AFL Collingwood vs Geelong: Magpies return to form as Jack Ginnivan pushes case to play finals
Jack Ginnivan took his chance and now Collingwood must play him in the finals, while Tom Mitchell eased the pressure on his own form with a strong display.
Collingwood inside mid Tom Mitchell says he hasn’t been fazed by external question marks over his recent form as he and the Magpies’ midfield rediscovered the pressure DNA that has made them an almost irresistible force for most of this season.
Mitchell wasn’t the only Magpie midfielder to be feeling the pressure after the club’s engine room struggled against Carlton and Hawthorn in the past fortnight,
But a week-long focus of becoming the hunters again after being outhunted in recent weeks came to fruition as Mitchell and the Magpies recorded a pressure rating of 193 - which was over 200 for most of the night before a last term drop off - against Geelong.
“It is a tough competition, isn’t it,” Mitchell said after his return to form on Friday night.
“It is hard to stay up for every game of the season. We have had a dip in form the last couple of weeks but I felt we got back to our best - hunting the ball and hunting the opposition. They are a good side, we had to play right until the last minute and we got a good result.”
Asked about his own recent form which saw him subbed out last week and had Fox Footy’s David King last week suggesting a big lift was needed after a strong first half of the season, Mitchell said there would always be ebbs and flows in a players’ form given the length of the season.
“It’s not about the individual; it’s about the team,” he said after the Magpies’ eight-point win over Geelong on Friday night. “I am just happy to play my part for the team.
“There are guys who have dips in form and spikes in form … you know my first 16 weeks were pretty strong and then the last few weeks I have been a bit quieter.
“But as I said, it’s not about the individual. It was about the result we needed as a team.
“We want to do it as a collective and share the load, some guys will play well one week and others might just play their role. We share the responsibility.
“It was great fun (against Geelong). We felt like it was back to our type of football, to our DNA and you could feel the crowd get behind us.”
Mitchell’s 24 disposals - 16 of which were contested - was his best disposal count return since the Magpies’ Round 17 win over the Bulldogs.
It was far more reflective of his season as a whole which has been exactly what Collingwood needed in terms of midfield grunt.
His first season at the Magpies has put the 30-year-old in prime position to chase his first AFL flag.
He played in the Swans’ loss to the Bulldogs in the 2016 grand final. He hasn’t played in a final since his second year at the Hawks in 2018 and is looking forward to being a part of September again.
WHY GINNI MUST PLAY
Collingwood made Jack Ginnivan wait 70 days between AFL matches, but the energised small forward showed on Friday night why he must be a part of the Magpies’ September charge.
He also showed that a Ginnivan-Bobby Hill double act in attack can work and it might be the spark that the Magpies need in the finals.
Ginnivan didn’t kick a goal, but it was his capacity to light a fuse of energy and to create scoring opportunities which shone under the bright lights.
He had five scoring involvements in his 10-disposal game to the point where you felt something was going to happen whenever he went near the ball.
It looked a more selfless Ginnivan too, as he told the club’s website: “Probably last year I was in the side to kick goals but this year I’m trying to pass off and do different things to improve my game.”
This opportunity came off the back of hard work on the training track, rather than exceptional form in the VFL, but coach Craig McRae admitted he had brought the energy that the Magpies had been missing in recent weeks.
So much so that he referenced Ginnivan in his post-match assessment with the players.
“I made mention of him post-game around being hungry and waiting for chances,” McRae said. “You’re sitting in the slips for 90 overs and just waiting for that nick to come, then you’ve got to grab it. I thought he showed everyone that his best is well and truly in our team.”
“You see outcome, we see process, and the process for six weeks he has been our best trainer. Of 44 guys, he is our best trainer; a hungry kid waiting for a chance.
“He has had to wait longer than others; I thought if we picked him before (Friday night) we were picking him on last year’s form; I think in the last few weeks he has produced levels of footy that warranted selection tonight.”
Ginnivan hadn’t played since June 3 against West Coast, but he and Hill combined to provide plenty of spirit and energy in a Magpies’ forward attack that seemed to hum along much better than recent weeks.
Brody Mihocek’s five goals were a welcome return to form, given he had only kicked two in his previous five games, while Dan McStay, Jeremy Howe, Jamie Elliott and Beau McCreery each kicked two goals in the win.
REST UP PIES
The Magpies have largely refrained from resting players at the back end of the season, but given their place on the ladder, the next few weeks will provide the perfect opportunity to give a couple of sore bodies a spell.
The Magpies will still want to keep on winning against Brisbane and Essendon in the next fortnight, but they will also have an eye on September.
Jordan De Goey looked sore but played on against the Cats and will be monitored ahead of the Lions on Friday night.
John Noble hasn’t missed a game in his time at the club and could also be looking for a rest, given he rolled his ankle.
Collingwood’s depth is being challenged a little at the moment given the injuries to Nick Daicos, Darcy Moore and Steele Sidebottom, but Craig McRae’s team has played itself into a ladder position of strength two games out from the finals.
Resting up a few sore bodies against either the Lions or the Bombers won’t hurt, as the Magpies are a systems-based team capable of winning those games anyway.
GIVE HIM A BLAZER
Memo All-Australian selectors … if there was any doubt before Friday night about who Errol Gulden’s wing partner was going to be this year, surely it’s over now.
Josh Daicos must be a lock for the 2023 All-Australian side after a brilliant 38-disposal performance to help lift Collingwood to a much needed victory against Geelong.
That performance only franked what has already been an exceptional season for the 24-year-old, who recently signed a new deal to stay with the club for the next six seasons.
Given the pressure of the week with his brother Nick being sidelined for six weeks, Josh emerged as the Magpies’ best player on Friday night with a strong performance across the wing that helped to set up the club’s much-needed confidence booster.
He is without doubt one of the cleanest kicks in the competition. His 38 touches came at an elite 82 per cent disposal efficiency and with 564 metres gained and eight score involvements.
What’s your jacket size, Josh?
The Daicos’ siblings could be the first All-Australian siblings in the same side since the Cornes brothers in 2007.
HOWE THE SWINGMAN
Craig McRae reckons Jeremy Howe can be an unpredictable weapon for Collingwood heading into September.
Opposition teams won’t know whether to plan for Howe the defender or Howe the forward.
It will be on a needs basis for the Magpies, but that ability to be able to switch him to either end of the ground depending on circumstance will be challenging for some teams.
He played forward and kicked two goals against the Cats as McRae resisted the temptation to send him back after Darcy Moore was injured, going with Billy Frampton instead.
But Howe could potentially go back against the Lions on Friday night, at least until Moore returns.
“We are not sure what is happening with Darcy so we will have to weigh that up whether we need him down back,” McRae said.
“He is a nice weapon to have. We can move him forward and back.”
JEZ TO BREAK THE TOM STREAK
Jeremy Cameron’s seven goal haul - even if two of them were controversial and drew the ire of Collingwood supporters - looks to have broken one of footy’s great streaks.
Tom Hawkins, who is out injured at the moment, has won Geelong’s leading goalkicker award for 11 consecutive seasons.
Incredibly, the Cats veteran has won the award from 2012 to 2022, and looked to be well placed to make it 13 in a row this season before a hamstring injury sidelined him.
He led Cameron by a goal going into this round, but Cameron’s seven goals now takes him to 53, which is six ahead of Hawkins.
With only two games left of the home-and-away season, with finals still a possibility despite Friday’s loss, Cameron is well placed to break the Hawkins’ run of goalkicking awards.
The AFL acknowledged early on Saturday that the final quarter goal to Cameron was an error and should have been called out of bounds, but it backed the boundary umpire on Cameron’s third quarter mark, which seems a strange call to anyone who was there.
And how about Chris Scott’s edgy post-match press conference ... It made for fascinating viewing.
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