Injury-hit Collingwood rallies to deny Adelaide first win of season
Nathan Buckley admitted after his side’s win against Adelaide that the Magpies could have picked a better 22 than the one that took the field. But where does that leave the balance between resting and top four or finals?
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Comeback Collingwood defender Lynden Dunn thanked the “footy gods” for allowing him to kick a goal in the Magpies’ hard-fought 24-point win over Adelaide — his first AFL match in 773 days.
Dunn, 33, kicked one of only two goals the Magpies managed in the first half, but was mobbed by every teammate on the field, with each knowing how hard he has worked to get back to AFL football.
“To get back, it was something I have been working on for a long time,” Dunn told Fox Footy.
“Hopefully that was the footy gods looking after me, I don’t know how I got down there and how it went through.
“All I was thinking about was my ball drop and kicking it through. It was nice to kick a sausage and I did what all good forwards do and ran straight to the bench.”
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The footy gods haven’t been kind to Dunn in recent years.
Before last night, he hadn’t played an AFL game since Round 15, 2018.
He had a second reconstruction after suffering a pre-season knee injury in a VFL practice match in March 2019.
Dunn was delisted late by Collingwood last year, but his popularity and impact within the club saw him offered a one-year rookie lifeline.
He joined fellow comeback Magpie Tim Broomhead — who played his first match last night since suffering his horrific broken leg in Round 2, 2018 — as the centre of attention in the rooms after the game.
Dunn joked about the team’s inability to score early: “Any wonder the fullback needs to float down and kick a goal because the forwards couldn’t get it done.”
“That feeling of playing league footy is something I have been chasing for a long time,” Dunn said. “I love singing the song, that’s why I love playing footy.
“Playing league footy has been something I have wanted to do since I was four years old. You can’t do it forever and I am certainly a lot closer to the end than the start. (But) I still believe I bring a lot to the team and a lot to the footy club.
“Tonight was only a stepping stone to where I want to be later in the year and for the rest of my career.”
Tuesday night was Dunn’s 197th game.
He is yet to play a final in his career at Melbourne and Collingwood, something he wants to rectify later this season, having missed out on the club’s past two finals campaigns due to injury.
PIES SURVIVE DANGER GAME TO CLOSE ON FINALS BERTH
It smelt like a danger game for Collingwood and looked like one when they couldn’t kick in the first half but the Magpies avoided a disastrous loss to the winless Crows to remain in touch with the top eight.
The banner behind the goals in the Crows’ cheer squad read ‘we believe in you’ and for the first half at least so did everyone else as they led by nine points.
But when Collingwood finally finished its work in front of goal in the third term they couldn’t be caught.
Most frustrating for Adelaide was Collingwood’s first three goals were all due to Crows mistakes.
Fischer McAsey and Brodie Smith missed kicks trying to switch play in defence allowing Josh Daicos and Jaidyn Stephenson to convert set shots and Lynden Dunn capped his return from a knee injury with a goal thanks to a 50m penalty in the middle of the ground.
While the eighth-placed Magpies won by 24 points without some of their biggest names, the loss extended Adelaide’s record losing streak to 11 games and Tom Doedee and Tom Lynch both finished the game early with hamstring injuries.
WELCOME BACK
All eyes were on Tim Broomhead and Lynden Dunn who were playing their first games since 2018 for Collingwood after a horror run with injury, and it didn’t take long for them to find the action.
Broomhead’s first touch was to rove a ball and kick inside 50m while Dunn’s big moment came 15 minutes into the second quarter when a 50m penalty brought him to within 20m of goal and he kicked the set shot.
The popular defender who was coming back from a double knee reconstruction was mobbed by his teammates, 773 days since his last AFL game which came in Round 15, 2018.
Broomhead meanwhile put his set shot out on the full and finished the game with seven disposals.
TALL AND SMALL
The future of Adelaide’s forward line was on show in a meaningful way on Tuesday night.
The Elliott Himmelberg/Tyson Stengle combination was dangerous while Shane McAdam showed why he’s considered a human highlight reel.
Stengle’s tackle to catch Taylor Adams holding the ball and his subsequent set shot goal set the tone early and he kicked his second for the quarter with some textbook crumbing.
He was then involved in Adelaide’s third goal when he delivered a perfectly weighted pass to Elliott Himmelberg, who playing his fourth game in a row and just the 13th of his career, led with confidence and showed safe hands with five marks.
Stengle’s creativity up the ground and goal sense was something for Crows fans to hold onto, as was McAdam’s screamer and goal in the final quarter.
Reilly O’Brien broke even with Brodie Grundy in the ruck which is as good as a win while Rory Laird (37 disposals) was excellent on the ball and Andrew McPherson had the best game of his short career in defence.
TAKE YOUR CHANCES
Collingwood’s inefficiency forward was a major reason why Adelaide was not only in the game but in front at halftime.
Darcy Cameron, Broomhead and Chris Mayne all had set shots in the second quarter from inside 50m and did not score as the Magpies managed just 2.1 from 19 inside 50s in the first half.
But three goals from Crows mistakes put them right back in it and Trey Ruscoe helped break the game open in the third quarter when he kicked consecutive goals with two crumbing efforts in the goalsquare, before Stephenson and Cameron – after the siren – put the visitors in a game-winning position.
Despite the Pies’ wayward kicking early in the night, they made up for it in the second half and finished with an accurate 10.2.
Sing it loud, boys!
— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) August 11, 2020
Heading back to QLD with four points. pic.twitter.com/Op25nhD5jg
PIES JUGGLING FITNESS WITH TOP-FOUR AMBITIONS
— Reece Homfray
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says his side is walking a fine line between picking a team to win now with making sure the squad is in good shape for a run towards and into the finals.
The Magpies were without a host of stars on Tuesday night and reeled a nine-point deficit to the Crows at halftime to win by 24 at Adelaide Oval.
“Top four is more relevant for double chance than a home final, I would have thought, and it is an interesting question because you need to win enough games to qualify but you need to look after your squad well enough to have access to the right guys when you get towards the end of the year,” Buckley said.
“We could have played a better 22 tonight, and I dare say every side in the competition is going through this in some shape or form, but we’ve still got our eyes on the prize.
“It’s not just about getting the win now, it’s about ‘what is your team going to look like in three, four, five weeks and are you going to find the best of what you have in your squad to be able to present as well as you possibly can beyond (the last minor round)?’
“We’ve tried to manage over this compressed period, Darcy (Moore) and Jamie Elliott should be right to go, Will Hoskin-Elliott we’re hoping, we don’t know if it will be Pendles this week or next and Reid (Ben Reid) who we felt was good against Sydney and we looked after him today.
“That side that came in together today was a group of guys some who have played a lot of senior footy and some who have waited a long time for their chances.
“But all of them know how we want to play and ultimately we were able to stick to that long enough to get the job done tonight.”
The Magpies were set to fly out of Adelaide on Tuesday night and arrive at their Queensland hub after 2am. Buckley praised his team for wrestling control of the game against Adelaide at stoppage in the second half and converting its chances on the scoreboard.
“I thought they (Adelaide) were cleaner inside, and Laird was doing most of the damage in and out pretty quick, and they were going with that surge quick kick mentality from stoppage,” he said.
“So we were out-hunted and they were far too clean in stoppages and contests in the first quarter, and our mids got to work after that.
“Then it was a slow arm wrestle until we were able to hit the scoreboard in the second half.”
Buckley said he was thrilled to see Lynden Dunn and Tim Broomhead return from injury with their first game at AFL level since 2018. Dunn was coming back from a double knee reconstruction and kicked a goal while Broomhead was returning from a badly broken leg which was compounded by a host of other setbacks.
“Both guys the journeys they’ve travelled speak to how tough the game is,” Buckley said.
“Dunny is just shy of 200 games, a couple of ACLs in a row off the back of really good form for us early in 2018, and to be honest it was a 50/50 call on keeping him with his dream alive and to support us with depth.
“His belief is he makes us better and he’s never wavered in his belief in himself so to get this opportunity was testament to that.
“And Broomy even longer, 13 weeks earlier than that in Round 2, 2018, and his broken leg was just one of a long line of things that have held him back from a body perspective, and it’s pretty hard to come back from a broken lower leg.
“But he’s been able to fight through and it was just great to see those guys get some reward for a lot of effort over a long period of time.”
Buckley said Dunn was likely to hold his spot after Jordan Roughead was knocked out four days from their next clash with Melbourne at the Gabba.
“It’s funny when your chances come, and you’re sort of the incumbent you’re a little bit harder to remove,” Buckley said.
“He’s done well enough and once again we’ll look at who we think are our fittest, most balanced 22 to come up against Melbourne and if Dunny’s in it, he’s in it.”
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Originally published as Injury-hit Collingwood rallies to deny Adelaide first win of season