Carlton’s failings under Michael Voss highlighted further by Collingwood’s plan and execution
Carlton and Collingwood entered the season seemingly on par as premiership contenders. Four months later, as damning vision shows, they couldn’t be further apart on the field.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A flailing Carlton has actually done a lot right on field this year, they just don’t do it to the standard of ladder leader Collingwood.
Whether it is a positive or a negative for Carlton coach Michael Voss, plenty of Carlton’s stat sheet comes up green this year yet they continue to fall over in the same area.
The Blues have continued to face plant when it comes to the finish line of kicking goals.
And that is one area where Collingwood’s best practice play shines.
For two teams that entered the season seemingly on par as premiership contenders, they have gone in opposite directions, largely because of a lack of Carlton class.
Put simply, the Blues have more hackers than the Russian army when it comes to kicking the ball inside-50, while Collingwood forwards spend more time in space than Darth Vader.
Carlton spent much of its time over the bye working to stretch the ground and create more avenues to hit forwards in space, but it hasn’t paid off yet.
That is one factor the Pies nail, with Collingwood ranked second in the league for scoring inside-50, scoring from 49 per cent of entries.
The Blues rank dead last, scoring 41 per cent of the time.
As Blues footy boss Brad Lloyd noted last week: “the scoring hasn’t been there”.
For Carlton to cause a monumental upset on Friday night and topple arch rivals Collingwood, the Blues will both have to score better and stop the Pies’ efficiency.
Collingwood’s defence and its efficiency are its two best attributes, and while the Blues generally win more clearances than their opposition, and the Pies don’t, the Pies score more from stoppages.
Beyond the tactics, former Adelaide head coach and ex-Collingwood assistant Brenton Sanderson sees the Pies as excellent runners, and the Blues as below-par in a footrace.
Despite Collingwood’s older age, Sanderson noted the Pies got to the right spots in a scrappy win over West Coast last week.
“Even when they were playing poorly it felt like wherever the ball went, Collingwood were outnumbering West Coast,” he told SEN.
“They have got great leg speed so that is No.1.”
The Blues don’t stack up, according to the ex-coach.
“At the moment they can’t run with the top sides consistently, they just look a bit slow against the top sides when they move the ball coast to coast,” Sanderson said.
“There is a bit of a blueprint to beating Carlton, you have to make Carlton run.”
These are the examples of where Carlton is falling over.
Vision is with thanks to Fox Footy and Kayo, who will cover the clash between Carlton and Collingwood live on Kayo Sports on Friday night.
FILM ROOM EXAMPLES
SCORING IN TRANSITION
The Blues get from one end to the other the second most in the competition but can’t score. In this example, Jacob Weitering rushes a kick to a contest from the backline, but Tom De Koning wins it and Patrick Cripps is away.
Cripps charges up the wing, takes a bounce and ignores a wide open handball to Ollie Hollands on the inside. Instead, Cripps kicks high to a contest inside-50 and GWS sweeps the ball away.
As Cripps ran forward, Harry McKay led right into the back of a teammate and Corey Durdin ran into the space that could have been a Lewis Young one-on-one.
This crisp Collingwood play is a great example of why the Pies are the opposite when running the ball from defence.
In this goal against Hawthorn, Jeremy Howe intercept marks and instead of taking his time, goes immediately as Will Hoskin-Elliott breaks up the middle. The Pies don’t always go quick, but when they do they can be deadly. Hoskin-Elliott has time to fumble a mark and still have Pat Lipinski running past. That is a handball that Cripps didn’t give.
Lipinski looks up and Jamie Elliott has a paddock to lead into, giving a simple hit-up kick and the forward converts. The Pies actually don’t transition the ball that well all the time and rank 13th for moving from defensive 50 to forward 50, but score when they get there, unlike the Blues.
WATCH BOTH PASSAGES OF PLAY IN FULL BELOW
REPEAT INSIDE-50S
Again, Carlton is pretty good at the system stuff when it comes to keeping the ball in the front half. The Blues and Pies are equal with 22.3 intercepts in the forward half per game, the second best in the league. But Collingwood scores 31.5 points from those intercepts each game, ranked second, and Carlton scores 21.2, ranked 13th.
This intercept from Weitering actually goes just past halfway, but it’s a good example of Carlton going blind into attack.
The defender makes a good call to go short to George Hewett, who has plenty of time and momentum to pick a target in attack. There is some space inside-50 for a lead, but the Carlton forwards don’t work together and Hewett just kicks high to Jesse Motlop with two defenders on him. Hard to score from that.
On the flip side, the Magpies forwards work together beautifully in this intercept off a James Sicily kick out.
The ball is launched long and wide by Sicily and Darcy Cameron wins the ground ball, setting up Lipinski to run towards attack. Bobby Hill is in the way and knows it, dragging his opponent to the boundary, and a massive hole opens up for Brody Mihocek to lead into. Easy hit up, easy mark, and Mihocek converts.
WATCH BOTH PASSAGES OF PLAY IN FULL BELOW
SCORING FROM CLEARANCES
In the simple numbers, Carlton still can dominate clearances. The Blues rank No.1 for contested ball and sixth for clearance differential. In the last six weeks, the Pies rank 16th and 15th in those stats. Across the season, Collingwood ranks 12th for clearances but scores more than Carlton, 33 points to 31.1 each per game.
The vision here are two examples of how not to and how to make the most of clearances.
First, Cripps gets the ball to Cerra in a great position and he can run towards the attacking 50. The Blues forwards space out well considering the Eagles have a spare defender, but Cerra’s left foot kick, when under little pressure, is a shocker. It bounces in front of Mitch McGovern and dribbles out of bounds.
Collingwood and Hill catch Geelong out in this stoppage goal. Hill had broken forward from a ball just moments before, and does it again, spitting forward when he sees Steele Sidebottom win a ground ball.
It’s not perfect, with Lachie Schultz under pressure and forced to handball forward blindly. But Hill is waiting unmanned inside 50 for a clever tap on from Tim Membrey and kicks a goal.
WATCH BOTH PASSAGES OF PLAY IN FULL BELOW
SCORING OFF TURNOVER
Teams predominantly score off turnover in the modern game, and the Blues are below average and the Pies are killers. Carlton averaged 44.5 points from turnovers this year, good for 10th in the league, and Collingwood 57.1, ranked second.
Again, Carlton just can’t execute.
From this example, beginning with a Lachie Fogarty tackle in the middle, the Blues do most of the work right. A cut inboard from Sam Docherty opens the play up for Adam Cerra to handball receive through the middle of the ground. But Carlton’s forward set up is a mess, with no space or isolation.
Cerra picks out a leading Charlie Curnow and kicks to him, but Curnow is outnumbers three to one. And the kick is poor, sailing over his head into the hands of Toby Pink. At the same time Corey Durdin is running by himself in the pocket.
Collingwood nails a similar opportunity against Geelong.
Darcy Moore intercepts and the Pies get in some trouble until Nick Daicos spots a short pass into the centre.
Like Cerra, Isaac Quaynor cruises past at the perfect time for the handball receive. Unlike Cerra, Quaynor looks up and his forwards have created isolation perfectly, with Jamie Elliott on an island with Mark O’Connor, and no other bodies with 20m. The forward does his job and wins the contest.
As Sanderson noted, the Pies are right at the pointy end in terms of creating isolated match-ups in the forward half, something Carlton continually falls down on.
“What we are seeing from Collingwood this year, they have this measured, launch pad type entries that are really destroying teams,” he said.
“They’re getting all of their forwards in low-number contests and they are getting really good match-ups one-v-one.”
WATCH BOTH PASSAGES OF PLAY IN FULL BELOW
Originally published as Carlton’s failings under Michael Voss highlighted further by Collingwood’s plan and execution
Liverpool fans react to AFL star’s Jota act
Liverpool supporters have responded after Jesse Motlop paid tribute to Diogo Jota at the MCG after the striker’s devastating death.
‘Gaping chasm’ pushing Voss to brink of the sack
Collingwood showed Carlton just how far off the pace they are in a thumping win. Josh Barnes writes, Blues fans will go home pondering one glaring issue that could cost Michael Voss his job.
Brownlow contender in MRO strife for Reid whack as Giants win big
The Giants cruised to victory against the lowly Eagles, but one of their biggest stars is set to face some MRO trouble for a whack on Harley Reid. Watch the incident here.
‘Let our club down’: Blues taught lesson by arch rivals
The No. 1 side in footy flexed their muscle against the Blues at the MCG as the pressure on Carlton rises again. Watch the full press conference from Michael Voss here.
The Hawk that’s ‘a pleasure to watch’ for Nathan Buckley
There’s a few things younger players can learn from this gun Hawk. Plus, which Bomber is set to fire when the penny drops? See Nathan Buckley’s full Super Saturday preview here.
Cox responds to potential Daniher return rumours
While Joe Daniher enjoys the European high life, both his former and rumoured future coaches have spoken out about reports linking him to a potential AFL return.