I’m a little late to the writing desk this week, having to juggle work commitments and being delayed in getting to see the vision from last Thursday night’s triumph over Geelong. This does, however, present me with an opportunity to bridge our last win with our upcoming challenge – perhaps the biggest test we’ve had in three weeks – against the Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
In what was another low scoring affair, we managed to once again strangle the opposition whilst putting together a modest yet victorious score of our own. Although our inability to pile on goals is something of a concern, the brilliance of our defence at the moment is resulting in our percentage remaining healthy.
For mine, there seem to be a few factors at play that go some way to explaining our low scoring. We’ve been tinkering with the forward line as some individuals have struggled to fire in the front half, attempting to find the combination that meshes best or enables one or two individuals to get off the chain. Our miserly defence may also go some way to explaining the lack of potency at the other end.
Considering that an overall effective defence begins as much in the middle as it does in our own goal square, our engine room and high half-forwards have been expected to commit to the required two-way running to assist our defenders. Either in getting numbers back to fill space, or to provide outlets for when our defenders win the ball back.
Even with the loss of Howe, it has been a credit to our back line for being able to organise itself in such an effective fashion. The likes of Maynard and Crisp have stood up once more, whilst Moore continues to emerge as a genuine All-Australian key back. This part of our game at the moment has been close to perfect, although we are still switching the magnets from week to week to find the right balance between rebound and control.
We seem to be breaking down somewhat on that last kick into the forward 50, largely due to our forward line not being able to keep shape; or not being present when we do manage to generate a fast transition. I haven’t counted too many times where our forwards have managed to get behind their defenders and benefit from – or even enable – some of those fast transitions.
Our ability to curtail the opposition’s forwards, win the ball back and then escape back to the middle of the ground has been excellent. Turning those situations into goals on the other hand has been something of a battle and is the foremost area where we need to do the most work. We controlled the game against Geelong from start to finish, but despite this they were always in with a show if they could gain momentum for five or ten minutes.
The threat of a repeat of our loss to the GWS seemed to loom constantly, as despite controlling a majority of most games we’ve played this year, we have a tendency to keep the opposition in with a show due to our dominance not being reflected on the scoreboard. We had 46 inside 50’s compared to Geelong’s 31, but only converted 17 of those entries into scores.
Nonetheless, although the game this year hasn’t made for the most impressive of spectacles, I am enjoying the way our team is committing themselves. We’re getting a fairly even spread of contributions across the field, albeit with a few players down on form and confidence. The team is working hard for each other, executing the small things well but also putting together some genuinely good passages of football. We’ve got a bit to work on still, but the important factor is that I feel there genuinely is room for that improvement both as a collective and via various individuals. Importantly, whilst we’ve been cruelled once more via some unfortunate injuries, that improvement does still seem achievable.
We were able to witness once more what De Goey can provide when played predominantly as a forward target. After increasing his midfield minutes this year, he had struggled to have the same sort of impact that he displayed in 2018. When shifted to the goal square, he was able to recapture some of that imposing presence, providing us with a spearhead that has been as rare as that of Longinus for us this year.
Unfortunately, he’s since been sidelined for another 10 weeks after undergoing surgery on his finger. He’s not easily replaced as a forward target, particularly given that we’re struggling for dependable focal points, but we may have to look at trying to isolate Stephenson out of the square once more whilst hoping that someone else can stand up, along with generating some more goals from the midfield.
Whilst the move to the midfield seemed a natural transition for De Goey, heading forward we might be better served maintaining the same 70/30 split that worked well in 2018. De Goey does offer something at stoppages as a player who tends to hit the ball at pace and can break free of congestion, but what he offers closer to goal is a lot more beneficial — particularly given that a player of his ilk, who can enter that rarified match winning zone, has a multiplying effect throughout the entire team when he’s up and about.
Taylor Adams continues to be a soldier at the coal face, being the sort of player who really sets the standard for intensity and commitment. Importantly, he’s making a habit of pushing forward and kicking truly when the opportunity presents itself. Pendlebury remains as dependable as ever, but it has been Treloar who over the past fortnight has really got us going out of the middle.
Treloar won 11 clearances against Geelong, but what really stood out to me was his intensity inside the contest, racking up 6 tackles to go along with his 34 disposals. Jamie Elliott had one of those anomalous sort of games against Geelong, where his modest stats I don’t feel reflected the impact he had on proceedings. His pressure game, commitment in closing down space and a collection of small bits of nous provided a solid contribution through the middle of the ground.
Given the loss of De Goey amid a forward line that doesn’t look too threatening at the moment, there would be some wisdom in letting Elliott spend more time in the front half — assuming he can find some chemistry with Stephenson and Hoskin-Elliott so that they can get some separation from their opponents or one-out opportunities. With Sidebottom also missing however, I expect we’ll still see Elliott rotated through the middle.
Hoskin-Elliott is still yet to capture his best form from 2018, but in the last two weeks he has looked a little more threatening. He’s beginning to really present and jump at the ball again, and although he doesn’t possess the size to be a pack buster, his spring heels do allow him to scramble the contest. There were several instances against both Geelong and Hawthorn where he went up from two or three deep and, without infringing, managed to bring the ball to ground to give our crumbers a look-in.
Such acts aren’t reflected on the stat sheet and can be easily overlooked, but whilst I’d like for him to prove more of a factor, I believe he is at least beginning to get a taste for it once more. If we’re to get over the line against the Eagles – or to turn our forward conversion around on a more permanent basis – we need him to get on the end of and convert more passages.
Whilst not being as eye-catching as the week before, Quaynor did not look at all out place down back in his second game up. There weren’t as many examples of his dash, but he positioned himself well and I don’t recall him ever being too obviously beaten. I mentioned the week before that I wanted to see how he used the ball over short to medium distances and against Geelong, he displayed good decision making and execution in this area.
Finally, his effort to get to a wide kick on the wing late in the game, marking and collecting a chair face first on the sideline, showed excellent commitment. We’ve got a really good prospect in Quaynor and he stands to benefit from the exposure that our injury misfortune has provided.
I felt John Noble was also solid, excluding one poor turnover earlier in the game. He showed a bit of toe but most importantly, was quite clean and sharp in fairly challenging conditions. Maynard was rock solid again, Moore was terrific and Jack Crisp had what might have been his best game for the year so far. The way all three have stood up since the loss of Howe has been a real credit to them.
Unfortunately, Callum Brown continues to struggle and I’m fearful that he might be in the midst of something of a form spiral. When he does find the ball, he has a tendency to try and overcompensate for his form struggles by doing too much with it, which just exacerbates his battle at the moment. He doesn’t have enough weapons to really make it as a small forward and yet, is probably still a preseason or two away from having the physique needed to hold up for long periods in the middle.
The persistence with his selection has surprised, if not disappointed me. I’m not writing Brown off as I still believe he has a future – he showed enough last year to suggest he can play at this level – but at the moment it’s just not happening for him. I’m of the opinion that he’d benefit most from playing predominantly midfield for a few scratch matches to try and break out of the rut he’s in.
Admittedly our cupboard is a little bare at the moment – although the overlooking of Sier once more continues to raise questions – but the recall of Josh Thomas does have me a little concerned ahead of our clash with West Coast. With Brown currently struggling to impact and Josh Thomas having similar struggles prior to being omitted, I fear that we could find ourselves blunt up front if their respective form lines continue.
If ever there was a time for both of these players to fire a shot, it is now. Hopefully one or both of them can sneak under the guard, or at least push up and win some contested ball between the arcs.
The contest between Grundy and Naitanui will be a focal point this Sunday and fortunately we’ve brought Darcy Cameron in to at least give Grundy a chop-out so that we don’t have any repeats of the uncontested ruck work we saw last week. Rupert Wills is really going to have to throw himself around and try to nullify the physical presence of the likes of Yeo and Redden at the coalface, whilst we’ll need Pendlebury, Treloar and Adams to outpoint their counterparts in Shuey, Gaff and Kelly..
The Eagles have battled through some indifferent form this year, but they’ll be looking to start putting their season together now that they’re on their home deck. We’ve at least had a chance to acquaint ourselves with the dimensions of Optus Stadium, but if we’re going to win then we need to get on top in the middle, starve the West Coast forwards of opportunities and deprive the likes of McGovern, Hurn and Barrass of the chance to intercept at will.
We’ve brought back Scharenberg and he’s likely to find himself having to battle out of his weight class, as West Coast have all of Kennedy, Darling and Allen as tall targets. If our pressure through the middle of the ground stands up, we can hopefully prevent them from being able to isolate our defenders. Heading forward, given that Mihocek is undersized and Cameron is yet to prove himself as a contested marking threat within the forward line, we need to try and hit up targets on the lead, or generate chaos ball/stoppage situations. If we bomb it in, I’d bank on the Eagles marking it nine times out of ten.
Given our outs, I’m not at all confident about our prospects against a team who has the key position talent to stretch us and enough quality in the engine room to match us. All the same, it’s a strange sort of year and I’m not going to discount our chances in any contest, particularly if we keep applying ourselves as we have.
I wrote in an earlier piece that the challenges of this year amidst a pandemic were an opportunity for the team to build and display character. Excluding a dismal loss to Essendon and a disappointing failure to capitalise and atone for last year’s finals departure against GWS, I feel the team has given a more than solid account of themselves since hitting the road.
This is a standard which I hope we continue with, as despite being in agreement with those who believe this year’s premiership will sport an asterisk and whilst battling to find the same sort of passionate investment as would come natural during any ordinary season, I still believe the fruits of this year – of this unique situation – may pay dividends in terms of player development and team unity well beyond this season.
Many people are struggling at the moment; for many others, this situation has been downright tragic. Amongst all of the uncertainty, it is hard to judge this season by any previous metric and in some respects it seems a little base to do so.
Nonetheless, there’s character to be built during such times, for the club and each of us alike.
Take care and be safe.
Floreat Pica
Fat Eddie gave it to him, Richard.
How utterly incompetent is Ned Guy? Trades away our highest possession player at the very last minute without finalising the terms of the trade. Apparently the clubs are still arguing over the deal.
How has this idiot still got a job?
Touche Brymee
As we all suspect, Fat Ed’s grubby little mitts were all over the Beams trade. The consequences have been staggering and far reaching. But if it ultimately results in his departure, well and good.
The Beams fiasco will go down in Collingwood history as one of the darkest periods at the club.
Poor due diligence, a player with mental issues and his heart not in the game and the stupidity of signing a contract without a get out clause should those known issues resurface.
In effect, it has cost the club 4 lost years of any meaningful participation in the drafts and seen the departure of players we can ill afford to lose.
All that and fat Eddie is still at the helm.
Pies delist Wills Appleby and confirm Beams retirement.
NMU
May I suggest that would be a waste of a perfectly good car bomb.
And now someone else goes bang, even if it is another Galbally. Can’t say I like his suggestion of Sally Capp as a possible President. She’s an idiot.
Ex-Collingwood lawyer Francis Galbally says the Pies must unveil an Eddie McGuire succession plan by Round 1 next year
Another high-profile Collingwood figure has joined calls for Eddie McGuire to relinquish the presidency and give the Magpies a fresh start.
Michael Warner
November 23, 2020 – 5:23PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
52 comments
Eddie McGuire needs to put a succession plan in place by Round 1 next year and publicly declare his intention to vacate the Collingwood presidency, long-time club lawyer Francis Galbally says.
Joining his brother David in speaking out about the Magpies’ recent “failure of leadership”, Galbally said the “overwhelming view” of the Collingwood community was that McGuire had stayed in the top job for too long.
“Eddie needs a succession plan in place and he needs to state publicly that he is going to go of his own making,” Galbally said.
“There needs to be change – a total refreshing at the top of the club – and it certainly needs to be in place by the time we get to March.”
Galbally, who was the Magpies’ honorary solicitor from 1976-94 and is a prominent Melbourne businessman and company director, identified Paul Tuddenham, Craig Kelly and Sally Capp as future Collingwood presidents.
“Eddie has been fabulous for the club, there is no doubt about it,” Galbally said.
“He has been the best president the club has ever had. It needed him at the time.
“He took the club from the 19th century to the 21st century in two years, forget the 20th – but you can’t be a one-man band, and that is what has happened here.
“Now, what company ever goes forward without having a proper succession plan? Nobody.
“But Eddie won’t go and when you have a failure of leadership, you then have a failure at all levels in the organisation, and that is what you’ve got now.
“The emperor has no clothes, I mean that is really where it is at the moment.
“And in history, people hang on for too long. John Howard did – perhaps the best prime minister the country ever had, yet he hung on for too long.
“They don’t see that they have to go, that’s the problem.”
Of the more than 8000 readers who responded to a Herald Sun poll on Friday asking if it was time McGuire stepped down, 81 per cent said yes.
Galbally said it was a dereliction of duties that after 22 years at the helm the club had not identified a successor to McGuire.
But he believed many were too “scared” to speak out for fear of having “our heads cut off”.
“Everybody is petrified to put their hand up,” he said.
“People are coy to say things because they are scared of being either talked down, like Tony Shaw was, or they have kids that are coming through into the club.”
McGuire labelled Shaw a “dial-a-quote” two years ago after the premiership legend questioned the disciplinary standards at the club.
Galbally said McGuire’s fellow board members had also failed the club in recent years.
“What disappoints me is that the Alex Waislitz and Mark Korda’s of this world, who are absolutely outstanding people and business people, don’t seem, when it comes to Collingwood, to have brought any of those qualities to the board table,” he said.
His brother, David Galbally, AM QC – a former Magpies director – last week called for McGuire to walk as part of a major “clean out” of the club.
Their father, the legendary lawyer Frank Galbally CBE, played six games for Collingwood and served on the club committee, while uncles Jack and Bob also pulled on the famous black and white strip.
Jack was vice-president between 1951-62.
McGuire, elected president in October 1998, says members will have their chance to ask questions about the club’s direction at a fan forum to be held after the national draft in mid-December.
It does raise an interesting question, Brymee.
Is being President of the CFC naturally a high profile position that means certain people aren’t going to want it no matter what, or is it high profile because of whomever takes the position makes it that way?
I believe the current structure of the club/constitution/admin makes it difficult for a challenge regardless, so someone is going to have to be very determined to do something to make it happen.
The fact that McGuire is clinging on like a man on the edge of a cliff when everything is falling down around him is an indictment on the man. The gross mismanagement of the list should mean instant dismissal, but given that McGuire had to beg Walsh to come back after he screwed up with the Balme/Allan fiasco makes it pretty difficult for him to do anything.
The club is a festering cesspool at the moment, mired in mediocrity – Buckley/Harvey/Sanderson – seriously? gifting jobs without due process and clearly without any forward vision.
For whatever reason, no one seems to have the balls to challenge McGuire, and his ego is too large for him to step down of his own accord. A car bomb would therefore seem to be the only solution.
It is a crazy situation NMU that not one challenge has arisen over the last 22 years of McGuire’s reign.
The board have no challengers and the President has the last say on everything.
When McGuire come on board I seem to recall the club was in crisis and looking at going belly up
He managed to get a lot of new sponsors and a Premiership and since then he has been king.
Now, most CEO s survive on their last couple of years results and as soon as it looks like they have lost the plot out they go.
The current state of affairs is nothing short of a disaster so, how the hell is McGuire and the board still there?
We are all used to the bullshit that emanates from the CFC each and every year but, this time surely something has to give?
If it does not I fear for the viability of the club much like I did under Mckallister