All-or-nothing Collingwood Pulls Out Its Aces
The Age
Saturday May 24, 2008
COLLINGWOOD is the Lleyton Hewitt of football. Not simply because it polarises opinion like the irritating "C'mon" merchant but because to win, it has to play football like Hewitt plays tennis.
It has to play with a manic intensity that borders on the pathological. It plays a game that is blunt in its attack on the ball and the man with it as it seeks to choke the ball out by force of will. It is a game played in the "red zone" of laughable physical exertion and exhaustion. It is a game as taxing on opponent as the player. It is the game the Magpies played last night.Collingwood, like Hewitt, is a side that plays without gears. It must play this way or it struggles to win. It is why Hewitt can be knocked out early in tournaments and why Collingwood can drop games against, say, a Carlton. It does not have the gears like a Geelong or Hawthorn, which can allow lesser sides to start and still expect to raise their game sufficiently to win. Well, normally, Geelong.Because it is a finals-like intensity the Pies play with, they can be a difficult side in finals. Collingwood played in this sort of manner when it could routinely match it with Sydney and Port Adelaide, yet lose to Fremantle.It is patently true after a defeat of last night's magnitude that it is a style of game that troubles Geelong. For it was a style of game and not just a readiness to lose from Geelong that was revealed last night. The Cats like fold-over handball out of defence, to base their game on running the ball from the back line through the middle of the ground because they have such pace and skill in their midfield.But this was denied them last night. They were harassed in defence and denied the ball through the middle. In the opening term, Matthew Scarlett was run down from behind, then also Joel Corey for a Collingwood goal. The Scarlett moment was particularly instructive for he governs much of how the ball leaves his area of the ground.This issue - and why Collingwood dominated as it did - is best illustrated by the half-time statistics that had Collingwood laying 55 tackles to Geelong's 27. This reflected the pressure Collingwood applied, the handball statistics column of how Geelong sought to get out of it. To half-time, the Cats had 111 handballs to 95 kicks. Collingwood had double the kicks to handballs (124 to 60).This was a match about declarations from Collingwood, not only because it played with vigour but because certain individuals were crucial to its game. Alan Didak was Collingwood's best, but he has been good throughout this year. Importantly, Travis Cloke was in the type of form he showed in the preliminary final. Dale Thomas, rejuvenated by finally being put on the ball last week, was quiet in the middle stages but vital to Collingwood's cause overall. Sharrod Wellingham was sharp and quick by hand and foot in the crucial first half.But the player making the loudest statement of the night was Anthony Rocca. He was not Collingwood's best player but he was among them. Rocca's record against Scarlett in recent years has been poor. Michael Malthouse queried pre-season whether a "horses for courses" approach should be taken with him this year, to rest Rocca from certain games and opponents. The pseudo-retirement of Fraser Gehrig this week raised the question of whether it might not even be a matter of the horse being gelded, not rested.Rocca will have taken deep satisfaction from his game last night. No less than in his mark on the wing in the third term when Geelong had quickly kicked the first three of the quarter and appeared rousing for a fight. Rocca met the pack of three Cats in front of him and loped over the top. They concertinaed under him as he ripped the mark.He turned and kicked perfectly to Didak who out-pointed Scarlett in the marking contest to goal. That is why Rocca is what he is to Collingwood.
© 2008 The Age
