Craig McRae has acknowledged Collingwood’s inability to match the Western Bulldogs’ game-winning clearance dominance amid a hesitancy to judge a forward’s quiet performance.
The Magpies were stunningly overrun by Luke Beveridge’s Bulldogs in the final quarter of Friday night’s back-and-forth battle at Marvel Stadium, conceding five unanswered goals in the period to fall by 18 points.
Collingwood’s loss — its first since a Round 2 defeat to St Kilda and fourth for the season — came after a Marcus Bontempelli-led Dogs outfit recorded 12 more clearances and 14 more inside-50s in the fourth stanza.
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The unexpected turnaround came after the Pies led at all three changes, including a 12-point three-quarter-time buffer.
Speaking post-game, McRae admitted his Magpies lost their grip on four premiership points after being outmuscled at the source late.
“I think the game itself got away from us through clearances and inside-50s against,” he told reporters on Friday evening.
“That was the game, in essence. 64 inside-50s is hard to (beat). For major parts — I just said to the group — I think we’re not quite there, hardened-wise, to play 120 minutes; this group in particular. That’s two weeks in a row.
“We’re not quite hardened enough. There’s a lot of good going on, but then there’s this not quite (being) able to do it for four quarters at the minute for this group.
“I think we’ll gain a lot out of this.”
Over the past five games, the Bulldogs average the most points scored from stoppage in the AFL, and that prowess came to the fore when the game was there for the taking.
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The Magpies entered Friday night without a bevy of key personnel — including the likes of Scott Pendlebury (bicep), Jordan De Goey (abdominal), Tom Mitchell (foot), Brody Mihocek (hamstring), Jamie Elliott (vascular), Will Hoskin-Elliott (hamstring) and Mason Cox (knee) — but McRae didn’t dwell on the absentees.
“How do you measure that (impact of injuries)? I just look at what we can control,” he said.
“I thought, if you want to just break the game down, I thought the first quarter we dominated (but) we didn’t take our chances. We could’ve been two or three more goals up than what we were.
“We had good ascendency, good clearances, centre clearances, and all our good players playing well. And then you play against an opposition that are so elite around the ball — they’re the best clearance tam that we’ve come up against.
“They just accumulate and they just wore us down. Maybe it was a bit too far with their talent at that part of the game late, but I think we’ll get to work on some of those system things we can improve.”
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Despite being without valuable attacking assets Mihocek, Elliott, Hoskin-Elliott and Reef McInnes (concussion), as well as the already-sidelined Dan McStay, McStay preached “system” with regard to his forward unit.
“We don’t rely on an individual goalkicker, we rely on a system, and we kicked 12 goals,” McRae noted on Friday.
“Now, (in) the last few weeks, that has been enough to win or draw — and tonight it wasn’t.”
‘Fly’ recalled fringe forward Ash Johnson for just his third game of the season as his match committee sought to address the club’s diminishing forward-50 options.
However, McRae wasn’t willing to specifically assess the performance of Johnson, who managed a team-low four disposals and no scores against the Bulldogs.
“I think what we need to do is look at us as a collective, and not target individuals (about) mistakes they made, or whatever it is,” McRae stated.
“We’re a system-based forward-line, and he’s required to play his role within that system.
“Now, he can do some stuff better — and he did some really good stuff too — and we’ll live in the space where we reward the behaviours and then look for more of those things once they keep presenting themselves.
“We’re going to get better. I just can’t see us not improving from these last couple of weeks, from opportunities, and guys learning their roles better.”
Collingwood’s Kings Birthday meeting with Melbourne is in 10 days’ time.
Source Agencies
