Class and Experience Sees Collingwood Home
West Coast gave their all but lacked the extra edge, poise and finish needed to book a preliminary final birth in a 20-point defeat to Collingwood.
The Eagles were never out of the game, but never looked completely in the game in what Eagles coach John Worsfold called a ‘learning experience’.
Ten Eagles were taking part in their first final as opposed to the Magpies who had 18 of their premiership stars from the previous years triumph.
Luke Shuey best exemplified the step up needed in finals when he was caught with the ball three times in the opening half, as the experienced Magpies pressured the young Eagles into numerous skill errors and wasted opportunities.
Shuey had finished runner up in the rising star award to Essendon’s Dyson Heppell in what turned out to be a two-horse race earlier in the week, and for much of the first half seemed overwhelmed by the play around him. However, he improved as the game went on and was one of the Eagles’ best.
But while Shuey led an Eagles midfield that applied themselves to the final siren, they were outshone by Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury who led a masterclass.
Swan, who was considered one of the favourites for the Brownlow medal, collected 43 disposals, including nine clearances, nine inside-50s and a goal. Pendlebury was the perfect sidekick, with 38 touches, seven inside-50s and five clearances. The duo worked off each other perfectly, with Pendlebury picking up 25 of his 38 possessions in the first half, before Swan carried the side home with 27 disposals after half time.
The two teams named near full-strength sides ahead of the game, with the Eagles selecting Daniel Kerr and Will Schofield to return from injury, while the Magpies welcomed back Nick Maxwell, Leon Davis and Heath Shaw.
The teams may have looked strong on paper, but there was still plenty of doubt for the two sides going into the game. Chris Tarrant, Travis Cloke and Ben Johnson had all finished with issues from the thrashing to Geelong and Daniel Kerr was still under a serious cloud for the Eagles.
The doubts on Kerr would be confirmed when he was a late withdrawal ahead of the opening bounce. Patrick McGinnity, who had lost his place at selection, was reinstated. Collingwood were also forced into a late change when Ben Reid injured a groin at the final training session of the week. With patchy weather expected, the Magpies replaced a tall with a small in rookie forward Alex Fasolo.
The visitors came into the match as major underdogs but they started the better of the two sides with the first four scoring shots of the game. Josh Kennedy and Quinten Lynch both kicked majors as West Coast established an early 2.2 to zero lead.
Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox presented as the biggest challenge for Collingwood and while they claimed an advantage in the ruck knocks, the Magpie midfield soon got the upper hand at the stoppages.
Sharrod Wellingham opened the Magpie account to reduce the Eagles lead to eight points at quarter time, before Collingwood turned the game their way in the second term.
The Magpies booted six goals for the quarter as Pendlebury, Swan, Jarryd Blair, Leon Davis and Ben Johnson kick-started the black-and-whites. Davis and Johnson were particularly damaging out of the back half, along with Heritier Lumumba, as they carved and weaved their way through the Eagles press.
Leading by 13 points at the main change, the Magpies extended their lead to 26 after goals to Jarryd Blair and Andrew Krakouer. That remained the margin at three-quarter time after Mark LeCras and Travis Cloke traded goals heading into time-on and Collingwood appeared to have done what they needed to, to put the finals upstarts away.
West Coast, though, refused to accept what most others expected.
Even with Cox subbed out during the third term with back spasms, the Eagles found their ascendancy in the middle off the back of Naitanui as the Eagles found consistent forward position for the first time in the match since the opening term.
Quinten Lynch got the Eagles rolling after just 38 seconds when West Coast won the opening centre clearance, before adding a second for the quarter (and third for the match) when he took clean possession from a boundary throw in and snapped truly.
The Eagles continued to push and Jack Darling’s goal at the beginning of time-on had West Coast within seven points and a grandstand finish was on the cards. But Collingwood’s class and experience again came to the fore and they settled in the final minutes to earn the coveted week off.
Worsfold was proud of the commitment of his players but acknowledged the difference between a seasoned opponent and where his young Eagles had come from. Simple misses by Shuey and Scott Selwood as West Coast had all the momentum in the final quarter would prove costly.
“It felt like we were just a little bit short of the class of Collingwood, not the effort but the class. I think we matched them for intensity and effort, but they showed the way with clean ball handling, clean ball use.”
“We just made some errors at times that might have got us more inside 50s, more scoring opportunities and we didn’t quite capitalise”, Worsfold said.
The key to the game lay in the middle of the ground where the Magpies were able to control the stoppages despite Naitanui and Cox’ tap ascendancy. The Eagles eclipsed their opponents 50-29 in the hit-outs, but Collingwood turned the tables at the stoppages, winning the clearances 53-31.
Luke Ball nullified Priddis’ influence at the first possession, limiting Priddis to just four for the match. Nic Naitanui and Luke Shuey combined for 14 clearances – half of the Eagles’ total – but too much was left to too few at the inside-ball contest, where Collingwood had a greater spread of contributors.
That prevented the Eagles from getting forward and setting up their defensive press, leaving much of their attack to come from the back half of the ground.
Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse lauded his side’s ability to claim a decisive win in the Eagles strongest part of the ground. “They are very, very good at stoppage work and we knew we wouldn’t be in the plus as far as hit-outs go.”
“We needed a contest. We got a contest… we won quite convincingly on these figures… which is a credit to the boys.”
That forced the Eagle tall forwards to work further up the ground, where Kennedy and Darling struggled to have an influence. The pair kicked the Eagles’ first and last goals in the game, but did little for the rest of the game as they were well contained by Chris Tarrant and Alan Toovey.
And where the Eagles were unable to counter from defence, the Magpies were able to bounce from half back, with a number of the Magpie defenders racking up high possession numbers. Leon Davis finished with 33 disposals, Heritier Lumumba and Heath Shaw each had 30 and Ben Johnson collected 26.
Their performances were even more meritorious considering the disrupted preparations for many of them. Davis and Maxwell had missed the defeat to Geelong, Tarrant and Johnson had queries over their fitness and Shaw was playing his first game after serving an eight week ban for betting on AFL matches during the season.
Up forward, it was the smalls who did the damage, with Sharrod Wellingham booting three first half goals and Andrew Krakouer the other multiple goal scorer for the Magpies. Travis Cloke and Chris Dawes were both defeated in their battles against Eric Mackenzie and Darren Glass.
Priddis led the Eagles with 24 disposals, while laying 13 tackles, with Chris Masten (22 disposals, seven tackles) and Scott Selwood (21 disposals, eight tackles) the next best. West Coast laid 100 tackles for the game which both symbolised their ability to meet Collingwood’s attack at the contest, but also that the Magpies players were often a step ahead in the contest.
The two coaches noted the pressure in the game, with Worsfold calling it a ‘pretty intense game’.
“A lot of pressure and we didn’t cope with the pressure as well as we believe that we can. Our players will learn from that.”
Collingwood were joined in the preliminary finals by Geelong, who overcame an early slow start to account for the Hawks. Hawthorn paid for their early inaccuracy when they had the game on their terms, with the Cats systematically working their way towards a 31 point victory in the final three quarters.
Hawthorn were due to meet Sydney in the second week of the finals after they provided the upset of the weekend. The Swans got an early jump on the Saints before St Kilda pegged them back to trail by eight points at the final change. However, four goals to one in the final term saw the grand finalists of the past two seasons out in the first week of finals, following an inconsistent season.
West Coast were due to play Carlton in their knockout semi-final, setting up a mouth-watering clash against their former premiership captain in Chris Judd. In front of over 90,000 fans crammed into the MCG, the Bombers were no match for the Blues who steamrolled their way to a 62 point win.
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