Nick Daicos the hero as Collingwood holds off Carlton

Collingwood 12.13 (85) d Carlton 12.7 (79)

Nick Daicos.Credit: AFL Photos

KEY POINTS

MR CLUTCH
Carlton somehow put themselves in position to split the points when Matt Cottrell kicked a late goal despite the Blues having only five inside 50s in the final quarter. But Collingwood’s persistence finally paid off, with their second-last inside 50 – and 20th of the fourth term – delivering the goods. A forward-50 stoppage triggered a mass of desperation from both sides before a Harvey Harrison tap put the Sherrin in Nick Daicos’ path for the young superstar to run onto and slot the match winner. It was a piece of Daicos brilliance that capped his superb night, which included 32 disposals, 16 contested possessions, seven clearances and seven tackles in a best-on-ground display. There was still a few ticks beyond a minute for the Blues to hit back, but Daicos - who else? - won a free kick with 37 seconds left to effectively ice the contest.

SLINGSHOT TRANSITION
Carlton made a high-octane start and had their sixth goal on the board by six minutes into the second term but it was a major grind from there. Collingwood’s pressure ratcheted up from there, suffocated the Blues’ ball movement and forcing a series of turnovers, from which the Pies did untold damage with their dash from half-back. John Noble was shattered to miss out on last year’s flag but has emphatically won back his spot and was terrific in the second-quarter turnaround, along with Patrick Lipinski. Collingwood failed to kick a goal in the third term but still looked the team more likely entering the final term, which they largely dominated. This could be the win that kick-starts the Magpies’ premiership defence, particularly with Carlton looking a serious contender this season.

WEIGHT IN NUMBERS
Every coach likes a good spread of goalkickers, with Michael Voss even imploring Carlton to look beyond Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay on Friday night. Voss would have loved seeing Matt Owies bob up with three goals, including two in the third term to push the Blues back ahead, then Tom De Koning adding two of his own from marks in the final term. However, Carlton had only five goalkickers on the night, with Coleman medallists McKay (four) and Curnow (two) still responsible for generating much of their scoring, whether directly off their boot or from aerial prowess further afield. Cottrell was the only other Blue to register maximum points, after Curnow spun out of a tackle and somehow spotted his teammate with a superb pass. Collingwood, on the other hand, did not have a multiple goalkicker until Nick Daicos’ match winner and second goal, otherwise spreading the love across 10 other players. Debutant Lachie Sullivan, subbed into the contest in the second quarter for Beau McCreery (concussion), kicked truly with the first touch of his long-awaited AFL career.

THE GAME IN NUMBERS

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Craig McRae speaking on football questions post game.

Nick was first in clear out of stoppage with a minute to go. What did you think?

What a player, huh? I was lucky enough to watch it on the phone just before. Jeez, you know, little important tap-on from Harvey Harrison, been sitting there for a while now, but that late in the game to be running with that intensity, if you watched it and you track him, how hard he is working, then the finish. Wow, what an exceptional talent.

Lachie Sullivan and Collingwood sing the club song.Credit: AFL Photos

You mentioned Harvey Harrison earlier. Heading into the game without De Goey and Mitchell against such a great midfield group, on paper longed like you were up against it. Harrison, the first-gamer [Sullivan] steps up. Daicos, all these guys step up. You end up winning the stoppages. You must have been so proud.

An incredible job. We had a plan going in, we knew we had enormous threats in there. Last week wasn’t at a level we were happy with. Got to work on that. He had a great plan for all of us. We had a couple of guys doing jobs on individuals in there. Walsh is a great player. He got away from us. Jeez, they looked so threatening around that part of the game. It’s only small margins. We kick a goal with a minute to go, but, ultimately, there’s a lot of those things contribute to us getting the result in the end.

Have you seen a mature- age debutante like Lachie Sullivan handle an occasion tonight to debut in front of nearly 90,000 people and have the impact he had?

Great to have the impact he had. Great to have his family in. We had him in the club yesterday, his girlfriend. He’s had to wait a long time for this. There’s something to be said for those who have some patience to wait, but the resilience, yeah, look, he’s been looking like an AFL player for weeks. We’ve seen that. He gets an opportunity, first kick, kicks a goal. That gives such energy to all of us. The whole group just rises and connects. There’s a lot to be said for that. He’s an important message for some when things don’t go your way, just keep going. You never know. Hopefully that inspires others in the state leagues.

Your pressure rating was 192 in the second quarter. Do you feel like everything positive you do, it really revolves around that ability to exert pressure?

Well, that’s a key indicator for success for us. I think most teams know that. I was just chatting to Vossy after the game, pressure was really good. Plus 31 tackles is a big number. We’re not here to go back in time and go, “We want to play like we did last year.” That’s not us. That’s done. We want to be better. We weren’t getting plus 31 in tackles last year. That’s a better version of us. It’s hard to stop.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae took a moment at the start of his post match press conference to say enough is enough when it comes to violence against women.

“Do you mind if I just start by talking about the coming together before the game?” McRae said to the media.

“The AFL initiative is an important message, enough is enough. I’m not here to change the world. I understand my position is to coach the footy team. I’ll do everything in my power, our power, at the Collingwood Football Club, to make sure our men represent us well and the community well. It’s a community message and I just want to play our part. Enough’s enough.

Carlton and Collingwood players, coaches and umpires form a circle as a show of support against gender based violence.Credit: AFL Photos

McRae was asked what the AFL and AFL leaders could do in a practical sense to help change attitudes.

“All we can do at Collingwood is role model, and I often talk about it being a great father, being a great husband, giving to the community and representing us well, but also be yourself,” McRae said.

“We talk about winning on the scoreboard. That’s important, that really is. But I’m not here to be a spokesperson. I’m not into politics. I’m into role modelling, making our men proud young men. Winning on the scoreboard is one thing. Winning at all levels is really important for the Collingwood Football Club.”

Blues coach Michael Voss spoke to the media post game.

Thoughts on the game?

It was a difficult one. We didn’t debrief it for a long time. I think that’s one of the ones that you just take 48 hours, look at division, break it down, take the emotion out of it, try and look at it through process and what we improved from last week to this week. There’s some gains made, but we also know that we’ve still got to progress in a few other little areas. I think we will take the time to probably look at the vision. So we can give them the clarity about what we think it was.

Blues coach Michael Voss and Patrick Cripps of the Blues look dejected after a loss.Credit: AFL Photos

Do you feel like you butchered the footy a little bit tonight?

Yeah, we did at different points in time. More probably across our half-forward line was the more costly ones, if there was. So, again, we’ll look at the options themselves. I mean, there’s the decision and then there’s the actual error. So it felt like some of the decisions seemed to be right, but did we execute them well enough? That’s probably what we need to have a bit of a look at.

Just looking at the numbers overall, you won the contested ball. You’ve won uncontested ball. You’ve broken even in most others. The big discrepancies, like the forward entries, where they smashed you, what does that say to you about how the game played out?

I thought we over possessed it. Probably the big one is their tackles. The pressure that they were able to provide across the night probably forced us to over possess it. So we had to make some corrections there about how we wanted to move the ball out of those particular scenarios. Just didn’t feel like we were absorbing that well enough. Then the over possession comes into play. That’s where I find, like, the disposal number is actually quite a useless number. But credit to them, they were able to force that turnover and probably force us to do something that we wouldn’t normally do. Then, you know, we lost the territory battle. You lose the territory battle. You lose the territory battle against a good footy team, it’s going to be hard to win that game.

Without Tom Mitchell and Jordan De Goey, it seemed like you had a real chance tonight to set your authority in the middle of the ground. How surprisingly you end up loading clearances and centre clearances?

Well, it’s been a strength of ours for the last couple of weeks. That’s one part of the game you’d like to back in that we can sort of at least draw even. But I take exception to individuals that are missing. It provides an opportunity. There’s still 18 players out there and they’re a premiership team. They’re a pretty good team. I don’t think we should disrespect them like that too much.

I’m not disrespecting them, but Mitchell and De Goey, two of the premiership players.

Correct, yes. From our perspective, it’s been a real strength of our game. That’s what we’ve got to continue to Surj for. We have to have balance in our game, you know. I get often asked about the transition part of the game, you want it better? Of course we want it better. From a results point of view and goals kicked, it was a really good phase of our game, but we also want our stoppage game to be in order as well. That part was off. For us, that lost the territory battle for us. Whatever they had inside 50s, 61 inside 50s to our 38. Just the supply wasn’t good enough for us tonight. To be able to hold a side with 61 entries, and get looks like that forward of the ball, that can probably go into the basket of improvement of... That we wanted to defend harder and we did that. But it still wasn’t good enough to be able to get us the result.

Blues defender Jacob Weitering spoke to Channel Seven.

You certainly had some strong patches tonight. Ultimately, just fell short. How do you sum this up?

I feel we got back to our best. There were comments last week, we went to work with it from Vossy. 61 inside 50s, still scored at 40 per cent. It probably came down to a few moments for us. They got us on a few defensive-50 goals. Obviously, the last one wasn’t ideal either. Probably, more frustrating. We did a lot right, had some guys play really good roles and really good football. At the end of the day, it is a moment in sport, you have to take them. Look to next week.

Jamie Elliott of the Magpies and Jacob Weitering of the Blues compete for the ball.Credit: AFL Photos

A really strong start before the Pies were able to sink their teeth in. Is it just a case of being able to maintain that level of hunt and consistency across four quarters?

I think... I mean, if you go back to our best last year, the arm wrestle, we probably won our fair share of them. And close ones, we have a lot of confidence as a group. Five and three is a pretty good position to be in. We have a really tough patch of games, some quality opposition. We just have to go to work against Melbourne, then Sydney, see what we can do.

Locking down time in forward half is always a challenge against Collingwood footy club. Your forwards looked dangerous when they had the opportunities.

38 entries probably isn’t going to do it for us. They certainly took the opportunities which was good. We just have to get them certainly more production. It’s something we can look at. The offensive, defensive, how we can play defence with the ball in hand. For us, you’ve got to give credit to Collingwood and the way they played. They got it done.

Carlton’s forwards get plenty of attention but they were starved of opportunities by Collingwood tonight as shown by the inside 50s stat which the Magpies won 61-38.

That is a huge difference. If anything, it also shows the determination of the Blues to stay in this match despite their struggles to push forward.

Players remonstrate in the third term.Credit: AFL Photos

Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury and Lachie Sullivan spoke to Seven post-game.

To your debut here tonight, is it everything that you imagined it would be and more?

LS: Everything and more, I reckon. Pretty unbelievable. I was thinking it would be another draw for a while. To come up with a win against such a great club like Carlton, to play for an amazing club like Collingwood, unbelievable.

Lachie Sullivan celebrates his first AFL goal.Credit: AFL Photos

What about your luck? You worked hard to get there, but 2.5 minutes into your first game of AFL footy, you slot that goal. Talk us through that moment.

LS: I think I just got lucky, right place, right time. The ball spilled out. I just kicked it when I got it. Lucky it went in, pretty. It was good. It was amazing, cool.

SP: He’s pretty modest, but to be working 6.5 years, only on our list 10 weeks, but the amount of work he’s done behind the scenes to be ready to come out here, know his stuff, I think seeing how excited the boys were for him when he kicked that goal, we come from everywhere. I’m super proud of him. He has fit in really well.

What was your goal celebration about?

SP: I do a bit of coaching at school footy. On Thursday night, the boys asked me to do that. So, yeah. I didn’t really feel too comfortable doing it. I know they will get a laugh out of it tomorrow when I see them.

Lachy, there’s so many players around the country, in all seriousness, the hope and dream to play AFL footy. The grit, determination, you are a real inspiration. You must be real proud of your journey.

LS: I think so. It’s been a long journey. There was plenty of times I didn’t think it would happen. After all the disappointment, you’ve just got to keep going. It might take a bit longer for some people. I guess it did for me. To be called something like that is pretty amazing. It’s an honour really.

Collingwood star Nick Daicos spoke to Seven post game.

Daicos won the Richard Pratt Medal as best player on the ground.

Nick Daicos, thoughts, feels, emotions when you saw that ball go through the big sticks?

It is good. Credit to Carlton. These games always seem to go right down to the wire. I think we know they will be there late in September. What a game, hope everyone enjoyed watching it.

Nick Daicos.Credit: AFL Photos

Seriously, emotions when you saw that goal get kicked?

It was a good feeling. We missed a couple before it. You start to get a little bit nervous. I’m just lucky it went through.

What about the stage, the rivalry, of course. Do the four points taste that little bit sweeter against a quality side like Carlton?

For sure. I think both teams set themselves up playing against each other. Look at the crowd we draw. Right from the outset, it was just game on. It was awesome. As I said, just grateful to be out here.

It’s the biggest home-and-away crowd for these two sides in the history of these two sides in the history of the game. What’s the most pleasing aspect for you? You’re a couple of key Cogs down, particularly through the midfield group. Plus 23 inside 50, you were never out of the contest.

I think that’s it. We had obviously some superstars out this game. I think our ability for that next mentality, we had Lachlan Sullivan debut on the bench, when he kicked his first goal, said good luck, next minute he was kicking his goal with his first kick. The boys were unbelievable tonight, same as Harvey Harrison.

He was on the ground 2.5 minutes before he kicked his first AFL goal. In that moment, he only got signed up to the footy club 10 weeks ago. What’s he been able to do to earn the right to debut quite quickly at the club?

The perseverance, I think it is such a great story. I think it’s been, as you said, seven or eight years. Didn’t get drafted, has come in, played such an integral role for us in front of 90,000. It’s pretty special.

The Daicos’ were in the box, dad went absolutely nuts when you kicked that goal. Got a message for him?

Keep celebrating. I hope he enjoyed it.

Nick Daicos has kicked a goal in the final minute to give his club a close victory over Carlton in front of more than 88,000 fans at the MCG this evening.

The Magpies were too organised in the last two minutes, keeping the ball in their forward line with the scores tired until Daicos found room and kicked the winner.

Nick Daicos.Credit: Getty Images