Well that was something more of a relief – it feels like we have a bit of mojo back but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ve just beaten bottom and second bottom and we took the foot off in the last quarter in both games which has cost valuable percentage. When Checkers kicked his fourth early in the last quarter we went up by 42 points but then we inexplicably put the queue in the rack.
When the game was in the balance, it was the usual suspects in the midfield – Treloar, Pendles, Sidey and BG having a fun time in the middle. Howe and Checkers in the key posts held sway but it didn’t really tell us much. I expected Melbourne to go harder – it’s hard to last year as anything other than an aberration, so it’s a game we should have won.
The next two games are against 8th and 9th. The boys will be eyeing off Richmond’s fourth spot on the ladder. The Tiggers are a game clear but have tough games against 3rd and 2nd in West Coast and Brisbane. If they drop one of those and we can do the job against Adelaide and Essendon, we could just sneak in and play a “home” semi against Geelong – assuming they stay there. The ladder predicter throws up all sorts of things – if you try hard enough you can sneak Gold Coast in by pressing the Steven Bradbury button where all top ten teams all have adverse drug findings and are disqualified. Anyway, how we go against Adelaide and Essendon depends on the versions that show up. Adelaide are home from a tough trip west against the Beagles and how they respond to that is anyones guess. Hopefully the we will get the round 21 version of Essendon on Friday week – they were woeful against the Dogs who are coming hard.
On the injury front, I think the best we can expect back and Jordy and Darcy which would be a big help. Sier probably offers a bit more than Wills if we can get him in too. I think another week for Moore though. The loss of Cox was somewhat mitigated by Roughead going forward and giving BG a chop out although Roughy wasn’t smoothie in the forward line. Bucks was impressed with his ability to “bring the ball to ground” – so now we are complementing forwards on not marking. I’d prefer to see him back, particularly coming up against Walker and Lynch this week.
The boys travel well and will be looking forward to a weekend in the Barossa although they will probably want to get out as soon as they can in case they catch whatever it is Port Adelaide and the Crows have caught. There’s some weird shit happening over there. Pies by 11 points
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AFL 2019 ROUND 21
MELBOURNE 1.4 2.6 3.8 7.11 (53)
COLLINGWOOD 0.5 5.6 9.8 10.10 (70)
GOALS
Melbourne: Petty, Brayshaw, Fritsch, Petracca, Hunt, O.McDonald, Gawn
Collingwood: Mihocek 4, Pendlebury 2, Varcoe 2, Thomas, Crisp
BEST
Melbourne: Brayshaw, Petracca, Harmes, Frost, Oliver, Fritsch
Collingwood: Treloar, Grundy, Mihocek, Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Howe
INJURIES
Melbourne: May (hamstring)
Collingwood: Daicos (concussion)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Harris, Gianfagna, McInerney
Official crowd: 31,903 at the MCG