Some were billing this as the game of the round. The reigning premiers up against the rebuilding Hawks. The Hawks have been the second-best team in the comp in terms of win/loss record since Round Nine, whilst the Pies form in that same timeline has been mixed, but most recently, has been pretty ordinary.
The Pies, besieged by injuries this season, particularly to their talls at either end welcomed back Jeremy Howe after a week off, and Dan McStay returned for his first AFL game of the season. The Hawks, meanwhile, brought ex-Pie Ginnivan into their team, along with Nick Daicos’ nemesis, Finn Maginness.
When the teams faced off earlier in the season, the Pies were arguably lucky to hold on to a win with the rampaging Hawks coming hard in the last quarter. There was a lot on the line for both sides this afternoon, with finals potentially out of reach for the loser.
At this point I should probably mention that I am a Pies supporter. When I first put my hand up to review this game a few weeks ago (my first review of a Pies game for The Mongrel) I did not expect the stakes to be so high, with the loser of this game finding it very hard to make finals. I was worried throughout the week that I would be unable to make my review unbiased or impartial.
It was almost like both teams knew I was nervous, so they conspired to make sure there was no way I could be biased today. One team clearly deserves the plaudits and is looking very dangerous heading into finals, the other team looked like they could not give a shit. I’ve reviewed a few one-sided games this season, and I always try to be careful when talking about the losing team – I don’t want to be disrespectful to other team’s fans, so I always try and find positives in heavy losses. This will not be that type of review – my beloved Pies deserved the flogging they got today, and the flogging they will get in this review.
Jack Ginnivan:
It just had to be Ginni didn’t it? A kid that was essentially shown the door by Collingwood, today assisted in essentially ending their premiership defence. If he wasn’t the best player on the park today, particularly in the first half, we has bloody close. A career best 31 disposals, a team best 11 score involvements, and a couple of goals make this probably Ginni’s best game for the Hawks – hell, probably the best game of his career.
For the first two quarters of this game, Ginnivan wandered up from his position in the forward line and just did as he bloody well pleased. No one from Collingwood had the want to go with him, and he was involved in countless chains that led to Hawthorn goals. Sam Mitchell often likes to push one of his half forwards up to be an extra at the contest, the trade-off is this often leaves the opposition with a spare in defence. Against Geelong, this backfired with the Hawks unable to move the footy quickly through the midfield due to the spare. Today it worked beautifully and if the Pies had a spare, I didn’t see him.
Ginnivan is a polarizing player, I loved him at the Pies, and at different times today I both hated him and loved him. I felt a bit like a jilted ex-lover who was still harboring deep-seeded feelings, but didn’t want to admit it. Ginnivan was just “on” today, and while he was not alone, it brought back fond memories for me of his Anzac medal winning performance for the Pies. It had everything you love out of a Ginnivan performance – goals, wrestles, getting under the oppositions’ skin. And he did it all with a smile on his face – he really seems to be enjoying his footy in the Brown and Gold.
I hated that he kissed the Hawthorn badge after his first goal. I hated that “goodnight” gesture to the Collingwood cheer squad (those that hadn’t left yet) after his second goal. I loved that the first word out of his mouth when Cam Mooney interviewed him after the game was the F bomb followed by “this has started well huh”. I hate that he is no longer at Collingwood, and I am quite jealous of Hawthorn fans who get to fall in love with him over the next few years. He will have quiet games – such is the life of an AFL small forward, but he will also win you games with much fewer than 31 possessions.
There were plenty of winners in the Hawks smalls, but today was Ginnivan’s day.
The Hawthorn brick wall:
I’ve written about this before, and here it was again today. The Pies simply could not get the ball over halfway for large parts of this game. At quarter time Hawthorn had double the inside 50s, and only some frenzied defending from the Pies back six was keeping them in the game. By the end of the game the inside 50 count was 69-37 Hawthorn’s way, as their main men outpointed their Collingwood counterparts and intercepted time and time again.
The Captain Siciliy again led the way with ten intercept possessions, but he was ably assisted by Scrimshaw once again with seven, and Hardwick back in defence with nine. When Collingwood did get through the brick wall they were able to generate scores (albeit mostly behinds) but the Hawks back six simply rarely allowed them through.
What they also did very well today, was offer options running from behind, with the Collingwood forwards seemingly content to allow this. With ten minutes to go in the last quarter a stat flashed up on the screen showing that the Hawks had 148 handball receives to Collingwood’s 67 – I’ll touch on this a little more in the next section, but the energy and appetite from the Hawks defenders to not only defend, but assist with moving the ball forward, was telling today. If Siciliy is allowed the time and space, he could hit a penny with the ball from a 70 metre kick, and he was allowed to do that time and time again today.
Pressure vs witches hats:
While stats can often be misleading and not allow you to truly see the pattern of a game you haven’t watched, I think two stats really told the story of this game. Hawthorn had 434 disposals in total today, to Collingwood’s 288 a difference of 146 disposals! At the same time they managed to only lay 12 less tackles than Collingwood.
How does that happen?
Effort.
Pressure.
Want for the contest.
Call it what you will, one team had it today, and the other team was beaten into submission.
I honestly don’t know how much credit to give Hawthorn, or how much shit to give Collingwood here – it probably worked both ways, but as a Pies fan, it was incredibly tough to watch. I don’t know whether the Pies were lazy, or disrespectful of their opponents, and I don’t know which would be worse to be honest, but it was an absolutely piss poor showing from the reigning premiers this afternoon.
In the first half in particular, every Collingwood possession came under intense pressure. I often find when watching on TV, a good guide to the effort of each team, is how many players you see in the picture around a loose ball. In this one, it was all Hawthorn. I noted multiple times in the first half that not only did the Hawks have more players in screen, often 2-5 of those players were tackling the sole Collingwood player in the picture. If the ball had of come loose, there were plenty of Hawks players around to sweep it up and away.
When the Hawks did have the ball, they always had options. Countless times, a Hawks defender would run from behind the player with the ball for a handball receive, with no Collingwood forward in sight. This would cause a chain reaction of sorts, where the next Collingwood player down the line would come forward to pressure the handball receiver, which then freed up a Hawks player over the top, which then caused another Collingwood player to come forward and so on so on. It was never ending. The Hawks looked faster, cleaner and hungrier than the Pies today. In defence, the Pies defenders often paid scant regard to their direct opponents, with Hawks forwards often in acres of space.
When Collingwood tried to move the ball, they barely had an available option, and when they did find an option, the pressure they were under often resulted in fumbles, or being gang tackled and being unable to get the ball out, forcing another stoppage. I lost count of how many times a Hawks player seemingly stood still looking for an option and was not tackled, likewise the amount of times a Hawks player waltzed through a half-hearted Collingwood tackle. For mine, this all comes down to want, hunger, mindset. The Hawks were hungry and they came in with a hunting mindset, rendering some of the bigger name players at Collingwood ineffective.
Such was their dominance, that when Finn Maginness was subbed on halfway through the third quarter, both myself and my Hawks supporter mate who were watching the game wondered what he would do, as there was literally not a single Collingwood player worthy of a tag at that point.
McRae’s magnets:
I mentioned at the start of this article how the Pies have been besieged by injury this season, and while it was certainly not an excuse for the distinct lack of effort we saw today, I think it has been a pretty big contributing factor to their season thus far. Consider these names that were in and around the best 22 last season, who have missed large chunks of this season, some of them missing today as well.
Nathan Murphy has missed the whole season after being medically retired. A key player last season in the Pies formidable defence. Dan McStay has missed all but one game, and the Pies have sorely missed his contested marking ability. Compounding the McStay injury, Mihocek has missed seven games so far this season and won’t be back. Mason Cox, who pinch hits forward and is pretty serviceable as a back up ruck to Cameron, has missed seven games. Tom Mitchell, the Pies’ main in-and-under player in the midfield has missed 12 games. De Goey has missed seven games, Pendles has missed a few. Lachie Schultz and Beau McCreery were missing today, which goes some way to explaining the lack of pressure from the Pies forward line. While these players may not all be match winners, their roles were all very important in the success of last season.
With these guys missing, McRae has been forced to test the depth of the list, as well as move magnets around at times. I felt today the magnets he moved just did not work. Ned Long was signed in the mid-season draft after some really good form as an in and under midfielder for the Pies VFL team. He was exceeding in clearances and tackles at the level below, and it seemed he might be primed to help in the midfield, in the wet, against the club that delisted him. So why did he play as a forward and back up ruck (where he was monstored by Conor Nash). De Goey is probably Collingwood’s most damaging midfielder currently, which he proved in the second half today – so why did he play the first half in the forward line?
Will Hoskin Elliott can be a great link player, or a forward. He is very good overhead, and has great endurance, why is he playing in the backline? Why would you not continue with Charlie Dean down there and find out if he is good enough. Steele Sidebottom was absolutely towelled up on his wing by Massimo D’Ambrosio today – why was he there when he has been at halfback the last few weeks?
Injuries dictate that McRae has had to move the magnets at times this season, but I feel like these moves today were very very wrong and contributed to the loss.
Other Bits:
Had to have a giggle at some Anthony Hudson commentary early, as a high ball came into the Hawks forward line, Watson found himself matched up against Jeremy Howe. Hudson excitedly screamed “Can Watson get up over the top?”. No Anthony, he cannot.
Darcy Moore was pretty good defensively today and is one of the few Pies that can hold his head high. Although his confidence is obviously still pretty low based on the amount of double-fisted spoils he provided, that seemed like they could have been marks.
I thought the ruck contest was pretty even in the end. Meek was miles ahead at the end of the first quarter, but Darcy battled his way back into it to even up hitouts, which in turn helped the Pies even up the clearance domination the Hawks enjoyed in the first quarter.
A kind of weird stat I noticed at the end of the first, where the Hawks had no marks inside 50 to the Pies’ six – it didn’t stop the Hawks scoring though as Collingwood’s defence was a shambles today, largely due to the pressure applied by the Hawks forwards when the ball hit the deck.
The Kreuger concussion really had the Pies experimenting with their second ruck – Pendlebury took a centre bounce against Chol at one point in the last quarter!
I’ve not been a Lachie Schultz fan this season (although I think the Pies missed his forward pressure today), but the way things are going, the Pies will have given up Ginnivan, a top 10 pick, and slid further down the order with later picks, given the pick swaps involved with the Hawks, who are now higher up the ladder than the Pies.
And that will just about do me. A comprehensive win for the Hawks who look finals bound and very dangerous. On current form you couldn’t pick the Pies to win any of their 5 remaining games, and I feel it is only a matter of time before players are sent for off-season surgery.
I hope this review comes across as balanced as I think it is – really the Hawks were very very good, and the Pies were very very bad.
