AFL Round 11 Collingwood v Geelong: All the news, action and fallout from the MCG
Collingwood played with zero intent and failed to kick a goal in the opening two terms against Geelong. The alarm bells are ringing for Nathan Buckley.
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It’s probably a good thing for Nathan Buckley that no-one was at the MCG to see what his team served up.
In fact, the Covid lockdown probably saved 50,000 fans from having to sit through one of the most uninspiring games for a long time.
But when you’re effectively coaching for your future, this sort of performance creeps into the coach killer category.
Was the first half ground zero?
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Not scoring a goal for the first time in the opening half since 2005 and not scoring a goal in the opening two quarters of a game at the MCG for 116 years is quite simply diabolical.
They were the only side this season to be held goalless in the opening half while it was also Collingwood’s equal-lowest amount of pressure (160) applied in the first half of a match this season.
Even if you’re undermanned and young, every coach will tell you that effort can still be non-negotiable.
The man who new president Mark Korda had declared would make the call on Buckley, football boss Graham Wright, watched the horror show from the interchange bench.
A penny for his thoughts would have been intriguing. We can probably take a stab at it and think there were a fair few swear words involved.
To be fair Geelong were also rubbish particularly from midway through the second quarter.
But they were clearly pulled down a level by the ineptitude of their opponents and when you’re sitting third on the ladder these types of forgettable afternoons can be quickly forgotten.
“It wasn’t one for the ages’,” was Geelong coach Chris Scott’s view.
That’s not the case for Collingwood. When you have a coach who is out-of-contract at the end of the season and you’ve won just two games for the season, everything is under the microscope.
One line that could be trotted out is that there were plenty of kids in this Magpies outfit – Trent Bianco was the club’s seventh debutant this season – and Buckley was clearly experimenting with captain Scott Pendlebury playing as a permanent forward.
The Pies coach certainly mentioned that afterwards and was remarkably upbeat about his team’s situation claiming they’d improved significantly over the past month.
“We want to win games of football but I think the overarching feeling in the sheds is that we’re playing a brand that we are more confident in and more positive about than potentially a month ago or two months ago,” Buckley said.
“While that is not getting us wins at the moment, I think the players, as you can see their energy and enthusiasm remained for the entirety of the match despite the scoreboard and despite the opposition
“Over the whole of the last three or four weeks I think we are tracking in the right direction, we are playing some pretty good sides and we’ve been very competitive. If we keep focusing on working together and finding our best, the wins will come.”
But sometimes it’s about how you look losing.
While the final margin was remarkably 10-points – the Pies kicked five goals in the last quarter – which says a lot more about how little interest Geelong showed in the second half, the focus for Collingwood should be on the style, the process, the game plan or lack thereof.
A look at the recent history of sacked coaches provides some food for thought.
Brendon Bolton’s reign at Carlton ended because his team became unwatchable, they couldn’t score (does that sound familiar) which was ultimately the death knell.
Bolton was sacked after Carlton kicked 4.9 against Essendon in Round 11, 2019. The Blues had managed just 19 goals in his last three games in charge.
Collingwood has managed just 19 goals in its last three games and that includes three in the final four minutes of junk time against the Cats.
Hmmmmm. So whichever way you want to wrap all of that up, it’s not good news for Nathan Buckley.
GRUNDY INJURED AS PIES LANGUISH
A third-quarter injury to Collingwood’s best player as rubbed salt into the wound of a third-straight loss that has plunged the Magpies’ season further into the mire.
Grundy was contesting a mark on centre-wing when he went down with what looked to be a right shoulder injury but was, in fact, an injury to his neck.
He was subbed out halfway through the quarter and was quickly whisked away for scans at the Epworth Hospital, with coach Nathan Buckley revealing the ruckman had experienced tingling down his arm.
“Brodie had his head wrenched back and pinched a nerve in his neck,” Buckley said.
“It presented as a stinger down his right arm but the doctor was concerned about nerve damage and he was obviously unable to take further part in the game.
“He is at the hospital having a scan and it’s a bit of a strange one.”
Grundy has a history of neck problems and was taken to hospital after a training incident back in 2015 which saw him miss a month of football.
The injury came after Grundy, ironically, had delivered the Pies first goal of the match — in the first minute of the third-quarter — the first time in 116 years Collingwood had failed to kick a goal in the first half at the MCG.
Collingwood fans have been spared ...
— Mark Stevens (@Stevo7AFL) May 29, 2021
Magpies - 0.7 @ 1/2 time
— Joshua Kay (@js_kay) May 29, 2021
First time goalless at 1/2 time v Cats since 1898
Lowest 1/2 time score v Cats since 2020#AFLPiesCats
Collingwood have scored a combined 1.7 in their last two first halves against Geelong #AFLPiesCats
— Ronny Lerner (@RonnyLerner) May 29, 2021
That was the worst half of footy I’ve ever seen from Collingwood. This is the heatmap for Q2, once again no attack through the middle, horrendous to watch #AFLPiesCats#Collingwoodpic.twitter.com/k42XZl3M1W
— Regan Hodge (@ReganHodge2) May 29, 2021
Buckley has to go, they looked like they have no idea what they are doing.
— Adam Carthew (@carthewa) May 29, 2021
Saturday’s opening half was also the second time in three weeks the Magpies have gone back-to-back quarters without registering a major.
“You look at it and go ‘0.7 at halftime’ and you think, ‘We’re not playing that bad. We’re in the game’,” he said.
“It was 16 insides (50m) to 14 with eight minutes to go in the second quarter, we had more opportunities to score than the opposition but we hadn’t got a goal on the board and they had three or four.
“Over the whole of the last three or four weeks I think we are tracking in the right direction, we are playing some pretty good sides and we’ve been very competitive. If we keep focusing on working together and finding our best, the wins will come.”
The Cats would’ve been happy to leave the MCG with the win which will keep them glued inside the top four at the end of the round, despite the clash being one of the most unwatchable games of the season.
Outside of debutant Trent Bianco looking every bit the player at AFL level, the only positive for Pies’ fans was the fact they couldn’t attend the eyesore of a game, due to Victoria’s Covid-19 lockdown.
Remarkably, despite Collingwood’s dour ball movement, it took until the 12-minute mark of the last quarter for Tom Hawkins to put the final nail in the Pies’ coffin as he extended the lead to 22-points.
The Pies kicked three junk time goals to shave the margin to just 10-points, but to say that flattered the black and white would’ve been an understatement — even if Buckley was buoyed by it.
But their inability to score remains the coach’s biggest headache, with not even the presence of captain Scott Pendlebury as a permanent forward enough to unlock any resemblance of positive activity.
“Frustration is a word the boys mentioned but positive was as well,” Buckley said.
“I thought we definitely had our fair share of it, ultimately not being able to hit the scoreboard again was a concern for us.
“We had scoring shots but we weren’t accurate, we weren’t able to convert them into goals.
“We want to win games of football but I think the overarching feeling in the sheds is that we’re playing a brand that we are more confident in and more positive about than potentially a month ago or two months ago.”
He revealed Pendlebury was carrying an injury which was why he didn’t spend any time in the midfield.
“Pendles is probably not at full fitness at the moment and over the last couple of weeks he just keeps finding a way,” Buckley said.
“We do need to build a midfield without being reliant on him … we just want to keep finding the best way we can keep introducing new players through that part of the ground and have them stand up.”
Geelong coach Chris Scott said even though the Cats would review the win, he has one eye on his side’s Round 13 blockbuster clash against Port Adelaide.
The Cats and Power are jostling for a top-four position and the game looms as an early finals-shaping contest.
Scott said the Cats’ win over the Pies “wasn’t one for the ages”, and that it isn’t hard to look ahead to the Adelaide Oval game.
“It’s pretty easy for us to look forward, given the next challenge for us is Port Adelaide in Adelaide,” he said.
“Our guys have done a really good job to get to the bye at 8-3 and be in contention again. The second half of the year is in our hands.
“I won’t be able to stop thinking about Port Adelaide.”
Scott said there will be selection headaches ahead for the Cats with midfielders Duncan, Guthrie, Dangerfield and Mark O’Connor, as well as Mark Blicavs all to come back in the next two games.
“We have some players to come back over the next week or two, so we are going to be a little bit squeezed at the selection table,” he said.
EXTRA SKILLS?
Nathan Buckley had put his team through an extra skills session during the week in an attempt to improve what had been a glaring problem but, if anything, their ball movement was even worse.
It was so bad in the second term, Fox Footy commentator Jonathan Brown labelled it some of the worst he’s seen in footy
The problem for the Pies was their pressure was also well down so they allowed a Geelong line-up – who lost two of its stars before the opening bounce in Mark Blicavs and Cam Guthrie – to do as they pleased in the first half.
“If you’re a Collingwood supporter you’d be frustrated at home. They need to bring a higher level of pressure,” Brown added.
PARFITT AND NARKLE DOMINATE
With Cam Guthrie and Mitch Duncan out for Geelong there was something poetic about Brandon Parfitt and Quinton Narkle stepping up to fill the that void in Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
By halftime the electric duo had 33 touches between them and five clearances, while Parfitt had two goal assists and the most metres gained on the ground.
Parfitt finished with 30, while Narkle finished with 24.
Scott said the pair had stepped up in the absence of Mitch Duncan, Cam Guthrie and Patrick Dangerfield.
“Parfitt’s become one of our really important players over a decent period of time now,” he said.
“Narkle, in a way, has been starved of opportunity not necessarily through any faults of his own.
“If you go back 12-months he was in our best team up until Round 7 or 8 I would say. And then he did a significant hamstring and couldn’t get back into our team because our midfield was going pretty well.”
BIANCO’S BALL
You would have been excused for thinking Trent Bianco was a seasoned Magpie ball magnet at quarter time.
The 20-year-old debutant was Collingwood’s brightest spark in an otherwise dour first term.
The midfielder showed an innate ability to find the ball and link up, something the Pies have been crying out for to aide their laboured ball movement.
Bianco played across half forward and pushed up into the middle, collecting nine first quarter disposals before finishing the match with 19.
SCOREBOARD
COLLINGWOOD 0.3 0.7 1.11 6.15 (51)
lost to
GEELONG 2.3 5.8 5.11 8.13 (61)
GOALS
Magpies: De Goey 2, Grundy, Hoskin-Elliott, Mihocek, Maynard
Cats: Hawkins 3, Cameron 2, Dahlhaus, Ratugolea, Stanley
MOTTERSHEAD’S BEST
Magpies: Mayne, De Goey, Crisp, Maynard, Moore
Cats: Parfitt, Hawkins, Narkle, Selwood, Higgins, Stanley
JAMES MOTTERSHEAD’S VOTES
3 — B.Parfitt (Geel)
2 — T.Hawkins (Geel)
1 — Q.Narkle (Geel)
INJURIES
Magpies: Grundy (neck)
Cats: Nil
Umpires: O’Gorman, Gavine, Findlay.
Venue: MCG
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