Collingwood forward Travis Cloke proves too tall, powerful for Bulldogs

THERE are several reasons why Collingwood is sixth and the Western Bulldogs 14th.

Travis cloke

THERE are several reasons why Collingwood is sixth and the Western Bulldogs 14th.

We haven't got a spare three hours to run through every one of them but one of the biggest differences between the teams was rammed home in the opening half last night.

Collingwood has Travis Cloke. The Western Bulldogs have Liam Jones.

At the 18-minute mark of the second quarter Cloke kicked his fourth goal of the game, a brilliant set shot from 45m out on the boundary line.

By that stage Jones had not touched the ball.

Once again the Bulldogs' lack of anything resembling a tall forward option meant they were uncompetitive for the most part.

Pack bonds in Pie cause

"We know our young forwards are a work in progress. We're going to keep working with them and there's a trade period every year, a national draft every year,'' Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney said.

"You can't just pull them out of thin air, we've got keep teaching them, educating them where to run and where not to run, where to be when there's a quick kick. It just takes young forwards a fair while to learn the game. And 40 games isn't enough.

"We've got a bit of work to do, but also we're going to add to our list and develop our list in that area. It's not the only part of the game. There were times when we needed another Ryan Griffen, another Robert Murphy to really set play up for you. Another Dale Morris. We're building our list, we're confident we're doing it the right way and we're going to keep doing it.''

With Jones having his struggles, the other option was Lukas Markovic, a dour defender recalled from the VFL this week, who has kicked five goals in his 27-game career.

It's unfair to blame Jones for everything but the gulf between his output and Cloke's says a lot about where both clubs are at.

He got his first touch courtesy of a free-kick against Quinten Lynch for a push in a marking contest.

Jones' first chance to threaten the scoreboard came at the 23-minute mark, when he marked a Jake Stringer pass just 20m out directly in front of goal.

He summed up his day - and his team's - by spraying the simple shot.

The Bulldogs did not help Jones' cause given the defensive mindset they had from the opening bounce.

Instead of being in the middle, where he has made his name, Adam Cooney was standing 10m in front of Cloke and his opponent Jordan Roughead. When any Bulldogs player got possession they waited and preferred to chip backwards rather than any quick movement forward.

It was bizarre given the Dogs aren't a team blessed with good users by feet.

You don't want Michael Talia, Dale Morris, Clay Smith, Nick Lower or Roughead having to pinpoint targets on the last line because they simply can't do it.

The keepings-off frustrated Collingwood for a little while before the likes of Heath Shaw, Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury said "enough".

Cloke finished with 14 kicks, six handballs, 12 marks, three inside 50s and kicked 5.1.

Jones had seven kicks, three handballs, four marks, two inside 50s and one behind - most of them coming when he was playing in the ruck.

McCartney said it was as much about getting kicks deep inside the forward 50 to prevent the intercept marks and clearances that Pies defenders Shaw and Harry O'Brien feasted off.

"When it is deeper, the whole game is a lot easier and defenders are not as adventurous and they're under more defensive pressure,'' McCartney said.

McCartney said his team found more dare to challenge the Magpies after he mentally freed up the players at half-time.

"We just didn't have enough people who were just playing the game, just play. And once we got that message through at half-time. But even then, it was probably more frustrating than the first half because we did so much right and didn't convert it and finish it,'' the coach said.

"We were a bit safe, weren't we? They defended quite well, but we didn't test them enough either. Some times the ball ended up in some inexperienced players hands who though, hang on, I need a bit more time, and that two or three metres to find the free (space), whereas people like Murph see it and take it straight away, but they've been playing for a long time.

"It's one area that we're chipping away at that we know we've got to get better at, being able to take the ball down the ground and hurt the opposition when we get the ball off them.''