Collingwood’s depleted ruck shares had been uncovered by the Brisbane Lions as Oscar McInerney took full benefit in his aspect’s blistering 33-point win on the Gabba on Thursday evening.
McInerney monstered the Magpies’ Dan McStay-Ash Johnson makeshift ruck tandem, with the Lions massive man attending to 70 contests and racking up 43 hit-outs, 13 of which had been to benefit, 11 clearances and 18 disposals.
Of course, Collingwood can be with out its two first-choice ruckman for a prolonged interval after each Darcy Cameron (knee) and Mason Cox (hematoma) had been caught down with damage final week, forcing the membership to get inventive within the place.
Watch each match of each spherical of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
But it was a weak spot for the Pies in Thursday’s recreation as McInerney had his method with McStay and Johnson all evening.
According to Swamp, McInerney grew to become simply the seventh participant in AFL historical past to document 40-plus hit-outs and 10-plus clearances in a recreation, becoming a member of Brodie Grundy (has finished it 4 occasions) Aaron Sandilands, Nic Naitanui, Jarrod Witts (all twice), Max Gawn and Sean Darcy.
“I’ve got the simplest role in footy and that’s just make a contest,” McInerney instructed Channel 7 post-match.
“I don’t have any good skills, so (I) just create a contest for the little fellas. We’ve got blokes like Charlie Cameron and Zac Bailey, they can get after it.
“They’re just an incredible stoppage side. We’ve seen their numbers all year. Sometimes you’ve just got to play what’s in front of you.”
Despite McInerney’s dominance on the evening, Collingwood coach Craig McRae doesn’t imagine it was the overruling purpose why his aspect suffered its first lack of 2023, pointing to it scoring extra from stoppage than the Lions though Brisbane gained the clearance battle 46-37.
But McRae famous the ruck scenario was nonetheless going to harm them transferring ahead.
“In terms of losing territory, it’s always a cost. It’s something we’ll have to really work through in the next period,” McRae mentioned post-match.
“We’ve got what we’ve got and we just have to work through it … I don’t think there’s a magic solution to it. We’re going to have to work through it and get better at what we do.
“Clearances weren’t a huge cost, it was only a half dozen here or there. We won the scoring battle from stoppage, which we thought, if we could manage that at the start of the game, we’d be OK. That was always a threat.
“It’s the first real game we’ve had of it and I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from it.”
McRae lamented three “uncharacteristic” free kicks his aspect gave away in a decisive second quarter that Brisbane gained by 35 factors because the Magpies acquired repeatedly caught out for breaching the AFL’s 6-6-6 centre bounce set-up rule.
“Clearly we gave away some uncharacteristic free kicks from our centre bounces not being organised. It’s something we want to pride ourselves on,” the Collingwood coach mentioned.
“There’s not a stat about being connected, but that’s something we want to be AFL No. 1 at – and we weren’t – I challenged the guys at half-time around what that looked like.
“You can’t give a team like Brisbane on their home deck territory, and we gave them gifts for free kicks at centre bounces that resulted in us having to struggle to get the ball out of there.
“There’s no excuses to that, that’s within our control. To give up three (free kicks) really quickly, it just shows how disconnected we were for that part of the game.”
Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall mentioned on Fox Footy that though the Lions didn’t maximise scores from their clearance domination, “it allowed them to control territory a bit better”.
“They weren’t defending all the time, they had less pressure on their back six and they were able to play the ball in their forward half and get repeat stoppages,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile three-time Coleman medallist Matthew Lloyd prompt it may be “hard” for midfielders to rove to a makeshift ruckman and questioned how a lot the Magpies’ ruck woes could be an element transferring ahead.
“I think that is going to be a big story this week – can they scrounge enough wins without Mason Cox and Darcy Cameron there?” Lloyd posed on 3AW.
Magpies legend Tony Shaw thinks McInerney’s supremacy was in the end the “difference”.
“If you tap the ball, you’re a chance, but when he was clear in the contest and then grabbing it and kicking it forward, you become like another midfielder,” Shaw mentioned on 3AW.
“Without that player who’s competitive in that area, I just thought they (Collingwood) played a bit like Hollywood – they got carried away with the game plan in a slippery night.
“Forwards just started to fly for everything, they lost their structure and thought they wanted to get involved individually.
“They were due for a game where maybe it just didn’t work for them.”
Unfortunately for Collingwood, it’ll should play with no recognised ruckman for the foreseeable future.
As defined by Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph on Fox Footy, Cox remains to be weeks away from returning, whereas Cameron stays a methods off.
“Mason Cox will have scans in the days after Gather Round (next weekend) to see how he’s bleeding from the spleen has recovered,” Ralph mentioned. “He may need more rest or they might be able to ramp him up again, but he’s probably still a month away.
“We know Darcy Cameron potentially at best would be six weeks away. They’re going to have to get on that ruck picture with the way they were decimated.”
Originally revealed as ‘Going to be a big story’: Pies uncovered in ruck as ‘uncharacteristic’ blunders expensive
Source: www.news.com.au
