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A little bit later than usual, the footy for the week is finito. On Sunday night I gave you eight quick takes from the round up to that point, and now I’m back with five more.
Collingwood must fix the forwards to save their season
Collingwood and Essendon’s Anzac Day clash could hardly have gone more to script. In fact, I wrote the script this morning and I don’t mean to toot my horn overly much but it wasn’t far off the mark.
The Pies got their hands on the ball more than enough to win the game but failed to capitalise on it as they have all year. Their run of five consecutive behinds in the second term or Taylor Adams’ lacklustre miss in the last minute of third were classic examples of this.
They allowed themselves to get sucked in by Essendon’s effort to control the ball in the middle and back half of the ground, drawing players out of Collingwood’s defense and allowing the Bombers to kick so many of their goals through attacking into open space in the forward 50.
Collingwood are mighty in the midfield but it’s just not enough at the moment. They’re winning the inside 50 count more often than not – as they did today, 66-43 – but slamming it forward without precision or finishing ability has costing them in every game they’ve played.
They had two more scoring shots than their opponents but lost the game by three goals. That’s textbook Collingwood 2017.
There’s improvement coming there. Jamie Elliott was in roaring form in his second game back, Alex Fasolo is still dynamic (but wasteful today), and Daniel Wells – leaving aside for a moment his age and injury history – is exactly the player they need there. Park him on the half-forward flank and throw away the keys.
As for Darcy Moore, well he kicked two goals today – one of them a classic “Joe the Goose”, but still – and with no senior key forward to partner with it’s no surprise he gets kept out of the contest at times.
You can’t make excuses though, he needs to work harder defensively to create more opportunities for others and himself. Just one tackle and four pressure acts today – the lowest of any Collingwood player in both categories – was not good enough.
Let the Elliott-Wells-Fasolo trifecta get into sync over the next few weeks and tell a few players to lift their defensive intensity, and this can still be a good season for Collingwood, maybe even a winning season. A few more hours practice in front of goal wouldn’t hurt either.
Did Essendon make a mistake letting Michael Hibberd go?
The Bombers put in a huge effort to re-sign the three Hs in 2016, locking down Dyson Heppell, Cale Hooker and Michael Hurley to long-term, lucrative contracts with the club.
They were not so stressed about Michael “The fourth H” Hibberd and ultimately seemed to let him go without any real effort to retain him – they paid a lot to secure those other three and perhaps recognised that they didn’t have the capacity to match what Melbourne were offering him.
That may have been a mistake. Hibberd may have started his Melbourne career in marvellous form on Monday night – though he like many of the Demons faded in the fourth – with 27 disposals, 18 of them being kicks, and also sneaking forward for a goal.
With Hibberd in the mix Melbourne’s offensive capability out of the half-back line is looking genuinely scary given how well Jayden Hunt and Christian Salem can also play that role.
Essendon’s ball-control based game plan could certainly benefit from having an experienced and dynamic player like Hibberd available in the back half. You can’t stop an out-of-contract player leaving if that’s what they want, but maybe the Bombers could’ve done more.
Is it Tiger time? We’ll find out on Sunday
After so many poor starts to seasons under Damien Hardwick that have left Richmond on the back foot all year, it’s quite a thing to see them 5-0 for the first time this millenium.
Even moreso when you consider just how they have come to be here – the odds were stacked against them at the final change on Monday night, but a five-goals-to-none final quarter made for a remarkable comeback story.
On one hand you could sit back and poke holes in every impressive thing Richmond have done. Melbourne had mid-game injuries, West Coast are a VFL-quality side at the MCG, and none of their other wins have come against halfway decent teams.
On the other, we could admit that they can only beat who is in front of them and they haven’t put a foot wrong so far. As a side that thrives on confidence (and battles without it), this is immense.
Just how good are they? Luckily for us, we’re about to find out when they travel to play the Crows, one of two other undefeated teams in the game, on Sunday next week. If Tiger Time really has arrived, we’ll know it then.
Jordan Lewis owes Melbourne a mammoth performance
I’ve not always rated Jordan Lewis as highly as some do, but he is the kind of player who plays very close to the line with his aggression and while some may call him a thug because of it, it was a cornerstone of Hawthorn’s 2013-2015 premiership three-peat.
The downside of playing so close to the line, unfortunately, is that you inevitably wind up crossing it once or twice, as Lewis did in Round 2 which ultimately cost him three weeks out of the game and, depending on who you ask, three wins for the Melbourne Football Club.
Would the Demons have got it done on Monday night with the ex-Hawk in the team? Or the week before, or the week before that? It’s purely hypothetical – and he’s not the only Demon the club would be disappointed in – but you’d have to say they certainly would’ve been a better chance.
Lewis will know he has let the team down and will know he has to make amends. The Demons go up against the Bombers next week and if I was Essendon I would watch out – he is the kind of player who will respond in a big way.
The Dees should innovate to solve their ruck dilemma
As if Max Gawn going down with a long-term hamstring wasn’t bad enough, Melbourne are now also going to be missing his back-up Jake Spencer for at least six weeks after he hurt his AC joint on Monday night.
That leaves them in a really difficult position – of the four 200cm players on their list, Gawn and Spencer are injured, and Mitch King (20 years old) and rookie Lachlan Filipovic (18) have never played at game at AFL level.
What was arguably their biggest strength in games could now be a major weakness – but perhaps it’s also an opporutnity to innovate.
We’ve already seen Geelong play around with the idea of leaving the ruck virtually uncontested late in their Round 2 match, and it worked well enough for them with an extra midfielder at the stoppage helping them read the opposition ruckman’s taps.
Wouldn’t it be more value for the Demons to have an extra mid at the stoppage rather than a rookie ruckman who will just get belted anyway? Something for the Melbourne coaching staff to consider, certainly.
Just a reminder you can click here to read my other eight quick takes from the round.