Sydney Like A Second Home For Collingwood

The Age

Saturday July 5, 2008

By Nick Sheridan

COLLINGWOOD may owe its good record over the Swans at ANZ Stadium to its decision to hold community camps in western Sydney in the past, Magpies captain Scott Burns said yesterday.

The Magpies used the stadium as their training ground, and also played their intra-club matches there when they held their pre-season community camps in the harbour city between 2003 and 2006.

The proxy home ground advantage has paid dividends for the Pies, who have won three of their five clashes against Sydney at the Olympic stadium.

"I think the other thing is in the first few occasions that we did play Sydney, they probably hadn't been out there a great deal but over the last few years they've played a lot more football out there so they'll be used to it," Burns said yesterday.

The extra time playing at the stadium has not been of any benefit to the Swans over the past two seasons, however, with the Pies beating them there when they met in 2006 and 2007.

Collingwood will be without its No. 1 ruckman Josh Fraser again this week, after the big man struggled to make a full recovery from the posterior cruciate ligament he injured in the Hall of Fame match in May.

But Burns said he had faith in the abilities of the club's two other ruckmen, Cameron Wood and Chris Bryan. It was the depleted forward line that concerned him.

"Anthony (Rocca) is the one that's probably a little bit disappointing because he's got a reasonable record against Sydney," Burns said.

The Pies are in seventh place with seven wins and this week looms as their chance to unsettle the top-four Swans and make their own tilt at a top-four spot, says Burns.

"If Sydney knock us off it makes it pretty hard to catch up, but if we can get the points then that fourth spot might be open for three or four other teams," he said.

Earlier in the week, Collingwood assistant coach Brad Scott noted that the Swans and the Magpies tended to play a very similar style of game, with a heavy emphasis on defence and man-on-man football.

© 2008 The Age

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