Collingwood’s Nathan Brown says Anzac Day clash against Essendon is ‘season defining’
COLLINGWOOD defender Nathan Brown says Monday’s Anzac Day clash against Essendon is “season defining” for the struggling Magpies.
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COLLINGWOOD defender Nathan Brown says Monday’s Anzac Day clash against Essendon is “season defining” for the struggling Magpies.
After slumping to a 1-3 start to the season courtesy of shock losses to Melbourne and St Kilda in succession, the Magpies are under pressure to respond against the Bombers.
And at Round 5 Brown, who is member of Collingwood’s leadership group, says it’s time the group stood up.
“It’s a huge game for us — it’s early on in the season but it is season defining,” Brown said.
“We haven’t been happy with where we’ve been over the last month and a half so it’s a huge game in all respects for us.”
Captain Scott Pendlebury earlier this week urged his teammates to treat Monday’s clash as a “mini-final”, given it’s the biggest stage the Pies have played on in two years after missing finals in 2014 and 2015.
Brown says the focus has been mostly on what the team can do to get its season back on track after an impressive pre-season campaign that had some tipping the Pies to challenge for a top four spot.
“We’re not hiding from the fact that that’s what’s going on — we need more intensity, more hardness at the contest, especially the stuff off ball,” Brown told SEN on Thursday morning.
“Our focus is really clear and we know what to do, it’s up to the players on the weekend in the two hours that we go out there to get the job done and really take ownership of that.
“Most teams would be the same, you implement a game plan and you train all pre-season in the hope that you trust that what you give and when your team is running at its best, you can take on anyone.
But that doesn’t mean they’re taking an undermanned Essendon lightly.
“There will be a lot of focus definitely on us as a team this week (but) we’re definitely not discounting Essendon at all, we’re not in a position to do that,” Brown said.
“Watching Essendon over the last month, they’ve been fantastic. Their motivation and desire is up there with the best of teams so we’ll have to match it and go beyond that if we’re going to win on Monday.”
While the spotlight has shone brightly on coach Nathan Buckley and Collingwood as a team, it has also honed in on out-of-form forward Travis Cloke.
Cloke hopes to line up on Anzac Day and prove his doubters wrong but Brown says it’s also up to his teammates to bring him into the game.
“You’ve got to help each other out there on the field — there are no individuals, you can’t go in within yourself,” he said.
“If you can’t get into the game then you have to bring someone else into the game so for us to focus on Clokey’s strengths is highly important for us. It helps the whole balance of the side.
“We’re not going to do anything specifically with Clokey this week we haven’t done over the last month. He’s working very hard at trying to get his game back on track.
“It’s up to him on game day to go out there to get back in form and get everyone involved and in return teammates get him involved as well.”
Originally published as Collingwood’s Nathan Brown says Anzac Day clash against Essendon is ‘season defining’
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