Round 10 – Sydney v Collingwood: Floreat Pica Society match report

 

 

Round 10
Sydney V Collingwood
Friday 15 May 2026
SCG, Gadigal

 

No Pendles, no Moore, no Cameron, no Bobby, no Lipinksi and no FPS putting their hand up for the match report, so I’m a late ‘in’.

 

It’s the end of another beautiful sunny Autumn day in Melbourne as settle on the couch and watch the Pies play the Swines, and it’s up in Sydney for a change, it’d be nice to play them at our home once every couple of years!  Gotta love the fixture, but it’s futile to Harbour a grudge against the AFL administration, they just do what they want anyway.

 

After last week’s dreadful second half, I go into the game with no confidence, but I had the same feeling at the start of the Hawks game, so I’m trying to keep an open mind.

 

It’s a massive weekend, Sir Doug Nicholls Round and Eurovision!!  Yes, anyone who’s been around FPS for a while might remember my 2016 Eurovision weekend report – I think I peaked back then so please don’t expect the same level tonight – here’s the link https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/collingwood-back-on-song/.  The nostalgia is kicking in and all of a sudden I recall doing a Sir Doug Nicholls Round report too back in 2014, here you go – https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/afl-round-11-st-kilda-v-collingwood-junktime-at-the-dome/.  Warning for First Nations people that the report contains the mention of a Noongar Yamatji and Pies’ legend that has passed to the other side.  RIP Krak, thanks for 2011.

 

Before the bounce of the ball, I gotta say that I’m loving the Pies jumper and outfit.  Love the black number on white back with the black shorts, and the artwork on the front is also a banger ironically from young Noongar Yamatji artist Jed Bennell.  I’m doing this report on the fly, so it’s gunna be some raw emotion stuff and hopefully a few music puns thrown in.

 

Game on and it’s a lightning start but Schultz misses a straight forward shot, then big Charlie West takes a great contested mark deep on the HFF and slots a cracking goal, Go West! Even the ‘King of Wishful Thinking’ would’ve thought he was a long shot to slot it.  JDG, Nick, Elliott all looking lively early and there’s some manic tackling and chasing pressure out there as we ping Warner who was prancing through centre like a ‘punk princess’ and got slam tackled, then on the turnover a polished Nick pass hits Schultz on the chest who kicks truly.

 

Angry Anderson marks 60 out and then a Lloyd ‘commotion’ occurs and he gets a 50 metre penalty which sees another goal for the Pies.  Another  F50 entry and strong mark from Schultz but bizarrely hands off and it goes up the other end for a Swans point and then an uncharacteristic dropped mark from Maynard sees Amartey mark but he misses everything.  Then, bang, it’s up to the F50 and Nick channels his old man for a beautiful left foot snap goal around the body.  He’s all Heart, and he’s a ‘Magic Man’!! And a few minutes later another classy JDG possession gets to Nick in the Charlie West pocket and he slots another one and it’s 5.2 v 0.2.  I can hear Springsteen in the background,,, “oooh oooh oooh I’m on fire”.

 

Sadly, a goalless Swans quarter gets spoiled by the umps not seeing Grundy’s arm violating Steene’s neck and he kicks a goal after rag dolling him.  Then here they come, enter the umps, a soft high free kick to Rowbottom and then a non mark paid to FreeKickCharlie but he misses. It was as bad as the Ablett and Silvagni ‘marks’ of the year back in the 80s and 90s that neither of them held.  And no it wasn’t justice that he missed and kicked a point, justice would’ve been play on, no score and we had the ball on the rebound.

 

Q2 starts with some classy Nick to JDG to Elliott for a point and then Hayes ‘Shafted’ us with a frustrating around the corner miss, but it’s followed up by an opportunistic Long dribbling goal, ironically from a short distance of 20 metres.  The usual Sydney rain sets in which seems to impact our clean skills so far. Long and Houston snap points and we’re wasting our domination.  Frampton ‘comes alive’ with a big defensive spoil, but ironically looks like he’s dead and gets dragged off the field. Some Sydney bloke wearing 28 gets a couple of soft free kicks at FB as the umps impose themselves on the game again.   A point to Angry Anderson and ‘suddenly’ we’re missing the goals. Then another to point to McCreery from a free kick, after advantage should’ve been paid for a Hayes mark dead in front closer to goal, but of course they called it back.  Then a Roan point.  1.7 this quarter!!  A Josh fumble then a soft FreeKickCharlie makes it 45 v 18 when we should be 7 goals up! You can take the boy out of Carlton but you can’t take the Carlton out of the boy.  Ten minutes of dreadful football ensued which was basically Grundy winning hit outs but nothing much else happening, but eventually sees a lucky goal to Swans, Serong.  I check the stats and it’s 15 v 8 frees after being about 6 all earlier, yeah that makes sense.  Steene marks in deep 50 and Papley does whatever he wants grabbing him and of course there’s no 50 metre penalty.  The AFL really do want Sydney to win don’t they.

 

Half time and we’re having a dead set crack.  We needed to nail some of those second quarter points to put our dominance on the scoreboard, but Swans started to get the game on their terms the latter part of that quarter.

 

The Delta at half time is 21 points in the Pies favour but sadly with our poor conversion in the second quarter it could’ve already been an ‘Eclipse’ but expect the red, white and yellow to come back hard in the second half.  Let’s hope we reset at half time and get the game back on our terms.

 

A dreadful West turnover then another home town free kick (or dreadful rule or both) against Parker for HTB and a goal to Sydney to start the quarter.  A dropped Long mark in F50 another missed opportunity.  An off the ball free kick to Nick from the Charlie West pocket for rushed point. A Nick special pass to Buller in the pocket and another miss for a point. Crisp a great tackle on Papley and rebound for another point, this time to Hayes.  We’ve gone from 5.2 to 6.12 in the past quarter and a half and I just know it’s going to bite us.  A contest on the wing and Steene gets pushed and goes down with knee injury and there goes our rucks for the night.  Poor bugger, he’s had a great start to his career and looks like an ACL and a year off.

 

Papley kicks one out of his proverbial and its now 48 v 38 with all the momentum and frees going Sydney’s way.  But we fight back with Angry shrugging off a tackle, Allan banging it forward and McStay soccering a goal as the Sydney Chardonnay sippers boo!  What a bunch of flogs. 54 v 38. A great tackle from Long on Sydney’s number 28 but no free (he’s clearly the new golden boy whoever he is, I hear Digger in the background, you can’t touch him) but then Hayes gathers and goes bang for a goal 60 v 38. Another home town free kick to Warner but we repel their attack but then a missed tackle on Heeney and it rebounds back in for a McDonald snap goal. 60 v 44.  And then Heeney does it again with a classy tap and McInernay marks and just sneaks it in for a goal.  60 v 50. Another bewildering free kick from centre bounce as we were streaming into F50 and they get a point 60 v 51. And another free, 22 to 12, now after a ‘deliberate’ OOB against Buller in their forward line – it was Buller alright, it was Buller’s hit!  A Howeler kick out turns over but thankfully Papley misses a sitter.  They’re all over us like a Delmonti or a Sire’s suit (one for the 70/80s late night TV viewers) and they scramble a soccer goal from Warner and its 60 v 59.   Another soft 50 for Sydney and now it’s with Heeney and his shot from 50 puts them 5 points up. Another free kick this time for the ridiculous across the line rule and its deep in F50 but Blakey kicks it on the full, surprisingly they pay us this free kick.  And just to finish off the trend, a ducking free kick (that may or may not be autocorrect) to Swans on the siren for a free kick and point.  I’m surprised they didn’t find a way to give him another kick or 50 metres.  Its 24 to 14 free kicks and 60 v 66 on the scoreboard.

 

We’re in more trouble than a Melbourne nightclub owner, continuing the music theme, at ¾ time.   Getting smashed in the ruck, under siege in the backline and from the relentless attack from the guys in yellow. It’ll need a Fly masterclass to turn this around.

 

We start the last with ‘holding Heeney’ what a familiar sound, amazing we don’t hear ‘holding Daicos’ when it happens to him at virtually every clearance.  It’d be ‘holding Collingwood’ anyway, it seems only Heeney and Rowell get the personal delivery from the umps.  The rules and the umps are cooked.  Another soft free 26 14. Daicos gets held in a full nelson on the wing at a ruck contest and of course no ‘holding Collingwood’ as the ball goes forward for Sydney again.  West nearly takes a mark and gets infringed but nothing for us.   A nothing 10 mins of footy where we are getting back on top and then all of a sudden a mongrel kick from Steele for a goal and it’s a 1 point game and we’ve got some momentum back.  A long point to Long where he could’ve put us in front, but it’s not to be, 68 all.

 

Another F50 entry and finally a free kick to us Crisp from 40 out, he missed two last week, will he stand up?  Sadly, no, he misses another. Duck!  We’re a point up.  Howe playing well but he makes it Howe’ler number two with a kick OOF which leads to another goal from ruck contest as McDonald snaps, Swans 5 points up.  Sidey has a great last quarter but blows it with a wasteful kick forward, dreadful decision making from an experienced big game player to blaze away at goal and not making the distance instead of lowering the eyes.  Sidey and Crisp both disappointing when the heat was on.  A fumble from McCreery on the wing and it rebounds for them and a goal to them and it’s 11 points and surely a bridge too far.  Another point and its a 12 point lead. A glimpse of our 22/23 spirit emerges as we burst forward for an Elliott goal and there’s a goal in it and 1 minute and 13 seconds to go.  We don’t get the centre clearance, we don’t win the footy back and we don’t win,  I turn off the TV and stew in my anger and disappointment.

 

Jeez I’m angry.  I’m proud of their efforts but I’m angry.  I’m angry with our poor conversion in the second quarter when we could’ve put them to the sword, I’m angry with our lack of tactics in the ruck once Steene was off, I’m angry with some fumbles and poor execution from some of our senior players  and I’m clearly angry with the umpires and the one sided silver service they gave Sydney all night.

 

I refer to the Eurovision song list to try to lighten my mood and come up with the following.  Our first quarter was ‘Too Epic To Be True’ (Estonia). We were ‘Dancing on the (thin) Ice’ (Belgium) in the second quarter with our poor conversion for goal.  We were at the ‘Crossroads’ (Czechia) in the third quarter when they got in front.  And all I could do in the last quarter was ‘Pray’ (Poland) but the footy gods didn’t answer.  And to the umpires, I think Azerbaijan said it best … ‘Just Go’.

 

The Votes

3 – IQ

2 – Howe

1 – Nick.

 

The DRs.

 

3 – Our ruck coach after Steene went off, play in front of Grundy at the throw ins!!!!

2 – The umpires, and the rules.  The HTB, Stand and Ruck rules and interpretation are diabolical.

1 – The fumbles and poor decision making of blokes at critical times that should know better.

 

That’s games against Adelaide, Freo, Hawthorn and now Sydney that we cooda shooda won.  Great efforts but inconsistency within these games and poor moments that experienced and talented players should do better.  Hopefully we regroup and get fired up for Pendle’s monumental record breaking game and get back on the winning list next week.  Go Pies and Go Delta.

 

Floreat Pica

 

Ramon

 

PS.  I’m still angry.

 

 

SYDNEY                     1.4   3.6    9.12    11.15 (81)
COLLINGWOOD    5.2   6.9    8.12    10.15 (75)

 

GOALS
Sydney: McDonald 2, Papley 2, Grundy, Curnow, Serong, Blakey, McInerney, Warner, Heeney
Collingwood: N.Daicos 2, Long, West, Schultz, Anderson, McStay, Hayes, Steele, Elliott

 

BEST
Sydney: Grundy, Blakey, Heeney, McInerney, McCartin
Collingwood: N.Daicos, Quaynor, De Goey, Houston, Maynard,

 

INJURIES
Sydney: Nil
Collingwood: Steene (knee)

 

LATE CHANGES
Sydney: Nil
Collingwood: Nil

 

Crowd: 40,627 at the Sydney Cricket Ground

 

Round 10 match reports can be read Here.

 

 

 

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