Round 9 – Collingwood v West Coast: Mothers’ Day Mission Accomplished (Floreat Pica Society)

 

 

 

Match Report for FPS, May 12, 2024

Collingwood vs West Coast Eagles, Marvel Stadium

As a long time and hardened Pies supporter, I was a little more edgy for this game than our relative ladder positions might normally warrant. With Schultze, Mihocek, McCreery and Elliott missing after the successful Carlton mission and De Goey and Mitchell out for successive weeks, we entered this game a long way off our best possible team.

As others in this group will also, I still remember the “Mother’s Day Massacre” of 1991, when the poorly performing Tigers knocked off our reigning Premiership team in the most unexpected way. It was such an upset, I recall “Digger” calling the Coodabeens the next week to proclaim that “the Collingwood boys wanted to be home with their mothers”. Could it happen again?

As always, the disappointment of established players missing is offset by the opportunity presented to others to have their turn and make an impression on the game and importantly, the fans. For this match, debutants Joe Richards and Jack Bytel (22 games at St Kilda) had it all in front of them having been given the opportunity to wear the mighty Magpie guernsey for their first time. Of course, others such as Harvey Harrison, Reef McInnes, Fin Macrae and Lachy Sullivan, in only his second game, would be looking to consolidate.

It’s fair to say that by quarter time my above-mentioned concerns had disappeared as our leadership group was operating in 100% ruthless fashion from the centre square and setting the standard in front of a crowd of 37,000 but which seemed bigger and louder than that figure. Sidebottom, Crisp, Noble, Daicos (x2), Pendlebury were all head down, hard at it, and running. Once this status had been established, I mentally upgraded myself, relaxed and started to get genuinely excited by the debutant, Joe Richards. His sure hands, speed, pressure acts and desire to be involved were highlights, and his second term was even better, when he capped off some nice field work with his first goal, on the run, from about 35 metres out. The excitement of his teammates, including “our 19^th player”, was sensational. I texted a message to family: “we’ve found one!!”

Just while I’m on the theme of celebrating, I continue to be amazed at the amount of genuine pleasure Oleg Markov exhibits when a teammate is successful. I’ll have to take a look at the replay to see if it’s in the vision but when Reef McInnes took a goal square mark in the second quarter, Oleg was just about jumping out of his skin – and that was before he kicked the goal!! He’s the happiest AFL footballer I’ve ever seen, and I love it.

Our first half of footy was as it is should have been. Fast, creative, physical (ask Harley Reid – or was that Jack Watts?) and intimidating as it also should be given we are the reigning Premiers up against a team 16^th on the ladder with 2 wins for the season. We went into the rooms at half time with a commanding 55 point lead and I was curious to see if we would do what we often don’t do and “go on with it”. Could we match the 11 goal first half in the second, record a big win and get the percentage boost we will need at season’s end?

As it turned out, the second half was a little underwhelming with the Pies kicking 4.5.29 to the WCE 2.6.18, eventually running out winners by 66 points. Of course, an 11 goal win is always more than welcome but my hopes of a second half avalanche of goals was significantly compromised with a vastly limited interchange with injuries to Howe, Harrison and Jack Bytel who, very unfortunately, was on the wrong end of a “Jack Darling Christening!!”

Apart from some indecision in the 3^rd quarter, which resulted in Jack kicking the ball out on the full, his first game for the Pies left a positive impression of someone who could look after himself at AFL level and use the ball, when given the opportunity. No doubt plenty more to see from Jack.

My individual highlights of the game:

• Sidey playing on the backline was a great move and perhaps this was the game where such an experiment was possible. His exquisite kicking forward to the wing really set us up for creative attacks through the midfield. He also looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.
• Lachie Sullivan looks like he’s been out there in the middle for a lot longer than 2 weeks and I am excited by what he might do for us.
• John Noble plays every game like his life depends upon it and his unique challenge of bouncing back after missing out last year is currently serving him and the team well. May it continue.
• Darcy Cameron continues to develop as an influential ruck and some of his taps to the likes of Pendles, Crisp and Macrae really got us going, both, out of the centre and around the ground. Underrated.
• Scott Pendlebury played like the field commander that he is. I also noticed a respectful “hello” tap on the shorts he gave Harley Reid at the start of the game
• Jaicos played a terrific game down the wings with sure and creative ball handling, bringing teammates into the game and even riding a big hit with a grin. Great game.

My concerns:

• Again, IQ was solid but he just isn’t getting the ball and providing the run and carry he has in the past couple of seasons. Something’s NQR but I have no idea what and rarely gets mentioned in club/coach commentary. One can only presume the coach is happy.
• Mason Cox was really poor. He competed with McInnes near goals, led really poorly, got his hands to 20 potential marks around the ground and took 3. He needs to be better and more often. When playing in the forward line he was up against Barrass, who gave Cox a 14cm advantage.
• Pat Lipinski needs to have more physical presence around the ball. He has elite skills, is great on the run and in the open but no-one can afford to be a purely “outside run” player. Top teams will expose this gap (and yes, he did play a great GF game!!).

Votes for the Michael Horsburgh medal:

3 Votes: Naicos: 36 quality disposals, 21 handballs bringing teammates into the game, 1 goal and 476 metres gained. Huge influence over the game and provided the younger and exciting Harley Reid a bit of a lesson.

2 votes: Jack Crisp: 32 hard fought disposals, got us going out of stoppages with 4 clearances, 7 inside 50s and was running as hard in the last quarter as the first. His best game of the season I believe.

1 vote: Joe Richards: just could not resist including him. 18 possessions, a goal, 3 inside 50s, 6 tackles and spent almost the entire match on the ground. Absolutely made the most of his opportunity and got the crowd excited.

 

The Pies have not lost a match since Round 2 against the Saints, way back on March 21 and after a difficult fixture and a shaky start, the Pies are beginning to recapture some of the dash and dare we have come to expect. Clearly, the next four games against the Crows, Freo, Bulldogs and Demons will have a significant bearing on our end of year aspirations and with some injured stars returning and newcomers creating real pressure for spots in the team, we’re all in for another exciting ride.

 

Final Scores:

Collingwood 15.13. 103 def WCE 5.7.37

Goal scorers: McInnes 3, Macrae 3, Hill 2, Sullivan, Richards, Lipinski, Howe, N Daicos, J Daicos, Crisp

Best: N Daicos, Crisp, Pendlebury, Cameron, Richards, Noble, Maynard, Sidebottom

 

Back into the top eight for the first time this year.

Mother’s Day 2024: mission accomplished.

Go Pies!!!

 

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