Round 16 – Gold Coast v Collingwood: Smells Like Teen Spirit as Pies Dream of Nirvana (Floreat Pica Society)

 

Pre-game ramblings

 

As the Pies faced up to the Suns for the second time in 2022 (the first time we have played them twice in a season) I reflected on the history between the two clubs.  As might be reasonably expected, given the Suns’ undistinguished history, the Pies have enjoyed their tussles with the Suns, winning 9 of 12, our 75% win rate being higher than against any other current team (but not by as much as I thought – see trivia question below).  It’s not as good as the 93% we had against University (we won 13/14, the other match was a draw !), but very good.

 

Trivia question number one – against which current club do we have our second best winning rate?

 

Given that the Suns haven’t finished higher than twelfth, it is not surprising that there hasn’t been any very significant clashes between the teams.  The most significant, before now, was the 2014 game, which I have always known as the Clinton Young game.  With both teams in the eight, we travelled to Metricon in Round 16 and played in front of what is still the largest Metricon crowd, just over 24,000.

 

I was fortunate (sort of) to be there for a pulsating match in a great atmosphere -if you haven’t been there, it’s a great place to watch footy.  After we wasted our first half dominance through inaccurate goalkicking (hmmmm, where have I heard that before?), the Suns took the ascendancy in the third quarter, which was most remembered for Gaz Ablett injuring his shoulder after a tackle from his tagger Caff.  The Suns had four injured players and thus no interchange in the last quarter, which was an end-to-end dramatic quarter in which we drew level twice but couldn’t get our noses in front.  Trailing by five points with nearly thirty minutes played (and no time remaining clock at the ground in those days, but actually still two minutes remaining) Youngy inexplicably dropped this uncontested  twenty-five metres out straight in front.  The gig was up, we lost by five points, duly fell apart for the rest of the season and finished eleventh.  The Suns, sans Ablett, also fell apart and finished twelfth, their best finish.

 

Trivia question number two – which Pie kicked two goals in the last quarter of that game ?

 

(Anyone who correctly gets the answer to both of the above questions first go, and without researching, will be granted instant admission to the FPS Trivia Hall of Fame – which is currently empty!)

 

Fast forward to Round 16 (again) in 2022 at Metricon.  The Pies are flying, having won five in a row, and in seventh position. The Suns have won five of their last seven, were apparently desperately unlucky against Port last week, and have little wiggle room left, lying eleventh and one game out of the eight. While I would happily take a soft win, that seems unlikely given the Suns’ form, especially at home, and given very wet conditions forecast.  This appears likely to be a great contest and maybe one that will outdo the 2014 game.

 

To mark the occasion, and as I love an obscure Pies player and their story, I have decided to award the inaugural FPS Henry Schade Medal to the best Pies player in this game. Schade played for both clubs and while his other seven games for the Pies were anything but memorable, he did have his moment in the sun in Round 3, 2017 when he kept Buddy goalless as we pipped the Swans by a point for our first win of the season.

 

The match

 

The game started much as the Giants game last week, with the Pies slow out of the blocks in slippery conditions on a very damp track after 25mm of rain.  We were three goals behind before you could say Henry Schade.  It also included a great moment for the Suns’ PNG debutant kicking a goal with his first touch (even if we did have to sit through 79 replays of it throughout the match).

 

One of the questions going into the game was how well we would cover the absence of Howe without the inclusion of another tall defender and the early signs were not promising with Casboult and Chol both kicking goals.  The young bucks Ginnivan, with two beauties, and Henry got us on the scoreboard and we also missed multiple gettable shots for the quarter, including Billy touching one on the line from WHE and Adams and Henry missing. As in the Giants game, we had absolutely dominated the rest of the quarter after a slow start and should have been ahead rather than level at the first break. Nick Daicos, Elliott, the revitalised WHE, Sidey and the two young bucks were the standouts.

 

The second quarter continued much in the vein of the second half of the first quarter, with the Pies dominant, especially one N Daicos, who had a supreme quarter, Ginnivan pesky and hitting the scoreboard and Moore and IQ controlling the back half.  We again found a multitude of ways to not convert chances, mainly the stock standard missing set shots, complemented by Checker’s comedy routine on the goal line when he marked, tried to convince the umpire that he was in the goal square, failed to do so and then appeared to not think through that he was two metres out from goal and playing on in and kicking it into the desperate defender.  Predictably the Suns hit back with a couple of goals coming from a period of high pressure after a lengthy drought and our profligacy was reflected in a lead of only a few points before Josh Daicos gave us a decent buffer at the break.

 

The most interesting feature of the first half was that we had been dominant for most of it without any of our key mids doing well, with the Sun’s talented trio Miller (what a player !), Rowell and Anderson ruling the roost.  Cameron and Cox had worked hard to quell the dominance that Witts has had in recent weeks, but their mids were much better than ours.  Adams was an error factory, Crisp was quiet (hard to tell on the telly, but possibly tagged, will have to get used to this increased attention), JDG was out of touch and Lipinski and Pendles, who was thrown in there early after the slow start, were no more than serviceable. All of our drive had come off and from half-back thru N Daicos and the wingers and flankers, Sidey, Josh Daicos, WHE and Noble who had a strong game.  After the initial onslaught, Moore, Maynard and Murphy (Triple M?) had teamed together well with the smaller backs to repel most of the Sun’s forward forays, aided by the Suns forwards crashing into each other on a couple of occasions when uncontested marks were there for the taking.

 

For the fifth time in six matches (the others being the Carlton, Hawthorn, Melbourne and Giants games), our half-time position was considerably less favourable than it could have/should have been through our wayward kicking.  How will the coaching staff change this pattern?

 

While the first half had been a high-pressure error-ridden contest in difficult conditions, the third quarter took it up several notches in these regards. We were pretty dreadful throughout the quarter, not seeming to have many ideas on how to respond when the Suns cut off our run and ball transition, and our mids still struggled to have an impact.  Fortunately, we were let off the hook by the Suns being as inept kicking for goal as we had been, and when we got our best scoring chance for the quarter, Henry joined the party, finding the post with his set shot, the goalposts appearing to have some type of magnetic force drawing the ball into them for much of the game.

 

At three-quarter time I was reflecting on the obvious parallels between this game and the 2014 game, albeit that the 2014 match was played in perfect conditions.  We had again not made the most of our first half dominance and the Suns had taken the ascendancy and the lead during the third quarter.  Would the last quarter produce anywhere near the drama of the 2014 game?   (Spoiler alert -YES).

 

The Suns came out full of running and were winning the clearances and other 50/50 contests.  We looked in deep trouble when Rankine kicked a couple of beauties and we were 14 points behind and having not kicked a goal since half-time. We collectively gritted our teeth, and started halving and winning contests with Adams and Crisp and others throwing themselves into contests.  Enter the Daicos brothers and Haiku Bob.

 

unable to see

what he sees

Daicos

 

Nick yet again saw what most others don’t and executed another perfectly weighted kick to his brother, who landed it from afar, giving us a spark which was then ignited by Checkers, who made amends for what could only be described as a checkered game against an excellent opponent in Collins. If you’d told me that what turned out to be the winning goal would be from the revitalised WHE bursting through a tackle I would have been shocked, but I guess where there is a Will there is a way and our five inspired minutes had us back in front.

 

The last 7 ½ minutes were tense and marred by the grim injury suffered by Darcy, with the Suns’ Ainsworth also injured in the same incident. There were bodies flying everywhere in contests and little clean possession gained in the last couple of minutes. The siren couldn’t come quickly enough for us, and when it went the margin was 5 points – yes, the same margin as 2014, but this time in our favour.

 

After the match

 

The after-match scenes told us much about the changes at the club this year. The team and support staff’s excitement at winning, Ginnivan’s usual boundary strolling, selfies and chats with supporters, and the team waiting for Darcy to hobble out on crutches before starting a sweet and raucous version of Good Old Collingwood.  This is a group playing with freedom, commitment, harmony and a sense of relishing the contest.   OK, there is the goalkicking, which is a significant issue, but to be 10-5 is beyond any of our wildest dreams.

 

The result of Darcy’s scans will of course be a major influence on what happens from here and our fingers and toes are collectively crossed.  Dean and Madgen will both be auditioning for a spot in the VFL today, and presumably Howe will be available next week.

 

The votes

 

The votes for the prestigious 2022 Horsburgh Medal are:

 

3 – Nick Daicos – what a player, what a game, class and composure personified

 

2  – Josh Daicos – has not had his goalkicking boots on for a few weeks like a few others, but did tonight, hitting the board at crucial moments, and working hard and contributing to our good first half ball transition

 

– Peter Daicos.  Sorry, cancel that, I got completely carried away!

 

1 – Sidey – the old man has been in good form for a few weeks now, and his work rate and smarts continued in this game, even if he did revert to a couple of those dinky kicks in conditions that required a more basic approach.

 

Honourable mention to: Ginnivan, who was excellent in the first half, but not so good in the second, Noble, who was a strong contributor all night, Moore, who had an excellent game and led the backline admirably in the absence of Howe, Maynard, who was just Maynard, and WHE, who is enjoying a career-best month.

 

The inaugural Henry Schade Medal goes to Nick Daicos.

 

Answers to pre-match trivia questions:

 

Trivia question number one – against which current club do we have our second-best winning rate?

 

St Kilda, against whom we have a 72.65% winning record.  The Bulldogs (69%), North (67%) and the Crows (66%) are next on the list.

 

Trivia question number two – which Pie kicked two goals in the last quarter of that game ?

 

Ben Kennedy

 

GO PIES !

 

 

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