Round 1 – Collingwood v Adelaide: I’ve Been Waiting For A Win Like You

This was my third visit to the ‘G in less than a week, after working at the footy last Sunday and Thursday nights. With my trusty offsider to keep me in line, we bowled up early to ensure a reasonable general admission seat, having outlaid the big bucks for seats in upcoming games at Geelong and the Gabba.

 

We found an agreeable perch in the lower reaches of the upper deck of the Warne Stand behind the Punt Road goals, grabbed some fast footy fare and settled in.

 

I knew that it had been a while since we’d had the better of the Pies in Melbourne, but a review of the past decade or so reminded my that we had two wins and a draw from consecutive games across 2014-2017, surprisingly one of these was at the Docklands. These two clubs didn’t meet again in Victoria until 2022, with the home side having winning margins of 42 points (2022), 2 points (2023), 4 points (2024) and 10 points last year. But the plain facts were that Collingwood had won eleven of the past twelve games against Adelaide. Despite living in Melbourne since 1994, I still feel like a foreigner when watching the Crows over here.

 

I was expecting a narrow Crows loss – Collingwood aren’t getting any younger or better, but Adelaide’s only new recruit of note was Callum Ah Chee and who knows how they would rebound from last year’s feeble finals flop.

 

Ex-Sydney ruckman Lachie McAndrew (210cm) had a fine season with Adelaide’s SANFL side in 2025 and kept Reilly O’Brien out of the seniors after a bold showing in the pre-season. Was this the missing piece to the Crows’ on-ball brigade, a ruckman who could tap it to our advantage, with disposal skills that didn’t make you cover your eyes and peek through your crossed fingers?

 

Adelaide was crisp and clean from the tip-off with Jordan Dawson spotting an unguarded Isaac Cumming at the Ponsford end within the first couple of minutes for the opening major. Fluent ball movement down the Members side brought up Adelaide’s second goal courtesy of the unflappable Alex Neal-Bullen. Collingwood had numerous forward entries after that, but those that weren’t repelled by Josh Worrell, the unheralded Hugh Bond or the finally fully fit Wayne Milera, were fluffed by the Magpie forwards.  Adelaide 2.3 (15) to Collingwood 0.1 (1) at quarter-time gave us some hope, but surely the home side would regroup and clamp down on the loose Crows everywhere.

 

The Pies opened the scoring with a booming snap from Jack Crisp, deep in the AFL Members flank, but they frittered away a couple of chances before Riley Thilthorpe took his first chance with a close range snap at our end. Nick Daicos always looked dangerous and brought up Collingwood’s second before Josh Rachelle replied. After a tense period played between the arcs Collingwood had the better of the last five minutes of the quarter with goals by Roan Steele and Beau McCreery nudging Collingwood ahead. A late Darcy Fogarty major then saw Adelaide go into the main break 3 points in front.

 

Adelaide’s ascendancy in the centre clearances thanks to McAndrew saw them pile on a match winning-lead in the third quarter. Cumming’s second was dished off by hand by a quiet Ben Keays before Thilthorpe took advantage of the opposition’s lack of size in the goal square, splitting the pack and adding his second goal after he marked the resurgent Milera’s pinpoint pass. Adelaide’s pace and ball movement led to James Peatling spotting up an unmanned Brayden Cook who scythed one through from 50 metres out. Steele pulled one back for the black-and-whites before three more goals from Jake Soligo, Thilthorpe and Luke Pedler (all from marks inside 50 a long way from their opponents) put the visitors 37 points up. The margin at the final break was trimmed to five goals when Lachie Schultz bobbed up from nowhere to score his first goal.

 

Five goals in front wasn’t enough to have me confident of a win and majors to Schultz, Jamie Elliott and the hitherto unsighted Tim Membrey were enough for me to remark to my offsider that “we’re done here Gus”. Tex Walker, playing up the field was the beneficiary of Collingwood’s failure to understand the new nuances of the ‘Stand’ rules and he marched down from half back to pick out Fogarty in the pocket, who duly delivered from a tightish angle. A persistent Keays made certain of victory with a deft left foot checkside that split the middle and relieved quite a few squeaky sphincters, mine included. (The slick handball from McAndrew to Keays probably wouldn’t have been made by Reilly O’Brien).

 

Late goals to Elliott and Nick Daicos came too late for the losers. It will be interesting to see how Collingwood performs from here.

 

In other years, the Crows probably would have succumbed in the last term. They recovered as if they were playing at home, perhaps because there was a vocal sea of tricolour supporters in attendance.

 

Milera was in superb form with each of his many touches finding an Adelaide target.

 

Adelaide’s McAndrew gave his side a huge advantage at the centre clearances and I’ll enjoy watching him in the coming weeks. Bond hasn’t taken my eye previously, neither has Cook, but they were both very valuable tonight.

 

It was clear to me that the ‘last touch’ rule resulted in both sides avoiding kicks towards the boundary line, but more than that, it seemed that they both played far more directly, give-and-go rather than long bombs to the half-forward flank boundary to draw a stoppage. I haven’t checked the number of stoppages but it seemed fewer than normal.

 

The Crows will be good to watch if they keep this up. Bring on Geelong and the Gabba.

 

 

COLLINGWOOD    0.1   4.8    6.10    11.13 (79)
ADELAIDE              2.3    5.5   11.10   13.15 (93)

 

GOALS
Collingwood: Steele 2, Schultz 2, Elliott 2, N. Daicos 2, Membrey, McCreery, Crisp
Adelaide: Thilthorpe 3, Fogarty 2, Cumming 2, Soligo, Rachele, Pedlar, Neal-Bullen, Keays, Cook

 

BEST
Collingwood: Houston, N.Daicos, Cameron, Quaynor, Steele
Adelaide: Milera, Worrell, Thilthorpe, Cook, Neal-Bullen, Cumming

 

INJURIES
Collingwood: Nil
Adelaide: Nil

 

Crowd: 62,482 at the MCG

 

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