Post Match. Pies dump Toast. All comments, please.

[Presti35]

[Johnno75]

Yes I said same thing at the time after cursing at the smother.....even live you see the 2 players free so wasn’t the wrong decision to move it on just had to go back a bit more to get the kick over the mark.

[jatsad]

[BazBoy]

I watched Last Two Minutes of the game and when Tay tackles and Pendles kicks across and WHE marks & instead of kicking fwd as one would think he kicked it back to Noble—that made me think of Sidey doing simalar in the last 30 seconds of a game
And the smarts of Noble to go thirty meters back then run up to kick both acts soaked up precious time

The moral. Smarts under pressure

[uuuuu..... The LoneSTAR]

W h a t a g a m e !

^Speaking of Noble, how good has he been this season!!... Not to mention his goal = A+

If Maynard could eliminate that 1 or 2 goals he gives away each game it would please me no end.

Whilst I don't have a direct line to Bucks in the coaches box [You're welcome], I did suggest to the TV very early that we swap ruck match ups and have Cameron on NicNat and Grundy dominate their #2.

Thank God there was no overtime!!!!!!
The finals series is a marathon in itself from 8th!

[Pies4shaw]

So, here are my notes on how the important moments of the game unfolded.

First West Coast goal - Moore in a marking contest with Darling. The ball comes to Crisp, who runs with the ball and then turns it over, missing two Collingwood targets and gifting the Eagles possession in the centre. The ball is passed to Darling. Moore is not in the frame, so Darling is running without an opponent directly in front of goal, in easy kicking distance.

First Collingwood goal – Cameron goes into the ruck for the first time at the bounce, up against Allen. He probably wins the ruck but Pendles gets a free and puts the ball forward. It is intercepted by West Coast. Cameron takes a nice mark on the wing, from the West Coast clearance. He kicks long. Treloar gets the ball from the next contest and kicks forward. Ultimately, McGovern is unable to get clear, walks the ball over the line and is penalised. Pendlebury sums up the situation brilliantly. McGovern is on the mark, so he raises his eyes and kicks low and direct to Cox’s advantage. Cox marks.

Second Collingwood goal - Natanui is back in for the centre bounce. Cameron mistimes his jump and Natanui clears easily. He kicks to their CHF spot. Ah Chee is dispossessed by Noble, and after a series of ground level contests, with Collingwood trying to clear but under pressure, the ball lands (following good, solid efforts at the ball by Adams, Treloar and Maynard) with Daicos, who passes beautifully off his wrong foot (does he have a wrong foot?) to Stephenson. Stephenson plays on and puts a beautiful attacking handball to Elliott. He kicks long to WHE, who marks on the boundary. WHE kicks long and relatively flat to Cox’s advantage. Cox moves McGovern out of the contest and marks.

Third Collingwood goal - Grundy is back in for the restart. Natanui wins the ruck contest but palms it to Adams. He loses the run of the ball but pushes it forward as he falls. Treloar runs onto it but is taken below the knees by the West Coast mid (I can’t see his number but his appalling head looks like Redden). Treloar takes his time, goes back and kicks long. Barrass panics on Cox and loses his footing in the marking contest. Cameron runs across Hurn’s path and makes it a Cox v Barrass one-on-one. Cox marks. From the ensuing kick, Cox has his third goal in about 2 minutes of elapsed playing time. Cox is involved in a head clash shortly after the 4th Collingwood goal. Perhaps that hampered him for the rest of the game.

Fourth Collingwood goal - Natanui wins the centre clearance against Grundy. The ball falls to Redden who kicks poorly into the WC forward line. Moore beats Darling at the contest. Crisp comes in and cleans up after Moore and Noble. Crisp passes to Elliott in space. Elliott puts an attacking handball over the top to Treloar, who, in turn, handballs forward to Thomas. He passes neatly off his left foot to Stephenson near the boundary. West Coast clears the ball from the goalsquare (although the umpire misses a clear ”around the neck” free kick to Treloar, dead in front). In any event, Crisp cleans up neatly again after Roughead spoils. He gives it to Roughie, who handballs to Madgen. Madgen runs hard and direct and handballs to Treloar, who is under pressure. Treloar gets a handball (forward, again) to Pendlebury who puts it into acres of space for Adams. Adams streams through the centre and kicks it (poorly, if I may say so) past Cox (unmarked, 30 metres out, DIF) to an aerial two on one. Our one is Elliott. He is kept out of the contest by Hurn and McGovern (loafing back after Cox has burnt him off with the lead up the ground) takes the intercept mark. McGovern kicks to Waterman. Waterman, who is usually an irritatingly good field kick, fluffs the short pass to Ainsworth. The ball is contested and Mayne gets an “in the back” free. He kicks long but eventually West Coast get a long clearing kick from our goalsquare to the 50-metre line. Adams, courageous as ever, camps under the ball. Allen assaults his eyes. Looking at the replay, it is impossible to think that he was trying to do anything other than injure Adams. Adams get a 50 metre penalty and kicks the goal.

Second West Coast goal - Ruck contest to start the 2nd quarter. For reasons that are entirely unclear, Natanui is allowed to jump straight into Grundy without being free-kicked. Anyway, Kelly takes the hit out. He kicks the ball long and the elderly Kennedy appears to beat Madgen and Roughead for pace. He takes an easy chest mark.

Fifth Collingwood goal - For no reason whatsoever, Adams is attacked by Sheed in a ground contest. Adams is not paid a free. Instead, in a diabolical piece of umpiring stupidity, Natanui is awarded a holding the ball free for tackling Sheed. No, seriously. Anyway, Grundy stops the forward thrust at FB. Moore passes to Madgen. He kicks long. Mihocek almost marks on the wing but just doesn’t quite hold it. He follows up well and smothers the West Coast kick. Mayne works hard. He handballs to Stephenson. Stevo kicks forward to Mihocek, who has run on from the previous contest. ‘Cek takes a very courageous mark and handballs on to Treloar. He passes to WHE, who gives it to Adams, who passes to Daicos. Daicos kicks to Elliott, who should be paid a free for being taken out in the marking contest. The ball spills to Noble who is tackled high by Hurn. Noble kicks a difficult set shot.

Third West Coast goal - From the ensuing centre bounce, Allen gets the knock out against Cameron. The ball comes to Kelly who lands it on Kennedy’s chest. The Eagles’s second and third goals have been soft (each needed just one kick from the centre to the FF, unopposed) and our boys look a little deflated to give that one back so easily.

Fourth West Coast goal - Allen against Cameron in the ruck. The ball comes back from our half forward line. Allen beats Cameron for pace, running through the centre and handballs to Ah Chee, who kicks long to Ryan on the lead. Ryan shows the ball to Maynard. At that point, Maynard should pick him up and snap him in half to slow West Coast down. Anyway, Ryan kicks long to Darling on Moore. Darling can’t mark but pushes Moore away, breaks Quaynor’s tackling attempt and handballs to Ainsworth, who goals.

Sixth Collingwood goal - West Coast are all over us. Grundy and Natanui are back in for the next centre bounce. Grundy wins the hitout. He hits it clear of the centre circle to de Goey. De Goey loses his footing and Shuey takes the ball. He scrubs a kick forward to a contest. Crisp and Pendlebury fight for it. Grundy beats Natanui and Shuey on the ground and handballs forward. He gets a free for a high tackle from Shuey but we take the advantage. The ball comes to de Goey, streaming through the centre, released by Pendlebury. De Goey kicks like he has two broken legs. West Coast clear. From that turnover, they take it to half forward where Maynard pushes Cripps in the back after he kicks. Ainsworth gets the free downfield in the pocket but kicks across goal and OOTF. In a display of hubris, Darling motions for the video review (he says he marked inside the line). After a period, Collingwood go forward and Cameron, playing at FF in place of Cox (who is off for a rest) lays a good tackle to force a ball up, just about 15 to 20 metres from the goal. From the ensuing ball up, Shuey gets stopped by Grundy, trying to get around him. Elliott follows up and Shuey is done for holding the ball. Elliott kicks the goal. Anyone who was watching this fairly would say that Grundy has controlled the contest for 4 minutes of elapsed time, stopped West Coast with their tails up and kept pushing at every contest until Collingwood got the goal.

Fifth West Coast goal - Natanui goes off (not surprising, really, given the way he’s just had his arse handed to him on a plate), so Grundy goes to the bench, too. Collingwood dominate the next few minutes. Thomas is denied a scoring chance in comfortable range when he is not paid an obvious free kick in the marking contest. Then Stephenson streams forward and just misses with a long bomb. Grundy and Natanui are back on. For reasons that are unclear, Grundy is having to play around the ground on both Natanui and Allen (do we not have a CHB?). Allen marks as Grundy runs off Natanui to try to make a contest. He handballs to Natanui (I ask again, do we not have a CHB?), who kicks to Gaff. Gaff outmarks Treloar and plays on. He kicks long off his left and Darling outmarks 4 defenders. I do not understand how Maynard and Crisp are the two actually trying to compete with him for the grab. The other two Collingwood players near the contest are Mayne and Greenwood. We are apparently trying to defeat West Coast with no key defenders. I am sure that cannot be right but that is certainly how it looks. Kennedy has run into the pocket as a decoy and Moore has followed him. Roughead, Madgen and Noble are caught out of position running back as Gaff kicks over their heads. I do not know what Roughead and Madgen were doing. They seem to have been sucked into the contest and left Darling along with a whole lot of half back flankers. On balance, this is probably Roughead’s fault – he had a dismal game. It is fair to say that after a period of good pressure that might have resulted in a Collingwood goal, our defence has been made to look quite stupid.

Sixth West Coast goal - The third quarter starts. Cameron is up against Natanui. Why? At this stage, by my count, Natanui has one decisive hit out against Grundy for a goal and Grundy has one decisive period of monstering Natanui for a goal. Be that as it may, Cameron “beats” Natanui at the contest and puts it out to Adams. Adams can’t control it and the ball falls to Shuey. This tale of Cameron’s woe may have a familiar ring to it for Grundy-watchers. Anyway, West Coast go forward and Allen outmarks Madgen. West Coast hit the front.

Eighth Collingwood goal - Natanui dominates the bounce against Cameron. Jamie Elliott takes his knock-forward and clears the centre with a good left foot kick. Daicos contests well and the ball is out of bounds just outside our forward 50. Natanui wins the boundary throw in (palm down Kelly’s throat but Kelly can’t take the ball) and then the follow up contest. West Coast kick it forward but Moore kills Darling in the ground ball contest from Shuey’s kick. Moore’s long kick forward is to a two-on-one and is intercept-marked. It comes down the wing to Darling, who marks in front of Moore this time. He kicks long down the line. It looks like Gaff has the crumbs and is away – but Adams lays a desperate tackle. There is a ball up. Cameron gets the hit out. It comes to Adams who half clears it, forward. De Goey runs onto it and (I think) deliberately spills it out in the direction of Daicos. Daicos handballs well under pressure, forward to Pendlebury. Pendles goes exquisitely to Cox (the two-thirds distance kick doesn’t head at all to where the tall defenders are setting up). Mason runs onto the ball and marks on his chest, ahead of Barrass. He handballs to de Goey, who kicks long for goal from his left. The ball bounces well before the goal line but WHE shepherds it through, keeping Hurn off it – but for WHE’s efforts, it would certainly have been touched (as is evident from the behind the goal replay).

Seventh West Coast goal - Grundy wins the hitout against Natanui at the next centre bounce and directs it to where Treloar should be. Treloar is standing behind Shuey (God alone knows why) and applies no useful pressure. Shuey falls over but, despite Treloar being right there with him, Shuey still handballs, lying on his back, up to Natanui. The ball comes to Redden. Grundy tackles him and forces him to kick short. Unfortunately, Ryan is two metres in front of Quaynor and marks easily. He then lays it off to Cripps, running past, who goals. West Coast back in front. I think this goal calls for a special credit to our midfield coach. The set up at the bounce was Grundy and three attacking mids (Treloar, De Goey and Pendlebury). We obviously thought we might be able to get the clearance if Grundy hit it to one of our players. That hasn’t happened since last year, so the strategy just looks unforgiveable to me. No Adams, no Elliott, no Greenwood in there and Pendles playing back of centre – what did Harvey think would happen if we didn’t get a clean take away? Why is Luke Ball not our midfield coach?

Eighth Collingwood goal - As if to emphasise the idiocy of our previous centre bounce lineup, Natanui wins the next hitout against Grundy but, with normal defensive midfield service resumed it only results in a ballup (courtesy of a Pendlebury tackle). Grundy wins the ballup. Natanui follows it up and pushes it forwards – but Grundy intervenes and gives it off to Mayne, to Quaynor, to Noble and we’re away. McGovern takes an intercept mark but Darling kicks poorly and the ball goes out of bounds on the wing. Grundy is up against Allen, this time (Natanui has shot his bolt and left the field, again) and puts a two-handed palm straight down to Pendles, who kicks long. McGovern takes another intercept (seriously). A period of indecisive back and forth play follows, between wing and our half-forward flank. Allen finally wins a tap against Grundy and West Coast move it forward fluently. Kennedy gives a stupid free kick to Roughead, clearly scragging his jumper. The ball goes out of bounds on our HBF. Grundy wins the boundary hitout. Treloar runs onto it, takes a bounce and kicks long. Cox brings it to ground, a tap from de Goey puts it to Thomas who handballs to WHE – who really had to kick that goal (but didn’t). From the kick in, the ball finishes with Gaff kicking short to Darling (who would, of course, have kicked another goal). Crisp intercepts the pass and kicks it to Mayne. He kicks long, Greenwood wins the crumb and kicks long - the ball runs out of bounds on our half forward flank. The next two boundary contests are both nil-all rucking draws but then Crisp knocks a high ball indiscriminately to Ah Chee. He puts it to Shuey, who puts it to Sheed, who kicks long from the wing. Here is the decisive part of the contest. Moore beats Darling one on one. Moore handballs forward along the boundary to Madgen. Madgen puts on a very neat move to beat the tackle and kick long. Collingwood have the numbers, because Cameron is there. He brings the ball to ground. Elliott gets tackled (Brayshaw is the only person in the known universe who thinks that was holding the ball) but knocks it on to Mihocek, who gives it to de Goey. De Goey centres beautifully to WHE, who turns and nails the goal. Thirty seconds later, Brayshaw is still whining about holding the ball. They replay it about seventeen times (while Collingwood supporters are hoping to see Cameron’s, Mihocek’s, de Goey’s and WHE’s efforts, as well) and finally announce that “You could argue that he had no prior opportunity” (which is, of course, what any fair-minded observer would say – he was tackled as he gathered the ball). Anyway, enough of that. Collingwood back in front.

Ninth Collingwood goal - At the next centre bounce, Natanui thrashes Cameron. But, as we know, even the best ruckwork is sometimes sharked. This time, Treloar does good work and streams (our way) out of the centre. A great passage of play sees Elliott just miss with a long shot. From the kick-in, there is a ball up at centre/wing. Cameron (I think just) wins the hitout against Natanui. The ball goes towards Daicos. He avoids taking control initially but then he does gather and gives it to Crisp running forward. Crisp handballs forward to Treloar who gives another handball out to Daicos, who has run forward into space. In perhaps the best display of kicking forward over distance off the wrong foot by a Collingwood midfielder since, well, Daicos was in the centre, Marvel II puts an exquisite long kick to Mihocek’s advantage. Collingwood has another and some breathing space.

And so to the last 6 minutes and 42 seconds of the third quarter, in which no further goals are scored. Shuey gets the next centre clearance from the Natanui/Cameron ruck contest, although it looks like Cameron might have got the tap. Cameron runs hard and interrupts the forward move and then handballs our way – but straight back to Shuey. Shuey tries to hit Ryan on the lead but the kick is short. Cameron cleans up, again and turns inboard with a beautiful 25 metre pass onto the chest of Sheed. Sheed passes to Shuey. Shuey kicks long and Kennedy gets a free - but hits the post. Quaynor kicks long from the behind and Natanui takes a screamer over Cameron. He kicks long and a couple of West Coast infringements are, surprisingly, missed (Ryan interfering with an early jump all over Moore’s back and head in the marking contest and Sheed throwing the ball) before Darling kicks another point. Moore kicks in long. Cameron marks well in front of Natanui (who is too slow and out of condition to make it to another marking contest so soon after he took his previous great mark, it seems). Cameron handballs it quickly to Adams who tricks the defence by kicking it out into space so that Mason Cox can use his extreme speed to run for the ball. Cox gets there second but lays a great tackle to force the ball up, with Mihocek’s help. Grundy is back into the ruck. He thrashes Natanui and then follows up the ball and handballs to Noble. Noble is just put off as he kicks and skies it. Mayne and Adams contest hard and the ball falls to Treloar who kicks long to FF. The ball drops to Duggan, who is caught holding the ball in precisely the way that Elliott wasn’t a few minutes earlier. Brayshaw describes this as Duggan “being forced to work hard”. No free is paid. The West Coast backline is under extreme pressure. Natanui tries to run through players and the ball falls loose in a tackle – when that happened earlier in the match, it was a free against Collingwood. This time, it is play on. Collingwood continues to dominate the ground play but the defenders trade intercept marks. Moore takes one unopposed – meant for Natanui but Grundy keeps him out of the contest. Moore switches it to WHE in the centre circle. He passes well to de Goey. JdG kicks very long to FF, where Cox and Grundy both contest and force the Eagles to punch, instead of mark (for a change). It falls to Treloar who kicks the sealer neatly off his left. I open my eyes and try to understand how he has managed to kick a point. West Coast play keepings off for a while from the kick in. Eventually, Gaff kicks long down the line to Darling. He can’t mark it but, athletic star that he is, he runs straight past Thor and streams into attack for the match-turning goal – until Thor reaches out his anvil and smashes Darling into the ground, like a hapless bug. Holding the ball. That’s the Eagles’ last serious attempt to go forward in the third quarter.

Eighth West Coast goal - We start the last quarter with a more defensive midfield set (Elliot, Adams and Pendlebury, supporting Cameron). This works a treat – Natanui wins the hitout, follows up and kicks long to Ryan, who marks within 10 seconds of the start of the quarter.

Just to bring everyone up to date – that is now 5 of West Coast’s 8 goals that have come from one kick to FF centre clearances. Natanui has one of those 5 centre clearances against Grundy (the second West Coast goal) and one against Cameron (the eighth West Coast goal). Allen has one against Cameron (the third West Coast goal). As for the other two, although we “won” the ruck contest between Cameron and Natanui at the start of the third quarter, that was also, in substance, a one-kick to FF West Coast clearance (sixth West Coast goal), as was the 7th West Coast goal (ruck contest “won” by Grundy).

Ninth West Coast goal - Pendlebury kicks long and Barrass intercepts at the 50 metre line. He kicks long. Ryan goes up and almost marks in front of Cameron (Natanui is there, too, but not in the contest). Ryan recovers best, gets the ball clear to Hurn, who gives it to Sheed. Sheed kicks long to Darling/Moore/Madgen/Allen. Cripps gather the ground ball. Adams tackles but Cripps handballs out to Allen, who runs in and kicks the goal. West Coast lead.

Whoever makes the decisions about rucking decides that it is now time to stop taking the pi$$. Grundy comes back on against Natanui. With Thor off the ground, West Coast has had the first 9 inside 50s of the last quarter.

Tenth Collingwood goal - We finally get an inside 50. Thor takes a big mark on the wing in front of McGovern. He passes to Mayne. Mayne kicks long. Barrass brings the ball to ground from the pack, having been worried about Cox in the contest. It falls to Thomas, who musters all of his resources to get the ball out to Mihocek. Mihocek gathers the handball skilfully and snaps a beautiful left-foot goal. Collingwood back in front.

Eleventh Collingwood goal - Grundy is up against Allen (Natanui is off, again, for his beauty sleep). He wins the ruck and gives it to Adams. Treloar kicks forward but there’s another intercept. A West Coast chain ends with Ah Chee, who kicks OOTF, snapping for goal. We bring the ball out from the free and Mayne kicks long to the wing. Thor takes another big mark. He passes to Mayne, who passes to Crisp, who passes to Thor, again. Through all, Natanui is sitting on the bench, on the phone to his coach. Grundy kicks long. McGovern shoves Mihocek in the back in the marking contest. ‘Cek kicks long and deep to Cox, who is out-marked by Ryan (no, I’m not joking). After some more to-ing and fro-ing, Mihocek is blocked off the ball again in the aerial contest and gets another free. He kicks long to FF. McGovern drops the mark. He picks the ball up and holds it for about 20 seconds, making no effort to get it out. Remarkably, this results in a ball up. Nevertheless, Grundy beats Allen pointless and palms the ball down to de Goey (any doubt that this was deliberate and exquisite by Thor should be dispelled by seeing the three other Collingwood mids running free in the same space but just behind de Goey), who snaps the goal.

Twelfth Collingwood goal - Natanui and Cameron against each other at the centre bounce. Natanui wins it. Elliott sharks and gets the clearance. He passes to WHE, who handballs to Thomas in space at half forward. Thomas kicks long off his left. De Goey almost marks. The ball spills. De Goey, on all fours, taps it along the ground to Treloar. Treloar handballs to Adams. He kicks long and Mihocek takes a great, contested grab from behind against McGovern. That’s the 13-point lead. Just under 6 minutes to play.

Tenth West Coast goal - Natanui wins the tap against Cameron but Collingwood gets the clearance. Unfortunately, it gets knocked out to an Eagles player. It goes forward and Cameron takes a good mark deep in defence. He passes to Maynard. Maynard loses his mind, temporarily, and coughs up the ball for a goal. Really, how does that happen in a big final? The game is in the bag. We just have to run down the clock. Why the attempted heroics?

Eleventh West Coast goal - Grundy back on for the final flurry. The centre bounce is a break even and Grundy forces the ball up. He wins the ball up, despite Natanui “contesting” it with both his arms wrapped around Grundy’s waist. Grundy taps it to Adams, who can’t gather, so Thor picks it up again and handballs to Mayne. Mayne then handballs back across the chasing line. I’m not sure whether it was meant for Crisp or Grundy but Natanui gets a hand to it. Anyway, it is eventually forced back our way in the contest and de Goey gets a kick under great pressure. Duggan fists it back but Adams gathers and handballs to Quaynor. Quaynor passes to Stephenson, who marks on the lead. A 50 m should have been paid against Hurn but this is a West Coast game in Perth, so that was never going to happen. It gets as far as FF and the Eagles repel. Grundy beats Natanui in the ruck contest on the wing. Mayne collects and handballs to Adams who kicks long. WHE is freed against McGovern. This is the matchup resulting from sending Mihocek to the backline. Mihocek intercepts the next kick at CHB. Cox takes a great grab on the wing and kicks long. McGovern intercepts. The ball goes long and Crisp is adjudged to have infringed Darling.

1 minute and 17 seconds to play - Next centre bounce, Cameron is back in against Natanui. No-one really wins the hitout but Collingwood hunts in numbers and eventually Quaynor gathers the ball neatly and gives to Adams, who kicks long. De Goey takes two defenders out and taps it to Thomas, who is free running forward. He tries to pass to Cox. The ball gets punched back out. Treloar has it on the 50 metre line. He is on his own in a mile of space . He will run in and kick the sealer. No, he decides to kick it in hope from 50. Face-palm moment. He doesn’t make the distance. The ball bounces very conveniently for McGovern (still with that no-Mihocek match-up). He brings it out and a string of short passes sees Cole with possession, streaming through the centre. Adams smothers his kick. The ball comes to Crisp, who gives it to Pendlebury, who kicks long to WHE. He marks with 26 seconds to go and - very sensibly – he holds the ball for 12 seconds and then kicks backwards to Noble. Noble runs out the clock, the siren sounding as his long kick is in mid-air.