Magpies Keep 'foot On Throat'
The Sunday Age
Sunday June 1, 2008
COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse admitted he drove to the ground yesterday worried that after last week's massive high the Magpies could be in for a fall, but instead was delighted his players responded by smashing a disappointing West Coast by a record 100 points.
After opening with a burst, the Magpies allowed the Eagles to kick six goals to their seven in the second quarter, but Malthouse was pleased that they came out in the second half and kept "the foot on the throat", kicking 15 goals to three."I don't hide the fact that I'm a worrier," Malthouse said after the game. "We took it pretty easy during the week, Wednesday was our first major hitout and it was a pretty jovial group, a pretty confident group . . . but coming here I thought players that you want to have some urgency about them had some urgency - the captain (Scott Burns), (Shane) O'Bree, (Shane) Wakelin, (Tarkyn) Lockyer, Josh Fraser. But yeah, you never know in this game."Instead it was West Coast coach John Worsfold wondering at how a side can fall so dramatically. "It sits me back and says you've got a lot of work to do - a massive amount," Worsfold said. " A lot of players are really finding out how intense AFL footy is, week-in, week-out, and learning where they sit in that pecking order really, and we're learning it about them as well, but we'll stick with them."Worsfold said all the blame could not be laid at the feet of the junior players. "There were a lot of senior players that made some bad errors under pressure in the second half, got beaten in contests that we would have expected them to do better."Quinten Lynch agreed. "It's a very disappointing day. I don't know why we went so far off the boil, but I suppose you've just got to have intense pressure at the football, and that dropped off after half-time," Lynch said. "Every credit to them, they just smashed us."O'Bree said the players had recognised that the match was "a real danger game" after the high of beating Geelong. "At training, it probably wasn't as good as what we'd like it to be, but we just really focused today on not letting ourselves down with a loss, and the way we came out, and the second half, was really good."He said next week, when Collingwood will be a strong favourite against Melbourne on Queen's Birthday Monday, was already a focus. "We can't let ourselves down, we have to just keep the foot on their throats, as they say."The highlight of yesterday's game was a 60-metre, four-bounce, flat-chat running goal from Dale Thomas - completed with several stitches in a badly cut bottom lip - a goal which Thomas was keen last night to attribute to his forwards. "I was lucky enough to get a couple of really handy blocks from the boys and it just so happened that the forwards realised that I had a bit of space and they turned around, so their men stayed with them and stayed off me, so I was able to run till 40-odd and lucky enough it swung back late and went through."Anthony Rocca was a late exclusion with his continued general soreness, replaced by Shannon Cox, but Malthouse was confident he'd return next week. "Anthony was pretty keen to play - I'd be very surprised if he's not right next week."
© 2008 The Sunday Age
