QUARTER BY QUARTER
The Age
Monday March 29, 2010
The Pies€™ inspired openingterm saw them boot eightgoals to three. More pleasingfor Mick Malthouse was thatseven players scored the majors, the teamapparently relishing the constantly changingMagpie forward set-up. This rattled the Dogs€™defenders, who allowed their opponents toomuch time and space to convert. SharrodWellingham couldn€™t have dreamt of a betterstart to a new season, lining up on Brownlowmedallist Adam Cooney and enjoying thebest quarter of his young career with a10-touch, one-goal term. In the Bulldogs€™attack, Barry Hall drilled consecutive majorsmid-term to keep his new team in touch.Collingwood by 30 points.Collingwood drew first bloodafter Paul Medhurst goaledin the first 90 seconds, butthe Dogs, as if at last hearingemergency bells ringing, thenbooted five unanswered goals. Bob Murphyand Jason Akermanis had a hand in justabout every major score. In the interim,Steele Sidebottom missed two shots andScott Pendlebury fluffed another that wouldhave spoiled the Bulldogs€™ momentum.Paul Medhurst, who was clearly having thebetter of Ryan Hargrave, stopped the rot byscoring his side€™s first major for 25 minutes.Tension levels rose just before half-timewhen Wellingham left the field bleedingfrom the head after a heavy clash with Hall.Collingwood by 9 points.Daniel Giansiracusa reducedthe margin to four pointssix minutes in, but the Dogsstill weren€™t able to claimthe lead after Pendlebury€™s quick reply.Key defender Brian Lake scored the Dogs€™next goal €” making the margin just threepoints €” after his surge down the ground.The match then slowed considerably, manyplayers were cramping, but Collingwood goton top in the later stages of the quarterand re-established a handy buffer, thanksto majors from Dane Swan, Alan Didakand Medhurst, who kicked his fourth justbefore the last break. Harry O€™Brien wasoutstanding in this critical period of thegame. Collingwood by 20 points.The Bulldogs continued topay for their uncharacteristicerrors €” Didak scoring thePies€™ first goal of the lastterm courtesy of a misjudgedhandball by Daniel Cross. Travis Cloke wasthe next beneficiary after Will Minson, in anapparent lapse of concentration, ran acrossthe mark and gave away a 50-metre penaltythat made a likely goal a certainty. Fromthen on it was junk time. Leon Davis scoredtwo late goals that blew the margin out to38 points and only enhanced the alreadyimpressive effort of Collingwood€™s smallforwards. Collingwood by 36 points.
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