COLLINGWOOD 3.6 7.15 11.18 17.22 (124)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 0.5 3.7 5.11 8.14 (62)
Goals: Collingwood: Swan 3, Sidebottom 3, Didak 2, Brown 2, Pendlebury 2, Dawes, Jolly, Thomas, Davis, Cloke. Western Bulldogs: Hall 2, Griffen 2, Higgins 2, Giansiracusa, Hahn.
Umpires: Michael Vozzo, Ray Chamberlain, Mathew Nicholls.
Official Crowd: 66,545 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Sarah's Report
Mr Joffa!
How are you?
This article is a little different to last years' - hopefully in a good way, though, there are less jokes :(
A bit longer too? I'm not sure.
Best regards as always,
***
By Sarah Sammon Ammon,
There are many cool but inappropriate metaphors we could use to describe Collingwood's performance in season 2010:
Like a team of ninjas
Like a team of FLYING ninjas
Like a team of flying ninja midgets – think Davis, Little Blair and a prospective Medhurst;
Not like Richmond
Simply and aptly: Collingwoodlike
but I personally believe that the Old Spice advertisement is the most fitting – you know, look back at your team – now back to mine; now back at your team, now back to mine – I will elaborate on this later.
It is unfamiliar territory for us to be touted favourites headed into a finals series. We tend to be underdogs; and stemming from the working class roots which a lot of us share – this has always been a warm and somewhat comforting fall-back position. In 2010 however, this is not the case.
We have four weeks in which to justify our minor premiership – potential Brownlow medallist Dane Swan has four weeks to prove himself worthy of walking among the game's greats. Saturday night's game against the Western Bulldogs was the first hurdle in our path to achieving something truly sweet and truly spectacular, not just for us here, but for those hundreds of thousands past and present who have cried and yelled and prayed and fought for the Magpie Army in our one hundred and eighteen year history.
In a fitting and somewhat ironic opening, four Collingwood behinds are scored (Cloke [2] Johnson [1] Beams [1]) to the Bulldogs' one (Griffen).
It takes until fifteen minutes into the quarter for the first goal to be scored through Scott Pendelbury – who received the ball in the goal square via a slick Dane Swan hand pass.
It is clear by this point that the Bulldogs are playing one on one style football. This would be in an effort to minimise scoring because – as Mr. Robert Walls pointed out – statistically, the Bulldogs win more of their low scoring games, where we lose most of ours.
More time passes, Luke Ball misses a scoring opportunity, Travis Cloke skilfully completes a smother from a kick out, and Dane Swan eventually kicks a goal following an unopposed mark in the forward fifty.
From outside fifty (and on his awkward side) Travis Cloke kicks his 150th career goal.
The Pies go into quarter time with a nineteen point lead – the score being 3.6 (24) to the Dogs' 0.5 (5).
The middle of the game was, well, fairly awesome. The Bulldogs went into it having had their first goalless opening quarter since round nineteen, 2009, and went out with little more dignity.
Shaun Higgins kicked the Dogs' first goal, Griffen their second, Lake and Williams collide leaving the pair partially injured. As Rodney Eade slowly gnawed away the bottom of his hands, (the rest of his hands were covering his eyes) a confrontation between Hall and Harry leaves Hall reported for abusive language - and Harry's hair the victor (I just naturally assume it was the hair and not Harry himself). Somewhere, in between all of this, we kick another eight goals and twelve points to the Dogs' five goals, six points – entering the final term forty three points ahead.
A quiet Davis kicks the opening goal of the fourth, followed by Giansiracusa, (Leigh) Brown, Swan, Hall, and finally, Jolly. (Pick out the anomaly in there).
The score board at the final siren reads:
17. 22 (124)
8. 14 (62)
Also, I promised to elaborate on my Old Spice reference earlier:
Look at your team,
now back to mine
Now back at your team
now back to mine;
Sadly, it isn't mine.
But if they stopped wearing purple-lady guernseys and switched to black and white they could play like mine.
Look down,
Back up... where are you?
You're at the G watching the team your team could play like.
What's in your hand?
I have it.
It's an oyster with two tickets to this year's Collingwood Grand Final – look again;
The tickets are now Dane Swan.
Anything is possible when your players dress in black and white and not like ladies -
Good luck next week Dockers; hope to be seeing you all in two weeks time.
We're on a horse.
For those who mightn't get the reference (and for copyright purposes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
A CALMNESS engulfed the Collingwood rooms again, save for president Ed barking out "shut up" to excited fans, like the lion-tamer he needed to be.
The players were with the coach behind locked doors, who plainly kept it in perspective and, when they emerged, McGuire released the shackles.
The noise came, as did the players, but clearly in their minds they weren't getting ahead of themselves.
One down, two to go.
The calmness off-field stems from a calm confidence on it.
The Magpies systematically tore the Bulldogs apart, belying a complimentary scoreboard. When the margin was 30 points, it felt like 50. When it was 50, it felt like 75. The final margin, 62 points, felt like a 92-point annihilation.
The calmness in the back half, led by Nick Maxwell, Ben Reid, Harry O'Brien and, on Saturday night, Heath Shaw, isn't always reciprocated in the front half.
And against the Dogs a staggering 22 behinds didn't remove fears Collingwood's most lethal obstacle ultimately could be itself.
Clearly, those two tall sticks have a power to summon shivers.
It is the calmness in the Collingwood's midfield, however, that is most crucial.
Much has been written about the arrival of Darren Jolly and Luke Ball (the former Saint had a game-high 11 tackles and seven clearances on Saturday); the revelation that is Jarryd Blair; the unlucky All-Australian absentee Dale Thomas; the delectable Alan Didak; the resilient Ben Johnson; the kids - Steele Sidebottom, Sharrod Wellingham and Dayne Beams; and the old-fashioned Brent Macaffer.
Much also has been written of raging Brownlow Medal favourite Dane Swan and Brownlow smokey Scott Pendlebury individually and - now - collectively.
Swan and Pendlebury are the two main heads on an 11-headed midfield monster.
The pair torched the Bulldogs with 39 and 30 touches respectively. They are impressive numbers but it is their ability to work together at stoppages that their preliminary final opponents will have to dismantle.
Ball's willpower helps at the furnace, of course, which allows Swan and Pendlebury to spread together and share together; Pendlebury moving constantly and Swan on the burst again and again.
Their one-two by hand shreds opponents at stoppages and because of their game awareness, decision-making and quick, instinctive ball movement, they are the AFL's best combination, bar none, in scoring chains.
They lead the league with 30 for the season, ahead of a trio of Paul Chapman involvements.
Against the Bulldogs Swan and Pendlebury passed the ball to each other in five scoring chains.
Overall, they combined - or as we used to say "waxed" - 10 times against the Dogs the equal third highest single-game tally this year.
It began early, too, with Swan dishing to Pendlebury in the goalsquare to kick Collingwood's first of 17 goals. Swan kicked the second.
Post-game Pendlebury said of Swan: "He works hard, he runs hard . . . we work well together.
"What we do as a midfield group is spread really well, and we're not rushed and we just don't want to blaze away inside 50, so, if we can get two or three quick handballs we can release someone.
"A lot of guys through the midfield get tagged, and a guy like Swanny, if he gets away you want to give him the ball to reward him, and that hurts the tagger as well."
Swan said of Pendlebury: "We try to think we've improved each other, along with Luke Ball and Darren Jolly.
"We've now played that 80, 90, 100 games together, we know our running patterns, we hear each other's voices, and we try to look after each other as much as possible because we know if someone is being tagged we have to help them and get them into space.
"It's just that consistency of playing with each other."
Ball hog Swan loves seeing the ball in Pendlebury's possession.
"Why wouldn't we want it in Pendles' hands? He's such a good user and never gets caught and he always makes good decisions."
Jolly on Swan and Pendlebury: "They were fantastic. Pendles is one of those players who, when he gets the ball, seems to have a lot of time. He doesn't panic and makes real good decisions, and Swanny is a real workhorse.
"They know exactly how each other plays. They know where to run and they know what to do."
It was in the second quarter when Pendlebury and Swan exerted their influence.
While Chris Dawes took five marks up forward, in the middle Pendlebury had 11 touches and Swan 10. When that pair combines for 21 in a quarter, the likely outcome is Collingwood dominance.
Magpie skipper Nick Maxwell said it was the pair's ability to get in the right position that made them dangerous.
"For different reasons," Maxwell said. "Pendlebury for his elusiveness and Swan because of his pace."
Teammate Harry O'Brien added: "They go with the flow."
There's that Collingwood calmness again.
And it's flowed into a preliminary final.
Our special guest this week is my Television.
