Opening Round – GWS v Collingwood: Up and … chipping?

 

Up and… Chipping?

 

Round 1 is the crispest time of the footy year, bar the GF. The game adapts and grows so fast these days. What worked for a year, at most three, has an army of specialists from the 17 other sides, plus media, working to counter it.

 

   Over summer, teams have time to work on reinvention, counter game-plans, evolution. You take a break from footy over your summer, watching none of it, and, bop, there are the Pies and the Giants, playing a new brand of football.

 

Well, the Giants, mostly.

 

   I watch them, observing old from new, to file away, and use as a yardstick. To observe the rest of the league through.

 

Speed is the key. They’re all insanely fast. Just ridiculous. They use it to buffer, bump, harass and lock down the rebound out of their forward line. It stands out like dog’s balls.

 

   A top-of-my-head (which is pretty dented and wonky) timeline, tells me the 70’s brought in handball, the 80’s abandon – purely attacking football. The 90s, no risk footy. The early 00’s, flooding to the max. Beyond that, teams learned to attack from half back, full back. Premierships were built around rampaging backlines. They were countered by defensive forwards. Individuals, like Rioli, Campbell. Now, the Giants have six such players. A forward team of them. Collingwood could just not get it happening from down deep in defence. No more seesaw, no more ping-pong, in which the middle of the ground is mostly irrelevant.

 

Clear Magpie dashes out of defence were rare. Remember a series of sharp hands leading to a bloke out back who would chip to a runner, and suddenly you were on the wing? That nonsense was cut off early, in its initial traffic. The Pies had to slap it out of the 50s.

 

   Each time the game gets re-invented, a new generation in love with comfort zones die a little. They bemoan the death of the game as we know it. They would take you back to their prime, when they were young and thought they knew everything. This generation of such has been given a new catchcry; “Gah! Chipping!”

 

   The Giants did more chipping in one game than the whole Tasmanian wood industry.
Gone is the fear of handball ruining the game. Gone is the fear of flooding. We’ve moved from fear of no contact, to too much, back to none again.

 

   Unfortunately, gone, it seems, is the reckless, improvised carry the ball out of the backline perfected by Geelong ‘7,’9,’11. Fast fading is Richmond’s bomb long to numbers and chaos.

 

   Chip brother. Chip, chip! You’ve grown up in the system, trained without mercy since your balls were still firmly up inside you somewhere. On perfect grounds, in perfect conditions. It means nothing to you, there is no risk. Chip, do everybody’s heads in.

 

   It worked beautifully. Collingwood were spread far and wide. All grids and rolling zones stretched, manning chip receives, until they were all out of position.

 

   Yes, with little contact, but again, the game will sort that eventually.

 

   The rest is names, which, in truth, are becoming secondary. Spare me the pearl clutching on that. It’s meant to be a team game, and is so now, it seems, more than ever. Names will matter until the sun boils our oceans, but I’m talking football.

 

   On the weekend I watched something for the first time, something new. 2024, the Giants, AFL football.

 

   *****

 

P.S. I also saw another innovation, in the ruck, Dees v Bloods. Strength and body mass. Gawn has a ripper leap, an incredible centre of gravity, staying upright as knees and elbows collide. To counter, Grundy often conceded front position to Max, then simply leaned into him, putting his own hand past the ball, and scooped, more than tapped, it back towards rovers waiting behind and to the side of him.

   The jury is not even back in the building yet on that one, but it should be fascinating.

 

 

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY           5.2     10.5     14.5     18.6 (114)
COLLINGWOOD                                3.6     6.10     6.13     11.16 (82)

 

GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Brown 5, Hogan 4, Daniels 4, Cadman 2, Kelly, Greene, Green
Collingwood: Mihocek 3, Hill 2, Cameron 2, Mitchell, McCreery, Maynard, N.Daicos

 

BEST
Greater Western Sydney: Brown, Green, Hogan, Daniels, Kelly, Coniglio, Ash, Whitfield
Collingwood: N.Daicos, Cameron, Maynard, J.Daicos, Schultz, Lipinski

 

INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: Ward (shoulder)
Collingwood: Nil

 

SUBSTITUTES
Greater Western Sydney: Toby McMullin (replaced Callan Ward in the third quarter)
Collingwood: John Noble (replaced Tom Mitchell in the third quarter)

 

Crowd: 21,235 at Engie Stadium

You can read more from Matt Zurbo Here.

 

 

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  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 keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

 

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE
One-off financial contribution – CLICK HERE
Regular financial contribution (monthly EFT) – CLICK HERE