‘Going to be a big story’: Pies exposed in ruck as ‘uncharacteristic’ blunders costly

Collingwood’s depleted ruck stocks were exposed by the Brisbane Lions as Oscar McInerney took full advantage in his side’s blistering win.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 06: Magpies leave the field after losing the round four AFL match between Brisbane Lions and Collingwood Magpies at The Gabba, on April 06, 2023, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

Collingwood’s depleted ruck stocks were exposed by the Brisbane Lions as Oscar McInerney took full advantage in his side’s blistering 33-point win at the Gabba on Thursday night.

McInerney monstered the Magpies’ Dan McStay-Ash Johnson makeshift ruck tandem, with the Lions big man getting to 70 contests and racking up 43 hit-outs, 13 of which were to advantage, 11 clearances and 18 disposals.

Of course, Collingwood will be without its two first-choice ruckman for a lengthy period after both Darcy Cameron (knee) and Mason Cox (hematoma) were stuck down with injury last week, forcing the club to get creative in the position.

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But it was a weak spot for the Pies in Thursday’s game as McInerney had his way with McStay and Johnson all night.

According to Swamp, McInerney became just the seventh player in AFL history to record 40-plus hit-outs and 10-plus clearances in a game, joining Brodie Grundy (has done it four times) Aaron Sandilands, Nic Naitanui, Jarrod Witts (all twice), Max Gawn and Sean Darcy.

McInerney has a big night in the ruck (Photo by Chris Hyde/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

“I’ve got the simplest role in footy and that’s just make a contest,” McInerney told Channel 7 post-match.

“I don’t have any good skills, so (I) just create a contest for the little fellas. We’ve got blokes like Charlie Cameron and Zac Bailey, they can get after it.

“They’re just an incredible stoppage side. We’ve seen their numbers all year. Sometimes you’ve just got to play what’s in front of you.”

Despite McInerney’s dominance on the night, Collingwood coach Craig McRae doesn’t believe it was the overruling reason why his side suffered its first loss of 2023, pointing to it scoring more from stoppage than the Lions even though Brisbane won the clearance battle 46-37.

But McRae noted the ruck situation was still going to hurt them moving forward.

“In terms of losing territory, it’s always a cost. It’s something we’ll have to really work through in the next period,” McRae said post-match.

“We’ve got what we’ve got and we just have to work through it ... I don’t think there’s a magic solution to it. We’re going to have to work through it and get better at what we do.

“Clearances weren’t a huge cost, it was only a half dozen here or there. We won the scoring battle from stoppage, which we thought, if we could manage that at the start of the game, we’d be OK. That was always a threat.

“It’s the first real game we’ve had of it and I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from it.”

McRae lamented three “uncharacteristic” free kicks his side gave away in a decisive second quarter that Brisbane won by 35 points as the Magpies got repeatedly caught out for breaching the AFL’s 6-6-6 centre bounce set-up rule.

Beatable. Photo by Chris Hyde/AFL Photos/via Getty Images.

“Clearly we gave away some uncharacteristic free kicks from our centre bounces not being organised. It’s something we want to pride ourselves on,” the Collingwood coach said.

“There’s not a stat about being connected, but that’s something we want to be AFL No. 1 at – and we weren’t – I challenged the guys at half-time around what that looked like.

“You can’t give a team like Brisbane on their home deck territory, and we gave them gifts for free kicks at centre bounces that resulted in us having to struggle to get the ball out of there.

“There’s no excuses to that, that’s within our control. To give up three (free kicks) really quickly, it just shows how disconnected we were for that part of the game.”

Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy that even though the Lions didn’t maximise scores from their clearance domination, “it allowed them to control territory a bit better”.

“They weren’t defending all the time, they had less pressure on their back six and they were able to play the ball in their forward half and get repeat stoppages,” he said.

Meanwhile three-time Coleman medallist Matthew Lloyd suggested it can be “hard” for midfielders to rove to a makeshift ruckman and questioned how much the Magpies’ ruck woes would be a factor moving forward.

“I think that is going to be a big story this week – can they scrounge enough wins without Mason Cox and Darcy Cameron there?” Lloyd posed on 3AW.

Magpies legend Tony Shaw thinks McInerney’s supremacy was ultimately the “difference”.

“If you tap the ball, you’re a chance, but when he was clear in the contest and then grabbing it and kicking it forward, you become like another midfielder,” Shaw said on 3AW.

“Without that player who’s competitive in that area, I just thought they (Collingwood) played a bit like Hollywood – they got carried away with the game plan in a slippery night.

“Forwards just started to fly for everything, they lost their structure and thought they wanted to get involved individually.

“They were due for a game where maybe it just didn’t work for them.”

Unfortunately for Collingwood, it’ll have to play without a recognised ruckman for the foreseeable future.

As explained by Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph on Fox Footy, Cox is still weeks away from returning, while Cameron remains a ways off.

“Mason Cox will have scans in the days after Gather Round (next weekend) to see how he’s bleeding from the spleen has recovered,” Ralph said. “He may need more rest or they might be able to ramp him up again, but he’s probably still a month away.

“We know Darcy Cameron potentially at best would be six weeks away. They’re going to have to get on that ruck picture with the way they were decimated.”

Originally published as ‘Going to be a big story’: Pies exposed in ruck as ‘uncharacteristic’ blunders costly