Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley reviews his team’s draw with the Crows at the MCG on Sunday.
On their overall performance against Adelaide…
“There was a lot we got right, especially early. The effort was really solid throughout, but our application to our plan beyond half-time wasn’t there. Even when we kicked those first few goals in the third, we weren’t able to apply the plan for long enough. It’s pretty clear, if you give Adelaide turnover opportunities, they’ll take them. They’re the best in the competition at it and we weren’t able to take that away from them for long enough.”
On executing their game plan…
“We planned to be (more) frugal with our ball use, then we still kicked 70-odd points in a half. Then when we tried to go a bit faster, we tried to put a fire out by putting petrol on it. Through the third quarter and early in the last, we took the flow of the game away from our grasp and handed it over to a pretty good opposition that were able to work their way back into the contest and ultimately square it.
“In isolation, you could look at any part of the game and say, ‘we could have done that better, we could have done that better’. But in the whole, we executed close to the plan early. Our intent was strong early. Around discipline, the scoreboard was great feedback but (in the first half) the game was played the way that we wanted it to.”
On the shape of Collingwood’s young list…
“We’re starting to get some shared experience. We’ve got some players that have played 50-60 games together, and if you can do it consistently for an hour, and for parts of that last quarter when we’re able to stabilise again… the question is ‘why can’t you do it for the full four quarters’? We’re still learning and developing on that, but it doesn’t change the result today, unfortunately.
“Collingwood supporters would have looked at that first half and thought, ‘this is exhilarating footy’. Great defence, solid contest… our offense looks effective and measured. But if you don’t do it for four quarters against any opposition, you’re going to get shown up.”
On Adelaide’s 50-point turnaround…
“What were they at half-time? The best opposition in the competition had 22 points, then they turned around and kicked 81 points in the second half. So clearly the game changed.
“They were prepared to go faster and they were prepared to make that happen. It was all off turnover, and it was mainly off turnover in our front half. You might look at that and say, ‘well that kick is on, we should just hit that kick’.
“Early in the game, we needed to be a nine out of ten to go for (the kick), whereas in the second half, if it looked like a five out of ten, we were still going for it. So that was the big shift. It opened the game up and gave the opposition what they wanted.”
On Mitch McGovern’s match-winning mark…
“If you’d told me at the start of the afternoon that you’re going to have a 50m kick, 20m out from the opposition goals and you’re going to have 14 blokes in the pack… Then as the siren goes, all you need to do is hit that spoil and bring it to ground? You’d take it, but we weren’t able to get it done.”
On Daniel Wells…
“How good was that game today? Every time he plays, he validates the trade and the willingness (from the club) to get him in. You put that against where we are on the ladder and when we’re going to contend… there’s still a lot of things outside his control that we need to get right. Then there’s things inside his control that he can help us with, like being better prepared for a season which he’s spoken about. When he’s up and about, we’re a much better side. That performance was first class. That’s an experienced player who knows the game, playing against great opposition and at the top of his game.”
