This gave me a chuckle.
------------------------------------------------------------
Where the Lions won, and the Pies lost
3:54:54 PM Sun 29 September, 2002
Danny Frawley
afl.com.au
Collingwood surprised a lot of people with the way it stayed in the 2002 grand final right until the end. Other than the Magpie players, coaches and supporters, most people thought it would be over by three-quarter time, just like the last few grand finals.
To Collingwood’s credit, I thought its tackling was magnificent, and I admired the gameplan of taking on Brisbane’s crack midfield and seeing how much pressure could be applied. I think the Pies had 73 tackles, a record for the club in Mick Malthouse’s time and you could see from the beginning that their attack on the body would be sensational.
You could see that a few of the Brisbane boys fumbled a little bit under pressure, and while you hate to take anything away from Collingwood’s effort, the rain obviously helped even things up. It was always going to be tight on the scoreboard no matter which way it went.
I watched Collingwood’s forward set-up very closely and you could see that Malthouse rotated his forwards throughout the match and tried to split up the Brisbane defence. You could see that every time there was a boundary thrown in, or a ball-up forward of the centre, Rupert Betheras would take Chris Johnson out of the play, Anthony Rocca would do the same to Mal Michael and Josh Fraser the same with Justin Leppitsch. You could see that the Pies really wanted to keep them apart because one of the strengths of the Lions is how their defenders really help each other and zone off.
It was really evident early, even though it was wet that Collingwood was reluctant to drop the ball inside its own 50. This really frustrated the Lions and worked wonders for Collingwood’s own self-belief. The Pies were piling on the pressure in the midfield and working to find some targets when they went forward inside their own 50.
The match-ups were great. Nathan Buckley on to Michael Voss was an inspired move and it threw Brisbane out because there is no doubt that the Lions had planned as early as last Monday morning for Brad Scott to play on Buckley. When you get to a grand final, the last thing you want is a two-on-one situation in the midfield, so if Brad Scott had stayed on Buckley that would have meant freeing up Paul Licuria. Collingwood had a win there early because Brad Scott stayed on Licuria and Scott Burns did a fair job on Simon Black.
Down the other end, I thought Leigh Matthews pulled a masterstroke by putting Luke Power on Leon Davis. That was something right out of the box. You look at the great coaches and they manage to do something different in the big games to what got them there in the first place. They don’t necessarily pluck something from obscurity but they go for something that works and this one did because Leon Davis was off the ground from half way through the second quarter.
Losing Beau McDonald and Martin Pike to injury before half-time was a blow to the Lions because it’s not ideal to get to half-time in a grand final with two blokes who can’t come back on. I think Matthews would have been really worried at half time.
Malthouse used the bench well and Matthews just went with his main structure and pretty much his best available 18 players. Aaron Shattock didn’t play all that much and Craig McRae played only a bit more, but the main 18 blokes more or less played once McDonald and Pike came off.
He used Clark Keating as the main ruckman once McDonald was off and Darryl White in fits and spurts, and that meant Rocca had to also go in the ruck for short periods. Interestingly, White had a positive effect for the Lions and it turned out that Rocca also did for the Pies because his two third quarter goals came while he was pushing forward from the ruck.
What might have caused Brisbane’s undoing was perhaps a bit too much finesse. Even late in the game someone tried a flash handball from the wing into the corridor and they did generally try to play one-touch football, whereas Collingwood adapted better to the conditions. Perhaps the Pies harked back to Anzac Day when they gave Essendon a lesson in wet-weather football. Clearly, the Pies would have spent a lot of time pre-match preparing for a wet-weather game and how to go about handling the ball.
Collingwood will be really disappointed. When the players and the coach sit down to look at the tape, they’ll see that the third quarter was really telling and may have been where the game was lost. They had those two shots for goal from Chris Tarrant that were missed while Jonathan Brown and Michael Voss both nailed late goals at the other end. If you want a turning point, well, that was it.
Looking back, Collingwood played to expectations, while Brisbane didn’t. The Lions played as though at some stage, they would break the game open and that it would all come together. Collingwood was never, ever, going to quit, while the Lions subconsciously may have thought it was just going to happen.
It was easily the best grand final since 1989 and we finally got the premiership decider that we all hoped for.
And as we look towards next year, what the 14 coaches who didn’t take part in the game can take out of it is that Brisbane and Collingwood laid themselves bare. We probably learned more about any potential weaknesses of the two sides, although being able to exploit them, is of course, another matter entirely.
We also learned that you can have your flooding and your one player loose in the backline throughout the home and away season, but when it comes to winning the really big games, it is all about one-on-one footy and beating your opponent.
The 2002 grand final was just a great contest and what was made abundantly clear was that when you look at your own list, if you haven’t got the sorts of players who can compete under that sort of pressure, then you are really going to struggle. And I didn’t see too many players on Saturday who didn’t stand up under that sort of heat.
All clubs should look at that game and see whether they have the same sort of players, the types who are going to win you a grand final.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you read through it Danny more or less says that the Woods played so well they deserve respect and the Lions played lairising 'dry weather' footy and just 'expected' it (the win) to happen.
Hmm Danny, where to now then in the respect stakes?
Also the part where the Lions won and Woods lost seems absent from the article as well. (Unless he means that last five minutes of the third quarter which is just a tad over simplifying things imo).
------------------------------------------------------------
Where the Lions won, and the Pies lost
3:54:54 PM Sun 29 September, 2002
Danny Frawley
afl.com.au
Collingwood surprised a lot of people with the way it stayed in the 2002 grand final right until the end. Other than the Magpie players, coaches and supporters, most people thought it would be over by three-quarter time, just like the last few grand finals.
To Collingwood’s credit, I thought its tackling was magnificent, and I admired the gameplan of taking on Brisbane’s crack midfield and seeing how much pressure could be applied. I think the Pies had 73 tackles, a record for the club in Mick Malthouse’s time and you could see from the beginning that their attack on the body would be sensational.
You could see that a few of the Brisbane boys fumbled a little bit under pressure, and while you hate to take anything away from Collingwood’s effort, the rain obviously helped even things up. It was always going to be tight on the scoreboard no matter which way it went.
I watched Collingwood’s forward set-up very closely and you could see that Malthouse rotated his forwards throughout the match and tried to split up the Brisbane defence. You could see that every time there was a boundary thrown in, or a ball-up forward of the centre, Rupert Betheras would take Chris Johnson out of the play, Anthony Rocca would do the same to Mal Michael and Josh Fraser the same with Justin Leppitsch. You could see that the Pies really wanted to keep them apart because one of the strengths of the Lions is how their defenders really help each other and zone off.
It was really evident early, even though it was wet that Collingwood was reluctant to drop the ball inside its own 50. This really frustrated the Lions and worked wonders for Collingwood’s own self-belief. The Pies were piling on the pressure in the midfield and working to find some targets when they went forward inside their own 50.
The match-ups were great. Nathan Buckley on to Michael Voss was an inspired move and it threw Brisbane out because there is no doubt that the Lions had planned as early as last Monday morning for Brad Scott to play on Buckley. When you get to a grand final, the last thing you want is a two-on-one situation in the midfield, so if Brad Scott had stayed on Buckley that would have meant freeing up Paul Licuria. Collingwood had a win there early because Brad Scott stayed on Licuria and Scott Burns did a fair job on Simon Black.
Down the other end, I thought Leigh Matthews pulled a masterstroke by putting Luke Power on Leon Davis. That was something right out of the box. You look at the great coaches and they manage to do something different in the big games to what got them there in the first place. They don’t necessarily pluck something from obscurity but they go for something that works and this one did because Leon Davis was off the ground from half way through the second quarter.
Losing Beau McDonald and Martin Pike to injury before half-time was a blow to the Lions because it’s not ideal to get to half-time in a grand final with two blokes who can’t come back on. I think Matthews would have been really worried at half time.
Malthouse used the bench well and Matthews just went with his main structure and pretty much his best available 18 players. Aaron Shattock didn’t play all that much and Craig McRae played only a bit more, but the main 18 blokes more or less played once McDonald and Pike came off.
He used Clark Keating as the main ruckman once McDonald was off and Darryl White in fits and spurts, and that meant Rocca had to also go in the ruck for short periods. Interestingly, White had a positive effect for the Lions and it turned out that Rocca also did for the Pies because his two third quarter goals came while he was pushing forward from the ruck.
What might have caused Brisbane’s undoing was perhaps a bit too much finesse. Even late in the game someone tried a flash handball from the wing into the corridor and they did generally try to play one-touch football, whereas Collingwood adapted better to the conditions. Perhaps the Pies harked back to Anzac Day when they gave Essendon a lesson in wet-weather football. Clearly, the Pies would have spent a lot of time pre-match preparing for a wet-weather game and how to go about handling the ball.
Collingwood will be really disappointed. When the players and the coach sit down to look at the tape, they’ll see that the third quarter was really telling and may have been where the game was lost. They had those two shots for goal from Chris Tarrant that were missed while Jonathan Brown and Michael Voss both nailed late goals at the other end. If you want a turning point, well, that was it.
Looking back, Collingwood played to expectations, while Brisbane didn’t. The Lions played as though at some stage, they would break the game open and that it would all come together. Collingwood was never, ever, going to quit, while the Lions subconsciously may have thought it was just going to happen.
It was easily the best grand final since 1989 and we finally got the premiership decider that we all hoped for.
And as we look towards next year, what the 14 coaches who didn’t take part in the game can take out of it is that Brisbane and Collingwood laid themselves bare. We probably learned more about any potential weaknesses of the two sides, although being able to exploit them, is of course, another matter entirely.
We also learned that you can have your flooding and your one player loose in the backline throughout the home and away season, but when it comes to winning the really big games, it is all about one-on-one footy and beating your opponent.
The 2002 grand final was just a great contest and what was made abundantly clear was that when you look at your own list, if you haven’t got the sorts of players who can compete under that sort of pressure, then you are really going to struggle. And I didn’t see too many players on Saturday who didn’t stand up under that sort of heat.
All clubs should look at that game and see whether they have the same sort of players, the types who are going to win you a grand final.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you read through it Danny more or less says that the Woods played so well they deserve respect and the Lions played lairising 'dry weather' footy and just 'expected' it (the win) to happen.
Hmm Danny, where to now then in the respect stakes?
Also the part where the Lions won and Woods lost seems absent from the article as well. (Unless he means that last five minutes of the third quarter which is just a tad over simplifying things imo).
