A Buddy Gr8 Night Out
The Age
Saturday August 2, 2008
At least it was for Lance Franklin and the resurgent Hawks. But for a Collingwood side on the verge of sliding out of the eight, it was a night to forget. Greg Baum reports from the MCG.
IT'S all gone pear-shaped for the Pies.Collingwood's nine-goal thrashing by Hawthorn at the MCG last night was its third in a row. A likely fall of results today and tomorrow will squeeze it out of the top eight by the end of the round, and shake its confidence of getting back in.It's an academic matter, anyway. This was Hawthorn's second comprehensive beating of Collingwood this season, affirming the gulf between contenders and pretenders.The night the Magpies became the only team this season to conquer Geelong seems a long time ago.Victory for the Hawks righted their ship after they had faltered against St Kilda and in last week's trial grand final against the Cats. Last night, all the parts of their highly customised game were in working order. Lance Franklin kicked eight goals, also six behinds, prompting Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse to predict that he would one day break the record for goals in a game.Jarryd Roughead kicked four in passing.Sam Mitchell had 36 disposals, Luke Hodge 32 and the variation on the night was Jordan Lewis, who topped all-comers with 38. Hawthorn handled the ball 431 times on the night, 119 times in the third quarter alone. These statistics are signifi cant in that they indicate how Hawthorn monopolised possession.With that much of the ball, it is probable that a team will kick a winning score, certain that it will deny its opposition one. No more than any other side did Collingwood have an answer to Franklin, and it did not seem even to address the question of Mitchell, who ran free all night.Just as pleasingly for coach Alastair Clarkson, his now famous rolling zone proved as impenetrable as ever. Last night, it flummoxed Collingwood utterly. The signature play on the night was for a Magpie to kick hastily to a nest of Hawks, who went into their well-drilled formation and sped the ball back down the ground with a blindingly quick succession of criss-crossing handpasses, breaking tackles seemingly at will, at length delivering to Franklin or Roughead, isolated with his minder. Only some typically extravagant fi nishing from Franklin prevented a wider margin.Hawthorn won tactically, psychologically and physically.It outpaced, outbodied and out-possessed Collingwood, but, above all, outsmarted it.The zone creates the impression of extra players on the ground.It is not true, of course, but it is where the ball is, or is likely to go. To revive a Jack Dyer aphorism, the Hawks don't go where the ball ain't.But no one should underestimate the skill it takes, and discipline, and concentration, and awareness, and poise. Nor for that matter, the effort to be everywhere at once. That perhaps explains why, after blitzing Collingwood in the first quarter and leading by 39 points early in the second, the Hawks appeared to pause for breath.Collingwood, nothing if not dogged, broke even in general play, closed on the scoreboard and after kicking the first three goals of the third quarter had narrowed the margin to 10 points. As it happened, it was not so much a turning of the tide as an unexpectedly long period of slack water. An opportunist snap from Franklin, a kick-in cock-up by Collingwood that gifted Roughead a goal, and the Hawks were away again. They kicked nine goals to two for the rest of the match.Collingwood struggled in predictable places and ways.It lost badly for clearances, a chronic weakness all season.Hawthorn won the centrebreaks 21-7, giving it a weight of forward-bound football that no team could withstand. Its own forward line again failed to impose itself. Much-vaunted small forwards Leon Davis, Alan Didak, Paul Medhurst and Dale Thomas kicked three goals between, and centre halfforward Travis Cloke failed even to score. The Magpies' one gain on the night was the return to form of Heath Shaw.Collingwood has injuries, but so do all other clubs. Anthony Rocca's absence is becoming an increasingly acute presence.But he might not be back this season, so must be disregarded.Malthouse claims never to use injuries as an excuse, and prides himself on forging teams that are greater than the sum of their parts.Last night, the Magpies lacked the fanatical work ethic they displayed, for instance, against Geelong and Sydney.Several seemed intent on taking mark of the year. Hawthorn contented itself to take the mark of the moment, and outmarked Collingwood 127-81.The Hawks did nothing more than play to their game-plan and their strengths; they were plentiful enough. The previous week's loss to Geelong was made to look what it was: in a different game, a different league.
© 2008 The Age
