Collingwood v Port Adelaide: Pies change up game strategy but still come up short against Power
Collingwood vice-captain Taylor Adams says Sunday’s narrow defeat reveals if they can stick to a specific game plan the results will come and fans just need to be patient.
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This was Collingwood in control again.
While the scoreboard shows the Magpies bowed to their eighth loss of the season — following a one-point defeat to Port Adelaide on Sunday — there appeared to be a distinct strategic shift which powered the Pies to a surprise 26-point lead early on.
For one of the few times this season, the Magpies notched up 100 marks.
For a few years, it has been something of a magic number.
Roughly speaking, when the Magpies break through the three-figure mark barrier they win, and it has been a hallmark of their game style over the past four seasons.
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Collingwood led the competition for marks in 2017 and 2019 and topped the league for disposals in 2018 when it was a kick off a flag, showing how damaging it is when it has the footy in its hands.
This year, the Pies have wanted to play a quicker, accelerate-up-the-middle-more game style in a bid to squeeze more out of their forward line, and catch up to the top-four.
But with a lesser list and tweaked game plan, the first nine rounds yielded only two wins.
But against Port Adelaide, the marking game roared back to life in black and white.
The Pies appeared to go back to a more patient, kick-and-catch style which saw their number of marks exactly double from 69 against Sydney the week previous to 138 against the Power on Sunday.
Port coach Ken Hinkley said it was obvious what the Pies were trying to do.
The Magpies wanted to become ball hogs.
“There was a clear style that Collingwood wanted to hold on to the ball on us, and keep the ball off us and work us over on defence,” Hinkley said.
“Cleary from our perspective it wasn’t a great game.”
Aesthetically, it isn’t amazing, but it can be effective.
Collingwood had 97 marks in the Round 2 win over Carlton, only narrowly falling short of the magic number, while it had 108 marks when Brisbane took the points with a kick-after-siren.
But when that number drops, the Pies have bombed out.
Costly errors
If it wasn’t for some late mistakes on Sunday, it seemed like Collingwood was headed for a huge upset win against a genuine premiership heavyweight at the MCG, as fans sought signatures outside the ground to try and spill the board.
A victory would have doused some of those flames, and returned more of the attention to the on-field progress, rather than the boardroom brawling.
But the Pies made errors late.
Jon Noble committed a costly turnover across the back half, Jordan Roughead, who to be fair had his best game of the year on Charlie Dixon, was smothered kicking out from full back and Callum Brown missed a simple set shot.
On the other hand, king clutch Robbie Gray was cool as ice nailing a 30m set shot.
The late ruck contest during which Dixon beat Brodie Grundy to the throw-in and handed it off to Ollie Wines who snapped truly from the pocket was the nail in the coffin.
Grundy was back to his best, but footy can be brutal, and in that matchwinning play the superstar ruckman was a few paces short of the ball drop.
But was this the first rays of sunshine peering over the horizon for the Pies after a dark start to 2021?
As Collingwood vice-captain Taylor Adams observed after the match, for the most part the Pies’ plan worked against a top side.
Nathan Buckley even said the Magpies “deserved to win”.
“We just lost our way a little bit in patches, but we played the game sort of how we wanted to play,” Adams said.
“We made them defend us, and we won the contested ball I think.
“So we had a really good plan in place and we executed it for a large chunk of it. Unfortunately, it fell away.
“It was probably just our ability to finish and hit the scoreboard (which cost the Magpies).”
Green shoots
The loss leaves the Magpies in third-last spot, facing a tough clash this Saturday against a Geelong side flying under the radar.
Clearly the players can safely start making some post-season holiday plans in September, knowing they won’t be part of the finals action for the first time since 2016.
Adams said there were two main aims for the rest of the season.
Win games “first and foremost” and quicken the development of their young players.
That includes promising wingman Caleb Poulter, dashing defender Isaac Quaynor, tough nut forward Beau McCreery and developing tall Darcy Cameron, who a shone at times against the Power, and sticky-fingered goal kicker Oliver Henry.
Midfielders Finlay Macrae, Jay Rantall and Reef McInnes also need to blossom.
Adams is optimistic about the future and what can be gained from the rest of 2021.
“We have come to terms with this season,” Adams said.
“We are still working our a---- off to win games week-in and week-out.
“We lost a lot of talent and a lot of experience last year, we have brought in some young talent, who are really exciting players but they’re not there yet.
“They’re working their a---- off too, to help us to progress quicker than we would like to.
“So the ladder is one the thing, but I think the way we played today is a step in the right direction.
“The group, it is not all doom and gloom for us. We understand this year hasn’t gone to plan, there have been a number of reasons for that.
“But we have still got half a season left to play some really good footy.
“First and foremost it is about winning games. And the way we do that is fast-track the development of our second and third-tier of players.
“We want to speed-up that process to get back to being a really dominant side.”
Behind bucks
Not for the first time, the spotlight has intensified on the future of Buckley and whether the connection between him and the players remains as strong as it was.
Adams said the coach had not lost the players, but was adamant Buckley was not solely responsible for the direction, motivation and performance of the team.
“If you spend any time inside the four walls of a footy cub there is a group of coaches, a group of people who support our football club, our support staff, medical staff, players, and an admin team,” he said.
“To say that we are playing for the coach isn’t accurate.
“We are playing for everyone who is involved that dedicates time, our fans who ride the bumps with us. The highs and the lows.
“Has the coach lost us? The answer is ‘no’. There is no (drift). There is no (divide).
“The belief in our game plan and the way we want to execute is still there and we saw that for large parts today.
“The issue is we haven’t done it for long enough.
“We have been really patchy for a number of reasons. It is a process now.
“This season hasn’t panned out the way we wanted it to.
“And we are trying to bridge the gap between the best teams and our football as quick as we can.”
Bucks: Boardroom drama won’t affect Pies players
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says he and the players won’t get caught up in the leadership challenge engulfing the club after another late fade-out cost the Pies victory against Port Adelaide.
The Magpies remain chained to third-last spot on the ladder after blowing an early four-goal lead to go down to a fast-finishing Power by one point at the MCG on Sunday.
Buckley lauded his troops’ effort after shading the Power for inside-50s, contested ball and clearances and said it has to be the new standard if they are to climb the ladder in the back half of the season.
But it is an anxious time for the club’s board which is facing the serious threat of a spill as the spectre of a Jeff Browne takeover looms large.
While disgruntled fans have begun signing a petition to call for a leadership showdown following a tumultuous off-season, Buckley said the off-field storm brewing would not affect him or the players as he attempts to win a contract extension for next year.
“I don’t have a message for them (members wanting change). I coach the footy team,” Buckley said.
“There is a lot of focus on plenty of things that none of those boys or I am in control of. Ask the question of the people who are.
“We work on our ground ball, marking, connection, defence and offence. There are plenty of things to fill our minds with, we don’t need anything more to clog it up.”
Buckley hailed the courage of Taylor Adams, who made a quicker-than-expected return from a medial ligament injury, and the performance form Brodie Grundy, who tore Port apart early in the contest according to Power coach Ken Hinkley.
Mature-age recruit Beau McCreery was also a shining light in attack, snagging three goals, while teenage wingman Caleb Pouter again looked comfortable in racking up 22 disposals on the wing.
Buckley said the Magpies’ players showed great spirit but were let down by their inability to capitalise forward, an issue that has plagued the club for the past two seasons.
“We feel like we should have won today,” Buckley said.
“They did enough ultimately to get the result, but if we bring that sort of energy, we will sing the song a lot more than we have.
“For a large part of the game we had it on our terms, we just weren’t able to convert that into scoreboard pressure and it wears on you.
“It has worn on our group for a large part of the past 18-24 months but definitely this year, it eats away at your hope.
“The fact that we were six minutes to go and 13 points down and had fought it out is no small shift on what we’ve seen this year, given we could have easily let it go and thought that the game was gone.”
Callum Brown missed a simple set shot early in the last quarter while John Noble committed a costly turnover across halfback late.
Jordan De Goey was quiet across the first three quarters before moving into the midfield in the fourth term.
Buckley said there was still plenty to get out of the rest of the season despite bowing out of finals contention with only two wins from the first 10 rounds.
“You come into the year with great expectation and anticipation and we haven’t won enough games,” he said.
“We have seen young guys come through we didn’t know about, Beau’s gone again, and stood up when it mattered, and Caleb Poulter as well.
“Isaac Quaynor continues to take steps, Darcy Cameron looks dangerous in front of the ball.
“We felt like we could have won today, winning is a habit and we are not in that habit at the moment.
“We haven’t really earned it. Today we earned it, but we didn’t get it.”
Only 23,415 fans attended the game on Sunday, the second- lowest Collingwood crowd at the MCG since 1988.
PORT SURGES LATE TO BREAK MAGPIE HEARTS
– Jack Paynter
Port Adelaide staged a stunning final quarter fightback to hand Collingwood its worst start to a season in more than 20 years with a nailbiting one-point win.
The Power came to life in the last term at the MCG on Sunday, kicking four fourth-quarter goals to overturn a 13 point deficit at the final change.
The Pies have won only two of their first 10 games in 2021 – their worst start to a season since 1999 when they finished the year in last place with only four wins.
A tumultuous week off the field, with the resignation of billionaire vice-president Alex Waislitz and members threatening to force an extraordinary general meeting, the Pies fought hard all day but two late goals weren’t enough to get them over the line.
Pressure continues to mount on coach Nathan Buckley as the Magpies gave up four straight goals to start the final term.
It was a scrappy contest dominated by turnovers, stagnant ball movement and poor forward-50 entries.
The Magpies again fell into the trap of bombing away and kicking long down the line, but their pressure forced the Power into the same mistakes.
The game then became a tight-tussle that was more about who wasted the least number of opportunities going forward.
Callum Brown had a chance to extend the margin beyond two goals early in the last term but missed a simple set shot from about 25m.
Taylor Adams made a strong return in his first game back since Round 4 but wasted a crucial inside 50 when he blazed away with a barrel, with Robbie Gray nailing his third goal on the rebound to reduce the margin to one point.
Collingwood led all day until midway through the last quarter when a Sam Powell-Pepper set shot was spoiled through for a point. He then goaled moments later following a big Charlie Dixon smother to give the Power some breathing space.
Fast start
Collingwood continued its run of fast starts with the only three goals of the opening quarter.
When Brodie Grundy goaled from close range after Peter Ladhams gave away a 50m penalty, the Pies had the first four goals of the match.
The Magpies perhaps should have been further in front if it wasn’t for a couple of poor forward entries and strong intercept marks from Aliir Aliir.
Bomb trap
As the Power began to work themselves into the game, the Pies again fell into the trap of bombing the ball aimlessly out of defence or kicking long down the line to a contest.
The Pies should have been further in front in the first half but wasted several opportunities with poor forward-50 entries, and when they did hit Beau McCreery in space he missed in an easy set shot from only 20m on a slight angle.
Port Adelaide’s first goal of the game came from a kick down the line to a contest, Gray nailing the set shot from the resulting turnover.
Gray spark
It took Port livewire Gray to spark the Power back into the contest with two straight goals in the second term.
The Magpies’ pressure fell off a little as the Power started to find space on the outside, but they, too, squandered multiple forward-50 entries as Jordan Roughead marked his return to the side with several strong intercept grabs.
Port Adelaide couldn’t capitalise on freer ball movement as it had the last eight inside-50 entries of the first term but went goalless in the quarter.
SCOREBOARD
MAGPIES 3.1, 4.6, 6.9 8.10 (58)
POWER 0.1, 2.3, 4.8, 8.11 (59)
PAYNTER’S BEST
MAGPIES: Adams, Mayne, Crisp, Roughead, Grundy, Quaynor
POWER: Wines, Farrell, Boak, Gray, Ladhams, Powell-Pepper
GOALS
MAGPIES: McCreery 3, Grundy 2, Cameron, Daicos, Poulter
POWER: Gray 3, Dixon, Marshall, Houston, Powell-Pepper, Wines
INJURIES
MAGPIES: Nil.
POWER: Nil.
UMPIRES: Chamberlain, Williamson, Rebeschini.
CROWD: 23,415 at the MCG
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JACK PAYNTER’S VOTES
3. Ollie Wines (PORT)
2. Robbie Gray (PORT)
1. Taylor Adams (COLL)
CHEER SQUAD’S CHEEKY PRISON BARS SLEDGE
– Liz Walsh
Sparks have flown before a ball was even bounced in the Round 10 clash between Collingwood and Port Adelaide at the MCG, when the Magpies sending a clear and simple message to the Power in their battle over the black and white stripes.
The Magpies cheer squad fired the latest shot in the spat between the two powerhouse clubs, with Collingwood players running through their banner saying:
“Is black and white ours?
Without a doubt, yes.
Stick to wearing teal
And wrecking INXS.”
The two clubs have been in a public dispute over Port’s request to wear its black and white prison bar jumper (it’s SANFL guernsey) in Showdowns against the Crows, with the AFL denying the Power’s request to wear the jumper in Round 8 against Adelaide.
But a handful of Port Adelaide fans weren’t deterred and donned their prison bar jumpers to sit in the crowd behind the goals.
The banner also references Port Adelaide’s fans’ tradition of singing the INXS anthem Never Tear Us Apart before home games.
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