Round 3 – Collingwood v Richmond: Frampton Comes Alive! (Floreat Pica Society)

By Andrew Fithall for the Floreat Pica Society

Frampton comes alive! There. I said it. I had to get it out early. But it had to be stated. When a bloke comes to the club from elsewhere, unheralded (and to me – unknown), and put in a performance like the one put on by Billy Frampton on Friday night, it has to be celebrated. In my opinion, we would not have won without him. Obviously nor would we have won without the rest of the backline. They all performed well. But Frampton. That exclamation mark at the end of my first sentence is not only properly representative of the album name (Peter Frampton for those of you who haven’t yet understood the reference), it is also proper in the context of the game.

My attendance at the MCG came off a 5-day road trip with three mates playing golf at NSW courses along the Murray. I am no good at golf – but it was fun. Pre-game beers were with wife Helen and our three Collingwood-supporting children and one recently-added partner who actually supports Richmond. But she seemed so nice.

Reserved seats undercover were fortuitous with the pre- and early-game rain. It looked like conditions would make it difficult to replicate the high-scoring performances of the two preceding weeks. And they did. But they should not have made it as difficult to score goals as the Pies seemed to find. Multiple behinds were greeted by the game’s first goal to Richmond. Further behinds, including a couple of posters, followed for the quarter, broken up by a goal from a set-shot-snap (is there such a thing?) to another new recruit Bobby Hill. A 30^th minute addition to Brody Mihocek gave us a lead of 12 at the first break – not properly representative of our dominance.

I had come to this game with hope for a win. Maybe even an expectation. Richmond were multiple players down through injury and suspension. Our absentee was Mason Cox, which in the prevailing wet and greasy conditions, was not a significant loss (until later in the game perhaps). When Ash Johnson goaled within the first minute of the start of the second quarter, I thought that perhaps that was going to be the start of a solid run to a good win. It wasn’t. It was followed by the succession of more Collingwood behinds, and then even a few to Richmond. It was at about the 20-minute mark of the quarter that I thought to myself – some poor Floreat Pica sop is going to have to write about this rubbish. And then remembered it was me. Bloody hell. At half time Collingwood were 3 goals 10; Richmond 1 goal 3. Yeh – you know the line: Richmond came into this game with one goal in mind…

A half time score of 28 to 9 was proper representation of the football we had witnessed. My Tasmanian friend Mark (fellow-golf-traveller and St Kilda supporter) who had come to the game for additional entertainment (???) stuck to his pre-game forecast of a 37-point win to Collingwood. That would mean we would win the second half by a lesser margin that we had won the first. I would be disappointed with that I thought. The reality was even less satisfactory.

Richmond kicked the first two goals of the third quarter fairly quickly, A couple more Collingwood behinds and then Jack Riewoldt kicked their third for the quarter (I had forgotten he was even playing). The margin was just three points. Who wrote this script? A Josh Daicos goal from a stoppage broke the run. To that point our delivery into the forward line had been generally abysmal. But suddenly it improved. And chief beneficiary was the other Billy in the team: Billy Elliott. His two goals from 3 set-shot attempts sandwiched a vintage effort from Scott Pendlebury who made a Richmond defender look a little silly as Pendles waltzed around onto his favoured left. While all this was going on another previously-invisible Richmond forward Tom Lynch kicked a couple of behinds from gettable attempts.

It is only now by reading the timeline of that game that our last goal of the third quarter was preceded by number one ruckman Darcy Cameron leaving the field – he didn’t return. It was until that fourth quarter that my son Bill and I noted that medi-sub Josh Carmichael had taken the field. To that point of the game Ash Johnson had been the unlikely but actually-quite-competitive relief ruckman. With Cameron off, McStay became our number one ruckman. It does not bode well for the near future if both Cameron and Cox are unavailable through injury. But with a three-quarter-time margin of 28 points, surely this game should be reasonably secure. Surely.

The first two gaols of the quarter went to Richmond (Riewoldt and Lynch). A settler from a McStay set shot probably made the game safe. But I still wasn’t totally relaxed. Richmond kicked the last of the game. Time ran out. Collingwood won by 14 points.

Was I expecting too much? We lost the second half to a depleted team. I am too harsh a critic at times. We have started the season with three wins from three. If I had looked at the draw at the beginning of the season and seen that I would have been elated. Yes we kicked poorly, but so did Richmond. And as I mentioned in the beginning, we have a backline that is very assured. Yes we miss Jeremy Howe but the continually-improving Murphy alongside reliable skipper Moore form a core of defensive excellence. Well maybe not excellence, but certainly effectiveness. And Frampton? Show me the way.

Votes:

3 – Bill Frampton

2 – Nathan Murphy

1 – Jordan De Goey

COLLINGWOOD     2.6     3.10    7.15     8.15    (63)
RICHMOND            1.0     1.3      4.5      7.7      (49)

GOALS
Collingwood: Elliott 2, Pendlebury, Mihocek, Johnson, Hill, J. Daicos, McStay
Richmond: Riewoldt 2, Mansell, Clarke, Bolton, Lynch, Ross

INJURIES
Collingwood: Mihocek (face), Cameron (knee)
Richmond: None

SUBSTITUTES
Collingwood: Josh Carmichael replaced Darcy Cameron in fourth quarter
Richmond: Noah Cumberland replaced Samson Ryan at half-time

Crowd: 85,241 at the MCG