Magpies unveil ‘ferocious’ new midfielder as Swans sweat on Amartey hamstring scan

Nick Daicos had a match-leading 34 touches.Credit: AFL Photos

Collingwood were depleted by injury and suspension when Jordan DeGoey, Lachie Schultz and Dan Houston were sidelined ahead of this match.

Fortunately for the Pies, they faced an opponent who has shown their Medicare card more often than most in 2025 with Errol Gulden, Tom Papley and Callum Mills the biggest names of the eight players missing from last year’s grand final side.

It gave the Magpies confidence they could defeat Sydney to make it three-from-three from Gather Rounds, and a perfect 10 out of their past 10 at the Adelaide Oval. And they began with a certain arrogance – using their speed at ground level to create opportunities before building the pressure to a level Sydney got nowhere near to matching.

The Pies were simply better and stronger for longer to win comfortably by 31 points. Such was Collingwood’s belief in their front half game, they initially pushed too high and left doors open for Sydney to score, which they did with three of the first four goals of the game.

Brayden Maynard, pictured here laying a tackle on Braeden Campbell with teammate Lachlan Sullivan, had a standout game.Credit: AFL Photos

But all that did was snap the experienced Magpies into action, aware – due to their dominance around the ball – they only needed to stifle Sydney’s ball movement to win the game.

Like a python, they began to strangle their prey, with the Swans unable to match the Magpies’ pressure and intensity.

Sydney began to force the issue and made mistakes, which led to Collingwood scores.

Occasionally they would open the Magpies up, but it was rare. The ball either lived in Collingwood’s forward half or was repelled by an intercept mark or spoil – a dominance accentuated when Joel Amartey hurt his hamstring just before half-time.

As the Magpies pressed home their advantage during the third quarter, Sydney moved Tom McCartin forward in a desperate attempt to win a contest inside 50, but it made no difference.

Collingwood did it without Nick Daicos making as much of an impact as usual, with James Jordon arriving, as expected, with his clamps in hand. The superstar onballer still worked hard to finish with 34 disposals.

Brayden Maynard and Beau McCreery played their best games for the season, while Steele Sidebottom and Darcy Cameron continued their outstanding early season form.

Ned Long was a revelation in the middle after being the sub against Carlton a week earlier, and is beginning to establish himself as a permanent member of the midfield.

In the end – having won their past six matches at Adelaide Oval by a goal or less – they won comfortably, having 29 scores from just 55 inside-50 entries. By contrast Sydney ran into dead-ends and one-way streets as though they were tourists driving around harbour town.

The Swans only managed 18 scoring shots from their 56 entries and their season is hanging by a thread as they wait for reinforcements. Collingwood, meanwhile, head to Brisbane to take on the Lions on Thursday night in good shape with four wins from five matches, while the Swans play Port Adelaide in a preliminary final rematch that sees both sides in strife so far in 2025.

That’s all we have for tonight as the Magpies celebrate their win over Sydney at Adelaide Oval.

We will have more coverage overnight and over the weekend, so please keep visiting our sport pages and we will be back at lunchtime tomorrow for our AFL Saturday live blog as we follow all four matches from Gather Round.

Thanks so much for joining us, and please join us tomorrow afternoon.

Bye for now.

Magpies coach Craig McRae spoke to the media post game and praised Scott Pendlebury’s leadership when the team needed to lift their pressure after quarter-time.

Scott Pendlebury of the Magpies and Chad Warner of the Swans.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Did you think you could get into the contest?Honestly, going into the game, they are such a hard team to play against. We’ve had years of struggle to beat them. Even when we were four or five goals up last year, we couldn’t hold on. We have great respect for them. We came into tonight thinking this is going to be a hard game. I thought it was a really cracking game of footy early. Then the game got on our terms and I thought it was a great performance by our guys.

It was a free-flowing game to half-time with 18 goals. What held together in the second half?
In the second quarter the pressure lifted, and it was low in the first quarter. Credit to [assistant coach] Matty Boyd and the centre bounce work. He has never coached midfield before and he came into our environment and he is an unbelievably hard worker.
[They’ve got] Brodie Grundy and all the great mids and you get territory and it goes a long way to winning the game. To half-time it was about pressure, really. The only way to get pressure is keeping the ball off the contested marks, mostly. A couple of things like that. We love Pendles. He is ... such a leader and coach on the field for us. He just organises everything and gets everything in-tune. He has this ability to connect others. Lachie Sullivan comes in and plays a role for us, and Scott Pendlebury connects with him all game and he has an impact on the game. He is pretty incredible.

Swans coach Dean Cox spoke to the media post-game.

What did you feel let you down across the night?
The basic fundamentals. Collingwood were cleaner, tougher.
They put enormous pressure – it was really efficient. We couldn’t find our way through it. In the air, they were really predictable. 1-11 contested marks is a pretty telling story. That is an area we have to work on. We have said that to the players – get back on Monday and get to work.

Swans coach Dean Cox.Credit: Getty Images

And what about the pressure that you applied in the second quarter?
Our game swung a lot with what pressure we can put on the opposition. Whether that is defensively, to force them long down the line, and not take marks. If we are in a scramble-type situation to put enormous heat on them, when we did that, they got through us. We ramped up and started to get ascendancy back at the back end of the second, but couldn’t do it long enough.

It seemed like you struggled with their defensive set-up to work your way through that. What can you do to rectify that?
I thought some of our decisions and executions weren’t at the level it needed to be. When we go inside-50 to score we were about 32 per cent inside-50 to their low 50’s. In the second quarter, for the earlier part of that, they were at about 80 per cent. We understand that, first of all, we need to defend our 50 better than when we did. When we go forward, we play to our principles – that allows us to have more efficiency when we do go inside.

You said you have been building a little bit for the last couple of weeks. Are you at that point, given the unavailability of players ... hang in there for the next few weeks?
Yeah, it is probably a little step backwards. One thing we want to pride ourselves on [is] to be always in the contest and the chance to give ourselves every opportunity to win a game of footy.
The players that represent the club, no matter what the name tag suggests – we need to play our way and play to a system that requires us to give ourselves the best chance. Some of the kids are learning their way through that. Some of our experienced players need to help them more through that by performing the way that we know that they have in the past.

Has that been put to them – on the leaders to stand up more?
Sure. I think that was the first part. Anyone sort of goes to the leaders and senior players. You can’t be relying on the kids to get it done. They have to lead the right way, and that starts Monday when we get back training.

Joel Amartey’s injury – what is the status there?
He will have scans on, obviously, his hamstring. The severity we need to find out. That wasn’t certainly ideal. He has been pretty consistent for us. [It’s] very unfortunate for him that he has another soft tissue... We have to work through and support him.

How much of a run does Logan McDonald need to get?
We have a VFL bye this week. They will have a big session back home. One game last week and this one – we will have to discuss that when we get back earlier in the week, what it looks like ahead of the ball as well.

Magpie Ned Long and Swan Chad Warner do battle.Credit: AFL Photos

Magpies coach Craig McRae saw the Swans in full-flight last week, and he was happy his side denied them from making a similar performance tonight.

The Swans dominated North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium last round and McRae saw it live.

“I went and watched them live last week against North and defending those uncontested chains was really important. If you didn’t defend the ground, you were going to be chasing tail,” McRae told Fox Footy.

“You saw how dangerous they are when they bounce off half-back.

“Our pressure was low, and we saw we had to dial it up, and we did that in the second quarter.”

McRae also praised the midfield work of Ned Long and Steele Sidebottom, with Long getting all his roses.

“Geez he looked good didn’t he?” McRae said.

“He really trained well, and it’s been hard to keep him as the sub and he showed tonight he won’t be the sub too often now.

“He is ferocious around the ball. If he isn’t winning the contest or getting the ball back, then his pressure has been amazing for us.

“Tonight he went to another level.”

Collingwood made it 10 wins in a row in South Australia with tonight’s victory, but they still have some work to do to catch Hawthorn’s record of 19 in a row in Tasmania.

Magpie Brody Mihocek celebrates a goal.Credit: AFL Photos

Magpies forward Brody Mihocek has revealed body soreness that fires him up for matches.

The Magpies premiership forward kicked three goals and made some strong contributions in the win over Sydney.

When asked by former coach Nathan Buckley if he still bounced back well from the bumps and bruises of footy, he spoke honestly.

“No not really – I battled through, going in sore gets me more fired up than feeling good,” Mihocek told Fox Footy.

“If I’m that little bit sore, it makes me not think of those other things and just chase the ball.”

Mihocek also praised the fit of new recruit Tim Membrey, who kicked a goal and took some telling marks.

“He’s working well with us – Dan [McStay] and I are so happy to have him down there, he comes straight into the forward line and he’s team-first, which is what we are all about down there,” Mihocek told Fox Footy.

Darcy Cameron, pictured here coming up against former Collingwood star Brodie Grundy, finally recorded his first win over his old team, Sydney.Credit: Getty Images

Collingwood’s supremacy in this game was significantly greater than the margin of 31 points.

They were far better behind the ball and in attack, where Jamie Elliott, Bobby Hill and Brody Mihocek each booted three goals, and Dan McStay provided the kind of tall target that the Swans lacked, even though Hayden McLean booted three goals.

Isaac Heeney was threatening throughout, without taking charge. Steele Sidebottom was close to best afield, in another age-defiant effort, while Isaac Quaynor and Brayden Maynard were both defensively excellent and able to launch effective counter-attacks.

Nick Daicos, who had James Jordon applying a reasonably effective tag for maybe a half, managed to get away in the second half, finishing with 34 disposals, while Ned Long had surely the standout game of his career to date (29 disposals, eight clearances, 17 contested possessions).

The Pies will travel to the Gabba for a 2023 grand final reunion/rematch, in what will be a challenge for them – but on this performance, sans Jordan De Goey, Dan Houston and Lachie Schultz, the same could be said of the Lions.

Nick Daicos had a match-leading 34 touches.Credit: AFL Photos

Collingwood were depleted by injury and suspension when Jordan DeGoey, Lachie Schultz and Dan Houston were sidelined ahead of this match.

Fortunately for the Pies, they faced an opponent who has shown their Medicare card more often than most in 2025 with Errol Gulden, Tom Papley and Callum Mills the biggest names of the eight players missing from last year’s grand final side.

It gave the Magpies confidence they could defeat Sydney to make it three-from-three from Gather Rounds, and a perfect 10 out of their past 10 at the Adelaide Oval. And they began with a certain arrogance – using their speed at ground level to create opportunities before building the pressure to a level Sydney got nowhere near to matching.

The Pies were simply better and stronger for longer to win comfortably by 31 points. Such was Collingwood’s belief in their front half game, they initially pushed too high and left doors open for Sydney to score, which they did with three of the first four goals of the game.

Brayden Maynard, pictured here laying a tackle on Braeden Campbell with teammate Lachlan Sullivan, had a standout game.Credit: AFL Photos

But all that did was snap the experienced Magpies into action, aware – due to their dominance around the ball – they only needed to stifle Sydney’s ball movement to win the game.

Like a python, they began to strangle their prey, with the Swans unable to match the Magpies’ pressure and intensity.

Sydney began to force the issue and made mistakes, which led to Collingwood scores.

Occasionally they would open the Magpies up, but it was rare. The ball either lived in Collingwood’s forward half or was repelled by an intercept mark or spoil – a dominance accentuated when Joel Amartey hurt his hamstring just before half-time.

As the Magpies pressed home their advantage during the third quarter, Sydney moved Tom McCartin forward in a desperate attempt to win a contest inside 50, but it made no difference.

Collingwood did it without Nick Daicos making as much of an impact as usual, with James Jordon arriving, as expected, with his clamps in hand. The superstar onballer still worked hard to finish with 34 disposals.

Brayden Maynard and Beau McCreery played their best games for the season, while Steele Sidebottom and Darcy Cameron continued their outstanding early season form.

Ned Long was a revelation in the middle after being the sub against Carlton a week earlier, and is beginning to establish himself as a permanent member of the midfield.

In the end – having won their past six matches at Adelaide Oval by a goal or less – they won comfortably, having 29 scores from just 55 inside-50 entries. By contrast Sydney ran into dead-ends and one-way streets as though they were tourists driving around harbour town.

The Swans only managed 18 scoring shots from their 56 entries and their season is hanging by a thread as they wait for reinforcements. Collingwood, meanwhile, head to Brisbane to take on the Lions on Thursday night in good shape with four wins from five matches, while the Swans play Port Adelaide in a preliminary final rematch that sees both sides in strife so far in 2025.

Ned Long of the Magpies is tackled by Caiden Cleary of the Swans.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Magpies midfielder Ned Long is a man on a mission and he sounded like it during a post-game chat with Fox Footy.

Long had 29 disposals and nine clearances in a breakout game for the former Hawthorn player with his contested possessions a highlight in an impressive Magpies win.

“I always had a bit of belief but didn’t envisage this – I have great experience around me and a great team around, and they make it easy for me,” Long told Fox Footy.

“I’m surrounded by elite players and elite experience.

“The coaches and players have a lot of belief in me and value what I do – all their support really helps.”