My guess is there will be a lot of blame thrown around in the aftermath of Collingwood’s ten-point win over the Crows at the MCG.
It is the way of things when these clubs clash, after all.
People get upset, they hate an umpiring decision or five, they focus their ill-will on one or two incidents, and in their minds, they have uncovered the culprits that cost their team the game.
That’s my history, anyway – let’s see if people can make an effort to be better than that… just this once.
Yes, there were some “interesting” decisions made over the course of this game, but if you were to put a gun to my head and ask me who was most at fault as the Crows fell short against Collingwood yet again, I reckon umpires would barely make the top five.
Let’s get this straight – missing goals when you have all the play is a sin that just cannot be wallpapered over by pointing fingers at the umps. It’s a cop out. Sure, I hated seeing Wayne Milera pinged for a throw when he clearly handballed it – it was an incorrect decision that led to a Jamie Elliott mark and goal on the ensuing play. But I hated other things more.
I hated Izak Rankine and Josh Rachele, two of the better skilled players in the Adelaide outfit, blowing shots at goal and sending their kicks out of bounds. I hated Dan Curtin botching a set shot right in front. And I hated that some of those misses occurred in periods of the game that could have swung everything in favour of the Crows. They had the momentum. They needed to capitalise.
They failed.
Want someone to blame? Need something to blame?
There are your culprits. And you can throw the Collingwood defence into the mix, as well, as they stood tall despite missing their captain.
Hate, hate, hate… blame, blame, blame… this has absolutely been the very nature of recent Collingwood versus Adelaide fixtures. And you know what else has been prevalent?
Collingwood winning.
And so it was again in this game. The Crows blew their lines. The Pies stood up in big moments. And we saw another close one in what is a pretty damn good, if one-sided recent rivalry.
But it was the umpires’ fault, right?
Again?
No… not this time.
Time to jump into the Big Questions stemming from the Collingwood win over the Crows.
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