Collingwood’s midfield wasn’t tough enough for long enough in last year’s Grand Final. Is it really better this year?

Thirty-five days before Collingwood’s Round 1 game, its midfield is already being described as an all-conquering force — and it will need to be, because it couldn’t handle the heat in last year’s Grand Final, Jon Ralph writes.

The Pies’ midfield couldn’t handle the heat against West Coast in last year’s Grand Final. Picture: Mark Stewart

Thirty-five days before Collingwood’s Round 1 game, its midfield is already being described as an all-conquering force.

The hype is entirely understandable when you bring a matchwinner like Dayne Beams into a side that came so close in one of footy’s great Grand Finals.

The rose-coloured glasses view is that Collingwood only lost that Grand Final because of Dom Sheed’s freakish goal that seemed as if it was kicked from the fifth row of the MCG seats.

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The Pies’ midfield couldn’t handle the heat against West Coast in last year’s Grand Final. Picture: Mark Stewart

The reality is that Collingwood had held up the dam wall against insurmountable odds since the second minute of the final term and were lucky to still be in front.

Nathan Buckley will have spent the summer with a delicate balancing act — engendering confidence in his midfield while at the same time reinforcing that they are far from the finished product.

All of us in the media can drink the Kool-Aid but in truth Collingwood’s midfield was soundly beaten by West Coast when the whips were cracking.

On Alastair Clarkson’s finals reckoning of being tough enough for long enough, it was West Coast who deserved to hold up the premiership cup.

How badly?

From the two-minute mark of the last term, after Brody Mihocek and Jordan De Goey put the Pies 12 points up, it was a West Coast avalanche.

They feasted upon 18 of the final 23 inside 50s, had the ball in their forward half 70 per cent of the time, had nine scoring shots to two.

Dom Sheed might have kicked the sealer, but it was the events that led up to his late goal that sealed the Pies’ fate. Picture: Nicole Garmston

In the first 25 minutes as the Pies looked unbeatable, their pressure was off the charts, the midfield held sway and they were 28 points to the good.

But in the final 95 minutes West Coast controlled terms — Luke Shuey the game’s highest-ranked player, Dom Sheed is fourth-best, and Jack Redden and Elliot Yeo both superb.

In contrast, Steele Sidebottom was the 19th-ranked player, Brayden Sier the 31st-ranked and Scott Pendlebury the 32nd-ranked.

In those final 28 minutes 12 Collingwood players shared eight total possessions.

Travis Varcoe, James Aish and Josh Thomas went stat-less and Levi Greenwood, Brayden Sier, Brodie Grundy and Jaidyn Stephenson had one disposal each.

So the challenge for Collingwood’s midfield isn’t just trying to find a spot in the starting rotation, it’s becoming appreciably better.

Perhaps we should be talking about Norm Smith Medal winner Luke Shuey and the West Coast midfield, which is set to get back the likes of Andrew Gaff and Nic Naitanui. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Because the team we should be hyping is West Coast given Andrew Gaff will return in the first month and Nic Naitanui is, by Adam Simpson’s estimate, preparing for a mid-year return.

Richmond faces an identical challenge, belted in the midfield the previous week by the Pies and now facing a full season until they can get a finals do-over.

It is footy’s perennial challenge, according to Pies premiership player and football analyst Mick McGuane.

Coming so close and then instead of resting on your laurels, finding the motivation to get even better.

“You would need inside information about their workrate and GPS data, but it looked as if visually the Pies couldn’t stretch the ground or challenge the opposition’s set-up,” he said of that Grand Final midfield battle as the game wore on.

“They looked stagnant with ball movement at times and they couldn’t get outside like they did early. Was it fatigue?

“There would be a strong message there from Bucks. There would be some individuals who on the big stage would be disappointed with their impact, and some of them are big names.

“Pendles didn’t have his best Grand Final and Sidey got beaten from a tagging perspective after 41 the previous week against Richmond.

“So that memory will last forever. No doubt it will be sitting inside a few of them as a missed opportunity but it’s a new year and they start with no bricks in the wall. They have some serious work to do to content again.”

Dayne Beams has made it back to the Pies, but they still need to improve from within. Picture: AAP

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