August 02, 2010

Collingwood vs Carlton...

COLLINGWOOD–CARLTON games are normally a pleasure to watch. It is undoubtedly the greatest rivalry in footy. This match was a pleasure to watch, but not the sort of pleasure you get from a hard fought contest, where both teams go hard at the ball and the ball bounces from one end to the other, and you watch in delight as both teams have a goal-for-goal sequence. The interest in this game was Collingwood, and the pleasure of watching Carlton being flogged. Unfortunately, the end result of 48 points didn’t necessarily show how well Collingwood played. Collingwood were better than they were on the previous Saturday afternoon against Richmond.
Unbelievably, the Blues kicked two out of the first three goals, but even then, didn’t look the better side. Nathan Brown, replacing Presti in the team, held on to the arm of Shaun Hampson just after the start of play and the improving Carlton big man caressed the ball through the sticks. Leon Davis, in game 200, took a one-handed grab from a quick Swan clearance, and drilled through the goal. Cloke got his first of five first-half behinds, and Judd set up Grigg at the other end for the Blues’ second, the only good thing the Carlton champ did all day. That was Carlton’s only score until a quarter and a half later, and during that period they didn’t even look like scoring. Didak simply put the ball on his boot and it sailed through the sticks, to put Collingwood in front, one more goal from Swan followed, giving the Pies a 3.5 to 2.0 lead at quarter time. The margin should’ve been about six goals after the dominance that the Pies displayed.
The second quarter begun and the Pies started to put the goals on the board. Dawes took one at the tip of the goal square, from a fantastic pass by Swan. Dane Swan, after racking up eight disposals in the first term, had 15 at the two-minute mark of the second term, unbelievably. He didn’t sustain that dominance to such a level for the rest of the match, but he had plenty of helpers. Pendlebury had 12 in the second term and was using it well. Dawes kicked his second, as did Davis in quick succession. Cloke kicked his fourth behind, but his value on the ground extended far more than his kicking. Beams snapped a goal; Wellingham (who had 19 possessions in the first half, but unfortunately came off injured after that) got a touch on a ball that was originally kicked by Leigh Brown. The margin was out to seven goals. It was 51 points when Garlett snapped a lucky behind for Carlton’s only score of the second quarter. Collingwood just had a mass of players who were giving repeated efforts and winning the ball, Pendlebury, Thomas, Johnson, Swan, Beams, Blair and O’Brien to name a few.
It didn’t improve for the Blues in the third quarter. Beams is gifted a goal from an errant kick in, the Pies added a few behinds and Macaffer set up a goal for Davis with a clever kick. Finally, the Blues linked up well and Fisher took a contested mark in the fifty, and nailed the goal. Sizeable gaps in the 77,000 strong crowd had already emerged. The Pies led by an even 10 goals at three quarter time, but it should’ve been 100.
Betts brought the margin back to 55 in the opening minutes of the final quarter, before Cloke took another mark and finally kicked his first from outside fifty. Cloke added another goal, before the highlight of the match occurred. Didak, on the same flank as Buddy failed the torp, connected one beautifully which sailed high through the sticks from 65 out. The crowd roared, and the margin was out to 73. Could they extend it to 100? No, they couldn’t. Carlton got five goals, mostly lucky ones, in a row, to add some respectability on the score sheet. Walker’s thrust forward paid off and he kicked two of these. Simpson kicked one in a final quarter where he collected 14 possessions. But that mattered little. The margin was amazingly whittled down to only 42 points. The Pies needed one more goal to finish them off, and it came, a ripper from Beams, his third. The final siren sounded, a 48-point win for the Pies, one that should’ve been double that, it was a much more dominant display than their 53 point win over the Blues earlier in the season.
For the third consecutive Saturday afternoon, it was a cakewalk for the rampant Magpies. There were half a dozen Collingwood players who deserved to be best on ground. Travis Cloke, despite his inaccurate kicking, was a real positive for the Pies. Out of his 12 marks, eight were contested. The Pies had 19 marks inside the 50 to Carlton’s five. Collingwood’s defensive unit were rock-solid. Nathan Brown filled the void for Presti superbly; Maxwell, O’Brien and Thomas provided plenty of run off half back. As for Carlton, they were deplorable; changes need to be made in their line-up. Judd wasn’t himself, only five kicks before he came off with that shoulder injury late in the game. Now, we turn our attention to Geelong  and Collingwood next Saturday night. Judging by Collingwood’s form over the past month, they will be hard to stop.

Collingwood 3.5 9.9 11.14 15.15 (105)
Carlton 2.0 2.1 3.2 9.3 (57)
GOALS
Collingwood: Beams 3, Davis 3, Cloke 2, Didak 2, Dawes 2, Swan, Wellingham, Pendlebury.
Carlton: Hampson 2, Walker 2, Simpson, Johnson, Fisher, Grigg, Betts.
BEST
Collingwood: Pendlebury, Cloke, Thomas, Swan, Beams, Ball, Didak, Reid, N Brown, O’Brien, Davis, Maxwell.
Carlton: Simpson, Warnock, Hampson.
Umpires: Stevic, Meredith, Pannell.   
Crowd: 76,980 at the MCG.
My Votes: 3. Scott Pendlebury (COLL), 2. Travis Cloke (COLL), 1. Dale Thomas (COLL).

• Collingwood's Leon Davis marks in his200th game for Collingwood. Photo by David Callow. The Slattery Media Group.

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