Greetings to all.
That was fabulous. I’m not sure why, but even at the last change facing a 28 Point deficit, I was confident that we would Win. And we did.
One thing I would add, particularly given the very strong (current and past) ADF and Defence presence amongst our membership, and accordingly a great understanding of the Anzac tradition, that you listen / watch Darcy Moore’s speech following the award of the trophy. It is worth listening to. He focussed totally on ‘the day’ and the significance of their participation. Well done, young man. Go to
Round 6
Collingwood 13.12.90 defeated Essendon 11.11.77; this was 2nd (Essendon) versus 3rd(us) on the Ladder, with us favourites for some reason. The shift on the Ladder: we go to 2nd with Adelaide in Adelaide next week (see below) and Essendon drop to 4th with Geelong at the G next week. Good luck on that one, noting Geelong’s step up more recently. I expect a pretty substantial Win to Geelong.
Goals scored by Quarter:
Q1 1 (us) / 3 (them);
Q2 4 / 2. Leading to near equality at HT (we had a 2 Point lead);
Q3 1 / 6. Giving us a 28 Point deficit at the final change;
Q4 7 / 0. Giving us a 51 Point turnaround in Q4; and
Total: 13 / 11. And we Won.
Match Report: www.afl.com.au/afl/matches/4837#match-report.
Coach’s Report: www.afl.com.au/video/912833/full-post-match-r6-magpies?videoId=912833&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1682412723001&references=AFL_MATCH:4837. Quite reasonable, more akin to an interview with Nick Daicos actually, but the Coach makes some interesting comments about the “high numbers back” approach to defence across the competition and the team’s belief at the final change facing a substantial deficit. Nick highlighted the value of the Forward ‘talls’ getting the ball to the ground from where he and others could move it. Worth watching. Nick’s other comment of value was to acknowledge the crowd support which provided real energy to the team. You could hear this on the TV.
Numbers
Some selected statistics with some comments:
Hit Outs: 29 (us) / 50 (them). Frampton, again, did well as an ‘amateur’ ruck against Phillips and Draper. While the HO numbers gave a strong advantage to Essendon, the Clearance numbers from the rucks were 3 / 4. In my view the HO difference here is of limited significance; it is the next step that is critical.
Clearances: Total – 36 / 35. The Clearance numbers remove any advantage Essendon had from the HO dominance; a great performance by the Midfield. And look at the next step, below, of Inside 50s.
Centre – 11 / 9; and
Stoppage – 25 / 26.
Inside 50: 64 / 45. This is a significant difference way disproportionate to the Clearance numbers.
Goals scored: 13 / 11. Their conversion rate of Inside 50s is significantly higher than ours, reflected in the Disposal Efficiency Inside 50 number, below, however the combination of our Inside 50 advantage, even with our lower Efficiency there, still gave us a game-winning edge.
Scoring shots: 25 / 22.
Disposal Efficiency: Total – 78.6% / 75.5%. Not too different;
Individual players with DE of 80% or over – 9 / 10; and
Inside 50: 42.2% / 51.1%. A big difference. Our domination of the Marks inside 50 – 13 / 7 was offset by Tackles inside 50 – 6 / 9. So, we got it there far more often but they used it better when they got it there. In balance, the end result was in our favour.
Contested Possessions: 142 / 121 – A major advantage reflecting the team’s application. Remember our CP domination has been fundamental to our Winning of games this Season (and last year). Combined with the Uncontested Possession numbers (which I usually ignore) – 257 / 194 – you can see the total domination of possession (399 / 315), and hence, the game. This can be the other part of assessing Winning – ‘possession wins matches’ representing the pressure the team is bringing to the game. An outstanding result. Your thoughts?
1%: 50 / 41. This was also a huge difference – very impressive, reflecting, particularly, defenders’ punches (of the ball that is; unlike that Essendon player who is sure to be heading for a fine and / or some time off).
Frees: 10 / 19. Noting that three of our Frees were for Out of bounds on the full, the difference is then 7 / 19. There were occasions when I was screaming at the TV, particularly about the non-award of Frees.
Best: The AFL website identifies N. Daicos, De Goey, Moore, Maynard, J. Daicos, Sidebottom and Frampton. Again I’d be tempted to include a couple of others based on their contribution (identifying only the significant numbers) – Noble (489m gained, 22 Disposals, 9 Marks and 1 Tackle), Pendles (379 mG, 21 D, 4 M and 3 T and most importantly a huge “settling effect” in the Centre when things were not going our way) and Mitchell (16 CP and 8 T). Interestingly, Nick Daicos was selected by all four judges considering the BOG award.
Game: A fabulous game of footy that fully reflected the never give up attitude of the team. We Lost Q1 by a bit and Q3 by a substantial margin, but recovered in Q2 and destroyed Essendon in Q4. Close-in passing was great, as was the majority of kicked passes and the fantastic pursuit of opponents and very few opponents walking out of tackles.
Injuries: Pendles – an eye injury?
Deductions / Lessons: General application was fabulous. There were, still some silly turnovers, resulting from simple mis-kicks, but in fairness this applied to both sides. Again the Backline were magnificent, led by Moore’s intercept marking or simply punching. The Mids? Look at the numbers above – a great achievement. And the Forwards? I would recommend the Forwards look for, and pass to, a better placed goal-kicker rather than blazing away from an impossible position (though I would acknowledge the fact that many of the Forwards do well from such positions). What is really pleasing is that entry to the 50 never really degenerated into big up and under kicks into packs, and when it did occur the ‘talls’ got the ball on the ground and our crumbing around the pack was outstanding. All, well done. Your comments?
Round 7
Collingwood plays Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, 30 April; bounce at 4.40pm (AEST).
That gives us a five-day recovery period compared with their seven.
Interestingly, for what it’s worth after only six games, this is a battle between 2nd (us) and 5th place (them) on the Ladder. The betting, probably reasonable on this occasion, has us the favourite with $1.61 compared to Adelaide with $2.32. Makes sense?
Them:
Adelaide has had a rocky start to the season losing their first two games against GWS and Richmond. They have reached Round 7 with four Wins in a row against Port, Freo, Carlton and Hawthorn. Of these games only Carlton was well placed in the Table; all the games, excluding Carlton in Round 5, were placed 10th, 11th and 9th and 18th,respectively, from Round 2. Of the games the Round 5 Win over Carlton by 56 Points and the most recent game, Round 6, the Win over Hawthorn by 3 Points, are worth looking at. In summary Adelaide destroyed Carlton in Q1 of their game, then coasted. There is no clear reason why Carlton let this happen to them. The Win over Hawthorn was played at Launceston with all the vagaries of playing there and was a close event throughout the game.
Game Plan: Adelaide, looking at their Round 5 Win, established their Q1 dominance through 8 individual goal-scorers. Laird and Dawson (see below) were instrumental in establishing their Midfield dominance with Keays tagging Saad, an All Australian, out of the game. Cripps had 19 Disposals. Tex Walker and Fogarty were instrumental in providing scores up Forward. The description of the game was: “Carlton were outworked, outrun and outsmarted in every facet of the game” – AFL Match Report. The follow-on question must be: “So, why were Hawthorn able to nullify (nearly totally) Adelaide’s football skills? I suspect our game will be a critical opportunity to assess Adelaide’s potential.
Significance / Players to Watch:
Dawson – CHB;
Laird – RR / Centre;
Rachele – RR / Wing;
Rankine – HF / FP / Rover;
Keays – Rover / HF – also is used as a tagging option;
Walker – FP; and
Fogarty – FF.
Also watch :
Tyler Brown, if he is selected, because of his history at Collingwood;
Madgen, also if playing, for the same reason; and
Himmelberg, Forward, because I rate him.
Roles:
Watch where Keays goes. Plan for defence against tagger of some key individuals / maybe look at Adams counter-tagging?
Ruck duel – O’Brien versus Frampton. I have faith; and
Close defence on Walker and Fogarty.
Us:
Apart from the injuries, I’m not sure much needs to change:
Team: Minimal change. Ruck – based on Frampton again. Murphy and Adams back? Carmichael has been doing everything asked of him in the Two’s. Who to drop / rest / manage? 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. Watch Adelaide’s Q1 application.
My Picks: Collingwood to Win by 29 Points. BOG – De Goey with 27 Disposals, 7 Clearances, 4 Tackles and 1 Goal. Hill & Jack each get three goals.
Ground Reports: Now I happen to know some of you were at the MCG last game. Let’s see some reporting, please? Have loved the reports, so far. Those attending / those just watching the game on TV – all views are welcome. Do we have any Adelaide based members? John, are you going to the game? Would you be prepared to report please?
Weather: Weather forecast is mostly clear and sunny. Very little rain is forecast on the day or in the week leading up it. Use the moulded-sole boots..
TV: Kayo or FOXTEL – Best for every game.
No Free to Air TV.
Future:
Round 8: Sunday, 7 May at the MCG – Collingwood versus Sydney; bounce at 3.20pm. FTA TV coverage on 7mate;
Round 9: Sunday, 14 May at the MCG – Collingwood versus GWS; bounce at 4.40pm.No FTA TV coverage; and
The Ladder: Keep an eye on the Ladder as we approach the midpoint of the Season (yes, still a few weeks off) leading to some big moves on the Ladder. Your thoughts?
Other:
VFL: After a great come from behind Win over Essendon at Victoria Park, the next game is Round 7 on Sunday, 7 May against Williamstown at DSV Stadium; bounce at 12.00pm (I’m sure Melbournians know where that is). Any locals who might attend? I’d welcome a view on how Steene and Begg (if cleared to play) are performing?
Remember you can see our past Reports (for a few years) on Footy Almanac at www.footyalmanac.com.au/?s=Hooke. The group emails started a few years before the FA records. Does anyone’s records show when we started?
Anything that you would like to inform our members of, just Reply to all or send it to me.
Believe always. Go Pies.
Cam
To return to our Footy Almanac 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 things keep ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE.
Cam I agree that the Stevices outSteviced themselves on Tuesday. Maybe they were worried by the Essendon boo squad.
On another matter, all the pundits like Cardman, Jessie and Lloyd and Barrett are are predicting an Adelaide win, just as they did an Essendon win. While such a scenario will trash my weekend in Adelaide, I would very much like to prove them wrong, here’s hoping!