Is it Collingwood or Collywobbles?

 

Roar Rookie

By Edward Bowman, 27 Jul 2008 Edward Bowman is a Roar Rookie

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 AFL, Collingwood, Collingwood Magpies, Essendon, Essendon Bombers, Geelong, Geelong Cats, Hawthorn, Hawthorn Hawks, Melbourne, North Melbourne, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Storm

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Collingwood were yesterday on the wrong end of a 48-point bomber blitz. Essendon out-ran and outpaced the pies, which throws up a question: can the Pies have any impact during September? Can they challenge the likes of Geelong and the Western Bulldogs?

I have two arguments as to why they won’t.

Performances against Top 8 sides.
Before their round nine thrashing of premiership favourites Geelong they hadn’t beaten a Top 8 side, having lost to Brisbane, North Melbourne and Hawthorn.

Since that defeat of Geelong, they have only beaten Sydney and Adelaide (Adelaide were in the Top 8 at that stage). For a team that is aiming to challenge for September glory, this sort of record against the sides they will come up against in battle during the finals is evidence enough that they will not be competitive come the business end of the season.

Up and Down players
Paul Medhurst has had a great season, arguably the best of his career. Yet, when you look at his stats carefully, when Collingwood have been beaten, he hasn’t performed.

His best performance in a loss this year was against North Melbourne in round five when he booted five majors. He has kicked 18 of his 48 goals during losses.

Travis Cloke is a gifted player, yet so pivotal to Collingwood that his poor games have been the ones that they have lost.

He has kicked a total of seven goals in games that his side have lost, but he has kicked nineteen goals in games that Pies have won.

Pendlebury and Thomas are both young developing stars who, like the two I have mentioned, have played poorly in losses. While swing players are a valuable commodity, there needs to be a balance between consistent and swing.

The problem with Collingwood is they have too many swing players.

Yes, Collingwood beat Geelong by 86 points. But I think that win has clouded criticism from the football public.

For the Pies to have any lory during September, they must rectify the problems that they are facing.

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