Pies A Shaw Thing With Heath Firing
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday April 7, 2008
Tigers 11.12 (78)
Magpies 18.14 (122) MICK Malthouse had one beef about Collingwood's performance in beating Richmond by 44 points at the MCG yesterday. The Magpies, beaten by less than a straight kick in the preliminary final last year by eventual premiers Geelong, dominated most aspects of the game and have now won two from three, their only loss by two points to Brisbane at the Gabba last round. As expected, Richmond did not trouble them unduly. Except in the area of clearances. Collingwood did not so much lose the clearances, said Malthouse, "we were smashed." Richmond won the clearances 33 to 23. That the Tigers were unable to capitalise on this advantage was in no small part due to the counter-attacks Collingwood built from their back line - mostly from Heath Shaw. While one coach was worried about his side's performance at the game's starts and re-starts, the other was worried about the start, full stop. For the third game in a row, Richmond found themselves in the position of having to chase an opponent. "[Our] starts are killing us," Terry Wallace said. "We were five goals behind Carlton in round one and we managed to get out of that and win the game. "Last week it was 11 scoring shots to four in the first quarter and this week they've had seven of the first eight scoring shots. We've clearly got to be working on our first quarters and be better than that early in games. "When you play two top-four sides from last year and you give them a start, they don't let you back in." Wallace praised Shaw for his job on Tigers playmaker Nathan Brown. "I thought [Nathan] was soundly beaten by Heath, who's a pretty good player," said Wallace, who added that the Collingwood man had improved his one-on-one defensive skills to go with his ability to rebound. The Tigers have forward Kayne Pettifer on report for striking Nick Maxwell in the second quarter. Malthouse was also pleased with small forward Paul Medhurst, who had 24 possessions and kicked three goals in a lively display. "Paul was good today and he kicked goals," Malthouse said.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
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