Pies Off Target, But There's Promise Of More To Come
The Sunday Age
Sunday September 14, 2008
IF THERE has been a theme to the last part of the Collingwood season, it could be summed up in one word - opportunity.
On the Saturday night after Alan Didak and Heath Shaw were tipped out of the team, chances were granted to Chris Dawes and John McCarthy, who were both still in last night's side, suggesting they might have found their way in anyway. The absence of Anthony Rocca had shoved the words "increased responsibility" under Travis Cloke's job description. Long before then, the loss for yet another season of Sean Rusling's forward potential meant that Jack Anthony, the supposed replacement for James Clement at the other end of the ground, could emerge as one of the most accurate goalkickers in the competition.When their bad boys were booted, the Collingwood season was well and truly on the line. But Dane Swan insisted it wasn't, Leon Davis did likewise, and Anthony, Dawes and McCarthy, among others, made sure their side stayed alive.Against Adelaide last week the Magpies fell four goals behind in the second quarter, but they kept pushing, kept creating, kept taking their chances, and they won.Last night, Collingwood was in the game. For a long time, Swan was thumping the ball from the middle, Josh Fraser was urging it forward in his more subtle way and Davis was resisting the attention of Clinton Jones, and McCarthy and Ryan Cook were ducking around the back of the centre square, doing their bit. A side that has 14 scoring shots to its opponents' nine in the opening half is well and truly in the match.But the problem, as the Collingwood season slid to a stop, was that only four of those scoring shots were goals. At the other end, St Kilda had kicked eight goals and a point on its way to 17.4.It was as if the Magpies had their shot, but they fell the wrong side of the fine line after playing with such energy and resistance for so many weeks. When the wave of momentum stopped, they became disjointed.It was a particularly forgettable night for Cloke, who couldn't find a way past Jason Blake. That meant things fell to Dawes and, with a few handy opponents breathing down his neck, his match amounted to just a couple of brief moments too. It wasn't happening for Paul Medhurst either. He didn't really do too much wrong and certainly tried to get something going, but it simply wasn't his night. He'll have lots more to do next season, too.So, too, will Anthony, at either end of the ground. In his first 11 games, he hasn't been a player who had dominated games, or even threatened to. But he had made his moments count more than most with his accurate shooting for goal.Anthony Rocca may be back next year. Rusling, fingers crossed, will be too. Ben Reid and Brad Dick, among others, should join Dawes and co in the new brigade. Cloke is already good and could/should get better.Didak? Who knows, but Collingwood surely bowed out of another season having set some good things up, rather than starting to run out of time.
© 2008 The Sunday Age
