Collingwood v Port Adelaide Round 18: Power lock in home Qualifying Final as Pies prepare to head west
Collingwood’s inability to get the job done against newly-crowned minor premier Port Adelaide has consigned it to one of the toughest tasks in footy. Here’s how coach Nathan Buckley and the Pies will approach their elimination final challenge.
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Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says his side is well-prepared for a return to quarantine as the Magpies face for a nightmare elimination final assignment against West Coast.
The Magpies slipped to eighth after Monday night’s 16-point loss to Port Adelaide, consigning them to a Perth Stadium showdown in front of a hostile Eagles crowd.
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They will be required to spend seven days in quarantine in Perth, likely at the Joondalup Resort where they stayed during their first Perth hub in July.
Collingwood will make a swift departure from its Sunshine Coast hub to Perth in the coming days, with details to be confirmed on Tuesday.
While the Pies are familiar with the Perth quarantine process, that previous trip also included a 66-point loss to the Eagles in Round 8.
“That was a significant loss and they would be pretty confident coming up against us I would have thought,” he said.
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A win on Monday night over Port Adelaide would have spared the Pies the trip west.
But Buckley said his club would be familiar with the quarantine process, having played three matches at Perth Stadium between Rounds 7-11.
“We will be familiar with the accommodation. We believe it is going to be at Joondalup again. We will be familiar with the ground that we trained at,” Buckley said.
“Outside of that, we’re travelling to play a game of footy, an elimination final.
“We would have played an elimination final here (had Collingwood beaten Port Adelaide) or Perth, and in the end we’ve got to win and that doesn’t change.
“We will know a little bit more about the logistics in the next 12 hours, I presume, and we’ll plan around that and get working on a successful fortnight into that game.”
Buckley implored his players to use Monday night’s match as proof they were good enough to challenge the top teams, having pushed the minor premiers until late in the match.
“We’ve got to take positives out of this performance and then look to improve on the areas we fell short,” he said.
Buckley said he was disappointed the Magpies could not honour Scott Pendlebury with a win in his record-breaking game for the club.
“I really wanted to win tonight for the club but also for Pendles,” Buckley said.
“It was disappointing not getting the job done. I don’t think it was a lack of effort or want, we didn’t do the basics well enough and we went away from being predictable to each other.”
POWER SURGE SPOILS PENDLES’ PARTY
Port Adelaide could not be any better prepared.
All season, the Power sat on top of the ladder and on Monday night they answered another challenge in a clash that had all the hallmarks of a final.
After absorbing body blows from Collingwood in a match with several lead changes, Port sealed the minor premiership with a 16-point win at the Gabba, powered by the grunt of Tom Rockliff, the class of Robbie Gray and the safety net of Dan Houston.
They will host two home finals, starting with a qualifying final against Geelong in a fortnight, and have a host of players in form. Collingwood will now travel to West Coast for an elimination final at Perth Stadium.
POWER’S PREMIERSHIP QUARTER
If Port Adelaide goes on to win the premiership, it may look back on the third quarter as the period that set them on their way.
The big moments went the Power’s way.
Steven Motlop, barely sighted all night, launched a check-side high into the night sky that wobbled through for a goal. Port by 11.
Then Sam Powell-Pepper’s shot from the angle moments later flirted with the goal post but snuck in for a major. Port by 17, the biggest margin of the game.
Collingwood could not force a goal despite repeated efforts. The Pies were denied goal-scoring chances by a Charlie Dixon smother, Jamie Elliott’s indecision streaming inside 50, a lineball block call against Mason Cox at the top of the goalsquare and then the finger of the timekeeper.
PENDLES ALL CLASS
On a night when Scott Pendlebury passed Tony Shaw as the club’s games-record holder, he provided another insight into his longevity.
Even at 32 in game 314, the Magpies’ skipper’s influence on matches is just as sharp and as important as ever.
Whether it was the deft touch that set up Adam Treloar’s goal in the first quarter, his prolific work at the stoppages, or the comforting words to an out-of-sorts Jaidyn Stephenson in the first half, his fingerprints were across all aspects of the game. Even his miskicks somehow led to a goal.
His clean hands to set up a Levi Greenwood goal in the third quarter spoke to his uncanny ability to seemingly make everyone stand still, as did the release handpass to Jordan De Goey for the first goal of the last quarter.
KEEPING A LID ON IT
Port Adelaide has spent the season simultaneously flying under the radar while sitting on top of the ladder.
In fact, Port has known nothing else. After beating Gold Coast by 47 points in Round 1, back in March, the Power surged to top spot and has not been dethroned since.
“They’ve been there all year,” coach Ken Hinkley said a week ago. “We’ve sat on top of the ladder since Round 1. It’s almost like we’ve sat fifth, but we’ve sat on top.”
Port Adelaide now has two guaranteed home finals at Adelaide Oval – a venue it boasts a formidable 6-1 record this season. They are very much in the box seat to play in a grand final.
While they’ve part been aided by a run of home matches, a luxury in today’s hub-based season, it cannot be dismissed that they have still played 10 matches on the road, are yet to lose two in a row and defeated premiership favourite Richmond last month.
Port’s game is built on ruthless forward-half pressure, backed by a spread of players thriving on the synergy rather than individualism.
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SCOREBOARD
COLLINGWOOD 2.0 4.0 6.1 7.3 (45)
def by
PORT ADELAIDE 2.2 5.3 8.7 9.7 (61)
GOALS
Magpies: Mihocek 2, De Goey, Elliott, Greenwood, Stephenson, Treloar
Power: Ebert 2, Motlop 2, Dixon, Duursma, Marshall, Powell-Pepper, Rockliff
NICK WADE’S BEST
Magpies: Pendlebury, Adams, Crisp, Quaynor, Daicos
Power: Rockliff, Houston, Gray, Ebert, Jonas
NICK WADE’S VOTES
3 — Tom Rockliff (PtA)
2 — Dan Houston (PtA)
1 — Robbie Gray (PtA)
HINKLEY ‘PROUD’, BUT PORT FOCUSSED ON UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has declared his side has unfinished business, driven by a mission to finish off the job and become one of the most respected clubs in the competition.
Hinkley urged his players to celebrate the “really significant” achievement of claiming the minor premiership after going through the entire season on top of the ladder.
“It’s really significant and the boys deserve it. It’s a 30-week season. We’ve played for a long time and managed to protect it all through the year. I think it’s the first time in 19 years someone’s been able to do that.
“I’m just really proud of the boys and the way they played. They had to do it for a long period of time. I know led by Tom (Jonas) that they were pretty determined to get the job done.”
Hinkley also declared his side earned and deserved its two home finals, pointing to the fact the Power still played 10 matches in Queensland despite its Adelaide Oval advantage.
“We have an opportunity to play at our home ground, but earnt,” he said.
“We’ve earnt that and the state of South Australia has earnt that with the way they’ve handed this pandemic.
“We’ve played 10 times in Queensland this year and seven times in Adelaide, so we’ve got a pretty good record in either spot.”
Hinkley does not feel his side has flown under the radar, despite Richmond and Geelong being viewed as the frontrunners for the premiership.
“I said something a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to be taken the wrong way I think from people,” Hinkley said.
“All I said was it feels like we’ve been fifth all year. But the teams that have been great teams for a long period of time – Richmond and Geelong; and Brisbane last year finished second; West Coast, all those teams that have been up there – they deserve it.
“Because in footy, you have to work really hard to change the narrative and right now we’re working really hard to change the narrative.
“We want to be one of those teams that people certainly respect.”
Hinkley is acutely aware his side’s three losses this season have come against rival finalists, including a 60-point loss to Geelong in Round 12. Port will host the Cats in a qualifying final in a fortnight.
“We’ve been a really consistent team all year, but every team in the competition has had a day or two where they haven’t quite got it right,” he said.
“We don’t hide away from that. We’ve been beaten by three really good teams this year – Brisbane, St Kilda and Geelong. We’ve just got our opportunity now to reset and go again.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened five weeks ago, eight weeks ago, 30 weeks ago. It matters now what happens from here on.”
Originally published as Collingwood v Port Adelaide Round 18: Power lock in home Qualifying Final as Pies prepare to head west