Ruthless Collingwood sour Gold Coast’s day in the sun
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For the Gold Coast Suns, playing Collingwood at home is by far the biggest game on the home and away calendar. Playing in front of only their second ever sold-out crowd (the last, in 2014, also against the Magpies), it’s their Anzac Day, their Big Freeze.
It’s certainly the closest they’re going to get to a grand final – because they won’t be playing one of those for a while yet. Quite a few commentators tipped the Suns to win this game at home. Instead, they were destroyed by a scintillating Collingwood outfit.
As good as Collingwood have been so far this season, they’ve been only just going for quite a few weeks now: gratefully banking the wins, riding out injuries and suspensions to key players, falling over the line again last week against Adelaide.
That’s been their calling card: masters of the close finish, throttling opposition teams in clutch moments. This was different. The Pies blew the Suns away, kicking 11 goals to one in the first half to take a 62-point win into half-time and running out 78-point winners.
They were ultra-attacking and aggressive, and it seemed everything they tried came off. Blistering chains of handball out of defence, releasing the ball through the corridor. It was extraordinary end-to-end stuff. And they get Jordan De Goey back next week.
Jamie Elliott, who’s had a difficult season, had four of those first half goals. There was a touch of genius in his second: knocking the ball back as it was about to cross the line for a behind, and having enough time and agility to reverse and soccer it through.
Jamie Elliott worked his magic around the goal.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
Less likely candidates also hit the scoreboard: 200cm Billy Frampton, on the run from 55 metres; half-back John Noble, who is playing brilliant football; even Suns discard Oleg Markov, thrown a lifeline by Pies coach Craig McRae, his first mentor at Richmond.
But while McRae might consider treating himself to a second red wine watching the replay of this game, the review will be a horror show for counterpart Stuart Dew and the Suns. This was their time to shine – and they didn’t show up.
The warning signs were there from early on, when Sam Collins kicked a Collingwood turnover straight back to Jeremy Howe, and the ball ricocheted back to Elliott in the blink of an eye. By the second quarter, the wheels hadn’t just fallen off, the steering wheel was jammed too.
Their first problem was getting their hands on the ball. The Suns’ main strength is their centre square work, between Jarrod Witts and the bullocking Matt Rowell, with Noah Anderson and Brayden Fiorini (and Touk Miller, when he returns) the distributors.
But with Nick Daicos now playing full-time in the middle – where he picked up 36 disposals, 10 tackles, eight clearances and, presumably, three more Brownlow medal votes, the Suns were destroyed at the source. And once the ball was on the outside, it was a training drill.
Nick Daicos on the move.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
When they did get hold of it, the Suns blazed away in desperation, allowing Darcy Moore and Nathan Murphy to dictate terms from the back half. With Izak Rankine now at Adelaide and Ben Ainsworth moved up the ground, the Suns lack a quality small forward.
Pay no notice of the four goals straight the Suns kicked in the third quarter, as the Pies took their foot off the accelerator. Nick Daicos was having a breather for much of that time and Jeremy Howe, on the comeback trail from a badly broken arm, was substituted.
Collingwood were just playing the game out from there – though no one told Brayden Maynard, who continued to attack every contest like a beaten dog until he was taken from the ground for his own good. That’s what it might take to stop Collingwood. The Suns just stopped.
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