Dale Thomas, Matthew Kreuzer and Levi Casboult combine to ruin Collingwood’s celebrations
A 2010 premiership hero, a ruckman who grew up idolising Nathan Buckley and a once wayward forward tutored by a Pies’ great combined to ruin Collingwood’s 125th birthday bash.
Carlton
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HOW’s the symmetry of this for Blues fans?
A 2010 Magpie premiership hero, a ruckman who grew up idolising Nathan Buckley and barracking passionately for Collingwood and a once wayward forward now tutored by a former Pies’ great combined with their teammates to ruin their biggest rival’s 125th birthday bash.
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Let’s start with Daisy Thomas, recalled for Saturday’s clash after being overlooked the previous week.
Booed by the same Collingwood fans early who cheered him through 157 games across eight seasons, including the 2010 flag year, the 29-year-old responded with his best game of the season - and one of his most important in his four seasons in navy Blue.
Thomas worked his backside off trying to help lift his team to a win over his old side and you could see each time he went for the ball, he meant business. No one wanted it more.
He might not be the same sort of player that Ross Lyon labelled the best player in the competition six years ago, but there is no doubt about Thomas’ passion for the game nor his eagerness to make the Magpies pay.
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He provided one of the real highlights, turning the clock back to kick the opening goal of the final term as Carlton turned the screws on what was meant to be the Pies’ big occasion.
He gathered the ball in attack, baulked around a Magpie opponent, then took two bounces in the greasy conditions before slamming home a checkside goal to heap the pain on his old side.
As he came off the field soon after, his beaming smile only vanished when he gave some cheek to his former teammate Jamie Elliott, who was going back on the field.
No one had more influence on the game than Carlton ruckman Matthew Kreuzer, who grew up in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs as a massive Magpie fan.
Incredibly, Kreuzer almost headed to the Holden Centre at the end of 2015 when he was considering leaving Carlton during a brief contract standout.
He stayed and Magpie fans must have been wondering what might have been if he hadn’t.
Kreuzer dominated in the ruck, outpointing one of the game’s in-form big men in Brodie Grundy.
He was tireless all over the ground and provided a contest wherever he went all over the MCG.
One of his heroes as a kid was Buckley, and it wouldn’t have been lost on the likeable but incredibly competitive Kreuzer that his performance has placed even more pressure on the Magpies’ coach.
Then, there was Levi Casboult, the Blues’ forward who can drag down a mark with the best of them, but whose career has been weighed down by woeful inaccuracy.
Well, it seems as if one-time Magpie sharpshooter Saverio Rocca, who was feted as one of the greatest 125 players in Collingwood’s history, has turned Casboult around as the part-time Carlton kicking coach.
Just when the Magpies seemed as if they were getting themselves back into the contest, Casboult nailed two crucial goals in the third term to continue his good form in front of goal this year.
Casboult kicked 2.0, taking his tally to 13.4 so far this year. Clearly, Rocca’s work with big Levi is playing a part in his accuracy, and it played its role in the Blues’ 23-point win.
Originally published as Dale Thomas, Matthew Kreuzer and Levi Casboult combine to ruin Collingwood’s celebrations
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