Pies face tough Friday night test against the TigersMichael Gleeson
The Age
22 July 2019On Friday night Collingwood will play Richmond. About 90,000 people are expected to be there. It is uncertain which 22 from Collingwood show up.
We know which 22 from Richmond will be there, they turn up weekly, the numbers on the backs vary but 22 routinely show up with the same game, mentality and energy. Now even the numbers on the backs are becoming more regular and looking more comfortable with one another.
The pieces are returning to the team but also the mechanics of how those pieces slot together looks better by the week. Against Port on Saturday Richmond looked as sharp, cohesive and threatening as they have all year, indeed as they have for nearly two years.
The Tom Lynch-Jack Riewoldt pairing established the sort of synergy hoped for when the former Suns captain was recruited. Lynch has taken his time to get fit and is now holding marks, Riewoldt taken just his time not to be injured. This was the first we have seen of both looking fit and with touch and form.
Then there is the more unsettling arrangement when Dusty Martin goes to the goal square and pushes the other two away from goal. Bizarrely, this renders Riewoldt the third most immediate concern in the forward line. A concern in itself.
The Richmond attack looked as balanced, multi-pronged and dangerous as the GWS Giants.
Collingwood played the Giants on Saturday. It didn’t go well. Collingwood lost the game in the first quarter on Saturday, or perhaps earlier than that. Maybe they lost it on Thursday night. At selection the Giants went big and Collingwood went small. On Saturday big belted small.
The Giants loaded up with tall forwards and Collingwood had nothing to match them. Without Darcy Moore (hamstring) they had Jordan Roughead for height, Jeremy Howe for leap and a collection of flankers for run and pressure. It was not enough. The Giants played through poor Flynn Appleby’s opponent and within a quarter had a seven-goal lead. This time last year Tyson Goldsack came in and helped hold a backline together. Matt Scharenberg was dropped after the Hawthorn game this year after his forays back from another knee reconstruction.
It remained perplexing that neither Goldsack or Scharenberg were brought in for the Giants.
Collingwood is suffering from something Richmond never quite suffered from during its injury run. Their good players have fallen horribly out of form.
When Richmond had injuries in large part many of their better players still maintained their form. Dion Prestia, for instance, has been outstanding and of course much has been written of the young and emerging talent unearthed as a result of injuries.
Conversely, the Pies have struggled to maintain form. Their midfield was again beaten for pace and run on Saturday. The numbers say they had more inside fifties than GWS so, yes, they managed to have a look at the ball forward, but there was a significant difference in the way the Giants moved the ball into their forward line.
Partly that was because the Giants had targets to kick to that would mark the ball. Collingwood had Mason Cox. He is keeping a position in the team on the basis of an absence of alternatives who can second ruck. It can only be hoped that playing Richmond on the MCG reminds him of his career-high water mark and not the drowning efforts since.
When Collingwood were good they had a forward line like the Giants and Richmond that was multi-faceted. Previously when they took it into attack the forwards spread and there was a rotating option of Jaidyn Stephenson, Jordan De Goey or Will Hoskin-Elliott before thoughts turned to Cox or Brodie Mihocek.
Now Hoskin-Elliott is a memory of what he was last year, (Jamie Elliott not there last year but occasionally there this year, is injured again), Stephenson is in the stands, and De Goey either in the midfield or being double-teamed.
Arguably Cox has been hurt as much as anyone by Stephenson’s absence, a suspension that becomes more punishing to the side by the week. Without the threats such as Richmond and the Giants possess, Collingwood’s attack becomes predictable, and predictability is easier to defend for opposition defences have the luxury to roll off their opponents and double team De Goey in the air and to cut Cox’s run at the ball or climb over him.
Last week felt like Collingwood had rediscovered form but similar maladies afflicted them this week.
An injury to Darcy Moore depleting their backs, a midfield out-run and a too-sparse forward line. They have only recent history to comfort them against Richmond. The Tigers have the prospect of a top four spot.
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