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

Hi, True Believers.

 

Do you know what I like most about our Team? The fact that they are smiling, laughing (even when things don’t work) and are clearly enjoying their footy. More below.

 

While it related to last week’s game, it hadn’t been released before I sent out my email – worth watching. I take my hat off to the Club with its focus on families as demonstrated by the events leading to, and then following, the Mothers’ Day game. If you haven’t seen the events I am talking about go to www.collingwoodfc.com.au, particularly Beau McCreery’s mum’s pre-game speech and the Team Song.

 

Official AFL Website of the Collingwood Football Club

 

The official AFL website of the Collingwood Football Club

 

www.collingwoodfc.com.au

 

Round 10

 

Back to this week. I didn’t watch the game live, but have watched the replay a couple of times; and specific timings many, many times. A solid performance set up in Q1 and Q2. Was the game over at HT?

 

Never? A fabulous Q1 (and Q2, mostly) but seemed to play Carlton’s game thereafter – slowed down a lot. Perhaps, more importantly, the effort in Q3 against the Carlton side on a roll was fabulous to defend against their attack and retake the momentum; to re-establish control of the game. The sum? Carlton Won the game from the middle of Q2. It was great to set up the lead but we need to demonstrate a follow-through.

 

A great result against our Olde Enemy.

 

Collingwood 13.7.85 defeated Carlton 7.15.57.

 

Goals scored by Quarter:

 

 

  • Q1       5 (us) / 1 (them). Giving us a substantial lead at the first change;
  • Q2       5 / 3. We did the damage in the 1st Half;
  • Q3       1 / 1. Held firm;
  • Q4       2 / 2. ; and
  • Total:  13 / 7. We Won.

 

Match Report: www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/4872#match-report.

 

Coach’s Report: www.afl.com.au/video/931839/full-post-match-r10-magpies?videoId=931839&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1684657849001&references=AFL_MATCH:4872.

 

Numbers: After the last couple of weeks, when I got a bit carried away with the statistics, I’ve gone back to looking at the game as a whole. Some extraordinary comparison numbers here and difficult to see anything useful without the breakdown by Quarters:

 

Statistic TOTAL Comment
Hit Outs 31 / 31  Don’t rate this too highly.
Clearances 30 / 38  Hard to believe.
Inside 50s 51 / 51  Good recovery given the Clearance differential.
Goals Scored 13 / 7  Carlton led scoring shots 20 / 22, perhaps indicative of the pressure on their players in the 50.
Disposal Efficiency 74.4% / 76.5%  Across the entire game.
DE Inside 50 43.1% / 43.1%  Expect 1H we dominated; Carlton recovered in 2H.
Tackles Inside 50 12 / 10 An advantage.
Marks Inside 50 13 / 9  As above.
Contested Possessions 131 / 127
Free Kicks 18 / 22 Always where and when, not just the numbers. And the perennial problem is the decisions relating to caught, incorrect disposal or no opportunity.

And to be fair (for once), see what Razor has to say regarding last week: www.sen.com.au/news/2023/05/17/chamberlain-responds-to-contentious-hill-and-martin-non-calls-from-round-9/.

 

Best: The AFL website identifies Moore, J.Daicos, Mitchell, Mihocek, Noble, De Goey, N.Daicos and Sidebottom. Wouldn’t argue too strenuously.

 

And, our boy: www.cbsnews.com/video/australian-rules-football-star-mason-cox-60-minutes-video-2023-04-30/. Worth watching.

 

Mason Cox: The 60 Minutes Interview

 

A Texas man had an engineering job lined up, but then an opportunity came knocking from across the globe. Mason Cox tells Jon Wertheim how he became an unlikely Australian rules football star.

 

www.cbsnews.com

          .

Game. A great result; far less stressful on the poor supporters going into 2H with a substantial lead.

 

Injuries. Not known. Hopefully no suspensions.

 

Deductions / Lessons? General application was fantastic; as was the commitment to a result during the whole game. And kicking was very good. And kicking to a better placed kicker inside the 50 was also excellent. All, well done. Your comments?

 

Round 11

 

Collingwood plays North Melbourne at Marvel on Sunday, 28 May; bounce at 3.20pm.

 

This game is between 1st (us) and 17th (them) on the Ladder. Betting? We are favourites, not surprisingly, betting: $1.04 c/f $11.50.

 

Them:

 

Firstly, we should never underestimate our opponents. Secondly, we should seek to benefit from the occasion, as a training run and/or through a percentage boost. And North are not ‘easy-beats’ at all, replay their game against Sydney if you need.

 

North’s season started okay with a couple of Wins and a couple of relatively close Losses. They were still in the Eight after Round 3; gone by Round 4. Then five Losses by an average margin of over 10 goals (actually 61.6 Points, if you doubt me). Then there was this weekend’s game against Sydney at Marvel. I watched it on TV just to get a bit of an idea of how they play. Of course, the first change was their new coach. Following their ‘messiah’s’ move, a replacement took over. It is always a questionable as to whether a team plays better or worse and why, after this. North are also seriously affected by injuries to key players. Note that of the key players routinely amongst their Best, three missed the Sydney game because of injury. Not sure how this will flow-on to our game. In yesterday’s game, North nearly (should have) Won. They played pretty well for periods.

 

Okay, their Loss to Sydney; by three Points. A big call: the Win was given to Sydney by the umpires because of an interchange infringement; effected at the Goal Square (an example of the umpires wrecking a very good game outcome – even if it was awarded at the Interchange point would have been fairer. This was an interesting game in many ways because of the huge injury lists by both sides, so ‘Buddy plus kids’ versus ‘Goldstein plus kids’ works as a description. North dominated the HO, but more importantly dominated the Clearances (47 / 27) and Inside 50s (53 / 29), noting that this dominance was heavily in the 2nd Half after being beaten in the 1st Half. So where did they fall down? With a Disposal Effectiveness through the game of 77.7% / 69.7% they fairly dominated the game but the DE Inside 50 tells a different story – 43.6% / 51.0%. This, combined with the Inside 50 numbers differential highlighted the progression to equality. The ‘Goldstein plus kids’ description is not really fair but is indicative of the youth of the team (apart from Goldstein). Players who performed were Simpkin – Rover, Sheezel – Wing, Greenwood – Wing, Wardlaw (a first gamer) – RR, Scott –  FP, Curtis – FP and Coleman-Jones – also FP. And if you want to see a competitor for Goal of the Year go to www.afl.com.au/video/928633/crazy-good-curtis-wows-crowd-with-goty-contender?videoId=928633&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1684556087001I have incorporated the players’ most recent performance in my summary Players to Watch, below. And the umpires performance? Frees were 16 / 24. And, as always, it’s where and when they are given. A poor performance.

 

Game Plan? North have ‘produced’ for periods, but they’ve also been run down from a significant lead – Round 1 – Won by 3 Points from a 20+ lead in Q4; Round 2 – Won by 1 Point from a 20+ lead mid Q4; Round 5 – mid Q1 lead, then 7 (North) / 20 goals (BL); Round 6 – Q1: 1 (North)/ 4 goals (GC), Q2 even, Q3: 3 / 0 goals, Q4 even; Round 9 – level first break, forget the rest. And they have scored the last few goals on a number of occasions though I suspect this is more because their opponents stopped – Round 2, Round 4 and Round 7. It also might indicate the willingness of North to play to the end. The Sydney game degenerated into big kicks into the 50 to packs. Degenerated is the wrong word – That implies it started as something different. That wasn’t the case. This approach was common through the whole game. With their domination of Clearances, North drove directly through the corridor with little lateral movement. They did, however, commit hugely through the whole game and cannot be faulted in playing to the end. Early on Sydney kicked a lot of Behinds – North found it difficult to get the ball out of the 50.

 

Significance? So, we need to win the Midfield battle and hold their key Forwards to account, watching their smalls crumbing off packs. Simple, as always.

 

 Players to Watch (it’s a very short list if those injured are removed)?

  • Davies-Uniacke – RR (Injured; may not play);
  • Simpkin – Rover / HF;
  • Ziebell – HB / FP (not a typo);
  • Sheezel – HF;
  • Zurhaar – Rover (Injured; may not play);
  • Goldstein – Ruck;
  • Larkey – FF;
  • Wardlaw – RR; and
  • McKay – FB (Injured; may not play).

Also, from a ‘family’ perspective, watch Stephenson – HF. He had a pretty ordinary game against Sydney.

 

Roles?

 

  • Nothing ‘special’ jumps out from an examination of North’s games this year. Close defence against their Forwards, and intercept marking against their ball delivery, are essential without question; as is the avoidance of their Backs in delivering the ball to our Forwards. Their Midfield is fairly reflected in the players to watch, above. Goldstein, Davies-Uniacke and Simpkin are a workable trio and warrant watching, tagging one of them if necessary.
  • Watch for attempts to tag our players / implement counter-tagging plan, accepting the logic that this, generally, removes an additional effective opponent from the opposition.

Us:

 

A start: By Andrew McGarry

 

The return of Mason Cox just reminded us that he is a huge point of difference for Collingwood, Nick Daicos is having a career year — and figures to get better — Tom Mitchell has lifted the team’s ability to contest in the middle, and the defence is clicking.

 

 

They are 8-1, and unless something changes they are going to be 11-1 by the time they face the Demons in an MCG showdown. That will be the acid test for what Craig McRae’s side can do this season.

 

No new injuries? I’m not sure anything needs to change though opportunities arise as previously injured players becoming available:

  • Team? Minimal change. Anyone need resting? Your choices?
  • Application? No change. Application for four full Quarters. Hold the tackles. Establish and maintain control of the game (possessions).
  • Game Plan? No change to the current plan. Use varied entry to the 50 and be willing to move the ball to a better-placed goal scorer than delivering to packs. Crumb around packs.

 

My Picks: Collingwood to Win by 43 Points. BOG – N. Daicos – 43 Disposals, 11 Clearances, 8 Tackles, 5 Goal Assists and 2 Goals. Mihocek, Jack, Billy & Bobby get three each.

 

Ground Reports. Loved the Reports from attendees. Let’s see some reporting, please, from those who couldn’t attend but watched the game on TV – all views are welcome. Do we have any people going? Could you report please?

 

Weather. Who cares? Shut the bloody roof if its wet. Moulded sole boots okay.

 

TV:     Kayo or FOXTEL – Best for every game.

 

No Free to Air TV.

 

Future:

 

  • Round 12 – Saturday, 3 June at Optus, WA – Collingwood versus WCE; bounce at 4.35 AEST. No FTA coverage;
  • Round 13 – Monday, 12 June at the MCG – Melbourne versus Collingwood; bounce at 3.20. FTA coverage of the King’s Birthday Holiday game on Channel 7; and
  • The Ladder. Keep an eye on the Ladder as we approach the midpoint of the Season (yes, still a couple of weeks off) leading to some big moves on the Ladder. Your thoughts?

Other:

 

  • VFL – The Pies Lost their Round 8 GWS game by 2 Points, having led by a massive 30 Points well into Q4. I don’t get it. Their next game will be on Sunday, 28 May: Collingwood versus North Melbourne at the AIA Centre. Anyone going?
  • Mid-Season Draft. Some differing views:
  • Anything that you would like to inform our members of, just Reply to all or send it to me.

 

Believe always. Go Pies.

 

Cam

 

 

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