF / Centre

 

This collection from their Best listings is indicative of a focus on their Midfield plus some selected positions. So, win the Midfield battle.

 

Us:

 

Context?    We are now one plus game clear at the top of the Ladder. With the success of his pursuit of participation in the Finals, we need to start getting ready for those, which are, as stated previously, a very different game.

 

Changes? Howe out? Back replacement? Your ideas?

 

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 / Midfield? 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.

• 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.

 

Summary? Again, this is our game to Win when 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 have. We need to Win, throughout the game, not letting up, particularly as we start heading to the Finals.

 

Winning Selection. Collingwood to Win by 19 Points. BOG – Pendles with 28 touches, including 7 Clearances. Goal kickers include Mihocek – 4 goals and Elliott, with 3.

 

TV: FTA returns – on 7+ and 7mate, plus the usual Kayo, Fox Footy and Binge.

 

Weather: Very low chance of light rain. Get the boots with stops out – limit the slip sliding.

 

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

 

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 beat the GC, in the GC, by 2 Points – it does seem fitting, doesn’t it? Go to www.afl.com.au/vfl/matches/7408 to see some detail, particularly the Match Timeline. Next on Saturday, 19 July is against Geelong at the Mission Whitten Oval; bounce at 7.10pm. In this competition, counting this next game, there are five more H&A games. The Top 10 on the Ladder make the Finals. We are currently placed 7^th on the Ladder so need to maintain the pressure. The VFL team continuing to play in parallel with our Finals is critical because it provides an avenue for previously injured players to work up game-time before being thrown into the AFL competition. Without that capacity, there is an inherent risk in the selection process. Good luck, boys.

• VFLW team – A fantastic Win by the Ladies over the Casey Demons by 46 Points. Well done. Go to www.afl.com.au/vflw/matches/7532 to see some match detail; check the Match Timeline. Next on Saturday, 19 July is against Geelong at Deakin University Oval, Geelong; bounce at 1.05pm. Including the next game, this competition has two more home & away games to go. Remember the Top 6 go into the Finals. Our team is currently placed 3^rd on the Ladder so, on balance, is pretty well assured of making the Finals. Good luck.

• US AFL Combine – 20 – 22 June at Dallas, USA. Any outcomes seen?
• Do you favour the return of a State of Origin series? Why?
• Anything else, everyone else?

 

Next:

• Round 20. Sunday, 27^th July – Richmond versus Collingwood at the MCG; bounce at 2.10pm.

 

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

 

Cam

 

 

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