Away from home, without our first choice ruckman against the best ruck in the game, against the best player in the game, against all the odds - and we just played superior football to the best team in the AFL. We lost it on the scoreboard, and that will hurt the boys as much as it hurts us, but make no mistake: we were the better football team tonight.
I'm not for a second saying we're a better football team than the Dockers. They're the best team in the comp by some considerable margin. But we were the better team tonight. The final scores will tell a different tale, but that's one of the most beautiful things about our game: the better team can lose.
We systematically pressured them to the point that they couldn't get a clear possession inside fifty for 90% of the game. In the first half, Fyfe's pack grab and resultant goal was the only "legitimate" goal they could score. The rest came directly from pressured snaps over the shoulder in congestion, either from a stoppage or marking contest. That shows how skilful Freo are, and how worthy they are of their #1 spot on the ladder, but it's not a reliable route to goal by any stretch. On another night, those five crucial first half goals that wobbled through from snaps might have gone a different way.
We conceded three goals with less than thirty seconds on the clock in quarters one, two and three. Two of those came with 9 seconds left on the clock. On another night, the siren might have beaten them.
We made more than our share of needless mistakes. Five kicks out of the full in the last quarter. An easy miss by White with two minutes remaining. Goldsack's dropped mark. Goldsack's awful fumble. Goldsack's mistimed spoil. Goldsack's terrible decision to attack the contest and let the ball out the back again. Goldsack's dropped mark again. All of these mistakes either cost us goals or gifted them to the opposition. On another night, we might have been cleaner. On another night, we might not have paid so dearly for our few mistakes.
The back-breaking goal was directly from a free kick. The goal before that, the possession chain was initiated from a free kick. In the third, Jamie waltzes in to an open goal only to be told there's a free against him for high contact - even though Ibbotson gave us a textbook example of leading with the head. The ball goes the length of the field for a goal. Pendles lays a textbook spoil, legally crunching the man under the ball, and gets pinged for a free kick against - and the ball goes the length of the field for a goal. That's football. But on another night, any of the above could have gone the other way.
If a single one of any of those factors goes the other way, we win the game. They didn't, and we lost.
But that doesn't mean we weren't fantastic. Bucks has long been a proponent of studying the process, not the result - and tonight the process was all positive. We were desperate, intense, disciplined, courageous, skilful, strong and filled with as much heart as I've seen in a Collingwood side for a decade.
A lot of us have been questioning our direction over the past few seasons. This effort should end any debate: we're not only on the right track, we're re-opening our premiership window at a speed so fast that we should all be very, very excited.
Go Pies.
I'm not for a second saying we're a better football team than the Dockers. They're the best team in the comp by some considerable margin. But we were the better team tonight. The final scores will tell a different tale, but that's one of the most beautiful things about our game: the better team can lose.
We systematically pressured them to the point that they couldn't get a clear possession inside fifty for 90% of the game. In the first half, Fyfe's pack grab and resultant goal was the only "legitimate" goal they could score. The rest came directly from pressured snaps over the shoulder in congestion, either from a stoppage or marking contest. That shows how skilful Freo are, and how worthy they are of their #1 spot on the ladder, but it's not a reliable route to goal by any stretch. On another night, those five crucial first half goals that wobbled through from snaps might have gone a different way.
We conceded three goals with less than thirty seconds on the clock in quarters one, two and three. Two of those came with 9 seconds left on the clock. On another night, the siren might have beaten them.
We made more than our share of needless mistakes. Five kicks out of the full in the last quarter. An easy miss by White with two minutes remaining. Goldsack's dropped mark. Goldsack's awful fumble. Goldsack's mistimed spoil. Goldsack's terrible decision to attack the contest and let the ball out the back again. Goldsack's dropped mark again. All of these mistakes either cost us goals or gifted them to the opposition. On another night, we might have been cleaner. On another night, we might not have paid so dearly for our few mistakes.
The back-breaking goal was directly from a free kick. The goal before that, the possession chain was initiated from a free kick. In the third, Jamie waltzes in to an open goal only to be told there's a free against him for high contact - even though Ibbotson gave us a textbook example of leading with the head. The ball goes the length of the field for a goal. Pendles lays a textbook spoil, legally crunching the man under the ball, and gets pinged for a free kick against - and the ball goes the length of the field for a goal. That's football. But on another night, any of the above could have gone the other way.
If a single one of any of those factors goes the other way, we win the game. They didn't, and we lost.
But that doesn't mean we weren't fantastic. Bucks has long been a proponent of studying the process, not the result - and tonight the process was all positive. We were desperate, intense, disciplined, courageous, skilful, strong and filled with as much heart as I've seen in a Collingwood side for a decade.
A lot of us have been questioning our direction over the past few seasons. This effort should end any debate: we're not only on the right track, we're re-opening our premiership window at a speed so fast that we should all be very, very excited.
Go Pies.
). I'm definitely not disappointed with the result though, because it's something to build on, and whilst a win would have been great, a loss like that isn't too much worse. My only real concern is now facing the Hawks after that game because we'll be so spent it'll be hard to come out and play to the required intensity. If we bring that same effort however I'd bank us to come away with the 4 points.
