Collingwood show Tom Lynch his potential future with big win over Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium
COLLINGWOOD has produced the perfect audition for Tom Lynch’s signature with a 39-point win over Gold Coast that has lifted the Magpies to second on the ladder.
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COLLINGWOOD has produced the perfect audition for Tom Lynch’s signature with a 39-point win over Gold Coast that has lifted the Magpies to second on the ladder.
Lynch, a free agent at the end of the season and a target of Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn, watched on with the 13,637 at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night as Collingwood recorded a 14.15 (99) to 8.12 (60) victory.
The 25-year-old won’t play another game this year due to a knee injury and could be next seen in Magpies colours at AFL level where he would slot into a forward line already boasting spearhead Mason Cox, Jordan de Goey and Jaidyn Stephenson.
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It was Collingwood’s sixth straight win and Gold Coast’s ninth straight loss.
Gold Coast have become a welcome fixture for sides looking for a percentage boost and the side who has conceded the second most points this season (1361) helped ensure only reigning premiers Richmond stand ahead of the Magpies on the ladder.
The Suns wanted to give fans confidence they knew what they were delivering in 2018 after so much inconsistency and they have delivered en masse.
Gold Coast’s ability to repeat the same mistakes of their past, almost quarter-by-quarter, has been remarkable.
The struggling club exhibited the same dare and physical pressure they have shown in the opening quarter of their recent losses, matching Collingwood’s contested work while both struggled to deliver clean balls into forward areas.
The start of the second quarter signalled the predictable drop in output by Gold Coast, missed chances, turnovers in the defensive 50m and ill-discipline gifted the AFL’s most in-form side control.
Gold Coast trailed by 38 points at the main break and it went out to 59 before the Suns pegged it back to 40 going into the final term. Winning the final quarter for just the second time this year was the Suns only small victory on the night.
Brodie Grundy’s (49 hitouts, six clearances) influence across the ground and at stoppages couldn’t be quelled by Suns trio Jarrod Witts, Brayden Crossley and Peter Wright while the latter failed to impact the game as a forward in Lynch’s absence.
Metricon Stadium has been haunted by past Suns players since the club’s return from the biggest road trip in AFL history.
Gary Ablett (37 disposals, three goals) and now Josh Thomas (four goals, 22 clearances), who was part of the club’s TAC Cup side, have run riot against the Queensland club who could struggled to record another win this season.
BEST
Collingwood: B.Grundy, J.Thomas, J.Stephenson, S.Pendlebury. T.Adams, M.Scharenberg
Gold Coast: J.Harbrow, J.Martin, D.Swallow, J.Lyons, T.Miller
VOTES
3. Brodie Grundy (Coll)
2. Scott Pendlebury (Coll)
1. Jarryd Lyons (GC)
Originally published as Collingwood show Tom Lynch his potential future with big win over Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium
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