Collingwood v Geelong
Election Edition
Disco Monagle
The Sweetest Victory
On a night when the Federal Election was decided before halftime, it great to witness a game of football which went down to a post-siren-kick. Football, like politics, can be a very cruel game and the only thing that really matters is who is in front when the final siren sounds, or to be more precise in this case, when the umpire calls time on the game.
Jack Crisp, playing in his 245th game, had the game on his boot when he lined for goal from 45 metres after the final siren had sounded. It will come to be part of football folklore in the future that he shanked the kick and the Cats held for an exciting three-point victory.
From a Cats perspective, and to quote Paul Keating, “this was the sweetest victory”.
For the first three quarters the Pies were not only ahead on the scoreboard, but they were monstering the Cats in the middle, as well as playing the game in their forward half for over 75 percent of the game up to that point. Surprisingly, the scoreboard did not match the Pies dominance.
Halfway through the second quarter and halfway through the third quarter, I noted it felt like Collingwood were a good six goals in front such was their dominance, but they weren’t. At the three-quarter time break, Geelong had silently crept there way back to within seven-points of the Pies, and it was game on.
For the first half of the last quarter was a dour struggle ensued with the only goal coming from Oliver Henry to bring the Cats within a point of the lead, and then the game broke free and were all treated to a magical ten minutes of the game we all love.
A Forensic Study of the Last Ten Minutes
All game the Pies had controlled the centre corridor, forcing the Cats out wide and maintaining possession in their forward half of the ground, but with ten minutes left on the clock in the last that all changed as the Cats started to find their mojo.
With 7 minutes and 37 seconds left in the game, Max Holmes dished out a hand ball from the middle of a pack, and instead of going boundary side he went through the middle to Zach Guthrie. He ran through the middle and kicked the ball to within 10 metres of the Cats goal and a contested Cat mark.
Ollie Dempsey played Jack Crisp under the ball and took a relatively easy chest mark in the end even though he was the fourth player in line at that pack.
Ollie Dempsey goaled, and the Cats go five points up.
At the next centre bounce, Mark Bilcavs won the tap straight down the throat of Bailey Smith who quickly farmed the ball out to Max Holmes who cut the ball back to the corridor with a check-side kick finding Dangerfield who took a sliding mark 40 metres out almost directly in front.
Dangerfield kicked a captain’s goal, and the Cats are up by eleven points.
Darcy Cameron wins the next centre bounce straight to Nick Daicos who finds Pendlebury on the outside and the ball go forward before Brodie Mihocek has a relatively easy snap at goal from 30 metres out and he misses.
The Cats by 10 points.
Dangerfield, Smith and Dempsey run a succession of handballs down the outer wing that ends with Smith having a long shot at goal that is touched on the line.
The Cats by eleven points again.
With just on 4:44 minutes left in the match, there is a ball-in in the Cats forward pocket. Cameron wins the tap, but Shaun Mannagh put his body on the line against Pendlebury, took possession, and handballed to Dangerfield who found the unattended Jack Bowes. he slotted truly around his body to put the Cats 17 points up with minutes left on the clock.
The Cats up by seventeen points, but more importantly Collingwood looked cooked.
Collingwood rebound from defence with the ball ending up in Jordan de Goey’s hands, who switches play to the other pocket where Lachie Schultz takes the mark and a shot on from about 45 metres out.
Controversial moment number one – the Boundary Umpires soft call.
Schultz’s kick just makes the distance, but from the naked eye it looked like a goal, however the Boundary Umpire says to the Goal Umpire and the Field Umpire that he believes the ball was touched. The matter is sent to the ARC on the advice of the Boundary ump as a soft call point .
After much deliberation the Boundary Umpire’s call stood and it was awarded a point, even though it looked like there were gaps between Blicavs’ hand and the ball.
My major issue here is not the ARC, as their hands were tied to the soft call, but rather the Boundary Umpire making that call in the first place. He is a friggin Boundary Umpire and he should just concentrate on his own job.
Play goes on, and the Cats are still up by 16 points.
On the next play, the Cats turn the ball over from the kick in and Mihocek takes a massive pack mark 45 metres out and he slots through a great pressure goal.
The Cats are still up by 10 points with 2.26 minutes left on the clock.
Controversial moment number two – The Bobby Hill chase down.
From the next centre bounce, the Pies fumbled the ball forward but when a Pendlebury handpass to Josh Daicos hits him the back, and the ball spills out Geelong’s way, Shaun Mannagh had clear ground as he ran the centre. When he run was down by Bobby Hill from behind, the stadium exploded in raucous pro-Magpie cheers. It was one of those moments that can change a game – some would argue that it did.
Hill originally grabbed Mannagh around the waist/thighs, but his hands almost immediately slid down to his knees with the motion of Mannagh falling over.
In the moment, it looked like the perfect tackle, but to the howls of disbelief from the crowd, it was adjudged that Hill had tripped Mannagh by the Field Umpire. I have no dog in this fight, and as a neutral observer, it was a free kick to Hill every day of the week.
With 38 seconds left on the clock the Pies rebounded the ball from the halfback line to Schultz on the wing who found Jamie Elliott 35 metres out on a 45-degree angle. Elliott shanked his kick to the top of the goal square where the ever-reliable Mihocek took a high pressure mark and kicked the goal.
The Cats lead by four points with 20 seconds left on the clock.
Blicavs neutralised Cameron at the restart which took another five seconds of the clock. Blicavs tried the same again with the next bounce, but it was deemed to have held the ball to long and free kick was awarded to Cameron.
With six seconds left on the clock Cameron found Sidebottom who bombed the ball forward with a real mung of kick, but the ‘man of the moment’ Jack Crisp took a mark a split second before the final siren sounded.
With a staggering 245 consecutive games under his belt, the game was now on his boot.
Jack Crisp pulled his kick and he landed a point
The Cats celebrated the sweetest of victories.
Seriously, do yourself a favour and watch the replay of the last quarter of this game. There were heroes and villains aplenty, some questionable umpiring decisions, and Sherriff Dangerfield taking centre stage, as he led his Cats into the sunset after the final siren.
Given Collingwood’s dominance for three quarters, the Cats should never have been in a position to even mount a challenge, never alone win the match.
It begs the question; how did Collingwood lose this game?
How Did Collingwood Lose the Unlosable Game?
The simple answer is the Bailey ‘the Boy Toy’ Smith who carried the Cats on his back for three-quarters, but that would be to ignore the game’s of some lesser-known players in the Cats team. Oisin Mullins on Nick Daicos, Shaun Mannagh on Josh Daicos (sometimes), and the herculean effort of Mark Bilcavs taking on the ruck duties after Rhys Stanley was subbed out of the game after quarter time, all quietly went about their roles to perfection.
Oh, and before I forget, Patrick Dangerfield tore the Pies a new one in the last quarter as he was just everywhere. In a weekend of many forgettable games (there really has been some terrible games this weekend), the last quarter in this game just standouts, and Dangerfield was the star.
For three quarters, the Pies were playing the game in their half and almost treating the Cats with contempt. And herein lays the problem – they did enough wrong in front of goal that they never established the lead they should have.
At three quarter time the Pies were 10 goals and 10 behinds, but at least four of these behinds were set shot misses from marks and all very kickable goals. The commentator kept reminding us all game the Pies were sixteenth in scoreboard accuracy for the year, and in this game the inaccuracy of the Pies forwards came back to haunt them.
As stated earlier, it really felt like the Pies were six goals in front, but they never were. Several easy shots were missed, the Magpie smalls struggled to kick crumbing goals, and the Pies gave up red time goals.
Geelong, as they always seem to do, just hung around!
Midway through the third quarter Collingwood were establishing a sizeable led, but against the flow of play Jeremy Cameron kicked a snap goal, followed shortly thereafter by Oliver Wiltshire kicking his first goal in the big time, before the Pies steadied with a goal to Tim Membrey from a pinpoint pass from Pendelbury.
Collingwood had established a healthy thirteen-point lead with seconds left in the quarter. Enter Patrick Dangerfield who put the ball in Mannagh’s hands who slotted truly.
Totally against the trends and the flow of this game and for all their dominance, the Pies only lead by seven points at the final break.
Oisin Mullin v Nick Daicos
The statistics will say Mullin only had eight possessions for the game, but gathering possessions was not his role in this game. Rather, he was tasked with the unenviable assignment of tagging Nick Daicos. Naicos ended up with 28 possessions in this game, with the vast majority of those possessions coming in the second and third quarters, but when the heat was on in the last, Mullin stuck to him like glue.
In the first quarter Mullin held the superstar to only four touches and if I am reading this properly, when the game was on the line in the last quarter Naicos was held to a mere three possessions.
For a player I had paid scant regard to before this game he deserves not only his own sub-heading, but the first sub-heading of this review given his slaying of the Dragon Naicos.
I will watch with interest on Brownlow night to see whether Nick gets any votes for this game, as he was well beaten on the night.
Patrick Dangerfield and Bailey Smith v Collingwood
I have reviewed a handful of Geelong matches this year, and two things have struck me about the Cats circa 2025, Smith and Dangerfield.
Bailey Smith is clearly the recruit of the year. Smith fills the holes in the Geelong team left by the retirements of Joel Selwood and his namesake Issac Smith after the 2022 Grand Final. The HBK doppelganger has the toughness of Selwood and the run and flair of Isaac, with a real hunger for the ball.
With Naicos and Jaicos having tags on them, it freed up Bailey to basically do as he pleased in this match. While it looked and felt like Collingwood were well and truly in front for most of this match, it was players like Smith who were keeping the Cats within striking distance.
I noted midway through the third quarter that Smith was carrying the Cats on his back, and I was surprised Fly McRae did not send someone like Beau McCrerry (who was having a quiet night) to Smith to try and quell his influence on the game.
The second thing that has struck me about the Cats is how bloody good Patrick Dangerfield is this year. If there was a competition for the toughest player in the AFL, Patty would win it by the length of the Flemington straight.
In the last quarter of this match Danger had 13 possessions, but it is not just the possessions that count, it is the manner Danger hits a contest and his willingness to force himself to the ball. Like all great players, Danger’s peripheral vision is still excellent.
Mark Blicavs v Darcy Cameron
A bit like Oisin Mullins, on paper Mark Blicavs had a quiet night with only nine possessions, but that would underrate the role he played after Rhys Stanley was subbed out at quarter time.
It may seem strange I am highlighting Blicavs on a night when Darcy Cameron was probably Collingwood’s best player, but his role was to compete and bring the ball to ground, or to be a physical presence at the contest after Stanley was subbed off and he did to perfection, especially in the last quarter.
Mark Blicavs is Geelong’s fixit man, and has been for years. He is the plug the Cats have in their armoury that can stem any leakages such is his versatility.
I reckon when a Geelong player has their car break down, Blicavs would be the first bloke they call. He just seems to know how to do everyting, and whenever he is asked to help fix something, he gets the job done.
Shaun Mannagh v Josh Daicos (sometimes)
This is the most mature game I have seen Shaun Mannagh play in his relatively short career as a loose tag on Josh Daicos, as well being a playmaker in his own right. Mannagh both tagged and played off Jaicos and his possessions were telling. At game’s end, Mannagh racked up 18 possessions as well a couple of goals and five tackles, and in the process, he stymied the influence of Josh Daicos.
Mannagh, like Mullin, applied enough pressure on the Daicos brothers that they did not have the same influence on the game as they normally have this season. While Mullin’s role was direct tag, Mannagh had enough freedom to have an impact on the game himself.
Further, I’m always impressed when a player like Mannagh has enough confidence and mongrel to rack up five tackles for the match.
Ollie Dempsey v Patrick Lipinski
Fearless leader HB Meyers each week writes a piece which is highlights the wingmen, and both Ollie Dempsey and Patrick Lipinski feature prominently each week in his column.
At the end of this match the influence of Ollie Dempsey was exemplary, taking screamers, kicking goals, being the link up player and running the game right out.
Dempsey is all legs, and he looks a like Bambi, but he plays with a maturity above his age, yet he still has enough youthfulness to look like a kid staring at his work with childlike awe.
I could imagine him after the game still calling Patrick Dangerfield, “Mr Dangerfield”.
In the first half of this match, I thought we were in for a great wingman playoff, however, after halftime Patrick Lipinski slowed down a bit while Dempsey kept bounding along.
Lipinski had a serviceable game with 20 possessions with four tackles. He has grown into his role at the Pies, and he is another of the Pies blue-collar brigade who week in week out and gets his hands dirty.
Ned Long
Welcome to the big-league Ned Long, you are one tough hombre. In a game where all the talk will be about the stars of the game and the last five-minutes of the game, your performance hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially your defensive efforts.
Long is a real in and under player, and in this match, he was often the player at the bottom of the pack feeding the ball to his outside runners, and the kid certainly knows how to tackle. Nine tackles for the match franks his tough performance.
Brodie Mihocek and Lachie Schultz
Brodie Mihocek finished this game with ten possessions, six marks, two tackles and four goals and three points, so why is Brodie highlighted?
Mihocek is now one of the best forwards in the competition, but his three behinds from very gettable spots puts a dampener on his game. This performance had the potential to be among his best thus far in his career.
Okay, I am being harsh and pedantic about Mihocek, there were other players who erred in front of goal. I hear you, and Lachie Schultz comes under the pump for his three behinds and no goals.
It has taken Schultz the best part of a year to find his way at Collingwood, and he had a good season, but can he kick a friggin goal? Yes, he was robbed by the ARC late in the last quarter, but stuff happens, and the role of Schultz is to kick goals from his limited opportunities, and in a game decided by a number of small acts Schultz goal kicking let him down.
Conclusion
The only talk about this game, post-match, will concentrate on the final ten minutes as it should, but this was a dour and tight game that showcased all that is good about this game (some will argue the umpiring), skilful, tough with unrelenting pressure from two teams who will be thereabouts somewhere at years end.
Next week the Pies travel to Optus Oval on Thursday to take on the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Fremantle Dockers who are a different team when they are at Optus, but the Pies have a great record on the road. The Cats hosts the Giants at GMHBA Stadium on the Sunday afternoon.
