Coll 9.12 20.15 (135) Crows 12.6 14.8 (92) Mark of the Year. Collingwood's message was brutal as it slammed on 11 Goals in the last quarter to defeat Adelaide. BACK TO BACK. Here We Come. Superstar. Leon. Taz COLLINGWOOD was shot. Dead and buried. Kaput.
As Matthew Wright's kick sailed over Nick Maxwell's head minutes into the last term, the Pies were 23 points down and on the way to certain defeat.
Was the empire showing signs of complacency? Were Collingwood's three quarters of showboat football a symptom of something much deeper?
Twenty five minutes, 11 consecutive goals and several premature predictions later, Collingwood waltzed off Etihad Stadium 43 points to the good.
It would be inconceivable and unexplainable except that it was a direct replica of the Pies' last-term blitz of the Western Bulldogs in Round 6.
Just as they poured on eight goals in 15 minutes to crush the Dogs' spirit, yet again an afternoon of worrying signs were erased in one hailstorm of goals.
Maxwell had been caught red-handed in front of goal just moments after a ball comically tumbled between Alan Didak's legs.
This was not to be Collingwood's afternoon.
Then as Adelaide slowed to a crawl, Dale Thomas, Scott Pendlebury and reborn forward Chris Tarrant became the keys to a crushing win.
Thomas won three straight clearances in that critical burst and sealed the victory with a steepling torpedo from 55 metres, but Tarrant's two goals in a second-half cameo were just as eye-catching.
Post-match Mick Malthouse said the Pies had got out of jail, and Tarrant was just as surprised by the turnaround.
''I had a look at the scoreboard after I came off and I thought, 'We are 43 points up here. How did that happen so quickly?' It was quite amazing,'' he said.
''It opened right up. We were four goals down seven or eight minutes into that last quarter. I don't think I have been part of something like that before.''
If the midfield's hard running finally cracked open Adelaide after three quarters of toil, it was Tarrant and Andrew Krakouer who capitalised.
Krakouer turned just seven first-half possessions in starvation corner into a three-goal outing with one extraordinary hanger three deep in a pack.
He climbed high over Dayne Beams and Luke Thompson for a mark Eddie McGuire described as one of the best he had ever seen.
''It was amazing, wasn't it. It was fantastic. He is quite excited about it and so he should be,'' Tarrant said.
''I love seeing that stuff. As a spectacle you can't beat that, someone flying high, and kicking torpedo goals, and that's what I reckon people come to watch.''
If the Pies were in party mode by game's end, this was a ripping contest for more than three quarters.
For Adelaide Scott Thompson led the charge, the Crows midfielder the dominant player on the ground until the dying stages.
With the Crows disciplined in defence, feverish around the ball, then spreading forward hard with relish, the Pies were spooked.
When the Pies did find the energy and poise to push forward they were so off target they at one stage trailed 2.8 to 8.2.
Yet this Collingwood side has a way of self-starting when all seems lost.
Fittingly, it was Tarrant's goal on the run that was the catalyst for that surge, and by his second major - the Pies seventh in a row - he was kissing his Collingwood jumper with joy.
''I was just running on adrenalin out there. It was just one of those moments. I was just having a great time. As a defender you don't get those moments of celebration ... it's true I was probably carrying on a bit like a goose. I think the club means a lot to me and for them to get me back to the club showed a lot of faith and it showed in my little part today to hopefully get the guys up and going.''
4 Talking Points- Sam Edmund
1. By his own standards Alan Didak's form has been largely disappointing this season. But it still raised a few eyebrows to see him named as the substitute on the Collingwood team sheet half an hour before yesterday's game. You'd think it will be a one-off because as they say, form is temporary, class is permanent.
2. In a 12-month period where virtually everything has worked for Collingwood, this was a first half where little did. Three posters, the ball bouncing the wrong way, Trav Cloke fumbling everything, Dane Swan and Andy Krakouer shanking easy chances and Heath Shaw and Chris Dawes invisible. The Pies didn't kick a goal in the second quarter, a are sight indeed.
3. Collingwood were down by seven points at quarter-time, 30 at half-time and 12 at three-quarter time, but guess what? Good sides just know how to win. The Pies, with a rabbid supporter base roaring it home under the roof, finished like a train to kick the last 11 goals. As brave as Adelaide were, you knew the premier would charge.
4. How good was Dale Thomas' torp? The blond mop was phyisically spent as he prepared for a set shot 55m out close to the boundary line in the last quarter. But he then unloaded a barrel that looked like it would scrape the Lockett sign on the way through. With Collingwood having surged in front, it was the ultimate icing on the cake moment.
AS A defender you rarely get a chance to celebrate publicly. No one high-fives the crowd after spoiling a mark, or runs around like a soccer player being an aeroplane for touching a ball on the goal-line. Quite rightly, too, but it means you rarely experience those seconds in a throbbing stadium when all eyes are on you as your team wallows in your excellence.
So Chris Tarrant had been waiting for his moment and it came in the last quarter at Etihad Stadium yesterday, after he had been moved into the forward line for the second half. He had quietly kicked one goal from a loose ball to begin his team's rally, but when he led to Travis Cloke and kicked accurately for a second that put the surging Magpies 20 points clear, he threw his arms out in joy then grabbed the neck of his jumper (pictured below) and tugged at it in an expression of pride and gratitude.
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Collingwood v Adelaide photos
Collingwood's Andrew Krakouer kicks the ball forward against Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. Photo: Getty Images
''It really did [mean a lot to me getting a couple of goals],'' he said. ''It's been a pretty long journey for me … and games like that to me, getting towards the end of my career, when the crowd is like that and you are riding on a bit of a high, you don't get too many moments like that, I don't think, as a player. I was just really enjoying it.
''As a defender you don't get those moments of celebration. It's true I was probably carrying on a bit like a goose I suppose. But the club means a lot to me and for them to get me back to the club, it showed a lot of faith and it showed in my little part today to hopefully get the guys up and going.
''You can show a little bit more flair as a forward but as a backman you do your job, and I am happy with that as well, I really enjoy being a backman, but those moments like that when I have the opportunity to carry on a bit, why not?''
Tarrant II is a different player to Tarrant I. Since he returned to the club from Fremantle this season his job has been to stop goals not kick them; spoil marks not take them. His teammates now call him 'Fist'. But when Tarrant II was asked to reprise the career of Tarrant I, he brought something of his new life with him.
It was half-time and Collingwood was struggling to hold an Adelaide side that was having its best game for the year. Scott Thompson and Brent Reilly were denying Collingwood the ball around the packs and the Crows defenders were rattling the ball out of the Magpie forward line with alarming pace down the middle of the ground.
And kicking accurately. At one point the scoreline read Collingwood 2.8 to Adelaide's 8.2.
Coach Mick Malthouse said that, more troubling, the Collingwood forwards were still expecting to take marks against the powerful Ben Rutten and James Sellar. And while they were dropping them, none of their teammates were there to prevent the ball from being whistled out of the forward line.
So the move was made that helped shift the course of the game. Nick Maxwell, tried as a forward in the absence of Leigh Brown, was moved back in a switch with Tarrant.
''I got quite excited, I must admit, I had a little bit of a tingle through the body,'' Tarrant said.
''I thought, 'Here we go, hopefully I can kick one'. I just tried to create a contest. I felt the boys were a little flat, maybe, and I was trying to get them up a bit.
''I think it certainly helps when the midfield gets on top. They were cutting us through the midfield and making us look second-rate. The backline did a reasonable job to hold up as they did, [because] there was so much space for one-on-ones and that's not usually how we play.
''We had one forward-50 tackle in the first quarter-and-a-half and that's not the way we play.''
The last quarter was the best expression yet of how Collingwood wants to play. Dale Thomas shifted forward and was superb in applying pressure and running to space. Luke Ball in the middle of the ground started to seize the ball from stoppages more often and Sharrod Wellingham took the edge off Thompson's game. Dane Swan and Pendlebury came into the game after sluggish starts.
The query for Collingwood is where its game resides. What Tarrant knows is that when it clicks, as it did in that 11-goal last quarter, it is breathtaking.
Had he been involved in anything like it before?
''No, I haven't. I had a look at the scoreboard after I came off and I thought, 'We are 43 points up here, how did that happen so quickly'? It was quite amazing. It opened right up. We were four goals down seven or eight minutes into that last quarter.''
ON A HIGH
Andrew Krakouer had had an inconspicuous match until, like the rest of his teammates, he ran hot. It was the start of the last quarter and the ball was punted forward from the bounce, Krakouer launched at the pack, then kicked higher again and took the ball high above his eyes. There were shades of Ashley Sampi, and a young Chris Tarrant about it. He fluffed his shot at goal but in lifting himself lifted his side.
RETRO LOVE
The last quarter was party time and Dale Thomas is a man for a party. With his side up by only eight points and surging, Thomas had a set shot from just beyond the 50 near the left-hand boundary. He might have been slightly beyond range but roosted it through long and straight.
OUT OF TOUCH
Alan Didak started the game in rare territory with a fluoro green vest on as the substitute. And ended it in equally rare territory looking bereft. Normally so assured, Didak was tentative and clumsy in disposal. He was not alone, Dane Swan finished well but for a lot of the match was also ragged with the ball.
COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse pointed to his team's pride as the catalyst for one of the most extraordinary comebacks of the season
The Magpies trailed by 23 points six minutes into the last quarter of yesterday's titanic clash against Adelaide at Etihad Stadium before slamming on the last 11 goals of the game to win by 43.
"I don't think we did anything exceptional outside the fact that they showed an enormous amount of pride," Malthouse said.
"I think good football sides must have that pride of performance. "This is not a 43-point victory, this is a get-out-of-jail, this is an opportunity to wear down a side who are close to the most disciplined I've seen in the competition over the last four or five years.
"Regardless of the scoreline, it was important that we were able to take away their initiative."
Collingwood, lifeless and lacking run in the first half, were held goalless in the second term and had a paltry 2.10 on the board at half-time. But the premiers would go on to kick 18.5 in a breathtaking second hour.
Adelaide led for 99 minutes of the game, Collingwood just 25 minutes.
"No one sees that coming. Me, the players, no one expected us to kick 11 goals. I don't think I've ever been part of a side that's kicked 11 goals," Malthouse said.
"It's a bizarre game, football, as we know, and to go for an hour of football and kick two goals and then go the next hour and kick 18 is bizarre. Football finds a way of surprising us all.
"The great thing about Etihad is the advice you get. The advice you get here when you run through the crowd when you're getting beaten, the Collingwood supporters are terrific at giving you the greatest advice."
Chris Tarrant was moved forward after halftime, Nick Maxwell went back to defence after starting forward and Heath Shaw shifted to a wing.
Malthouse said a renewed focus on the stoppages was critical to revitalising the Pies, but insisted there was no magic potion that sparked the comeback.
"If I sat down and said to you it was a move or a mood or one moment that would be totally incorrect," he said.
"It would be unfair to Adelaide. It's the methodical way you go about it. You have to hunt harder, tackle better, run better, present in a better position and outnumber your opponents.
Alan Didak played as the substitute, but Malthouse said his position in the side was not under threat.
"The sub is not the 22nd player. In a long year most players will go through that," he said. "There will be some double-ups, but not in a row."
Collingwood has booted the last 11 goals to notch a 43-point win over Adelaide at Etihad Stadium, after giving the Crows a huge headstart.
A sloppy first half had the Magpies down by 30 points at the main break and they trailed by 23 early in the last quarter, before their incredible late surge delivered the 20.15 (135) to 14.8 (92) win.
They kicked 11 straight goals in a 23-minute burst to turn what seemed a near-certain Adelaide win into a rout.
Andrew Krakouer and Luke Ball each kicked three second-half goals, with Krakouer also taking a high-flying contender for mark of the year in the final term.
Chris Tarrant kicked two last-term goals after being moved from defence for the second half.
Scott Pendlebury put the Magpies in front with an ice-cool set shot from a free kick almost 50 metres out, 18 minutes into the last term.
The Magpies added seven more goals, including a thumping torpedo set shot from Dale Thomas.
Pendlebury, Ball, Thomas and Sharrod Wellingham were all important midfield contributors as the Magpies turned the game around.
Adelaide had looked in control, inspired by a superb performance from midfielder Scott Thompson, who had 33 touches and 14 clearances to be the dominant player for most of the match.
Brent Reilly and Rory Sloane (two goals) were also good in the midfield up until the Collingwood onslaught, while Ben Rutten controlled the defence.
The Magpies were hurt by their own poor kicking in the first half, scoring 2.10, including a goalless second quarter, and also allowing the Crows to score frequent goals from turnovers.
But they lifted their game enormously after half-time, partly helped by the return of skipper Nick Maxwell to defence, in a swap with Tarrant, after he started in attack.
Even so, Adelaide still seemed on track for a big upset when they kicked the first two goals of the final term to lead by 23 points, before fading out of the contest. GREAT teams - and those, like Collingwood, with aspirations to greatness - like to reinforce their aura of invincibility.
They rail against the notion of losing any more than rarely.
It's as if they want to publicly acknowledge they accept they can have an off day or two during a long season, but they're not going to give the rest of the field an invitation to query their superiority by stumbling for two or three games in a row.
Collingwood, beaten by Geelong the previous week, trailed Adelaide for most of the afternoon at Etihad Stadium on Sunday before winning by 43 points in the most powerful finishing burst I can recall in a previously tight contest.
When Matthew Wright goaled for the Crows during the seventh minute of the final term, the margin was back out to 23 points.
Stung by the prospect of another defeat, Collingwood piled on 11.2 to two behinds in the remaining 27 minutes.
It was breathtaking, exhilarating, awe-inspiring stuff. It was the best team in the competition justifying its status.
Everyone in the Adelaide camp must be shell-shocked. They led a football match for 99 minutes and lost by seven goals.
West Coast kicked 10.4 to nil against the Western Bulldogs later in the day, but the Doggies were spent and uninterested long before then.
Adelaide simply was crushed by a juggernaut.
The worry for the rest of the competition, Geelong included, is that Collingwood is going to get even better.
Six members of the 2010 premiership team were missing on Sunday - Nathan Brown, Leigh Brown, Ben Johnson, Darren Jolly, Brent Macaffer and Alan Toovey.
All bar Macaffer are in the best 22, and, as unusual as it sounds, Nathan Brown, the premiership centre half-back, is on track to play a couple of home-and-away games after a knee reconstruction in February.
On top of all that, another four or five regulars are off the boil or struggling for fitness and/or confidence.
They are skipper Nick Maxwell, club champion Dane Swan, 2010 leading goalkicker Alan Didak, rebounding defender Harry O'Brien and Dayne Beams, sixth in the best-and-fairest last year.
Maxwell may have recovered physically from a massive hit in a pre-season fixture with West Coast, but the psychological scars remain apparent.
Swan started the season in superb style, but has trailed off in the past month. He has a thigh injury, which obviously is worrying him. He is running conservatively and isn't kicking as effectively.
Didak started as the substitute on Sunday and lacked his customary polish when he came on in the third quarter. He is a confidence player and his confidence is down.
O'Brien has seemed a little uneasy a few times when deep in defence. The usual dash and flair is there often enough, but he clearly is less comfortable with the ball bobbing round like a pinball at ground level in the shadows of the opposition goalposts.
Beams is a high-quality player who was squeezed out and back to the reserves. He should be back to stay; the competition for spots will keep him honest.
While Geelong is unbeaten on top of the ladder, Collingwood's best is better than the rest.
The Maggies boast an averaging winning margin of 54 points, Geelong 25.
Geelong has been excellent, but it's been lucky, too. It has won three games by less than a goal and was extremely fortunate to survive an inaccurate Fremantle in Round 2.
You can't do much more than win, but the fact is 6-2 is a more accurate assessment of the Cats after eight games.
The Hawks bob up in third spot after a second powerful performance in a row and Carlton and West Coast are coming.
The Eagles head to Melbourne this week to test themselves against Collingwood. I'm not sure they're ready to beat the best just yet, but the big bird from out west is flying high again.
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