Cam Hooke’s Collingwood Life – Round 20 and 21: Better

 

Round 20 – Gold Coast

 

Collingwood 18.12.120 defeated The Gold Coast 8.3.51.

 

 

Match Report – https://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2019/20/coll-v-gcfc.

 

Ground Reports  – Did anyone attend? Does anyone else want to comment?

 

 

Buck’s comments – https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/video/2019-08-04/post-match-nathan-buckley

 

 

The Game

 

After an early reversal, things settled and we hit our stride. Think of the ‘explosion’ of handling and progression forward when possession changed in our favour. It was breathtaking.

 

 

The Suns never gave up and their pressure throughout was solid. Bucks described their pressure as “elite”. I don’t disagree. And our pressure more than matched it.

 

 

We played for four Quarters. Unlike our preceding month (or so), during which we had only played periods of great footy, against the GC we played better ‘team-footy’, our linkages were more efficient leading to clean, fast movement of the ball. Well done to all.

 

 

Keys (Things we always like to see):

• Varcoe’s unrewarded tackle;
• Pendles’ Captain’s goal;
• Sidebottom’s handball to H-E to goal and his own goal after apparently ‘out’; and
• Mayne’s commitment to the end and beyond.
• And Treloar and Grundy, throughout, goals and all. Magnificent.

Well done to each.

 

Simply put, goals scored by Quarter were:

• Q1 – 4 (us) / 3 (them).
• Q2 – 6 / 2.
• Q3 – 6 / 1.
• Q4 – 2 / 2.

 

Some Numbers. My standard concern relating to the conversion of Hit Outs into Goals:

• Hit Outs – 47 (us) / 33 (them). Thanks Grundy.
• Clearances – 44 / 29 (Centre – 16 / 8; stoppages – 28 / 21). Well done, Midfield. Note the dominance started at the Hit Outs continue through the Clearances and Inside 50s.
• Inside 50s – 52 / 37.
• Marks inside 50 – 20 / 8.
• Scoring Shots – 30 / 11. The game-winning difference all the way back to HO.
• Goals – 18 / 8. Reflecting the above.

 

A couple of other team statistics:

• Pressure:
  • Contested Possessions – 131 / 109;
  • Tackles – 68 / 61; and
  • Total: 199 / 170. That is a substantial difference related to effort. Well done.
• Mistakes:
  • Disposal Efficiency (players with DE equal to or greater than 80%) – 9 / 9.See below but Treloar’s DE in excess of 90% is notable; and
  • Clangers (players with two or more Clangers) – 11 / 14. Hmmm?

 

Individual Performance, with some key numbers?

 

Our Best (AFL website):

• Treloar – 35 Disposals @ 91.4% Disposal Efficiency; 10 Clearances; one goal and three Goal Assists. An awesome day at the office.
• Sidebottom – 27 @ 74.1% DE; seven Tackles and one GA.
• Grundy – 26 @ 57.7% DE and eight Cl.
• Crisp – 29 @ 65.5% DE and four Rebound 50s.
• Pendles – 24 @ 83.3% DE and ten Tackles.
• Hoskin-Elliott – 17@ 76.5% with four goals. Better Forward than Back but there was some terrific ‘sharing’ amongst the Forwards (see below).

 

I would add Elliott (two goals), Varcoe (two goals; one GA), Mihocek (two goals; one GA), Adams (three GA; five Cl) and Mayne (eight T) to the List.

 

Looking forward, again.

 

 

Round 21 – Melbourne

 

Saturday, 10 August; bounce 1.45pm at the G. Between 6th and 17th; 113.2% and 79.9%; 12 Wins and 5 Wins; inside the Top 8 and outside it. Go to . Betting is already in place – we are favourites $1.43 to $2.85.

It is absolutely critical we keep winning (and winning well).

 

 

Them

 

Melbourne came into this season as one of the teams “expected to deliver”. They haven’t. But the competition is so even that their competitiveness is not a lot different to ours, particularly recently. They Lost to Richmond (Round 20) by 33 Points / we Lost the week before by 32 Points; They Lost to the Eagles (Round 18) by 13 Points / we Won by one the week before. And none of their Losses go close to our Loss to GWS (Round 18) by 47 Points. However they come into the game after four successive Losses whereas we come off the pretty solid Win over GC.

 

Melbourne have a very strong Midfield however have a tendency to fade-out in their 2nd Halves reported by some commentators as a significant loss of efficiency of ball control. Over their season they have a scoring differential of:

• Q3:  – 134 Points; and
• Q4:  – 151 Points.

Not sure why. Nor can we rely upon it.

 

Who to watch for?

• Midfield – Gawn (Ruck; of course), Viney (RR) and Petracca (C).
• Forwards – Fritsch (Forward), Oliver (FF) and Salem (FP).
• Backline – Frost (CHB) and Hore (Back; maybe).

So? The Gawn / Grundy duel will be fantastic. Our Mids need to win the Midfield battle, supporting Grundy and ‘sharking’ Gawn’s taps.

 

 

Us

Last week was important; not just winning but how we went about it. It provides a very firm base for continuing.

 

 

Approach (same as last week)?

 

• Critical approach – Establish control of the game – play it our way; not theirs. Use handballs.
• Scoring Behinds? Avoid; look for the better position.
• Entry to goal. While the ‘up and under’ into a pack in front of goal is a valid approach it should not be the only avenue.
• Crumb around the packs and watch their ‘smalls’, Forward and Back.
• We need to hold our tackles; not be brushed off.

 

Team? Some changes:

• Out – Cox. Critical replacement required given his dual ruck role.
• In – Lynch.
• Coming? Moore, Stephenson, De Goey? Maybe consider Noble, Broomhead and Madgen?

 

Weather? Light rain. Get the boots with ‘stops’ out.

 

TV? No FTA. Find a friend with FOXTEL or your ‘Local’.

 

 

My prediction? Pies Win by 29 Points. BOG – Treloar – 39 Disposals @ 89.5% Disposal Efficiency. Mihocek and Elliott each get four goals; Lynch gets two.

 

 

Attendance?  Anyone going? Ground Reports pls?

 

Future. The challenges continue and in the current competition no team can be ignored or considered an ‘easy beat’:

 

• Round 22 – Adelaide in Adelaide. Guessed result – Win; Always a challenge in front of the, usually, very hostile crowd. Tag Eddie?
• R23 – Essendon at the G. Guessed result -Win; Anyone writing off Essendon?
• And, then finally, the Finals.

 

Keep the faith.

 

Other:

• Eddie Watch. Quiet; a great thing.
• Beams is back but has undergone a serious operation. Unavailable for the rest of the season.
• Club memberships? We’re third with 85,226 members behind Richmond and the WCE. If you want to check the Categories, etc go to https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2019-08-06/combined-club-memberships-reach-new-record-high. Perspective: “One in 24 Australians is a Member of an AFL club.”

Go Pies.

Cam

 

 

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