After our season opening effort against the Bulldogs, you would have been hard pressed to find any reason for complaint. While the Bulldogs claimed pre-season honours and assumed the position of early premiership favourites, Collingwood prepared for the season proper by doing the rural rounds in the NAB Challenge system. What resulted was a primed Collingwood team that surprised even its own supporters with an awesome performance that saw them defeat the Bulldogs by six goals at Etihad Stadium, a ground that traditionally favours the Bulldogs style of football.
Understandably, Collingwood fans were on a high during the week but with Melbourne next on the agenda there were also some concerned undertones that gained momentum as the match approached. As Collingwood supporters, we’ve seen it all and know never to take anything for granted, but even I confess that I went into today’s match against Melbourne feeling rightfully confident. In fact, despite history, I’m embarrassed to admit that I went into today’s game with percentage in mind.
Who could blame me though? Last week we saw a Collingwood side put another contender to the sword in emphatic fashion. Our small forwards were freed up from midfield duties with the arrival of Luke Ball and the improvement of Wellingham, allowing them to run amok with Didak, Davis and Medhurst contributing 11 goals. Dane Swan looked ominous, amassing 30+ disposals and kicking three goals of his own whilst Shaw, O’Brien and Maxwell controlled the game from the back half.
What was most pleasing was the sustained ferocity towards the ball. The Bulldogs are a quality outfit renowned for their ball movement and use, yet the pressure that we applied made them look unsure and messy for periods throughout the match and it was in these periods where we made them pay dearly.
Less than a week later and simply put; Collingwood have been the benefactors of a jail break, one that was aided by its opposition’s inexperience and some questionable umpiring.
There is a football adage which states that good teams win even when they play poorly, but I’m struggling to apply it to the Collingwood side who took the park today. Melbourne – whilst still committing trademark errors – were terrific in their attack on the contest and could not be accused of shirking the issue. Collingwood on the other hand appeared complacent and inept for large portions of the game, with many senior players offering up sub-par efforts repeatedly throughout the course of the match.
Questions have to be asked of Travis Cloke after he was well held by Joel Macdonald, a player who stands 8cm shorter and 13kg lighter than Travis. Similarly, John Anthony struggled to have an impact once again whilst our smalls who were so dangerous last week contributed very little. Leon Davis at least showed a preparedness to work hard at stages, a contrast to Didak who played what was quite frankly a selfish brand of football for the entire four quarters. Didak’s ability has never been in question, but too often he fails to meet expectations defensively and unfortunately on days like today it’s just cheap and cringe worthy.
Darren Jolly failed to fire for the second week in a row, whilst Luke Ball despite working hard in the clenches was unable to offer much in general play as he clearly struggled with his kicking. Most knew that kicking wasn’t Ball’s strong point and it’s difficult to read too much into today’s efforts given that our ball movement was scrappy in general. Usually our strongest point, our defence broke down today with Heath Shaw being the most notable of players to lower his colours.
Aside from the four points – which we should accept sheepishly – the only other silver lining would be the performance of Dayne Beams. On a day where we failed to fire in just about every position, Beams was the only player to do anything convincingly. He won the hard ball consistently and used it well, playing direct and making things happen more often than not. After missing out on round one due to disciplinary reasons and only getting a look in after the late withdrawal of Shane O’Bree, Beams led the way and can be rightfully credited with getting us over the line.
It was a forgettable day for Collingwood and with the Saints on the horizon, we’ll have to hit the drawing board and attempt to recapture our round one form during the week if we’re to stand any sort of chance. Regardless of the scoreboard, Collingwood’s effort today didn’t fall into the realm that the adage I mentioned earlier encompasses. Throughout the course of the game, we got the rub of the green with the umpires and still only escaped by the barest of margins when Ricky Petterd couldn’t quite hang on to a mark in the dying seconds. We may have walked away with the victory today, but we certainly didn’t deserve it.
