Eagles Master Wind And The Magpies

The Sunday Age

Sunday February 24, 2008

By Digby Beacham, Albany

WHATEVER positives Collingwood can take from its scrappy 33-point loss to West Coast here yesterday will be soured by the expectation that Brad Dick will require a full knee reconstruction.

The forward twisted his left knee in an attempt to lay a tackle on Andrew Embley late in the second quarter and was carried from the ground by two trainers. He reappeared from the Collingwood dressing rooms after half-time on crutches and with an ice-pack on the injured knee. He will have scans today but the early prognosis points to a year on the sidelines.

Aside from that, assistant coach Guy McKenna liked a lot of what he saw from the young Collingwood group.

"We were a bit scrappy, but that was a quarter improvement on the Adelaide game, so we played a decent half game," he said.

"We need to build that up to four quarters by round one. There are areas for us to improve on, but if there's a positive, it is that we were more consistently good offensively and defensively better."

A crisp south-easterly wind whipped across the ground during the match, strengthening as the game progressed and ensuring jumpers and scarves, not shirts and sunscreen, were the order of the day for the sellout crowd of 8027.

The elements were such that the standard of football was best described as modest, with players struggling to adapt to the blustery conditions on a spacious ground foreign to just about everyone.

Only seven goals were kicked into the breeze, five coming in the final quarter, when the sting had gone from the contest.

It was West Coast's ability to start taking chances while kicking with the wind in the third term that turned the game on its head, the Eagles scoring 6.4 to 0.4 to turn a four-point half-time deficit into a 33-point win.

By game's end, the Eagles had held firm to record a 14.15 (99) to 9.12 (66) victory despite missing the quality of Tyson Stenglein, Daniel Kerr, Matt Priddis, Darren Glass, Quinten Lynch, Adam Selwood, Adam Hunter, Josh Kennedy and Mark Nicoski. Ruckman Dean Cox and experienced midfielders Embley, Chad Fletcher and Michael Braun were influential in the dominant third quarter.

McKenna experimented heavily with the Collingwood line-up, with one move - using Paul Medhurst through the midfield - showing promise. Ben Reid marked strongly and kicked 3.3 as an excellent foil for Anthony Rocca. In an indication the Magpies' following division could be better than last season, former Brisbane Lions ruckman Cameron Wood produced a solid performance.

DETAILS

WEST COAST

2.6 3.8 9.12 14.15 (99)

COLLINGWOOD

1.1 4.6 4.10 9.12 (66)

GOALS - West Coast: Wirrpanda 3, Staker 2, Graham 2, McKinley 2, C Jones, Fletcher, Seaby, Schofield, Armstrong.

Collingwood: Reid 3, Wood 2, Johnson, Rocca, Macaffer, Medhurst.

West Coast: Fletcher, Braun, B Jones, Embley, Cox, Wirrpanda.

Collingwood: Reid, Swan, Medhurst, Maxwell, Johnson, Wood.

INJURIES - Collingwood: Dick (knee), Brown (knee).

UMPIRES: Margetts, Farmer, Hendrie, Keating.

CROWD: About 7500 at Collingwood Park, Albany.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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