Round 19 – Collingwood v Fremantle: Floreat Pica Society Report

 

 

Round 19
Collingwood vs Fremantle
MCG, Sunday July 20, 2025
Crowd 62,198

 

As I may have mentioned some weeks ago, I knew I would be attending this game with friends from Scotland, who would be viewing their very first game of Aussie Rules, so I was expecting a somewhat different, even difficult, experience. Little did I know!!

I booked for a table of 10 at the Mountain View Hotel in Bridge Road, where my Scots friends, Dave and Sandra, could reunite with my children and some partners prior to the game. It had been ten years between drinks, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Upon arriving, I decided to change the table and chairs configuration and, in doing so, knocked some glasses over, which caused a mighty crash with broken glass flying everywhere. Dave just loved it and told me, “how authentic it was, that the violence had already started and we weren’t even at the ground yet!!” Thanks Dave!!

 

First Quarter

We took our seats and I discovered that the two Freo supporters in the ground were sitting next to my right with Dave seated to my left. I knew I was going to be busy!! Dave asked me, “Why do they run through that big sign?” I advised Dave that it was called a banner and that I had no idea why they run through it but that they just do!!

I decided to get proactive and highlighted to David and Sandra that we had an absolute jet in our team called Nick Daicos and that his dad was my childhood hero. I pointed out that Nick would start off in the middle of the ground and that they should just watch him all day. They did. Nick started at half-back and was outmarked in the very first piece of play. Dave: “Was that that Nick lad you told us about? He isn’t in the middle of the ground and he just got beaten by his opponent.”

Already, I felt like I was being tagged.

Thankfully, Brody Mihocek popped up and kicked two rather impressive goals in the space of a couple of minutes, and I was able to relax a little and get into the game.

Their Voss dribbled a 30m goal to open the Dockers’ account, which was far less impressive than our two goals, and I boasted of this to my international guests!!

Minutes later, Josh Daicos took a set shot from just on the 50m mark. I explained the relationship to Nick and Peter to Dave and said that young Josh is almost as good as Nick and that some might even argue he’s better. Then Josh kicked the ball into the man on the mark. Dave looked confused until Nick stepped up, moments later, at the 50m mark and kicked one straight over the goal umpire’s head.

Dave: “Michael, why do you have so many referees on the pitch? I can count at least 10 and there are more sitting on the boundary. Which one is in charge?”

Voss kicks his second from a set shot.

Markov streams through the middle of the ground like a gazelle and handballs to a patch of grass being covered by Dockers who return the ball to Caleb Serong who takes a mark, is rewarded with a 50m penalty and kicks a nice goal.

Voss leads Darcy Moore to the ball again, takes a strong chest mark and kicks his third goal for the term.

Quarter Time: Collingwood 3.2.20 Fremantle 4.2. 26

 

Second Quarter

McCreery lays a great tackle right next to the behind post and wins a free for the tackle. My Freo friend said it was outrageous until the replay showed it was either incorrect disposal, deliberate out of bounds or, as I argued, “both!!” Dave looked at me and said “your lad nailed him”.

Moments later the Dockers kicked the ball long from the centre to full forward where, allegedly, Darcy Moore put his arm over Voss’ shoulder. I reckon Darcy, Dave, my Freo mate, myself and 65,000 other people are still trying to work out exactly what happened.

Minutes later Jamie Elliott is driven into the ground and a free for “in the back” is paid and Jamie kicks a nice one around the corner. Minutes later again, Jamie absolutely makes Dave’s day when he scores a “soccer goal” in mid-air, which Dave just loves.

Schultzy then picks up what one might think is a soft free for ‘high’ and then gets an even softer 50m putting him in the goal square.

The Pies are starting to get going and are looking pretty good until the Dockers stream through the middle again and the ball ends up with Amiss after a clever kick from Bolton. Amiss goals.

Coxy then decides to drape his arm all over Darcy in a ruck contest 35m out and another goals results for the Dockers. Cox to this point was having a bit of a ‘Cox day’.

After some congested play, Perryman breaks free and places a very classy pass across to Sidey 25m out on the southern flank, who, in turn, kicks straight for another goal. How he got so loose that close to goal confounded me and my Freo mate.

Dave: ”Michael, how old is that number 22?”

Half-time scores: Collingwood 8.6.54 Fremantle 7.5.47

 

Third Quarter

The Pies eventually scored after about 10 minutes of play via the plucky Sullivan, who seems to be finding his place in the team while covering for bigger named stars. The Dockers were noticeably attacking straight through the middle of the ground and often seemed to have a loose man lurking there, ready to take the pressure clearing kick from defence.

Moments later, big Docker Darcy, standing alone in the middle of the ground takes an uncontested mark from a clearance kick via Luke Jackson, handballs to Wagner who, in turn, kicks to Voss who kicks his fifth. Simple.

Whilst only a single goal to each team in this quarter, I thought it striking how different the game styles were to that point. To my mind, the Dockers were very prepared to attack via the middle of the ground, whereas the Pies were far more inclined to play around the wings and flanks maintaining possession. The stats didn’t actually indicate that but it was how I was seeing the game. With 20 inside 50s, I was also concerned with how little our bigger forwards were impacting the game. Mihocek had kicked two in the opening term but he, Cox and McStay were consistently being out-marked by the Freo defenders.

Three Quarter Time scores: Collingwood 9.8.62 Fremantle 53

 

Fourth Quarter

Great start to the quarter with the striped and hooped WHE bobbing up in the pocket in his first minute of play to kick a nice set shot from ‘around the corner’. The pass to WHE was a beautiful piece of play from McStay and highlighted juts how wasteful we had been, at times, with our forward entries.

Just moments later, young Ed Allen popped up for a nice goal on the run after what had been a reasonably quiet day. The Pies go 22 points up and Dave tells me in a knowingly way, “I think your boys have got it now”.

Poor old Ed then gets absolutely ‘clean bowled’ by a dribbling ball in the middle of the G and the Dockers goal courtesy of O’Meara. Again, the Dockers had literally willed the ball through heavy traffic into the middle of the ground to create a scoring opportunity.

Sidey is then involved in a marking contest with Freo’s Matthew Johnson on the forward flank, at which point Johnson gets a nasty lower leg injury and Sidey is penalised for some reason. Dave, naturally, asked me what that ‘penalty’ was for “against the old bloke”. I said I’d have to get back to him on that one!!

Again, Freo scramble their way forward through the centre via the free and the lurking Darcy kicks the ball long and a nice grab is taken by Amiss who, in turn, goals. The fact Voss drove Darcy Moore into the ground in the contest went unnoticed. Pies up by 10 pts.

The Dockers again surge forward and Voss makes mincemeat of Maynard in the marking contest and kicks his sixth goal for the day. Pies by 4 pts.

Freo’s Banfield gets possession on the back flank and kicks long into the centre square where Young takes an uncontested mark, plays on and finds Jackson 35m out on a slight angle. Again, a Freo goal and they take the lead but it’s ok, Jamie takes a nice chest mark from a very well placed Ned Long pass only 30m out on a very gentle angle. He misses and scores are level.

Moments later, in a frantic passage of play, the Dockers dispossess us in the centre square and surge forward with a combination of kicks and pressured handballs. Bolton gathers the ball off the ground and squirts out a handball to a teammate and then takes the legs of Crisp out from under him and is awarded a free kick 35m from goal. I looked at my mate Dave before he could get to me and said, “Don’t ask!!” Bolton scores a behind and the Dockers are up by a point with 90 seconds to play.

Play is frantic and scrambled for the next minute until Schultze kicks the ball forward to the top of the Pies goal square for one final effort. Unfortunately, the ball falls short and is marked by Treacy, whereupon Darcy Moore, who has had a fairly poor day, falls ungraciously into the Freo player’s back and gives away a 50m penalty. Game over, Pies lose by a goal, or less, in successive weeks.

Final Score: Collingwood 11.12.78 Fremantle 12.7.79

 

Observations:

Nick Daicos played a magnificent game of football and almost singlehandedly got us over the line. His ability to find space around packs, baulk opponents and create opportunity for his teammates is elite. In the middle, back or forward, it’s a privilege to watch him play our great game.

The Dockers use of the centre corridor found us out. They only had 40 inside 50s to our 63 but their corridor use had them shooting at goal from in front and resulted in a score line of 12.7. I felt we were shown up and erred by letting them escape from defence via a loose man in the centre square on too many occasions.

Our key forwards just didn’t show up and we missed Tim Membrey who was being rested, and perhaps rightly so, as he became a father during the week!! Their backs in Cox (7), McDonald (5) and Ryan (6) consistently out-marked Mihocek (1), McStay (3) and Cox (2), who all lacked game impact.

I love the Markov approach to footy but he really made some poor skill errors during the game that were costly and I have little confidence we will see him again. A big call, but necessary.

Not a time to panic. We were without Membrey, Houston, Howe, Hill, Mitchell, De Goey and Frampton and outside of Round 0, where we lost by 52 points, our other losses have been by 6, 3 and 1 pts.

 

Horsburgh Votes:

3. Nick, 2. Beau McCreery (15 tackles), 1. Jack Crisp

Special mentions to Darcy Cameron, Harry Perryman and Pat Lipinksi, who took a massive hit in the last quarter contesting a mark and absolutely put his body on the line.

A final comment on my mate Dave and his wife Sandra. They reminded me how lucky we are to have a stadium like the G, how wonderful it is that Freo and Collingwood supporters sit amongst each other, how good it is to have video screens bigger than their postage stamp sized ones, how good it is that little kids get to play a game on the G at half-time, how funny the goal umpires are, how nice it is that we don’t have to wait 20 minutes at the end of the game to let the away supporters get a start, that at least half the supporters are women and children, and that there is a train station a couple of hundred metres up the road!!

For all of that and the great game itself, I am indeed grateful.

Go Pies!!

Michael

 

 

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