Round 8 Collingwood v Geelong Preview
After 7 rounds our season is at a cross roads, we are currently 4-3 and while we haven’t played any poor games, our three losses have been as a result of us not putting in the full four quarter performance. Collingwood are in a similar position, outperforming preseason expectations and they could be on the way to reversing the long trend of worse year on year results by the Buckley lead team.
Collingwood’s playing style
Against Brisbane, Collingwood’s first instinct upon gaining possession (either at the stoppage or on a turnover) was to move the ball fast and long before their opposition had time to setup behind the ball bombing it inside 50 rather than picking out a target. Once Brisbane had set up their preferred method of ball movement was short zig zag kicks or handball chains up the wings, using a long bailout kick up the line if this wasn’t possible. On a counter attack off half back they weren’t afraid to attack through the corridor if there was space through the middle. They did a few safe switches of the ball at half back but it wasn’t done often. Collingwood’s key forwards were pretty ineffectual all night. Cox took a great grab after a long kick out which lead to a scoring chain that lead to their last goal.
Early in the game they took plenty of intercept marks but it is hard to tell if that was by design or through Brisbane’s poor footskills especially inside fifty as they game went on Brisbane got better at kicking it to a contest and bring it to ground. Collingwood heavily favour the zoning of space, once the ball hit the ground they were extremely vulnerable. On a Brisbane kick-in they were content to have a low zone, keeping the pockets free and endeavoured to keep the shape rather than press once the ball went to ground. Their aggression with the ball gave Brisbane plenty of opportunities on the counter attack which they used to good effect.
The game was quite even at the stoppages, both ruckmen were pretty even , Collingwood were better at moving the ball from the stoppage to free player on the outside, Brisbane at times Brisbane were awful with Hodge being the worst offender, just fumbling the ball as they got it clear. Once Pendlebury went off in the 4th Brisbane gained ascendancy in the centre clearances.
After Brisbane kicked a behind, Collingwood constantly kicked it short into the pocket and worked the ball forward slowly with a few short kicks close to the boundary as they avoided Brisbane’s press to good effect. Late in the game once the scores were within a goal was on Murry kicked two kick outs in a row long to a contest on the boundary.
Overall it was a pretty low quality game from Collingwood, reminding me a little of how Essendon played under our current assistant coach Matthew Knights. I expect Buckley to be quite pissed off with their execution and I suspect that their aggression could be somewhat tempered next week.
Geelong’s Playing Style
I can’t help but compare how much our playing style has changed to last years’; we’re playing most the direct football since probably 2013. Last year our immediate response to getting the ball off half back was to switch the ball and attack up the fat side of the ground and safety inch the ball to a packed F50, this year we’re much more willing to move the ball fast and kick long with Hawkins providing the roaming outlet target which we have missed since our attempt to retire Podsiadly at the end of 2013.
Now this maybe a reaction to our underperforming midfield group, we haven’t been losing the territory battle this bad since 2015, the last time we chose to have Stanley as our first choice ruckman. Scott has come out and spoken that Selwood and Dangerfield have been playing under duress, so I’m ever hopeful that we’ll turn this around towards as the year goes on. Nevertheless we’re finally playing with an attacking flare that many here longed for in the past few years.
I feel like this is a response to our matches against Sydney last year, where their press destroyed our attempts to switch in an embarrassing fashion, on a more positive note we saw how playing a deep forward could disrupt their defensive structure and while creating a lot of extra space for our forwards to work with. Currently teams are playing as if there is an offside rule, but it would be a brave team that lets a player stay 50 metres goal side off their last defender. While we’ve used more players than just Dangerfield in this role, he is close to unstoppable if we can get the ball down to him. It will be interesting to see if can sustain a deep forward as the novelty of the move wears off.
Two weeks ago, Sydney exposed a significant weakness our team when they refused to allow us to play a +1 behind the ball. I’m surprised that GWS didn’t attempt to emulate this last week, and I expect Collingwood to attempt this. In the absence of Henderson and Taylor it has been left tp Stewart, Kolodjashnij and Henry to continue the great Geelong tradition of intercept marking. They have made such incredible strides in the last six matches and with time their synergy will only improve. This will enable them to create a temporary +1 even when the opposition attempts to even up the numbers.
For quite a few years our forward-line has been next to useless at crumbing goals, we’d get heaps of I50s, but relatively few scores off a spilled mark. A large cause of this is that our forward line was flooded due to our extra careful ball movement, but this year the extra space has made our forwards extremely threatening once the ball has hit the ground.
Key Match ups
While the midfield battle as a whole is pivotal, they are less match ups and more whoever is standing near each other at the time.
Stanley v Grundy
On paper this matchup is a disaster, Grundy has been in All Australian form this year being a complete package in both in the ruck contests and around the ground. On the positive side Stanley has played a few good quarters within games in this year and he wasn’t beaten by GWS’ makeshift ruck pair last week and took quite a few decent marks around the ground. I just hope that while Grundy is dominating, Stanley gives us something back, a couple of intercept marks or a goal would be enough in my book. They probably wanted to play Smith against GWS to get him ready to play against Grundy but I wouldn’t pull that trigger now. I would show Stanley a tape of Martin’s match with the hope of inspiring him.
Mark Blicavs v Mason Cox
Mason Cox is one of the most unique players in the AFL, who knows what kind of player he could have been had he had grown up playing the sport. He has played a few of his better games against us with Taylor struggling to deal with his size advantage. Blicavs has been a rock for us in defence this year, if he can avoid giving away free kicks close to goal I figure that we’ll be doing alright. What happens up the ground will determine the outcome of this match up. We did well against GWS to prevent them getting quick ball movement I50, which limited the number of dangerous 1 on 1s I50. If Stewart, Henry and Kolodjashnij are able to intercept effectively then Collingwood are effectively playing a man down.
Hawkins v Dunn
In their the past few match Dunn has scragged Hawkins out of the game deploying whatever dirty tactic he could get away. Hawkins of 2018 is a completely different proposition, playing higher up the ground, he is much more likely to lead then engage in wrestle. He lead Davis on a marry dance around the ground, he’ll try do the same to Dunn. I’m assuming that Hawkins will get off with a fine as he was just trying to shake the umpire’s hand.
Prediction
Given that Collingwood snuck over the line against a winless Brisbane, I expect them to be a little less introspective of how they performed then had they lost. Our past underperformance against them has been driven by poor results at the centre bounces in the first half, equalizing them there will be an important factor in keeping their confidence down. Our young team is quite unsure of its strength at the moment and they can start games quite hesitantly, it is up to our senior players to set a good example and lead the way. Our defence is better organised to handle Collingwood’s all-out attack, and we should have no issue taking full advantage any space created by a turnover.
Geelong by 30 points
After 7 rounds our season is at a cross roads, we are currently 4-3 and while we haven’t played any poor games, our three losses have been as a result of us not putting in the full four quarter performance. Collingwood are in a similar position, outperforming preseason expectations and they could be on the way to reversing the long trend of worse year on year results by the Buckley lead team.
Collingwood’s playing style
Against Brisbane, Collingwood’s first instinct upon gaining possession (either at the stoppage or on a turnover) was to move the ball fast and long before their opposition had time to setup behind the ball bombing it inside 50 rather than picking out a target. Once Brisbane had set up their preferred method of ball movement was short zig zag kicks or handball chains up the wings, using a long bailout kick up the line if this wasn’t possible. On a counter attack off half back they weren’t afraid to attack through the corridor if there was space through the middle. They did a few safe switches of the ball at half back but it wasn’t done often. Collingwood’s key forwards were pretty ineffectual all night. Cox took a great grab after a long kick out which lead to a scoring chain that lead to their last goal.
Early in the game they took plenty of intercept marks but it is hard to tell if that was by design or through Brisbane’s poor footskills especially inside fifty as they game went on Brisbane got better at kicking it to a contest and bring it to ground. Collingwood heavily favour the zoning of space, once the ball hit the ground they were extremely vulnerable. On a Brisbane kick-in they were content to have a low zone, keeping the pockets free and endeavoured to keep the shape rather than press once the ball went to ground. Their aggression with the ball gave Brisbane plenty of opportunities on the counter attack which they used to good effect.
The game was quite even at the stoppages, both ruckmen were pretty even , Collingwood were better at moving the ball from the stoppage to free player on the outside, Brisbane at times Brisbane were awful with Hodge being the worst offender, just fumbling the ball as they got it clear. Once Pendlebury went off in the 4th Brisbane gained ascendancy in the centre clearances.
After Brisbane kicked a behind, Collingwood constantly kicked it short into the pocket and worked the ball forward slowly with a few short kicks close to the boundary as they avoided Brisbane’s press to good effect. Late in the game once the scores were within a goal was on Murry kicked two kick outs in a row long to a contest on the boundary.
Overall it was a pretty low quality game from Collingwood, reminding me a little of how Essendon played under our current assistant coach Matthew Knights. I expect Buckley to be quite pissed off with their execution and I suspect that their aggression could be somewhat tempered next week.
Geelong’s Playing Style
I can’t help but compare how much our playing style has changed to last years’; we’re playing most the direct football since probably 2013. Last year our immediate response to getting the ball off half back was to switch the ball and attack up the fat side of the ground and safety inch the ball to a packed F50, this year we’re much more willing to move the ball fast and kick long with Hawkins providing the roaming outlet target which we have missed since our attempt to retire Podsiadly at the end of 2013.
Now this maybe a reaction to our underperforming midfield group, we haven’t been losing the territory battle this bad since 2015, the last time we chose to have Stanley as our first choice ruckman. Scott has come out and spoken that Selwood and Dangerfield have been playing under duress, so I’m ever hopeful that we’ll turn this around towards as the year goes on. Nevertheless we’re finally playing with an attacking flare that many here longed for in the past few years.
I feel like this is a response to our matches against Sydney last year, where their press destroyed our attempts to switch in an embarrassing fashion, on a more positive note we saw how playing a deep forward could disrupt their defensive structure and while creating a lot of extra space for our forwards to work with. Currently teams are playing as if there is an offside rule, but it would be a brave team that lets a player stay 50 metres goal side off their last defender. While we’ve used more players than just Dangerfield in this role, he is close to unstoppable if we can get the ball down to him. It will be interesting to see if can sustain a deep forward as the novelty of the move wears off.
Two weeks ago, Sydney exposed a significant weakness our team when they refused to allow us to play a +1 behind the ball. I’m surprised that GWS didn’t attempt to emulate this last week, and I expect Collingwood to attempt this. In the absence of Henderson and Taylor it has been left tp Stewart, Kolodjashnij and Henry to continue the great Geelong tradition of intercept marking. They have made such incredible strides in the last six matches and with time their synergy will only improve. This will enable them to create a temporary +1 even when the opposition attempts to even up the numbers.
For quite a few years our forward-line has been next to useless at crumbing goals, we’d get heaps of I50s, but relatively few scores off a spilled mark. A large cause of this is that our forward line was flooded due to our extra careful ball movement, but this year the extra space has made our forwards extremely threatening once the ball has hit the ground.
Key Match ups
While the midfield battle as a whole is pivotal, they are less match ups and more whoever is standing near each other at the time.
Stanley v Grundy
On paper this matchup is a disaster, Grundy has been in All Australian form this year being a complete package in both in the ruck contests and around the ground. On the positive side Stanley has played a few good quarters within games in this year and he wasn’t beaten by GWS’ makeshift ruck pair last week and took quite a few decent marks around the ground. I just hope that while Grundy is dominating, Stanley gives us something back, a couple of intercept marks or a goal would be enough in my book. They probably wanted to play Smith against GWS to get him ready to play against Grundy but I wouldn’t pull that trigger now. I would show Stanley a tape of Martin’s match with the hope of inspiring him.
Mark Blicavs v Mason Cox
Mason Cox is one of the most unique players in the AFL, who knows what kind of player he could have been had he had grown up playing the sport. He has played a few of his better games against us with Taylor struggling to deal with his size advantage. Blicavs has been a rock for us in defence this year, if he can avoid giving away free kicks close to goal I figure that we’ll be doing alright. What happens up the ground will determine the outcome of this match up. We did well against GWS to prevent them getting quick ball movement I50, which limited the number of dangerous 1 on 1s I50. If Stewart, Henry and Kolodjashnij are able to intercept effectively then Collingwood are effectively playing a man down.
Hawkins v Dunn
In their the past few match Dunn has scragged Hawkins out of the game deploying whatever dirty tactic he could get away. Hawkins of 2018 is a completely different proposition, playing higher up the ground, he is much more likely to lead then engage in wrestle. He lead Davis on a marry dance around the ground, he’ll try do the same to Dunn. I’m assuming that Hawkins will get off with a fine as he was just trying to shake the umpire’s hand.
Prediction
Given that Collingwood snuck over the line against a winless Brisbane, I expect them to be a little less introspective of how they performed then had they lost. Our past underperformance against them has been driven by poor results at the centre bounces in the first half, equalizing them there will be an important factor in keeping their confidence down. Our young team is quite unsure of its strength at the moment and they can start games quite hesitantly, it is up to our senior players to set a good example and lead the way. Our defence is better organised to handle Collingwood’s all-out attack, and we should have no issue taking full advantage any space created by a turnover.
Geelong by 30 points
