Collingwood Commentary: It was good while it lasted

Bugger! It was good while it lasted.

Although I’m not as disappointed as I expected to be. I think the Pies went okay for a lot of the game. Except maybe for a bit of sloppy stuff below the knees. For some reason we couldn’t pick the ball up as cleanly as we have been previously. Perhaps it was the pressure the Tiges placed on us? Though some of our sloppy work happened whilst we were 50 metres clear… sooooo… hmmm? Get that sorted out at training (but being at AFL level you would think we had those particular skills already?) as soon as possible.

Look, if they’re the “benchmark team” then we can beat them. Not to be this time but the signs are there. Which means we can take it into finals. There! I said it! Obviously the break didn’t help things, especially when we were a few blokes down through injury. Excuses aside, we showed we could keep with them a fair portion of a game for which we weren’t quite ready. We just couldn’t finish when it mattered. Something we shall need to fix going forward. Next time we meet in round 19 we will know more of ourselves as a team and how Richmond is travelling. If they’re still the “benchmark” it will be good to find out where we’re standing. I see improvements for us every week. Individually and in game plan and execution. Things are moving the right way.

Treloar and Phillips were everywhere again this week with 42 and 38 touches respectively. A couple goals each to Cox, Reid and Hoskin-Elliot with us still sharing the load up forward. Howe popped up a few times as well and took a trademark grab from Howe-isphere! (Yes, I just made that up. Too corny?)

Murray looks like a veteran who’s been around a while and Appleby showed some things in his first encounter with which we can be happy, too. I’m far happier with Cox now that he has worked his arms out. How good does it look when he grabs one from a metre above everyone else? One grab too. I look forward to ten or twelve of those per outing. Then he could convert most of them and all of a sudden he’ s kicking 100+ a year. We’ll take that. He seems to take them from the same height as Howe is but not leave the ground. Is that even fair? They’ll probably change the rules so he can’t like they did to Primus and the hit out around the boundary line…

We get a few blokes back from injury this week. After filling a few holes left by freshly hurt blokes, we will have a few ins that should help in making us a better outfit. Injuries happen. Now we should have most of them out of our system and have a good run of no more, right?

Anyway, bring on the Lions! Let’s get back to winning again. These are more fun to write when we’ve just won.

Go hard Pies!

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ROUND SIX

COLLINGWOOD          2.2       5.7       7.9       10.10 (70)
RICHMOND                 3.4       4.9       8.14     16.17 (113)

GOALS
Collingwood: Reid 2, Hoskin-Elliott 2, Cox 2, Pendlebury, De Goey, Treloar, Stephenson
Richmond: Caddy 4, Riewoldt 3, Butler 3, Higgins 2,Castagna 2, Short, Martin

BEST
Collingwood: Phillips, Treloar, Grundy, Crisp, Pendlebury, Sidebottom
Richmond: Cotchin, Nankervis, Martin, Grimes, Houli, Prestia, Caddy

INJURIES
Collingwood: Aish (PCL), Reid (Achilles), Maynard (ankle)
Richmond: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Deboy, Hosking, Chamberlain

Official crowd: 72,157 at the MCG