Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life 2025: Side by Side Round 24 and the future?

 

Hi everyone; True Believers, all. This is our year!

 

This is a bit early, so people in Melbourne could support our girls in the VFL Grannie on Saturday and/or go to the Open Training session and/or support our AFLW girls on Sunday (detail below).

 

Into the Finals.

 

And what a great way to start our month-long journey to the Grannie. Adelaide in Adelaide, even with one of their hotshots removed. Win this and watch the collective concern rise amongst the other Clubs in the competition.

 

Go Pies!

 

FW1 – Qualifying Final

 

Thursday, 4^th September 2025 Adelaide versus Collingwood at Adelaide Oval; bounce 7.40 (AEST).

 

1^st versus 4^th on the Ladder separated by 2 Wins and 16.9% percentages.

 

Betting? I’ve been watching this:

• 25 August        $2.49 (Pies’ Win) / $1.54 (Crows’ Win);
• 27 August        $2.51 / $1.53;
• 28 August        $2.47 / $1.55; and
• 28 August        $2.35 / $1.60. Still a way to go.

 

Go to the AFL game website at www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/7993 to monitor. Adelaide are Favourites.

 

Them

 

Adelaide finished the H&A season on top of the Ladder with 18 Wins, 5 Losses and a 139.3% percentage. Their five Losses were spread, mostly early in the Season. Losses were to the GC, Geelong, Freo, us (in R10) and Hawthorn in R14. Their most recent five games were all Wins and included the reversal of the earlier Losses to us and Hawthorn; both pretty significant. Other recent Wins were against North, WCE and Port; none of which really mattered.

 

Consideration of their most recent game against us is previewed at www.footyalmanac.com.au/cam-hookes-collingwood-life-2025-round-22-review-round-23-preview/ and considered after at  www.footyalmanac.com.au/cam-hookes-collingwood-life-2025-round-23-round-up-round-24-preview/. Worth a quick re-check.

 

The recent selection of the All-Australian Squad is illustrative. Picked are Dawson, Keane, Thilthorpe and Worrell. Rankine was also included in the Squad, but unavailable for this game.

 

Players to watch, based on this selection and our most recent meetings:

 

• Keane – CHB;
• Dawson – Centre / Wing;
• Worrell – BP;
• Thilthorpe – CHF; and
• Walker – FP / FF.

 

I also monitored our Best at each of our recent meetings, also influenced by the All-Australian Squad selections:

 

• NickD – Rover;
• Cameron – Ruck;
• Pendles – RR / Centre;
• Crisp – Centre / RR;
• Elliott – FP;
• JoshD – HB; and
• Maynard – BP.

 

An interesting spread of Adelaide ‘Best’ along the corridor, less significant in the Midfield, particularly when compared with our Best for those games. There should be scope to clearly Win the Midfield battle and apply close defenders in the corridor. Your thoughts?

 

Crowd: AO holds 53,500. Expect 80% Crows’ supporters. Remember the best way to shut the crowd out of the game is to establish and maintain a good lead.

 

Us:

 

Context?    We need to Win this to reestablish our confidence in our ability to Win the Flag.

 

Changes? Injuries and their significance are not yet confirmed. Suggested changes:

 

• Outs: Howe (Injured?), Mihocek (Injured?), McCreery (Injured?), McStay and Lipinski. Really important to keep McCreery in; his tackling lifts the team. Mihocek is also a solid workhorse who can be fairly credited with GA numbers.

 

• Ins:  Cox (forward target and fill 2^nd ruck), Hill (even with limited game time recently, he is dynamic and unpredictable with the ball on the ground),  Steene, Cochran and De Mattia (out of the 2’s, if required for McCreery and Mihocek);

 

Your thoughts?

 

Game Plan – A couple of points:

 

• Application. Nothing is more important. Positives and negatives totally 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 remains critical.

 

• Passing. Accuracy of passes by foot and hand is critical. Remember a misdirected pass, resulting in a turnover of the ball, passes possession to our opponent, immediately shifting control of the game to them. See later comment regarding kick-ins.

 

• Drive. Drive out of the Backline is a key part of our game plan. Kick-ins are a continuing issue – we need to have a plan that everyone knows and is able to implement.

 

• Kicking into the 50. High kicks into the 50 to packs, that we seem to revert to on occasion, is not the best avenue to the Forwards (or out of our Backline) even with Cox (if he was playing) or Cameron as targets. Much better avenues are lower, harder kicks to specific targets, moving in different directions to confuse the defenders. The speed of high kicks also allowed defenders to intercept or, at the least disrupt, the passage of the ball.

 

• Kicking for Goal. This was pretty awful in our last few games. We need to exploit our dominance in Inside 50s by scoring goals. The players need to consider and apply the willingness to pass the ball inside the 50. The key players with the ability to kick the hard goal is laudable, but not always successful. Ball delivery needs to be to the best goal-kicking position. Importantly, scoring a Behind is a waste – for 1 Point, you hand over ball-possession to the opposition. It’s not worth it – get the ball into a better position.

 

• Tackles. Still a failing with some opponents spinning out of tackles or brushing off the tackler. This has been one of our strengths this season; we need to get it back. Love the multiple tacklers.

 

Our Aim? Be happy. Worth reinforcing – our team, yes, we are part of it, were incredibly dour during the OR game against GWS in Sydney; same against Hawthorn a couple of weeks or so ago. Everyone, players and supporters, need to get the smile back.

 

Summary? We should Win this game against Adelaide. Seek to Win well and take the pressure off us, long-suffering, Pies’ supporters.

 

Winning Selection. Collingwood to Win by 19 Points; BOG: De Goey with 31 Disposals and 14 Clearances; Goal kickers Elliott – 4 goals; Hill & Mihocek – 2 each.

 

TV: FTA coverage not yet out but highly likely. Go to www.afl.com.au/broadcast-guide-premiershipfor the decision. Or go to Kayo or Fox Footy.

 

Or head to the MCG to watch – Watch the Adelaide Crows v Collingwood match at the ‘G – see the attached email for booking.

 

Weather: High chance of light showers on game day with significant rain forecast in the week leading to that. It will be slippery. Go with the boots with ‘stops’.

 

Ground Reports? Anyone going? Reports please? I’d especially like to hear from other armchair warriors watching from afar?

 

Other:

• All-Australian Squad? Go to www.afl.com.au/news/1403441/2025-all-australian-squad-crows-lions-suns-and-bulldogs-dominate-big-names-overlooked. NickD, JoshD and Elliott selected. Surprisingly Cameron, Pendles and Moore not selected in Squad.

 

• AFLW – A great R2 result with a Win over GWS by 8 Points at Vic Park. Next is against Melbourne on Sunday, 31 August at Vic Park; bounce at 1.05pm. Good luck, ladies.

 

• VFL – Done for Season. Good effort, boys.

 

• VFLW Grand Final – Terrific, ladies, well done. The VFLW Grand Final is on Saturday, 30^th August at the ETU Stadium is between Collingwood, who finished the season 2^nd and North Melbourne Werribee, who finishes 1^st; bounce at 34.15pm. Good luck, ladies.

 

• Open Training – 9.45 – 11.00am, Sunday 31^st August at the AIA Vitality Centre. The Eatery is open from 9.30am to 12.00pm and the Club Shop from 9.00am to 1.00pm. Particularly for the Melbourne-based people, maybe have a bite to eat, get some gear, watch some   training and head off to Vic Park to watch the ladies. A good day?

 

• Anything else, everyone? 

 

Next:

 

• Finals:

 

• FW2    Week rest for Winner QF1; Semi-Finals: Loser QF1 versus Winner EF2

 

• FW3    Preliminary Finals: Winner QF1 versus Winner SF2

 

• FW4    Grannie – Winner PF1 versus PF2.

 

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

 

Cam

 

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