Collingwood board left with more questions than answers after tight loss to Geelong

COLLINGWOOD plays like it has split personality disorder. This was as evident as ever at the MCG on Saturday as the Magpies went missing late against the Cats.

Collingwood players leave the ground after loss to Geelong. Picture: Alex Coppel

PITY the Collingwood board.

When they meet on Tuesday to no doubt discuss the future of coach Nathan Buckley, how they will form a majority view is anyone’s guess.

Here is a side that plays like it has split personality disorder. They are led by a coach who is steering a freewheeling attacking side one quarter and a conservative, mistake-riddled one the next.

The Pies led Geelong by 28 points late in the first quarter of this match at the MCG. Careering through the middle of the ground and using the ball on instinct, they slammed on six of the first seven goals.

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With Taylor Adams winning it, Steele Sidebottom running it and Will Hoskin-Elliott finishing it, Collingwood was taking a top-four side and flag contender to the cleaners.

All this without the likes of Scott Pendlebury, Brodie Grundy, Alex Fasolo, Jordan de Goey, Tyson Goldsack, Daniel Wells, Travis Varcoe and Levi Greewood.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire after the match. Picture: Alex Coppel

But then, in what has been symptomatic of their rollercoaster season, it stopped. The Pies could manage only 3.4 in the next three quarters.

They went from corridor assassins to wide and slow crabs. The ball movement went from bull blast to impotent. How?

Much like the Adelaide game they led by 50 points early in the third quarter before stopping to a halt and settling for a draw, they were like a different side after quarter time.

Where did the adventure go? The dare?

Collingwood went goalless from the six minute mark of the second quarter until the 22nd minute of the third quarter. In that time the Cats kicked five unanswered goals.

Buckley’s Pies have now won three — Gold Coast, West Coast and North Melbourne and drawn one — Crows — of their past six matches.

If last impressions last in this caper, maybe that will help Buckley when the suits gather around the mahogany table in two days’ time.

Collingwood led for 80 minutes of this game, but at the same time were smashed in the inside 50m count 60-38. They lost by only 11 points.

It was a bizarre game.

There were more than 50 ball-ups — twice the AFL average — in a mistake-riddled stoppage fest that really did nothing to suggest Buckley’s future is safe or otherwise.

Now, Collingwood names like Camplin, Holgate, Leeds and Korda will be just as important to Buckley as the likes of Treloar, Adams and Moore.

On one hand, as the injuries have piled up at the Holden Centre, the effort has lifted.

But the game style should come under enormous scrutiny at a club that, when it comes to win-loss, has progressively got worse under Buckley’s tenure.

Geelong, which had lost to Collingwood the last three times, didn’t hit the front until the first minute of the third quarter and did its best to jeopardise its top-four chances.

Forget debating finals venues — on this form it wouldn’t matter where they were playing; they would be found out against better opposition.

What is it about the Cats against teams they know they should beat?

Steven Motlop, brilliant last week, was poor. Ditto Harry Taylor and Daniel Menzel, which meant that without Tom Hawkins, the Cats looked blunt inside forward 50m.

Ten goals from 60 inside 50s tells the tale.

In the end it was a moment of quality — a rare sight in this contest — from Patrick Dangerfield that settled it.

The Brownlow medallist took a handball on the wing half way through the last quarter and kicked a running goal from 60m to give the Cats the lead they wouldn’t surrender.

Steele Sidebottom reacts after the final siren. Picture: Getty Images