By Jake Niall
Tempting as it is to view this game as another diabolical Demons failure – which it was – the more important outcome was that the banged-up Collingwood Football Club remains a serious premiership threat.
Any team that can survive a hideous injury toll and emerge from that troubled stretch with a draw against Fremantle in Perth, a competitive loss to the Bulldogs and then an impressive victory over a fragile but largely uninjured Melbourne must be viewed as a clear and present danger to Sydney, Carlton and the rest.
Magpie Nathan Kreuger roars after one of his three goals in his comeback match.Credit: AFL Photos
Melbourne had the advantage in personnel – missing only Jake Lever and Lachie Hunter, and the latter is not an automatic selection. But their form had been abysmal, having been put to the sword in Alice Springs by Fremantle.
Max Gawn had promised a much better showing, but hindsight suggests the champion was speaking for himself.
Collingwood, conversely, had seriously weakened personnel, without probably eight of their best 22 – Jordan De Goey, Scott Pendlebury, Jamie Elliott and their first choice key forwards among the missing – but had been in excellent form, given the available soldiers.
If this game was simply an aggregation of talent, then the Demons would win.
But in the Craig McRae era, the Magpies have become a team far greater than the sum of their parts and one that sticks to a system – and individuals become cogs in that system – irrespective of where and when they play and who’s out there.
From the outset, it was clear, a) that Collingwood’s ball movement, efficiency and pressure were much better and, b) that Melbourne’s confidence remained fragile. They were hesitant with the ball, or made poor kicks and, not least, they had periods of goalkicking yips and misfortune with posters.
Collingwood gained unexpected bounty in the output of two players: Finlay Macrae and Nathan Kreuger. Macrae, who had hitherto struggled at senior level when given opportunities, finally found the ball in some quantity and played at the level of an AFL midfielder.
And so, despite the names of Gawn, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney, the Pies belted the Dees at the centre bounces (14-6), where Jack Crisp was formidable and Darcy Cameron did an excellent job against a superstar. Crisp was crowned the Neale Daniher medallist as best afield.
Nick Daicos was well held but celebrates a goal. Credit: Getty Images
Kreuger, who has had an injury-wracked career at Geelong and Collingwood, booted two goals to half-time – one an improbable boundary shot that was enabled by the ump’s decision to make him take his kick – and provided a viable target.
Kreuger and youngster Harvey Harrison booted three goals each, demonstrating again that McRae’s team has a knack for scrounging goals from unlikely sources. Billy Frampton, a key defender with minimal forward aptitude, reprised his grand final role as a quasi-defensive key forward and contributed one goal. Kreuger also relieved Cameron in the ruck.
“It was pretty simple for me and Bill – it was just bring the ball to ground as best we can because they’ve got some pretty damaging players [in defence],” said Kreuger, who reckoned this was close to his best AFL game. “That was pretty much the game plan.”
One reckoned, too, that the Pies would need yet another stellar effort from Nick Daicos. But Daicos was smothered almost completely by Alex Neal-Bullen for much of the game.
The nullifying of Daicos was more than offset, though, by the injury suffered by Christian Petracca, a player of similar potency, when he was accidentally crunched in a pack-marking contest by Darcy Moore seconds before the quarter-time siren.
Christian Petracca leaves the field with suspected broken ribs.Credit: AFL Photos
While Petracca came back on, he was severely impaired by the body blow and inevitably was subbed out with a suspected rib injury. Daicos was subbed out in the last term, too, with what the Magpies called a corked shin.
Jeremy Howe, a team leader, was outstanding in defence and capped off his work with a trademark speccy in the final term, while Josh Daicos, Pat Lipinski and Melbourne’s bete noir, Brayden Maynard, played with intelligence and desperation.
Maynard was booed for his contentious smother-bump and knockout of the subsequently retired Angus Brayshaw. McRae later revealed the defender had lately been dealing with personal issues. Later in the game, the booing eased somewhat, as the red and blue folk realised they were a lost cause.
Strangely, Steven May copped boos from the Collingwood army in apparent mocking disapproval of his comments at the best and fairest that the Demons were better than the premiers – a comment that was hardly offensive but was contradicted again on this King’s Birthday.
It cannot be said that Melbourne lacked for effort, or that they failed to fight. Simon Goodwin noted that they had won the contested ball (plus 23) and improved on forward entries (minus 3). Rather, their failings were in dismal disposals – kicking to forwards, with a few exceptions, was awful – and in a less functioning system.
Collingwood have North Melbourne and then the bye, after which they will begin regaining Pendlebury, Brody Mihocek, De Goey and others.
In McRae’s time, the Pies have made a truism of their club song. No matter the circumstances, personnel or stakes, this version of Good Old Collingwood genuinely knows how to play the game.
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