Nathan Buckley insists Collingwood won’t be ambushed by GWS again following Round 18 belting
Nathan Buckley says Collingwood won’t be taking GWS lightly in Saturday’s preliminary final with his team’s worst quarter of the year against the Giants still fresh in his mind.
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Nathan Buckley says his Magpies were mugged by the GWS midfield in Round 18, wary of another Giants “ambush” despite predictions the Pies are halfway to the Grand Final.
The Collingwood coach yesterday said his midfield was prepared for the kind of physical confrontation that GWS has made their defining feature in the past two finals.
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But as GWS prepares for a final without Lachie Whitfield, Callan Ward, Stephen Coniglio and possibly Toby Greene, Buckley has a midfield smacking fresh in mind.
In that Round 18 clash at Giants Stadium GWS poured on 8.2 (50) to 1.1 (7) in the first quarter as their tall trio reaped the rewards up forward.
But with the minus-16 contested possession differential Collingwood’s worst tally in a quarter the year, Buckley is aware where the real damage was done.
“We had come off a really solid strong close win against West Coast over there, we were ambushed that night, no doubt we were beaten in tight,” he said.
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“They were harder and cleaner around the football and the stuff you saw in our backline was a reflection of how poor we were around the ball
“We are under no illusions about what the Giants are capable of and even that week they had no (Josh) Kelly, no Coniglio, no Ward through the midfield, they were able to find a way to put together a team that went to school on us and defeated us quite convincingly.
“We are pretty confident we will be a bit better around the ball.”
Buckley believes Greene deserved to be suspended for a week in a finals series where the Giants physicality blindsided the Western Bulldogs.
Leon Cameron’s side had been accused of being meek only weeks before, with the Pies determined to fight fire with fire — without getting sucked into needless violence.
“Look, I think our hardness inside stacks up for itself,” Buckley said.
“The way the Giants have gone about it, you have got to be impressed with the steel they have brought into their game and they were clearly challenged around that
So we can’t do a lot about that, we will bring our best to the table
We are really hard at the ball and hard at the man with the ball, the niggle stuff is part of the game You can buy into it or if you can play footy really hard and that’s the way we prefer to go about it.”
Buckley’s lieutenant Justin Longmuir will likely delay any official interviews with Fremantle or Adelaide until after the Pies’ campaign ends.
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Originally published as Nathan Buckley insists Collingwood won’t be ambushed by GWS again following Round 18 belting