Review Round 4 2021 - Collingwood Magpies vs GWS Giants, 7:25 PM MCG, Saturday April 10

Drummond

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I think hogan comes in maybe for riccardi. You can’t drop HH and TOJ after last night and hogan just needs to play
Won’t happen, but I’d be dropping HH first. Riccardi is so valuable, excellent set of hands, great kick, and is younger than HH. Finlayson was huge last night, consistency is the issue but keep him in while hot obviously, plus he straightens the team up. Himmelberg seems to float about and I don’t like a lot of his body language, gets down and takes it out on his teammates a lot. Thought he could’ve been a special forward but has plateaued.
 

Giant Pete

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Won’t happen, but I’d be dropping HH first. Riccardi is so valuable, excellent set of hands, great kick, and is younger than HH. Finlayson was huge last night, consistency is the issue but keep him in while hot obviously, plus he straightens the team up. Himmelberg seems to float about and I don’t like a lot of his body language, gets down and takes it out on his teammates a lot. Thought he could’ve been a special forward but has plateaued.
Harsh on HH.
 
Nov 23, 2015
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Harry has been great roaming up the ground and being that linking forward delivering into the F50; he's just not that strong-marking forward who's going to regularly kick a bag. Riccardi and Hogan could be in that role. Honestly I'm unsure how we fit them all into the team if we get Hogan fit & firing. Perhaps Hogan & Riccardi in the F50, one of Finlayson or HH roaming around and the other named as a winger? No room for Buckley then, unless he drops back into defence.

Leon has been happy to play a mobile tall in a wing role - think back to his comments on Sunshine, when he was up & firing for us.
 
Loved most of the kids.

Very happy with XOH last night after thinking he was a bit vanilla at times last year.

Ricarddi had his moment, I love his eyes for the ball.

Ash is a must retain. Nothing more to say about that.

Idun definitely isn't looking out of place. We can definitely pick our defenders.

Stone was quiet so not much to say there yet.
 

Giant Pete

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Harry has been great roaming up the ground and being that linking forward delivering into the F50; he's just not that strong-marking forward who's going to regularly kick a bag. Riccardi and Hogan could be in that role. Honestly I'm unsure how we fit them all into the team if we get Hogan fit & firing. Perhaps Hogan & Riccardi in the F50, one of Finlayson or HH roaming around and the other named as a winger? No room for Buckley then, unless he drops back into defence.

Leon has been happy to play a mobile tall in a wing role - think back to his comments on Sunshine, when he was up & firing for us.
We don’t need a key forward kicking bags... Toby can do that.
 
I'd like Toby and a KPF to kick bags each week!
I'll even allow guys like Taylor and Haynes to kick bags each week if they want to. The more the merrier.
 
Apr 12, 2012
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Great win by the boys. FFS re_sign Ash, Daniels now, Ward too. Extend Bobby again for good measure.

The win probably means Hogan probably gets another 2 weeks in the twos to build confidence both from our side and his.

Would love Briggs in as he handled them in preseason and the Swans ruck isnt deadly compared to plenty of others.
 

Danny88

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Mar 21, 2014
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Won’t happen, but I’d be dropping HH first. Riccardi is so valuable, excellent set of hands, great kick, and is younger than HH. Finlayson was huge last night, consistency is the issue but keep him in while hot obviously, plus he straightens the team up. Himmelberg seems to float about and I don’t like a lot of his body language, gets down and takes it out on his teammates a lot. Thought he could’ve been a special forward but has plateaued.
I think the discussion was about what we think WILL happen rather than what we want. I think it’s pretty clear HH is the number 1 choice and the rest fit in around him.

In preferring riccardi you are choosing to select on potential rather than results and I don’t agree with that
 
Surely there is no doubt over Himmelberg.
He has been good for years and is doing a great job.
He is really good at the little things.
He is rightfully second picked after Toby in the forward line.
 
Nov 23, 2015
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Another game review from my favourite publication:


For both Collingwood and GWS, the stage couldn’t have been more set on Saturday night football. Less than two years earlier, these same two sides were playing off for a spot in the Grand Final. Same place, same torrid conditions, and well, I’m sure you true football fanatics know how it went.

Mumford on Grundy

Every time I see Shane Mumford’s name on GWS’ team sheet, I sigh. I believed Shane Mumford’s footy career was cooked since 2017, but somehow manages to rob someone else of a list spot year after year. But despite my personal grievances, he always seems to lick his lips whenever the Giants come across Collingwood. He did a good job on Grundy in the Preliminary Final and in the corresponding game last year, Mumford had Grundy’s number as the Giants pinched another win from under the nostrils of the Pies.

Watching this installment of the contest, you’d have certainly given the points to Mumford at half time. Grundy had the hitouts, but it’s his work around the stoppages and around the ground that elevates him to the top echelon of ruckmen in the competition. And no one ruckman exerts himself physically – both within and out of the rules – like Shane Mumford does. And in true Mummy fashion, he bullied Grundy into just the four touches by half time. Mumford did begin to tire in the second half and Grundy finished with the 20 disposals but the big Giant still collected the 17 touches for his troubles, led all players with eight clearances and had six tackles.

It Aint’ Easy Being Greene

Especially this year, when the Giants have been at their worst, Greene has been one of the rare few that tries his heart out every week. Last week, watching the game against Melbourne, he bagged himself five goals in a brilliant performance. He should be a permanent forward because he’s an out and out match-winner. This week he kicked another bag of five – 5.1 to be exact. A lot of the focus will deservedly go on Nathan Buckley’s decision to stick with Isaac Quaynor as opposed to a proven lockdown defender in Brayden Maynard for two and a half quarters, but the ball had to come to Greene first, and he was a class above in trying conditions. He took strong grabs, he finished cleanly with snaps on the run he was just the man you wanted with the ball in his hands.

At half time, he kicked three goals and I was saying to myself that the time is right for Nathan Buckley to stand Maynard on him – not sure who he was running with at that point – Bobby Hill maybe? But once the move was made, the Giants were 27 points clear and had ultimately decided the contest.

The Contested Giants

In – let’s be honest – shithouse conditions, this was always going to play in favour of the players that thrive on the contest. It’s common knowledge that the Giants have quite a number of players that love the contested ball. The following part highlights the work of two players, but It’s also worth mentioning that Mumford had the 13 contested possessions, Sam Taylor in defence had 12 contested possessions and Tim Taranto had ten.

Jacob Hopper epitomizes the wet-weather slog. Yeah, he’s never been the best user of the footy, but his identity lies with the contest and in this one, he doesn’t let you down – 32 disposals, with 19 of them being contested possessions. It was a great in-and-under demonstration, with 23 of those touches being handballs and not gathering many metres with his touches, with 170 metres gained.

Callan Ward didn’t just have the 285 metres gained as well, but was also just as proficient at winning football from the source – 15 of his 37 disposals were contested, but also picked up seven clearances with his touches – second in the game behind Mumford, but he led all players in centre clearances with four for the match.

The Giants were +15 in contested possessions and +4 in clearances and the impact that both players mentioned above were far greater than that of Scott Pendlebury and Taylor Adams before he went down with the knee injury.

Other Bits

Whilst we’re on career-best games, I thought Lachie Ash had his best game in his short career – had the 28 touches, 11 marks and five rebound 50s – with the conditions, his class with the ball was very apparent, particularly in the third term when it began pissing down in Melbourne for the 35th time that day.

I don’t say it about Jeremy Finlayson often, especially since the Grand Final, but I thought his efforts were outstanding in this one. The four goals came on the back of a great blend of gut running, opportunism and great finishing. Also, his efforts as the back-up ruck were top notch, which definitely made Mason Cox look like he was auditioning for amateur hour a few times despite the obvious height difference.

Harry Himmelberg should get some credit for working to make Darcy Moore accountable.

Jack Buckley was shadowing Brody Mihocek for a lot of the night and kept him to 1.2 from seven touches whilst picking up 14 touches himself. He was pretty good for the Giants late last year, and looks like a player for the future.

I really liked Bobby Hill’s game – kicked the first goal of the night on the back of sprinting from half back to get to the feet of Toby Greene at the goal square. He finished with 11 disposals, but looked very clever with the ball in the conditions – had five score involvements and the two goal assists.
 
Nov 23, 2015
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GWS GIANTS

You’re unlikely to find a gutsier win in the Giants’ short history than the one they produced against Collingwood. Amid a 0-3 start and a deepening injury crisis, a baby Giants team — the club’s least experienced side since 2015 featuring seven players with under 10 games experience — showed character beyond their years to upset a near full-strength Collingwood at the MCG. It was their first win of 2021 – and they thoroughly deserved.

In the votes

‘Captain Toby Greene’ has a nice ring to it. It has an even nicer ring to it when he has five goals and 18 disposals next to his name in a match-turning role in a crucial win. The stand-in skipper found great help up forward from Jeremy Finlayson, who starred in his first game of the season with 4.2 from 12 touches. The hard nut trio if Callan Ward (37 disposals), Tim Tarant (34) and Jacob Hopper (32) were brutal at the coalface, while Lachie Ash’s dash saw him finish with 28 disposals and 11 marks. Josh Kelly also returned to form, booting two goals from 22 touches.

Room for improvement

Outside of a brief scare during the third term, this was as complete a performance as you’ll get from such a young side. All 22 players could’ve walked off the MCG knowing they’d played some key role in the victory.

Grade

A+
 
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