Round 4 – Adelaide v Collingwood: B Grundy and the Magpie raiders (Floreat Pica Society)

by Paul Harkin for the Floreat Pica Society
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Great day for an interstate encounter, Friday the 13th. To top things off, the weather forecast is for thunder and lightning. The inclusion of Jordan De Goey is a positive one, although the loss of Jamie Elliott is another injury blow we don’t need.

My mate Pat and I decide to take a leisurely stroll around Adelaide Oval a few hours before the game. Right on time at 3pm, the wind gets up and the rain arrives. We shelter in the Oval’s café. Hopefully it will blow itself out before game time. We scamper back to our hotel in between showers.

A storm greeted us as we walked to the ground. Very wet and cold.

The Pies opened up like they meant business. Grundy was on top. The boys were lowering their eyes. We were going in and winning the hard balls. Callum Brown was showing great endeavour. Mason Cox had some deft touches. Sidey was containing Sloan, who was being swamped every time he went near the ball at the stoppages. Stepho had 2 goals by quarter time. 5.2.32 to 1.1.7.

Grunds was dominating the ruck contests and around the ground as well. We extended our lead as the heavens opened. This changed the complexion of the game. The ball handling fell away for both sides, but luckily for us it didn’t impact the scoreboard. Pendles was playing well and Stepho bagged his third. The backline was holding up and with 8 goals to half time, the forwards were doing their bit.

More of the same as we extended our lead to 52 points. We were tackling well and pressuring the Crows at every turn. Just as we looked like completely blowing them away, they earn another 50 metre penalty goal, a free near goal and a Bryce Gibbs bomb, brings them to within 36 points.  Treloar and Sidey are busy.

Adelaide kicked the first goal early in the last quarter, meaning they had 4 on the trot. Our lead was still 30 points. I knew we still had it in the bag. I was hoping we wouldn’t fall away and let them have some junk goals. Thankfully this didn’t happen. We continued to play according to the conditions. Funnily enough Paul Seedsman was the best player in the last quarter setting up 2 goals and kicking one of his own. De Goey kicked a late goal to signal his return to the fold. Grundy, Pendles, Treloar and Sidey all continued their domination as we extended our winning margin to a healthy 48 points.

The pleasing things for me was we won every quarter and we kept the pressure on all night. We did start bombing the ball a bit in the second half, but by that time we had a substantial lead and it was preferable to turning it over in the middle of the ground.

Apologies to Stepho with his 5 goals, Treloar with 30 odd touches and a dozen others. A great team effort all round. Our backs performed well, kept them to an ordinary score.

VOTES

3 Grundy

33 disposals and 40 hitouts for a ruckman is unheard of. He just dominated against Sam Jacobs, who is regarded as one of the best in the comp. Brodie set us up early and continued to give our mids first use all night.

2 Sidey

Not only a high possession game (43, 36 of which were contested), but he also shutdown Rory Sloan at the stoppages. He is on fire at the moment, as I daresay we are as well.

1  Pendles

Silky smooth all night. With his 30 possessions he set up a number of scoring opportunities. Always gets the job done, never rushed. Another great captain’s game.

Comments

  1. george smith says

    This side does have talent, so it is a great feeling to wake up to a you beaut replay rather than the usual “stuff you, I’m deleting you/taping over you”…

    As for the Buckleyites versus the Marvin the Paranoid Androids – who cares, as long as we’re winning!

    By the way, Newcastle Magpies beat Arsenal, so for this weekend the replays are doubly blessed.

  2. Frank Cheeseman says

    Great report Paul, great game Pies!
    Watching on the telly was getting excited.
    Still VERY excited. Every player put in. They played as a real team and honored all leads. Played with real confidence and faith in one another.
    A joy to behold….
    Fully agree with your votes Paul
    Go Pies!

  3. I [HEART] B Grundy

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