Glenn McFarlane compares the two great Collingwood premiership teams of 1990 and 2010
WOULD you rather Alan Didak or Peter Daicos? What if you had to pick between Mick Malthouse and Leigh Matthews? GLENN McFARLANE has crunched the numbers and looks at which Collingwood premiership side was better, 1990 or 2010.
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COLLINGWOOD has won two drought-breaking premierships in the AFL era.
The first came after 32 years, in 1990, a fated victory that buried a generation of heartache and cruel jokes for long-suffering Magpies fans. The second, 20 years later, in 2010, came after an intense Grand Final draw the week before, followed by the most one-sided premiership victory in the club’s history.
So which one was best? How would the 1990 Magpies - so team orientated and so well drilled under the guidance of Leigh Matthews - have fared against the swarm of pressure from 2010 that coach Mick Malthouse borrowed from the Roman legion and Erwin Rommel’s battle strategies.
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And which of the Norm Smith Medallists had the better game - 30-year-old Tony Shaw’s inspired leadership, bruising contested work and capacity to do whatever he needed that October afternoon in 1990 to win, or the silky smooth skills of a 22-year-old Scott Pendlebury, who narrowly won the honours ahead of Steele Sidebottom?
In seeking an answer to those seemingly impossible questions, the Herald Sun engaged the services of the AFL’s official statisticians of the past 20 seasons, Champion Data, to take a forensic look at Collingwood’s 48-point victory over Essendon in the 1990 Grand Final through the modern statistical lens.
That includes each players’ SuperCoach rankings, pressure tallies, contested and uncontested disposals and marks, even the metres gained figures.
The Magpies’ 2010 victory came over St Kilda by 56 points, following a spine-tingling contest a week earlier.
Champion Data’s AFL analyst Daniel Hoyne explained the re-evaluation wasn’t meant to downplay the way stats were recorded almost 30 years ago, saying he had enormous admiration for those pioneers who crunched the numbers before the use of modern technology.
“The job they did back then was so hard,” Hoyne said. “We have 10 sets of eyes - 10 people - working every game. We have access to watching it live at the ground with technology as opposed to doing it with pen and paper, but also the luxury of reviewing the play.”
GAME STYLE
1990 v 2010
In the wake of Collingwood’s 15th VFL-AFL premiership in 2010, Malthouse explained the rationale behind the team’s manic forward pressure.
He explained: “The first phase I looked at (was) the Roman legion, which is in a box formation - it’s very hard to penetrate and there’s always someone to step up. The second one was a bloke who I’ve read a lot about, because of his daring - Erwin Rommel.
“Neither succeeded in any length in history, so this game will succumb at some stage as well.”
Collingwood was seen to have broken new ground with this style, but Champion Data’s re-examination of the 1990 flag win showed the pressure on that Grand Final day was every bit as good - if not better - than it was at the same venue 20 years later.
Hoyne said Matthews’ team’s pressure was not dissimilar to some modern AFL sides, including current powerhouses Richmond. “That (1990) side created 36 turnovers in the forward half (in the Grand Final), which is what Richmond is going at the moment.”
“They generated more than seven goals from forward half turnovers, which is what all good teams do now.”
Tony Shaw explained to the Herald Sun the reason behind his team’s pressure factor - higher than 2010 - putting it down to Matthews’ reaction to the qualifying final draw with West Coast.
“I’m not surprised by that,” he said. “We worked so hard after the draw, all the drills we did were not full-blooded one-on-ones, but there was always someone touching you on the back, there was always pressure involved.”
The biggest difference in styles, as the Champion Data stats reveal, is that the Magpies of 1990 had almost half the number of marks as the 2010 side (63 to 121) , and only 45 uncontested marks compared to 114.
Part of that was Matthews’ restructuring to a smaller, less conventional forward line late in the season, which Shaw acknowledges as a masterstroke.
NORM SMITH WINNERS
Tony Shaw v Scott Pendlebury
Shaw was credited with 32 disposals in the 1990 Grand Final, but Champion Data’s recent review has added four more to his tally, making it 36 for the game. Incredibly, 13 came in the second term, where the Magpies wrested control of the game.
Almost half of Shaw’s disposals were contested.
That pushed the Magpie skipper’s SuperCoach ranking to 163 points, a clear leader on the ground in the 1990 Grand Final ahead of Essendon’s Tim Watson (148) and teammates Scott Russell (152) and Mick McGuane (140).
Pendlebury rated around 40 fewer SuperCoach points for his exceptional game in 2010 - a week after he was less effective and clearly ill in the drawn game - though in the replay the 2010 midfielder had 69 pressure points compared to Shaw’s 28.
Shaw joked this week he would have to give Pendlebury a call to let him know of the difference in their Grand Final SuperCoach scores.
“He’s been a great player, Pendles, but I’ll have to have a go at him about that one,” Shaw said.
Both players had more than 500 metres gained, showing how important they were to their team’s forward thrusts, with Shaw having eight inside 50s that day.
RUCK ‘N ROLES
Damian Monkhorst v Darren Jolly
Ruckmen have always been crucial in the games that matter, and that’s no different when looking back at Collingwood’s 1990 and 2010 flag wins.
Both were at different stages of their career, yet their importance to the team was crucial to the success.
Let’s start with 1990. The form of 21-year-old Damian Monkhorst was under scrutiny during stages of the 1990 finals series, and he even started forward at the first bounce in the Grand Final, but by the game’s end, he was one of the most influential players on the field.
“Monky wasn’t in great form going into the game, and ‘Jimmy’ (James Manson) started in the ruck at the first bounce,” Shaw recalled. “But Monky ended up playing a really good game. We had two competitive ruckmen back then, and teams don’t tend to have that these days.”
Monkhorst had 17 disposals that day, including 10 contested ones, with 28 hitouts and six hitouts-to-advantage. He kicked a late goal to put the issue beyond doubt that day, adding to his 94 SuperCoach points.
Jolly, who was 28 in the 2010 Grand Final, was crucial to Collingwood’s 2010 success that day. His SuperCoach ranking of 121 was an indication of his importance. Eight of his 14 disposals were contested, and he had 35 hitouts, seven to his team’s advantage.
FORWARD GENIUS
Peter Daicos v Alan Didak
Tony Shaw was emphatic when speaking about the respective performances of mercurial Magpies Peter Daicos and Alan Didak in their 1990 and 2010 Grand Finals.
Both star forwards kicked two goals. And on face value, Didak’s statistics rank him as the better performer in those given games.
But Shaw was quick to add that sheer numbers so often don’t do justice when isolated to one game only.
“Dids was a good player, I loved Dids ... but he wasn’t Daicos,” Shaw told the Herald Sun. “Daics was a superstar.”
Daicos, then 29, had a breathtaking 1990 season, kicking 97 goals and providing a lifetime of memories for those lucky enough to witness them. But his return of eight disposals and only 53 SuperCoach points in that Grand Final do not do justice to two things.
The first ... the Magpies would almost certainly never had the chance to break the ‘Colliwobbles’ hoodoo that season without him.
The second ... the first of his two goals for the game - an extraordinary boundary side angle goal - was the catalyst for Collingwood’s ascendancy when nerves threatened to get the better of the side.
“He was a star,” Shaw said of Daicos. “We weren’t under pressure at that stage, but that goal from the boundary certainly settled things.”
Didak, who was 27 in 2010, had 21 disposals and 92 SuperCoach points, with his first goal making it four in a row for the Pies to start the Grand Final replay.
Both Daicos and Didak had three shots at goal in their respective premiership performances.
LOVEABLE ROGUES
Darren Millane v Dane Swan
They may have played in different positions, but it seems logical to link the two loveable rogues of the 1990 and 2010 Collingwood premiership sides.
Darren Millane was 25, and seemingly at the peak of his powers, albeit playing in extraordinary pain, having broken his thumb in the lead up to the finals. Still, he pushed on with the aid of painkillers, yet still played an exceptional Grand Final.
His game would have yielded 90 SuperCoach points if they had been around during his lifetime, coming from his 27 disposals on the wing. Nine were contested and he punted the ball inside his team’s 50m on seven occasions.
Tellingly, the player they called ‘Pants’ had an extraordinary 726 metres gained, thanks in part to his keenness to kick the ball long, and also because the pain was too much to stop him from handballing.
“That’s incredible,” Shaw said when told of Millane’s metres gained tally, the most of anyone on the field on that day in 1990. “He didn’t short pass, he kicked long.
“He gave (Essendon wingman) Greg Anderson an absolute bath that day. And he did with one hand.”
Swan, then 26, who played in middle of the ground in 2010, also had nine contested possessions in his 26 disposals, and 274 metres gained.
The difference is in Swan’s pressure points, where he had 60, as opposed to Millane’s 18. He also kicked a goal, and had four score involvements.
But it’s fair to say both were equally popular with the fans when they went up to collect their premiership medals.
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