Alarm bells turn to blaring sirens for Collingwood as Hawks stun Pies in MCG thriller
Since he took over as Collingwood coach in 2012, Nathan Buckley has coached against Hawk genius Alastair Clarkson 13 times — He’s won once. That’s ‘Kennett curse’-level hoodoo, Liam Twomey writes.
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The alarm bells are now blaring sirens.
What has happened to the one-time premiership favourites Collingwood?
After a tumultuous week in which their hunger for the contest and attack on the ball were questioned, many expected the Magpies to come out and respond.
STATS, SUPERCOACH: KEY STATS FROM HAWKS v PIES
‘DEVASTATING’: BEAMS MEETS SOCIAL MEDIA TROLL
That is what good sides do. They make a statement on the big stage.
Now the question has to be seriously asked — are Collingwood even a good side?
What the Magpies served up at the MCG wasn’t ugly. It was hideous.
And with an absolute horror run on the horizon, with away games against GWS and West Coast locked in and an injury list that is once again one of the longest in the AFL, premiership dreams are quickly slipping away for the black and white army.
PIES’ SERIOUS FORWARD ISSUES
The Magpies have problems big and small on their forward line.
Since returning from a lower leg injury last month, Mason Cox has looked well down on the player who set last year’s finals series on fire with his domination of Richmond.
He has taken five marks in the past two weeks and opposition sides are quickly controlling the ball when it hits the deck in his area.
The Magpies would have been hoping Jamie Elliott would be the perfect replacement for Jaidyn Stephenson.
However, he looked well off that level against the Hawks.
While it was his first game back from yet another injury lay-off, the Magpies needed him to provide at least 70 per cent of what Stephenson was. He wasn’t close to that against the Hawks.
SCOREBOARD FLATTERED PIES
They aren’t the only issues facing the Magpies.
The scoreboard actually flattered Collingwood, with Hawthorn perhaps one key forward away from winning by five or six goals.
Collingwood was smashed in the inside 50s, losing that count 57-34. Amazingly, the Magpies had just five inside 50s in the first quarter.
1-12 — CLARKO’S STUNNING BUCKS RECORD
If AFL coaches were eligible to be traded, what would be the asking price for Alastair Clarkson?
Superstar players generally go for two first-round draft picks, so the starting price for the four-time premiership architect would surely be in the four, five or even six range.
Clarkson was in his element at the MCG, taking a team with less stars and less talent to an upset victory.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE WHAT THE COACHES SAID
As a player, Nathan Buckley was unstoppable.
But as a coach, he has absolutely no answers against Clarkson.
Since taking over the Magpies in 2012, his record against the Hawks is a staggering 1-12.
And even in that one win, his side had to come back from 36 points down.
This has now reached “Kennett curse” levels of hoodoo.
HAWK SET FOR MRO HEAT
Daniel Howe is no stranger to the tribunal.
The last time he was there, the Hawthorn midfielder was slapped with a monster five-week ban for tripping Carlton’s Zac Fisher and striking Patrick Cripps.
He will once again come under scrutiny this week after an incident late in the second quarter with Scott Pendlebury.
While being tackled by the Pies skipper, Howe appeared to purposely raise his knee which then collected Pendlebury in the head.
PIES REMAIN SIDE BY SIDE WITH BEAMS
He may not have been out on the MCG with his teammates, but he was certainly in their thoughts.
With a simple message on the club’s banner, Collingwood paid tribute to struggling midfielder Dayne Beams, who stepped away from football during the week to focus on his mental health.
As the Magpies ran out onto the MCG, they crashed through “#11 side by side” — with the message clear. The entire Collingwood Army is right behind their brother.
HAWTHORN 1.5 3.8 4.9 9.13 (67) def COLLINGWOOD 4.0 5.4 6.7 9.9 (63)
Goals: Hawthorn: L Breust 2 M Lewis 2 O Hanrahan 2 B Hardwick B McEvoy J Worpel
Collingwood: J De Goey 2 W Hoskin-Elliott 2 A Treloar B Mihocek B Sier J Daicos M Cox
Liam Twomey’s Best: Hawthorn: Sicily, Impey, Smith, McEvoy, Worpel.
Collingwood: Treloar, Phillips, Sidebottom, Crisp, Quaynor.
Umpires: Simon Meredith, Robert Findlay, Craig Fleer
Official Crowd: 66,407 at MCG.
LIAM TWOMEY’S VOTES
3 — James Sicily (Haw)
2 — Jarman Impey (Haw)
1 — Isaac Smith (Haw)
BUCKLEY: WE’RE GOING THROUGH A BAD PATCH
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has conceded his side is seriously out of form and individual players are having confidence battles that have sent the Magpies in to a mid-season malaise.
A four-point loss to Hawthorn was a second defeat in two weeks for Buckley’s men who now face a potentially top-four defining fortnight against reigning premiers West Coast and GWS, both away.
Buckley was adamant the effort increase against the Hawks, which had the Magpies in a winning position for most of the game, was a step-up on the previous week’s whacking by North Melbourne.
But he couldn’t walk away from the fact his side was a shadow of the one that played off in last year’s Grand Final and despite the lack of personnel couldn’t put his finger on when that form might return.
“We are not playing our best footy,” Buckley said.
“When you don’t have that momentum of building on your best footy and the confidence of playing your best footy, and we are out of form, I think that does take a little bit of extra work to find and to motivate and energise.
“The season has its ups and downs, you don’t have seasons without it, you are not all bad or all good, there is always something in between.
“We are going through a patch at the minute and we have to stay with it so we can work our way out of it.”
Buckley pointed to the fact the Pies lost by “less than a kick” and were in a position to win the game despite playing well below their best and without as many as seven first-choice players.
But he said there were too many individuals “not in the form they would like to be in”.
“And if you add that as a collective, I don’t think we are gelling as a team quite as we’d like to,” Buckley said.
“Form definitely is an issue, individually and collectively.”
Buckley said the notion of a Grand Final rematch could have an impact on lifting the players this week as they head to Perth.
But he said the fact the Eagles have won the last four contests could mean a little bit more.
“Definitely looking is something we want to do and we have enough challenges right here, right now, to put our energy in to without having to go back,” he said.
“Their record against us recently has been strong, that tends to carry in to the next opportunity, and that’s something we need to arrest also, as well as the fact we want to be finding some better form in the next month.”
— Russell Gould
CLARKO: I’M COMMITTED TO ‘THIRD WAVE’
Alastair Clarkson insists he is committed to helping Hawthorn rise to the top of the game again as part of the club’s “third wave” of success.
While the Hawks’ list has recently come under fire for its lack of young talent, the club has now narrowly lost to last year’s premiers in West Coast and beaten the runners up in Collingwood across the past two weeks.
The four-time premiership coach says he knows exactly where the club sits and is ready to launch yet another plan to reach the top of the mountain.
“We know it goes in waves,” he said after his side’s win against the Magpies last night.
“We are up to our third wave. I’m committed to that. Committed to the staff that are trying to help us get there and committed to the players whether they are young kids coming through the draft or whether they’re players from other clubs that come into our system.
“I’m committed to helping them get on the journey to try and win silverware because that’s the great feature of our game”
Clarkson said he was rapt to win for club champions Ben McEvoy and Luke Breust, who both played their 200th games.
“To be able to chair those guys off in a winning game for their 200th is pretty special, not just for those two but for their families and teammates.”
— Liam Twomey
EYE ON FUTURE AS YOUNG HAWK STANDS TALL
When Mitchell Lewis was being assessed by the doctors just before halftime, they thought his eye was going to close over.
The young Hawk forward had the type of “shiner” Rocky Balboa would after 10 rounds with Apollo Creed and as his team was crying out for a goalkicker every second on the bench was agony for supporters.
But he was still standing when it mattered most, there in the last quarter to kick the goal that put his team in front for the first time, and potentially answered the question so many Hawk supporters have been throwing up all year.
After going down by a goal to West Coast last week Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson made it clear that the margins in AFL these days, those between success and failure, are tiny.
He’s seen it first hand in 2019, and so much of it has been because of his team’s inability to muster a winning score. They haven’t managed 100 points in a match once.
The Hawks had kicked just 154 goals going in last night. But they had only conceded 158.
Just finding that one forward, that new goalkicker who could muster those extra two or three majors a week, could have been the difference between a winning and losing season.
Clarkson had tried james Sicily, who flopped up forward, and as he took 14 marks down back in a stunning aerial display, the coach must have asked why he went so badly up the other end.
The hair-pulling nature of Hawthorn’s forward faults, after kicking 9.17 last week, was on full display again against Collingwood for so much of a match they should have iced way earlier than the last 15 minutes.
In the first quarter the inside 50 count read 18-5 in favour of the Hawks. They kicked one goal. Collingwood had five inside 50s and kicked just four.
At halftime it was 31 inside 50s for three goals. At the last break it was 40 entries for four goals.
When the match finished, with the Hawks just four-points the better, the inside 50 count was 57 to just 34.
Hard to believe the margin was so close.
Lewis, just seven games in to his career, and recalled from the VFL, finished with seven marks and two goals.
Oliver Hanrahan, who made his debut last week, kicked two also.
That’s four between two players who just might bridge that tiny margin between wins and losses.
Well they have once at least.
— Russell Gould
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