Round 22 – Collingwood v Geelong: (Floreat Pica Society Report)
When we ( Ziggy and Garry) offered to do this game , Dave responded…” it will be a good game”
Little did he or we know how good and what drama unfolded
Before the game Ziggy was Optimistic and that we would bounce back – well
Quarter 1
At the end of Q1 the optimism had gone Pies 3- 4 – 22 versus Cats 6- 2 – 38
Ziggy’s comments at Quarter time included
- The players look dejected
- Geelong just battered us at the clearances and ran through as they pleased , cutting us open. In fact on one occasion they came through the corridor and there were 3 Geelong players unmarked in the goal square
- We were lucky to only be 16 points down
It was terrible to watch. We worked hard and showed little for it and so many of Geelong’s goal came easily
Most of our stars and regular players were “ missing in action”
Only Daicos, Quaynor, Cameron and Crisp could hold their hands up
And to make things worse, Captain Darcy went off at the end of the quarter with a hammy ( hopefully a minor one though he had a hamstring history and missed most of the 2018 season as a result )
The move of Howe to the forward line ( probably workable because Geelong had only one tall up forward) was interesting but we did not like it as he is instrumental in our strong defence.
All the more so that Moore may be missing. Furthermore, it underlines that our forward structure is still not settled
The second quarter was played in two parts. It was totally our quarter as we kicked 4-4 to 2-1 with inaccuracy being a big problem in the first half of the quarter.
At one point we had kicked 0-3 and then 1-4 to Geelong’s 2-1 at that point
But from the first bounce of the quarter we had shown some desperation and a willingness to contest – but without getting the results
A big difference was the injection of Ginnivan
The crowd reaction said it all when he started the quarter in place of Moore . As Fly said in his press conference- he has a huge fan following and he has energy and we need that sort of energy . He sure gave it.
It was almost as if the soft free kick to Dangerfield- fortunately was missed by Stengle- got us further fired up as that led to 3 straight goals. Everyone lifted. We started to run and handpass on the move and got our flowing game working with De Goey and Lipinski crucial as we transitioned through the corridor like the Collingwood we know. There were some special moments including Mitchell’s hand pass to Pendles who made no mistake.
Daicos continued to star, popping up everywhere.
All of a sudden we showed we wanted to win
We upped the pressure and tackling. A complete reversal of the first quarter
At half time Pies 7 – 8- 50 versus Cats 8 – 3 – 51
The third quarter was a continuation of the second. In the first 8 minutes we kicked 4 goals to nil.
Everyone stepped up and Ginnivan continued to inject some life into the forward line
As Zig commented “ Nice to see Ginnivan’s unselfishness today- quite out of character” – a big step forward
Perhaps he has kept his cheekiness – which we all love – but has added some maturity including a greater team orientation
In fact it suggested that perhaps playing both Hill and Ginnivan can work
Our running game was back. The courage to dare was back.
The will to win was back!!
The midfield in particular contributed- Pendles, Mitchell, De Goey , Crisp , Adams and Lipinski
However, the Jeremy Cameron goal from an out of bounds mark on the full in front of the boundary umpire was hard to swallow but we overcame that too.
All in all , a great 6 goal quarter
From minus one point we were 24 ponies up at ¾ time
Pies 13-11 89 versus Cats 10 – 5- 65
The final quarter was very challenging.
The Cats realized that their season was possibly on the line and threw everything at us.
They scored 5-6 and their inaccuracy helped us- it could have been even tougher.
Dangerfield and Cameron were superb and it underlines the importance of having 2 or 3 super stars in a team but the Pies hung on with Murphy and Quaynor repelling attacks
Josh Daicos continued to star and the team deserved a wider margin than the 8 points at the end . We don’t understand how Henry’s goal on the siren changed from a point to a goal given that at first the Goal Umpire signaled a point .
We were slaughtered by the umpiring. Clearly the handball from Close to Cameron was outside the field of play . Admittedly a beautiful kick followed, but it was illegal.
Pies 16 13 109 versus Cats 15 11 101
In summary
- We beat Danger, Cameron and the Umpires. The 2 illegal kicks by Cameron took Garry back to the 1970 GF where Carlton got a goal from an illegal out of bounds. The answer that people give is “ the umpires are human and we all make mistakes”…but players can rectify them …even in the same “play” or later in the game. Umpires cannot and should not “square up”. In 1970, the boundary umpire was at least 50 yards away. Last nite they were on the spot!!
- The will to fight against adversity was proven again.
- If we don’t get our running game going and move the ball – not only do we not score but we expose our defence to huge pressure.
- Our forward set up is still not established. Do we play both Ginnivan and Hill? Do we move Howe back (to both we say YES).
- Having Mc Stay as a second ruck will not work when the heat is on in finals at centre bounces. Rhys Stanley, an average ruckman at best was not giving him a sniff. We say bring Cox back and get him back to form in the firsts- rucking and kicking a few goals ; he is a potential game changer.
- Murphy was superb after suffering what appeared to be a serious injury last week.
- Josh Daicos was superb once again, after being excellent against both Carlton and Hawthorn: he’s a player that never hides in games like others have in recent weeks.
- We thought Billy Frampton did as good of a job as we could ask from him after Moore was subbed off (given that Cameron had already kicked three by then). Ziggy’s heart still skips a beat when he is in possession, however he is proving to give excellent depth.
- Hopefully Moore, De Goey and Noble will be OK soon ( Nobel and De Goey played out the game).
- Best players will be sent to Paul. After quarter time were many – the contenders are Adams, Crisp, Daicos, De Goey, Mihocheck, Maynard, Mitchell Mc Stay , Mc Creedy, Pendlebury.
If we win one of the remaining 2 games we cannot lose top 2 and a home final. Regardless of other results .
GO PIES
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