Jon Ralph: Collingwood’s poor start can’t be blamed on the Grand Prix gala when they just look old slow and soft
The Magpies’ swarm led them to premiership glory in 2023 but this year, so far, they look old, soft and slow. So where has the dare and drive gone?
Collingwood
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Collingwood was ready for the ‘Party Pies’ headlines if their fortnight of pain turned into something so much worse.
When you are the biggest team in town your successes are lauded and your failings are ripe for forensic analysis no matter the reality.
So the Pies were ready for the criticism when their stars Josh Daicos and Scott Pendlebury dressed to the nines and attended the Grand Prix gala a night before their crunch game against St Kilda.
No matter that Daicos was a paid ambassador and that both are among the most fastidious preparers at the club and in all of football.
No matter that it was an in-and-out job – get the photos so the partners can splash them on Instagram, fulfil the brief – and get out of there within an hour.
Collingwood knew the optics weren’t great, especially when captain Darcy Moore had described Jack Ginnivan’s Moonee Valley trip pre-Grand Final as an “extraordinary decision”.
Yet all of those headlines – including chief executive Craig Kelly’s admission there was friction within the football staff with football boss Graeme Wright on sabbatical - would go away with a win.
Instead Craig McRae would have woken up on Friday morning aware that right now his side looks soft, old and slow.
The soft part is evident – Collingwood players jumping out of the way of contests, skirting around packs at speed with half-hearted efforts rather than body-lining the contest.
Fox Footy analyst David King named names on Thursday night, starting with star Nick Daicos.
“They are simply not tough and the review will highlight Nick Daicos. Jeremy Howe on occasion. Bobby Hill, it will highlight Isaac Quaynor. There are quite a few who will come up in an honest warts-and-all review,” he said.
Said AFL great Jason Dunstall on Fox Footy: “The effort is not there. I saw half a dozen players step out of the way or not go hard enough and a couple of times there were multiple offenders. You didn’t see any of that from Collingwood last year. It’s a mindset thing when you are not prepared to commit your body on the line for the group and it’s starting to see flow through the group”.
McRae admitted it post-match, saying when three players surrounded a contest they looked at each other to get the ball instead of attacking it like a snarling pit bull.
What an indictment.
What a departure from the swarming Pies of 2023.
Nick Daicos had told this masthead last week the players were still a “hungry” football side, having churned out personal bests in the gym and on the track across summer.
But right now the Pies look like a team content with one flag, evident on self-preservation and happy to accept the financial spoils of a premiership.
St Kilda looked “dog hungry”, to use a Ross Lyon phrase”, even if Mason Wood’s attack on the ball which broke his collarbone and concussed the Saints wingman was borderline reckless for his own health.
Steele Sidebottom was a Grand Final hero, kicking the sealing 60m goal to crown the Pies premiership.
Last week he committed three horrific turnovers in the space of five minutes - unheard of for the 33-year-old - and on Thursday he was the lowest-rated Pie on the ground.
His half-hearted spoil resulted in a St Kilda goal and by game’s end he was giving away lazy head-high free kicks instead of tackling hard and low.
His 16 possessions went at 26 per cent efficiency, remarkable for one of footy’s best ball users across 15 years.
He is symptomatic of the slow, old Pies.
Darcy Moore flew for everything but he shanked a handball to cough up an early goal and spoiled another one directly into the path of a waiting Saint for another major.
By the time a teammate handballed into his head to start another St Kilda offensive chain he must have been frazzled and confused.
Jack Crisp’s right-handed handball missed Nick Daicos from five metres away, while the forward line got 42 inside 50s but had only Reef McInnes as a rare winner.
Post-match Brayden Maynard was bullish.
“We will flick the switch,” he stated.
It suggested a magic potion is around the corner rather than hard work and nailing fundamentals.
But while the Pies will at some stage come with a rush they have already left themselves so far behind the chasing pack.
Clubs can only afford to lose about six or seven games if they want to finish top four, and the Pies face Brisbane at the Gabba next week.
The Pies might scrape into finals, but history shows sides rebounding from this kind of start leave themselves too much work to go deep.
Sydney overcame a 0-6 start in 2017 but were exhausted by week two of the finals.
Carlton’s surge last year carried all the way to the preliminary final but eventually they ran into a better opponent at the Gabbatoir and fell short.
Richmond won the last nine games of 2014 to qualify for the finals but were belted by 57 points in an elimination final.
Collingwood of 2023 was indestructible, never beaten from any position.
Last week McRae’s silver lining from the Sydney loss was that his side kicked the last three goals from 52 points down.
If they could get close enough in coming weeks, he reasoned, they would again run over the top of opponents.
Collingwood surged late against St Kilda and yet Ross Lyon’s well-drilled team just took care of business.
St Kilda cast aside the Pies instead of getting nervous against the kings of the close finish.
It came with Collingwood missing Dan McStay and Nathan Murphy but every other player in their best 23.
It is never too early for rivals to death-ride the Pies, and after last year’s trades Fremantle has their first-rounder and Hawthorn their second-rounder.
Collingwood never believed this start to the season was an option.
So the Pies have work to do on system and effort and selection.
Even McRae was second-guessing his decision to play Finn Macrae as the sub last night, while John Noble must be a contender to return after 44 minutes of senior action across three weeks.
The players know the perception - that they are lazy and self-satisfied from 2023 success - is not reality.
So that mood for change must start at the top - from Nick Daicos, Moore and Craig McRae - ahead of an Easter Thursday blockbuster that might decide the Pies’ finals fortunes.
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