- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It’s the final warm up for Collingwood leading into the finals as they face-off against North Melbourne at the MCG this afternoon. Live scores and commentary kicks off from 3:20pm AEST.
Collingwood have known their fate for a good couple of weeks, but today was poised to be an integral game for the race for the last spot in the eight for North Melbourne.
Unfortunately for the Kangaroos fans, they’re finals hopes were dashed with an amazing final-quarter fightback last night by Carlton against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium to snuff out their chances.
Which is a shame really, because of all the five teams that were in the race for the final spot in the finals across the weekend, North Melbourne would have been the most deadly.
There’s no doubt this season, North Melbourne have been exhilarating at times with the way they’ve played.
It’s just that one little aspect – playing a full four quarters to get the job done.
The rap sheet of close losses is not pretty reading at all: Geelong in Round 2, Hawthorn in Round 5, West Coast in Round 8, Adelaide in Round 9, Gold Coast in Round 11, Brisbane in Round 16 and Carlton in Round 17.
Convert two of those and they would have made the finals. Convert four or five and they could have been top four.
Today for the Kangaroos is a chance to send a message to the competition on how 2014 might just play out.
A win today, and we could be talking about a North Melbourne outfit that could seriously challenge a top-four spot in next season… or is that me getting ahead of myself?
What we do know is that Collingwood will be playing finals this season, despite looking a little shaky during the middle part of the year.
Their season has been one of intrigue, but it has been an impressive final month, especially after their shake-up loss to the Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium.
Since then, it’s been four wins out of five, including solid wins against Essendon, Sydney and West Coast.
It’s fair to say the fact that today’s game is at the MCG will be a big plus for the Magpies, with a dominant record of late against the Kangas at the home of football.
In the last six matches between the two, Collingwood has scored over 100 points in five of those games and suffering four losses over 50 points, two of those over 80 points.
I’d suggest Collingwood might take the foot off the pedal a little bit today, but if they’re serious about a premiership tilt, then they should do their best to take the Kangas to the cleaners.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.