Collingwood proves too big a hill to climb for brave North Melbourne in remarkable comeback
Will Phillips had well-held Nick Daicos all day in the Roos’ quest to topple the Magpies. However, come the last quarter, Daicos was tearing up Marvel Stadium and Phillips was on the bench.
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North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has defended the decision to tactically sub out Will Phillips at three-quarter time of their heartbreaking one-point loss to Collingwood at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
Phillips had done a very good tagging job on Nick Daicos, to the extent that it forced the Pies to move the Collingwood superstar up forward in the second half.
But taking Phillips out of the game not only meant that veteran Liam Shiels was tasked with negating Daicos in the final term, but also prompted Collingwood to move their best player back into the guts.
And Daicos took full advantage, racking up 10 disposals (five contested), four inside 50s and a clearance in the final quarter, to finish up with a team-high 29 touches, 18 contested possessions and two goals and end up being the most influential player on the ground.
“He was doing a good job,” Clarkson said of Phillips, who was a late inclusion for Jy Simpkin (hamstring).
“Will was starting to fatigue a little bit, and we just thought the freshness of the sub (would help us).
“But when you don’t win, you sit there and say, ‘Oh gee, was that pivotal?’ I don’t think it was pivotal in terms of the final result.
“You take some punts with the sub sometimes.
“Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, but sometimes you make the right decision and sometimes it doesn’t work for you.”
The Kangaroos coughed up a 54-point lead as the Magpies stormed home to execute one of the biggest comebacks in VFL/AFL history.
A Zac Fisher snap under pressure from 25m out with three seconds left agonisingly went to the right of the goal post to ensure a memorable Collingwood win.
It was a moment that put the final result in “the lap of the gods”, according to Clarkson.
“By and large we did enough today to suggest that we’re on the right track,” he said.
“We had a shot on goal right on the death knock, just goes the wrong side of the post.
“One hundred and thirty minutes is a long time to play and unfortunately we’ve got to learn to be able to play that right out to the death and we were unable to do that today.”
Clarkson said Collingwood played “Russian roulette” to get back into the game in the second half.
“They just took punts, downhill skied,” he said.
“They’ll look at their own games and say, ‘This is why we got back into the contest’. But some of the things that they were doing was just like Russian roulette, whether it was going to come off or not, and unfortunately some of those really, really brave 50-50 plays should’ve been turned over.
“Some luck plays actually just fell in the lap of their players and they’ll look at that and say, ‘That’s really, really good play’, and in a sense it is, but it could’ve easily just gone the other way.”
The Magpies’ record in games decided by six points or less under Craig McRae is now a staggering 17-3-2.
“Collingwood are a really, really experienced side and you think of the amount of games in that type of atmosphere that they’ve played over the last two years, they’ve got 30-40 games’ experience across the board on our players,” Clarkson said.
“Despite the disappointment of the loss, the learning for our lads will be profound.
“We’ve just got to learn to be able to cope with the pressure when it comes at its fiercest when the opposition get a run-on.”
Emerging youngster George Wardlaw perhaps personified North’s fortunes on Sunday best. After racking up 22 disposals in the first half, he only recorded eight in the second.
“Part of this is just the simple conditioning of players to be able to run games out,” Clarkson said.
“George Wardlaw I imagine is best on ground in the first half and by the end of the game, though, he’s not getting across the ground anywhere near as what he did.
“Can’t do anything about that until he gets to 30, 40, 60, 80 games of footy.”
Clarkson said Simpkin was a chance to take on Melbourne next week.
MAGIC MAGPIES PROVE TOO BIG A HILL TO CLIMB
Collingwood have fought back from 54 points down early in the third quarter to pull off a remarkable one-point victory against last-placed North Melbourne in one of the most entertaining games of the season at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
When Cameron Zurhaar kicked truly just after half-time, he put the Kangaroos up by nine goals and they looked on course for the biggest upset of the season.
However, Collingwood refused to give in and after kicking seven goals in a row, they grabbed the lead at the 21-minute mark of the final quarter as their renowned pressure, which was non-existent in the first half, belatedly lifted and they enjoyed territory dominance for the first time.
Coach Craig McRae threw the magnets around with Nick Daicos (two goals) and Jeremy Howe moving forward, and sub Reef McInnes injected into the game at the major break at the expense of Finlay Macrae.
As the Kangaroos tired, the Magpies became more energised and, riding a wave of momentum, sensed their more inexperienced opponents were gettable.
North’s club debutant Brynn Teakle put the Kangaroos back in front with 4:42 to go, but Bobby Hill (five goals) took a spectacular aerial contested mark against Jackson Archer before converting the set shot from 25m out in front to put the Magpies up by two points with 2:59 left.
With under a minute remaining, North’s Bailey Scott took a mark on the wing and was swamped by a pair of Magpies, however, for some reason, the umpire didn’t pay Scott a 50m penalty which would have brought Scott to within goalkicking distance and the chance to give North back the lead.
In terms of howlers - this one is right up there. Umpire didn’t pay play on therefore that’s 50m every single time…. pic.twitter.com/3SgkC9zJFY
— Braden Ingram (@bradeningram) June 16, 2024
With 23 seconds to go, Darcy Tucker’s snap shot from the pocket went across the face of goal and Brayden Maynard ensured Nick Larkey didn’t mark it with an authoritative spoil to put the ball out of bounds.
The Kangaroos had one last chance with three seconds to go to pinch the win, but Zac Fisher’s snap from 25m out agonisingly went the wrong side of the post to ensure a memorable Collingwood win.
PHILLIPS SUBBED
One of the more perplexing coaching moves of the season occurred at three-quarter time when North subbed out Will Phillips at three-quarter time after doing a very good tagging job on Daicos, to the extent that it forced the Pies to move Daicos up forward.
That decision left veteran Liam Shiels with the job on Daicos, and the Collingwood star took full advantage, racking up 10 disposals (five contested), four inside 50s and a clearance in the final quarter, to finish up with a team-high 29 touches as well as 18 contested possessions and end up being the most influential player on the ground.
Hill and Lachie Schultz (four goals) were outstanding for the Magpies while Jack Crisp backed up his best-on-ground performance against Melbourne last week with 27 possessions (11 contested), six clearances, seven tackles and a goal.
The second half was a complete turnaround of the first as the Pies registered 13 more contested possessions, 10 more inside 50s and four more tackles to overwhelm the Kangaroos.
SHINING LIGHTS FOR NORTH
Despite the agonising result for the Kangaroos, they witnessed the emergence of a future superstar in George Wardlaw who had a career-best 30 disposals, to go with 10 contested possessions, six clearances and six inside 50s. With Harley Reid and Sam Darcy both ineligible, Wardlaw has surely rocketed into favouritism for this year’s Rising Star.
Luke Davies-Uniacke was also a key figure in North’s first-half domination, ending up with 31 disposals (16 contested), eight inside 50s and seven clearances while Cam Zurhaar played a great game too with 19 touches, nine marks and three goals.
HILL TRUMPS ELLIOTT
Hill took a grab late in the second term that will be hard to beat for mark of the year. The Norm Smith medallist jumped on the backs of talls Billy Frampton and Charlie Comben at the top of the goal square and then got a second boost before taking the grab at a dizzying height. Hill’s sidelined teammate Jamie Elliott would’ve watched on in horror as he almost certainly watched his screamer on Anzac Day being eclipsed.
PIES IN THE TOP FOUR
The Magpies have entered the top four for the first time this season and the thrilling result continued their spectacular recovery from their worst start to a season since 1999 (0-3). They have now lost just one of their past 11 matches to storm into premiership contention.
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