By Mark O’Connell
The 16th annual clash between Colingwood and Essendon was, as always, eagerly anticipated. Unfortunately we had to again put up with the annual whingeing about the right of these two teams to have this fixture.
Let me re-print something from a previous ANZAC day report
Anzac day, as a commemoration of those who served in wartime, has been boosted considerably by the traditional football clash. It is no co-incidence that a greater public interest in our history and a greater appreciation of our Diggers has run in parallel with the growing football tradition. Those short-sighted media experts and fans of other clubs who annually bleat about Collingwood and Essendon having the monopoly have no idea. I remember going to matches on Anzac day in the 1980s : until the appearance of a bugler moments before the first bounce you would hardly even know that it was Anzac day and the crowd would be no higher than for any normal game.
Anyway back to 2010
For the 9th consecutive year my cousin Noel and myself attended the Dawn Service. 40000 others joined us this year – a great way to begin this great day. For those who have yet to add this chapter to their ANZAC day programme, I strongly recommend it.
The selection of the side had me a bit worried as I felt we may have gone a little tall. No doubt to the delight of Haiku Bob, Lockyer was not able to help exorcise the memories of his disastrous kick-in in the final moments of last year’s diabolical defeat. With O’Bree also on the outer it signalled a changing of the guard . Dawes finally got a chance and Reid and Nathan Brown were back also.
Anyway the game was a fizzer. All over by quarter time not that any of us Collingwood supporters were complaining. Amazingly Cloke kicked 4 straight in the first half. When he lined up from the boundary line for his third, my brother Paul leant over and said “shark, pool mother”. For those of you that this means nothing to go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_5FhmvhxuY
and go to 6.10 on the time line
The pressure from the Pies was fantastic. Essendon continuously handballing around in circles with no system at all until an error was forced. Mug coach Knights. At least he is smart enough to realize he should keep Dustin Fletcher on his list. If Matthew Lloyd was more respected by Knights I’m sure he would have made some impression on the day ahead of some of the duds running around. (see note below re de-listings)
A few other random observations
We need to keep faith with Fraser for a while as he adjusts to his new role
Maybe Reid isn’t a complete dud after all
We are as good as anybody on current form
Bring on Carlton!
Horsburgh votes
3 votes
Alan Didak
Extremely creative with his 20 kicks but fabulous defensive work really stood out. His steal which led to Johnson’s goal in the second quarter being my highlight of the day.
2 votes
Dayne Beams
Impressive youngster who continually pumped the ball inside 50 as well as delivering a number of sweeping handballs out of the middle
1 vote
Scott Pendlebury
Somewhat unobtrusive but I slipped him on the strength of the ANZAC medal. Picked up a dozen contested possessions.
Honourable mentions to Maxwell, Shaw, Johnson, O’Brien, Wellingham, Cloke , Thomas and Swan
On an unrelated football matter, whenever there is a discussion in football circles about whether a certain player is still worthy of being in their team or on their club’s list, it has become quite popular to use the question “Is he a part of our next premiership side?” as the deciding factor. This is the most ridiculous logic I’ve ever heard. I reckon I could name hundreds of current players who will never play in a premiership….if we ship them all off there will no league left.
Danny Roach Medal– Given by The Artist Formerly Known As The Big Man
It is pleasing to find myself with very little to say about the lack of
performance and effort put in by the boys. A quiet week is a good week
and there were a limited group of players in contention for the Danny
Roach votes. After further reflection post game I have opted to
allocate the votes as follows:
3 votes – Leon (The pilot light, no longer the ignitor) Davis. Fair
dinkum he must have thought he was playing in a Grand Final. 90,000
people, the pre-match build-up, the ceremony and the National Anthem.
Someone forgot to tell him it was just an ordinary home and way game.
Dropping chest marks, running around the ball and missing from the very
few opportunities he was presented with locked it away for me. I noticed
he had his upper leg heavily bandaged and he was limping late in the
game so obviously something happened during it which I did not notice
but the early effort does not need an excuse.
2 votes – Paul Medhurst Another one who is struggling a bit of late. His
second efforts and attempts at goal assists make it look as though he
was busier than he was but the stats don’t lie and it was another quite
one from the Metwurst. A good game every 3-4 weeks will test the
selector’s patience. Both he and Leon are lucky there are no small
forwards pushing up for selection based on the seconds performance over
the last month. But there soon will be with the return of Brad D in 2-3
weeks.
1 vote – Nathan (Tarzan) Brown. I remember hearing Nick Maxwell
answering a question from a media commentator in the pre-season asking
who at the club was training the house down and looked to have improved
over the off-season. He responded almost immediately by offering up
Nathan Brown’s name because he had put on more muscle and bulk to any
already well developed frame. He even made the analogy with Tarzan which
Paul O’Connell and I have had some fun with over the years in tagging
other players with that moniker. Most recently, Tristen Walker.
Seriously how can anyone with the name Tristan be favourably compared to
the mighty masculine jungle man. Now we have a Nathan being compared
with the great man. I am genuinely worried about this kid’s football
ability. He just does not have the capability to play in different roles
if the full back position is not available to him or there is no
match-up. I don’t want to super Presti -out too early but he is showing
all the signs of a body which is ageing and unable to get through the
weekly grind of AFL football. Especially when he has to take the power
forwards of the game on a regular basis. Heaven help us if Nath becomes
the ‘go to’ man by default. Three and a bit years of development has not
translated into tangible or visible capability. Straight back to the
Magoo’s where the pace of the game is more to his liking. His brother
Mitch looks like the one we should have gone for. Maybe we meant to but
got the faces and reg no’s crossed.
TAFKATBM
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