Collingwood second half comeback downs Roos
The Pies were down but not out at half time as North Melbourne took an extended lead but ten unanswered goals helped the magpies win at the MCG on Sunday.
PT1M30S 620 349COLLINGWOOD 1.2 4.3 13.5 17.10 (112) NORTH MELBOURNE 4.4 10.6 10.9 14.11 (95)
Goals: Collingwood: J Elliott 5 A Fasolo 2 D Swan 2 B Grundy J Blair J Crisp J White J Witts S Pendlebury S Sidebottom T Cloke. North Melbourne: J Waite 3 R Nahas 3 D Petrie 2 J MacMillan L Thomas R Bastinac S Gibson S Higgins T Goldstein.
BEST: Collingwood: Elliott, Pendlebury, Swan, Sidebottom, Crisp, Frost, Fasolo, Varcoe. North Melbourne: Goldstein, Cunnington, Nahas, Waite, Gibson, Harvey, Bastinac, Ziebell.
Injuries: North Melbourne: A Swallow (thumb) replaced in selected side by K Turner.
Umpires: Justin Schmitt, Mathew Nicholls, Andrew Mitchell.
Official Crowd: 43,452 at MCG.
If you did not see this game you will not believe this story, but please read on anyway and suspend disbelief. If you did watch the game, read on to double-check — it really did happen.
Jamie Elliott is congratulated by teammates for his after-the-siren goal. Photo: Getty Images
At half-time, the team that was 12th on the ladder was beating the team that was fifth on the ladder by 39 points. They should have been more than 10 goals up after hideous misses in the first quarter, but they were romping ahead. It was a shellacking.
North Melbourne was playing superbly and Collingwood was horrific. Brownlow medallist Dane Swan might not have played many more ineffectual games than the first half – he kicked the ball at 18per cent efficiency. Steele Sidebottom looked like his hand was still broken. Scott Pendlebury was poor.
North Melbourne was pressuring, hunting, gathering and winning. Todd Goldstein was the dominant player. Ben Cunnington was channelling Greg Williams in ignoring his feet and creating everything by hand. Robin Nahas was bright and Jarrad Waite still had silly Jarrad Waite moments but more good ones than bad.
Brodie Grundy handballs under pressure from Lindsay Thomas. Photo: Getty Images
Then the momentum changed and the score. But what created this change was nothing positional, nothing structural, nothing other than a mental change. Suddenly Collingwood wanted to be the team to win the ball and tackle and move the ball quickly.
"We are an effort and intensity-based side and we know if that is off we are not going to win many games and that clearly showed in the two halves," Swan said.
"We were waiting for them a little bit in the first half and they did what they had to and pantsed us.
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AFL Collingwood v North Melbourne
Collingwood grab thrilling comeback win over North Melbourne. See highlights from the MCG of the big Sunday afternoon clash between the Pies and the Roos. Photo: Quinn Rooney
"At quarter time we said 'boys that is about as bad as we have played and we are three or four goals down' and after the second quarter we said 'that is the worst half we have played all year and we know we can't go any worse and if we get better we will get closer and closer' and I don't think any of us expected to be in front at three-quarter time."
The third quarter was unforeseeable. Collingwood kicked nine goals to none. Within half an hour they led by 14 points. Pendlebury was the architect, Jamie Elliott the new conduit. Swan and Sidebottom began to create with possession, not hack to find territory. Jack Frost won contests behind the ball and Alex Fasolo looked to pressure not just finish.
Collingwood was in front and rampant. A goal was even insisted upon from the video man just as Brent Harvey was about to kick in for the point that had been given. They kicked the first goal of the last quarter in a manner emblematic of the shift in the game – they hurried to force confusion and panic and the ball was bobbled up to them.
The query was only whether the effort of getting back in the game would weary them.
"No doubt it goes through our mind," Swan said. "The rain comes down but thankfully the wind was blowing our way a bit so those thoughts go through your head."
To tease at those concerns North found momentum from a moment of nothing. A fortunate lapse on the mark, a long kick from Goldstein and mark and goal from Nahas that begat two more goals in a minute. Soon after, North hit the front when Petrie goaled. It seemed the Magpies would be left with more self-respect but no points.
Yet there were cunning twists left. Collingwood chased the ball and territory. The three big tall forwards were ignored for the smaller ones Elliott, Blair and Fasolo. Swan went forward when something was needed.
In the slip and wet, Jamie Elliott curled a ball to the goal square and Swan set his frame and edged his backside. He held his ground and more importantly held the mark. He kicked the goal to put his side back in front.
"I have a lot of confidence in my hands and they put me forward to do something and thankfully I did. It was a perfect kick from Jamie, I just had to hold my ground and thankfully it stuck," Swan said.
"We needed a good win, we needed a test against a good side. We know North were a kick away from the granny last year and we need to beat those sides to have a bit of depth and make people think we can compete with the best."
