Autopsy Round 18: Collingwood 45-61 Port Adelaide

Remove this Banner Ad

Sep 11, 2006
13,049
17,034
MCG
AFL Club
Collingwood
Interestingly, our forward setup tonight was exactly the same as what we played in 2018 V Richmond and West Coast. That year Elliot did not play, this year he's in the middle to try and help win a clearance which has been an ongoing issue for the past 2 years.

I know we need a key fwd, but even on a night that Cox seemed to be dominant our mids still couldn't get the ball deep enough, quick enough or often enough for him to impact where it matters.

We lack another A grade mid, and have for years. T Brown will take time, C Brown is more a pressure small, Sier can't get right, Sidey is best placed on a wing, Wills doesn't do much more than tackle.

They tried to fix this via Wells, then Beams, and failed.

I feel for Cox, pardon the pun. He looked up and about last night but we simply refuse to give him a decent look at it.
 

TheWoodsOf72

All Australian
May 13, 2009
904
295
Elsternwick
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
German National Soccer Team
1 game closer to the end of Bucks' career at Collingwood as a coach is what I get out of it these days.
I agree. The Experiment has not worked. He has never had a defensive mindset. It's been all about midfield and running all the time in both directions.
He should of started his career elsewhere and move to us after experience as a nobody.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Grundy isn't a forwards backside, unfortunately.
He does struggle. Perhaps Cox to ruck more of the centre bounces.
We need to do something otherwise we will get smashed in centre clearances.
 
Sep 11, 2006
13,049
17,034
MCG
AFL Club
Collingwood
He does struggle. Perhaps Cox to ruck more of the centre bounces.
We need to do something otherwise we will get smashed in centre clearances.

Grundy is too gentle. Needs to get some genuine campaigner in him and get the boys to follow. If he can nullify or get the wood over NN it goes a long way to us winning. If Natters puts it on a platter for his mids than its game over.
 

Darkyprotector

Premiership Player
Apr 10, 2017
4,871
2,379
AFL Club
Collingwood
They had a decent crack but Port were just too good. Get Sier in NOW....even unfit he still gets more relevant clearances that anyone else besides JDG. Or let Cox take the centre bounces (his tapwork to Elliot tonight was very clean)
Even wills would have been a improvement
He tackles
He blocks
 

No SPIN

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 14, 2009
13,790
12,609
Vic
AFL Club
Collingwood
We have too many players who lack the required skills of kicking, handballing and decision making, and are just robotic runners.

We have a head coach who gameplan consists of either 1. handballing and overusing the ball as the first option putting your team mate under pressure or 2. predictable slow sideways passing before going down the boundary allowing the oppositions defence to get back in numbers thereby negating any advantage we may have with our forwards.

We also have the same head coach whose match day is bereft of making changes when things undoubtedly will go wrong because of said gameplan 1 and 2 above.

Other than that we're going great guns.

You need to watch post press conference where Buckley made the following points:
- too much handball
- didnt take the long option enough
- failed to exploit their undersized defense

So by pointing out these problems he is clearly suggesting they are not part of the game plan.
 

The Young Chevalier

Team Captain
Apr 18, 2016
322
690
Edinburgh
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Heart of Midlothian
I have been brooding all day after that loss because I was really frustrated with the performance. I know we are playing finals but we are not winning it in this year, I honestly believe we can beat WCE but having to travel to WA, quarantine, then come back to Brisbane and play a top 4 team is just too big a mountain to climb. All year I've felt we were a genuine chance of winning it, get Howe & Sidebottom back and a first up final at the Gabba and I seriously thought we were in with a chance, unfortunately the last few days have ended that with Sidebottom and Howe being confirmed gone for the season and the loss against Port.

As for the performance itself, it wasn't an spectacularly bad game and we certainly had the ball in the right areas enough to think that we could've won. My problem is that there is now a pattern of this team having similar performances in big games and losing; Port just then, Brisbane a few weeks ago, GWS or Richmond this year going further back or even the prelim last year. Games that we had genuine opportunities to win but didn't for very similar reasons.

While we can all see the problems I'm going to give my take on them:

-->Forward line that can't kick a winning score against good teams. Been a problem all year that if De Goey isn't on or Cox isn't getting the service he needs we really struggle to score. I am not an AFL expert so I can't tell you if its structural or if its because outside of De Goey and Cox our entire forward line is remarkably out of form. Thomas, Varcoe and Hoskin-Elliot didn't look like kicking a goal at all, whilst Mihocek has been poor since he was concussed and Greenwood doesn't offer much as a forward. I suspect the issues are more than just form but as I said I don't have the technical AFL knowledge to discuss the structures.

-->Poor ball use going inside 50. Outside of Pendlebury and Daicos we have no midfielders that can be trusted to hit a target inside 50. It is simply not good enough and is potentially a large reason why we don't kick a winning score, how many inside 50s were just nothing kicks to a big pack and how many kicks last night went straight to Dan Houston FFS.

-->Centre clearances are were disgraceful. Not winning a single one is pretty poor from what should be a good midfield. Grundy is a fantastic player but he needs to spend all offseason working with the mids and building some connection because 36 hitouts mean nothing if you don't win a bloody clearance. Another problem is that almost every other good team wins a centre clearance and pumps it inside 50, we win the ball and try to do 2 or 3 handballs for some reason. Must have been 3 or 4 times last night where we won the initial ball only to turn it over in the middle and let Port come away with it. Ridiculous.

-->We have too many players that when the heat is on and pressure is up, s**t themselves and turn the ball over or fumble. I am not gonna name them because we all can see it but it includes some of our better players and it drives me insane. Against Brisbane it was particularly evident as some lads hand passed straight to opposition players on regular occasions but last night we made way too many dumb mistakes to win finals. It's concerning because its not a thing coaches can fix but rather a mental thing that has seeped its way into the playing group.


As for the positives; Quaynor and Daicos continued their impressive seasons, Quaynor in particular was exceptional last night and both players will be a mainstay of the 22 for years to come. The defence in general that has been so good was strong again, Dixon was anonymous excluding the Grundy brain fade in front of goal while none of the Port forwards looked particular dangerous. Madgen was pretty good playing on the 3rd tall and Tyler Brown had some impressive moments again but it is perhaps a year to soon for him to be a regularly strong contributor. Also a note on Stephenson who I thought was treated way too harshly by the commentators, he clearly doesn't have the strength to break tackles (glandular fever will do that) and is down on confidence but after an atrocious first half I thought he worked into the game ok. As shown by his goal he just has the knack of being dangerous in the 50, which Collingwood desperately needs.

I will conclude by saying that we do very much have the cattle to win a flag and I hope we crunch WCE in Perth. Yet 8th place is not good enough, we should be finishing ahead of WB & St Kilda at the least, so I would hope some hard questions get asked internally about what went wrong this year.

Floreat Pica.
 

No SPIN

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 14, 2009
13,790
12,609
Vic
AFL Club
Collingwood
Great game Port. You were amazing. Thank god you won. Didn’t want you to play you at Adelaide Oval. Game on. Umpires put the whistle away tonight. Hopefully they’ll do that in the finals series.

so you're actually scared of Port - and here I was thinking you had belief you could beat anyone, anywhere, anytime.
 

No SPIN

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 14, 2009
13,790
12,609
Vic
AFL Club
Collingwood
CENTRE. *******. CLEARANCES. How can you not win 1 at all in a half?!

Port just took territory all night from the middle. They weren't looking for the perfect kick or a string of 5 handballs to find a guy in space. It was get it forward and lock it in your front half. We just never gave our forwards a look at it. We have no connection between rucks and mids. Don't get me started on the goal Grundy gifted to Dixon.

Not throwing De Goey in the middle at any stage baffles the mind. Meanwhile we are getting pantsed at every centre clearance. The notion of us being the best midfield was well and truly put to bed last night. It's largely a coaching issue as its gone on for too long, but that's a discussion for post season.

Going to Perth might not be the worst thing. It'll be a typical Collingwood backs to the wall win, or we'll get torn a new one and lose by 10 goals.

The reality is we lost to Port and Brisbane the same way. A 5 min burst of 4 goals and we don't have the ability to score and catch up from there. We aren't going to miraculously kick 12 goals plus so our only hope is rain and a shitfight of a match against WCE.

Very hard to see 1 of Richmond (red hot faves) or Geelong not winning the flag.

I reckon JDG is being protected from making tackles which midfield time would inevitably overexpose him too - clearly they are not confident the finger is ready for that type of pressure.
 

jackcass

Cancelled
10k Posts Magpie Service Medal Collingwood - Josh Daicos Player Sponsor 2021 Collingwood - Tyler Brown Player Sponsor 2020 Collingwood Magpies AFLW - Sarah Rowe Player Sponsor 2019
Oct 8, 2007
25,962
24,230
Bendigo
AFL Club
Collingwood
Apart from WHE, the players had a red hot crack. The coach? Not so much. Zero minutes at the centre bounces for DeGoey equals zero points for Buckley.

When you need a bit of extra zing in the guts, don't think, do!

I'd assume JDG is being managed at the moment. It was essentially a dead rubber, win we play finals, lose we play finals, either way 4 tough games ahead. Happy to get the game time into him at the moment without taking any chances on losing him for those games coming up. Worked last week, not so much this week.
 

rand corp

Premiership Player
Oct 5, 2004
4,667
6,190
asia
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Collingwood
Smashed inside and just not good enough last night: they restricted our ball movement, applied a lot of pressure and held us up. They forced us to make mistakes and just made us look very ordinary at times. Our connection from ruck to mid and mid to forward was non-existent, so much so that we just did not look like ever being able to score at times. And whilst they were able to rapidly sling shot from a turn over and get it in to their forward 50 quickly, we stagnated across half back and could not get it past the mid to fwd 50 area for long periods. When we did, of course it came straight back out, often because we kicked it straight to one of them.

As an aside, given Port are black, white and teal, and given I watched us seemingly pick one of their guys out time and again last night, I have to ask the question, why where they wearing a black, white and grey jumper instead of being forced to wear a predominantly teal one? No other team in the competition has teal in their colours and this would remove any question of a jumper clash!
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

HeadInTheSand

Cancelled
Jul 29, 2019
394
579
Atop the pedestal
AFL Club
Collingwood
You need to watch post press conference where Buckley made the following points:
- too much handball
- didnt take the long option enough
- failed to exploit their undersized defense

So by pointing out these problems he is clearly suggesting they are not part of the game plan.

These issues have been happening for years, so clearly he is utterly incapable of clearly communicating and training what he wants.

2018 was an outlier. Continuing to hang your hat on it makes you look delusional.
 

Harry O

Premiership Player
Aug 21, 2009
4,862
6,333
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Liverpool
The longer the game went, the more the actual and inferred pressure saw our midfield fumbling and double handling at the fear of being crunched. Just not hard enough. Buckley seems blind to the fact that the Pendlebury/Elliott/Treloar/Adams group cannot get the job done in the heat of battle of big games when the crunch comes.
 
You need to watch post press conference where Buckley made the following points:
- too much handball
- didnt take the long option enough
- failed to exploit their undersized defense

So by pointing out these problems he is clearly suggesting they are not part of the game plan.
All those things were evident very early in the piece. What was done to address them I wonder? Surely the message was conveyed to the playing group. Do they ignore it or just not good enough to carry it out. Assuming that Buckley didn't just see what was happening and wait until the presser to acknowledge the problems.
 

stormskye

Brownlow Medallist
Sep 24, 2019
12,442
28,298
AFL Club
Collingwood
All those things were evident very early in the piece. What was done to address them I wonder? Surely the message was conveyed to the playing group. Do they ignore it or just not good enough to carry it out. Assuming that Buckley didn't just see what was happening and wait until the presser to acknowledge the problems.
We’ve had the same issues all season, specifically from how we move the ball, and I haven’t seen any changes to how we play. It’s Groundhog Day every week.

Prediction for next week:
We will handball far to much
Refuse to go corridor
Move the ball backwards to often
Equal or have more inside 50’s to eagles
Score Between 40 and 50 or thereabouts.
 
We’ve had the same issues all season, specifically from how we move the ball, and I haven’t seen any changes to how we play. It’s Groundhog Day every week.
You're right of course, but there certainly have been times this year where our ball movement was awesome. The first half of the year, particularly early in game we looked dynamite. Is it something we just can't maintain? Have opposition clubs worked out how to stop it? Who knows but the ability is there. Can we just not adjust within games perhaps?
 

No SPIN

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 14, 2009
13,790
12,609
Vic
AFL Club
Collingwood
These issues have been happening for years, so clearly he is utterly incapable of clearly communicating and training what he wants.

2018 was an outlier. Continuing to hang your hat on it makes you look delusional.

Delusional - are those like yourself that cling to the dark days, and recast improvement since 2017 in a naïve attempt to bag Bucks.
So we have 3 years of outliers since 2017 when we missed finals.
Dare I say you've got your head in the sand.
 

Doc1763

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 29, 2019
8,545
12,848
AFL Club
Collingwood
Delusional - are those like yourself that cling to the dark days, and recast improvement since 2017 in a naïve attempt to bag Bucks.
So we have 3 years of outliers since 2017 when we missed finals.
Dare I say you've got your head in the sand.
Oh yeah, we've played champagne football this year. half of last year was pretty ordinary too.

1 good year out of 9. pretty good going if mediocrity is your benchmark.
 
You're right of course, but there certainly have been times this year where our ball movement was awesome. The first half of the year, particularly early in game we looked dynamite. Is it something we just can't maintain? Have opposition clubs worked out how to stop it? Who knows but the ability is there. Can we just not adjust within games perhaps?
We seem to make 3 or 4 critical errors each game that cost match defining goals.
 
Oh yeah, we've played champagne football this year. half of last year was pretty ordinary too.

1 good year out of 9. pretty good going if mediocrity is your benchmark.
Bucks will coach us in 2021. Might be best to save your powder until then. I reckon we will go alright.
 
Jun 6, 2016
19,265
12,008
Perth
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Pines Football Club
I’m not gonna lie. That presser was his worst for the year. Some of the comments were just putrid. We have the same issues every single week and never even remotely acknowledges them
Buckley presser ' we will take some learnings from the game '. FFS the bloke is a goose.

When I saw Bucks in the box in the last and after the game, the look on his face was like he didn't have an answer, like he lost belief. Certainly hope not that would be very damaging to some of the playing group.:(
 
Bucks will coach us in 2021. Might be best to save your powder until then. I reckon we will go alright.

2021 will either be Buckley's last year or will be a year where he gets a contract extension. If we don't get a good result next year then I would expect to see him moved on.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back