O
Old Spice
Guest
I didn't want to gazump Dave86's preview, but I've got a view of the game I wanted to publish as well for consideration.
****
There’s been plenty of talk in the Grand Final lead-up about Collingwood’s speed, forward press, their box, depth, evenness and comparisons of the Wood’s bottom seven versus the Saints barrell-enders.
Something that hasn’t received as much attention in the analysis is the positional flexibility built into the Collingwood side, which is a manifestation of an unrivalled fitness regime over a number of years, but also of player development - a deliberate strategy of giving players mini-apprenticeships in the VFL.
Collingwood’s VFL team experiment is of unquantifiable value. It operates like the Keynesian-era state workshops that used to exist in the rail-sheds. A little welding here, a little pattern-making there and you soon have some very well rounded and skilled tradesmen who can take on a variety of tasks with aplomb.
That long-term planning sees Collingwood with a far greater spread of players who can move around the ground with ease to fulfil roles, giving them enormous tactical latitude.
Let’s take a look at that flexibility in motion.
Fixed
The only genuine fixed positional players are Simon Prestigiacomo, Travis Cloke, Ben Reid, Chris Dawes and Alan Toovey. Rarely will you see these five players not tethered to the arcs.
Mixed
There are a number of Pies players who usually occupy their designated spots, but who also can or do engage in cameos further afield when required. Shaw has been played on a wing and in the centre this year, O’Brien regularly snakes his way up forward, as can Luke Ball. Nick Maxwell also famously played a negating midfield role on Scott Thompson against Adelaide a few years ago in a final. There are options aplenty here if required from these four.
Variable
The two-part ruck combination provides enormous value to the team.
Jolly not only dominates the centre with an unrelenting physical and mental presence, but is a strong, forward target who kicks beautifully for goal. Leroy leaves nothing to chance in his endeavour and can play a dangerous role back or forward.
The rest of the list regularly shifts around the ground, aided by their aerobic fitness and the interchange, which spells danger for the opposition.
Lurking between the arcs can be found the super-running Dane Swan, Ben Johnson and Dale Thomas – burning off their opposition with bursts, or using their disposal to move the ball to or past the wing to dangerous options in the forward half. Their ability to get forward and convert is an absolute fillip to the team.
Spelling danger as centre / forward options are Sharrod Wellingham, Scott Pendlebury, Alan Didak, Leon Davis, Dayne Beams, Steele Sidebottom, Leon Davis and Brent Macaffer.
The overall flexibility of Collingwood is immense: five fixed, four mixed and 13 variable.
How does St Kilda match up in this scheme?
Fixed
Dawson, Blake, Gilbert, Fisher, Schneider, Baker, Milne, Riewoldt and Koschitzke are your nine fixed position players. Blake at a pinch could move into the ruck, but it’s been a while between drinks. That’s nine fixed players.
Mixed
Like O’Brien, Gram often sneaks forward for goal, but given the injury cloud, you wonder if that presents as a likely or dangerous prospect this Saturday. What’s notable here is that there is a distinct lack of options in St Kilda’s backline that can move forward to play kick a goal if required, in fact one, in contrast to Collingwood.
Variable
Gardiner can certainly be a menace forward, but you doubt his aerobic capacity and hope of becoming a dangerous forward option in comparison with Jolly. If he goes into the game as the only genuine ruck, that capacity is even more greatly diminished. It’s doubtful that a pinch-hitting ruck combo including Koschitzke and Blake can win the centre clearance contests without exposing the back or forward lines if they did win the centre contests.
While Collingwood has an overarching, team-oriented defensive strategy, St Kilda have committed taggers whose focus is to shut down dangerous players. This list includes Baker, Dempster and Jones – and arguably the opportunists Eddy and McQualter. If Collingwood didn’t have such a versatile team, that could prove costly, but in the context of such even distribution of skill, the questionable disposal talent here has an ominous tinge to it.
The between the arc players that can go from half back to kicking goals are limited. Brendon Goddard and Leigh Montagna are the only prospects, possibly Dal Santo. But like Gram, Dal Santo’s injury cloud makes that versatility suspect.
The small remainder operate between the defensive and forward 50 arcs, but are predominantly players that don’t damage on the score board or set up well for team-mates. Peake, Gwilt and Ray have leg-speed, but it’s questionable whether they will be able to hit forward targets, not only given field position or form, but under Collingwood’s immense speed and pressure. Hayes is a workhorse, but rarely finds space for clean delivery into the forward line.
In summary, that’s nine fixed players, one mixed player, five shut down defensive players and seven players of mixed, around the ground capability. The number and capacity of the mixed players – those that can win the ball and damage between the arcs will be gold-dust.
It will be a battle of the specialists versus the all-rounders. If St Kilda can get the ball past Collingwood’s forward press, they certainly have the forward weapons to punish.
But as we all know, the ball never starts in the forward line. St Kilda will have to win the ball in the centre or drive freely from the backline. On either count, it seems an unlikely proposition.
Midfield
The Woodsmen have much deeper, genuine midfield quality than St Kilda can muster, without having to deplete other areas of the ground. Jolly, Swan, Pendlebury, Ball, Brown, Didak, Wellingham, Thomas and Blair are a constantly refreshed menace. St Kilda’s bonafide midfield options are Gardiner, Hayes, Dal Santo, Montagna and Jones. Goddard is certainly an option, but that depletes the forward or defensive posts. The lack of positional mobility will hurt the Saints here.
Defence
In terms of defensive rebound, well the Pies whole game plan is premised on locking down drive from opposition defence. The Pies forward defensive pressure is legion again due to rotations and fitness. Macaffer, Davis, Toovey, O’Brien – and any other number of players who can rotate between the midfield and forward line, just strangles the rebounding Saint options.
Collingwood’s general football development and fitness has been long-coming and will be the factor this Saturday. They have a game-plan and list that can’t be overcome by any game-day tactical nous. It would take an extraordinary performance across the board and confounding match-ups for the Pies to lose this battle.
****
There’s been plenty of talk in the Grand Final lead-up about Collingwood’s speed, forward press, their box, depth, evenness and comparisons of the Wood’s bottom seven versus the Saints barrell-enders.
Something that hasn’t received as much attention in the analysis is the positional flexibility built into the Collingwood side, which is a manifestation of an unrivalled fitness regime over a number of years, but also of player development - a deliberate strategy of giving players mini-apprenticeships in the VFL.
Collingwood’s VFL team experiment is of unquantifiable value. It operates like the Keynesian-era state workshops that used to exist in the rail-sheds. A little welding here, a little pattern-making there and you soon have some very well rounded and skilled tradesmen who can take on a variety of tasks with aplomb.
That long-term planning sees Collingwood with a far greater spread of players who can move around the ground with ease to fulfil roles, giving them enormous tactical latitude.
Let’s take a look at that flexibility in motion.
Fixed
The only genuine fixed positional players are Simon Prestigiacomo, Travis Cloke, Ben Reid, Chris Dawes and Alan Toovey. Rarely will you see these five players not tethered to the arcs.
Mixed
There are a number of Pies players who usually occupy their designated spots, but who also can or do engage in cameos further afield when required. Shaw has been played on a wing and in the centre this year, O’Brien regularly snakes his way up forward, as can Luke Ball. Nick Maxwell also famously played a negating midfield role on Scott Thompson against Adelaide a few years ago in a final. There are options aplenty here if required from these four.
Variable
The two-part ruck combination provides enormous value to the team.
Jolly not only dominates the centre with an unrelenting physical and mental presence, but is a strong, forward target who kicks beautifully for goal. Leroy leaves nothing to chance in his endeavour and can play a dangerous role back or forward.
The rest of the list regularly shifts around the ground, aided by their aerobic fitness and the interchange, which spells danger for the opposition.
Lurking between the arcs can be found the super-running Dane Swan, Ben Johnson and Dale Thomas – burning off their opposition with bursts, or using their disposal to move the ball to or past the wing to dangerous options in the forward half. Their ability to get forward and convert is an absolute fillip to the team.
Spelling danger as centre / forward options are Sharrod Wellingham, Scott Pendlebury, Alan Didak, Leon Davis, Dayne Beams, Steele Sidebottom, Leon Davis and Brent Macaffer.
The overall flexibility of Collingwood is immense: five fixed, four mixed and 13 variable.
How does St Kilda match up in this scheme?
Fixed
Dawson, Blake, Gilbert, Fisher, Schneider, Baker, Milne, Riewoldt and Koschitzke are your nine fixed position players. Blake at a pinch could move into the ruck, but it’s been a while between drinks. That’s nine fixed players.
Mixed
Like O’Brien, Gram often sneaks forward for goal, but given the injury cloud, you wonder if that presents as a likely or dangerous prospect this Saturday. What’s notable here is that there is a distinct lack of options in St Kilda’s backline that can move forward to play kick a goal if required, in fact one, in contrast to Collingwood.
Variable
Gardiner can certainly be a menace forward, but you doubt his aerobic capacity and hope of becoming a dangerous forward option in comparison with Jolly. If he goes into the game as the only genuine ruck, that capacity is even more greatly diminished. It’s doubtful that a pinch-hitting ruck combo including Koschitzke and Blake can win the centre clearance contests without exposing the back or forward lines if they did win the centre contests.
While Collingwood has an overarching, team-oriented defensive strategy, St Kilda have committed taggers whose focus is to shut down dangerous players. This list includes Baker, Dempster and Jones – and arguably the opportunists Eddy and McQualter. If Collingwood didn’t have such a versatile team, that could prove costly, but in the context of such even distribution of skill, the questionable disposal talent here has an ominous tinge to it.
The between the arc players that can go from half back to kicking goals are limited. Brendon Goddard and Leigh Montagna are the only prospects, possibly Dal Santo. But like Gram, Dal Santo’s injury cloud makes that versatility suspect.
The small remainder operate between the defensive and forward 50 arcs, but are predominantly players that don’t damage on the score board or set up well for team-mates. Peake, Gwilt and Ray have leg-speed, but it’s questionable whether they will be able to hit forward targets, not only given field position or form, but under Collingwood’s immense speed and pressure. Hayes is a workhorse, but rarely finds space for clean delivery into the forward line.
In summary, that’s nine fixed players, one mixed player, five shut down defensive players and seven players of mixed, around the ground capability. The number and capacity of the mixed players – those that can win the ball and damage between the arcs will be gold-dust.
It will be a battle of the specialists versus the all-rounders. If St Kilda can get the ball past Collingwood’s forward press, they certainly have the forward weapons to punish.
But as we all know, the ball never starts in the forward line. St Kilda will have to win the ball in the centre or drive freely from the backline. On either count, it seems an unlikely proposition.
Midfield
The Woodsmen have much deeper, genuine midfield quality than St Kilda can muster, without having to deplete other areas of the ground. Jolly, Swan, Pendlebury, Ball, Brown, Didak, Wellingham, Thomas and Blair are a constantly refreshed menace. St Kilda’s bonafide midfield options are Gardiner, Hayes, Dal Santo, Montagna and Jones. Goddard is certainly an option, but that depletes the forward or defensive posts. The lack of positional mobility will hurt the Saints here.
Defence
In terms of defensive rebound, well the Pies whole game plan is premised on locking down drive from opposition defence. The Pies forward defensive pressure is legion again due to rotations and fitness. Macaffer, Davis, Toovey, O’Brien – and any other number of players who can rotate between the midfield and forward line, just strangles the rebounding Saint options.
Collingwood’s general football development and fitness has been long-coming and will be the factor this Saturday. They have a game-plan and list that can’t be overcome by any game-day tactical nous. It would take an extraordinary performance across the board and confounding match-ups for the Pies to lose this battle.
Now everybody wants a gig on the CFC website. I particularly like the way you proved the unions were responsible for Collingwood's success. 
