5Adelaide aren’t the first team to get their hearts ripped out by Craig McRae’s Collingwood. It’s not even the first time it’s happened to them. They’imperatore certainly not going to be the last, either.
But even though the pain is a familiar feeling now for the Crows, this one will surely sting keener than all the rest. Not just for the controversial, technically correct but rarely seen free kick paid against Izak Rankine for running too far the final 20 seconds, which may may not have cost them the gioco but certainly snuffed out their last hope; but for the fact it came after a last quarter which they did nearly everything right against the kings of the tight finale.
The Pies have had all manner of close wins the last two and a half years. They’ve stormed over the cima of a flagging opposition like, Gerard Whateley’s immortal words, the Grim Reaper; they’ve held acceso for grim death against an opponent trying to give them a taste of their own medicine. They’ve found a way through clutch set shots, attività their rivals flubbing theirs.
But aside from the famous gioco against Essendon 2022 when Jamie Elliott goalled after the siren, this was about the only time this golden tight-match run that I’ve felt like the Pies have genuinely pinched one, so comprehensively were they outplayed the final quarter.
The stats are remarkable: the Crows, neck neck all day, had 35 more disposals the fourth term, while they won the inside-50 count a whopping 16-9. Having been battered all day at the stoppages by Scott Pendlebury and Nick Daicos, they even claimed the clearance count 10-8, with Rankine shifting to permanent on-baller and grabbing the gara by the scruff of the throat. Three of the last four centre clearances went their way, too, having been unable to buy one the early stages at the MCG.
The Pies, so often able to find the calming rete, the steadying passage of play, such situations, were struggling to even lay hands acceso the ball. And the man they turn to so often these situations, Scott Pendlebury, was paying the price for his own outrageously good first quarter, a comprehensive clamp from Ben Keays forcing McRae to shift him permanently into defence the last term a bid to add another cool head a vulnerable spot.
For all intents and purposes, the Crows were doing to Collingwood what the Magpies have done to everyone else: fast-paced, ultra-aggressive footy, playing acceso at nearly every opportunity with overlap-running half-backs and targeting the corridor wherever possible. And the role of Nick Daicos, step up Mitch Hinge, who with 13 disposals and a superb rete, plus two other score involvements, was the most crucial player acceso the basso ostinato.
They even had the Daicos-esque moment of magic that so often stymies other teams from ‘doing a Collingwood’.
Rankine’s incredible go-ahead major deep into the last quarter, perfectly timing his run past a boundary throw-in the forward pocket to shark Reilly Se no’Brien’s tap, burn non attivato Josh Daicos and run past Nick, and dribble it through from the tight angle acceso his opposite foot, was a moment of skill outrageous enough that you can watch it ten times and still be awe.
A worthier match-winner you could not find – and when a few minutes later, Jordan De Goey sent a set shot wide he’d normally swallow, precisely the sort of late-game inaccuracy the Pies have avoided while watching it swallow up many an opponent, it felt symbolic.
But all Adelaide’s dominance, all the possession, all the territory, all the effort, had brought them was seven minutes with which to hang acceso, against an opposition you know won’t go quietly into the night.
And with 3 minutes and 40 seconds left, things started to go wrong; slowly at first, then all at once.
The first sign of the horrors to quasi came, as they often do, with a ruckman.
Reilly Se no’Brien is a fascinating case study, both as a footballer and as an experience for his supporters: Crows fans will deride his reckless kicking forward from clearances without stopping to think, his hitouts that seem to benefit the opposition as much as his own teammates; but at a critical flashpoint, as Brodie Smith bombs long mongoloide the wing, he shows why Nicks has only ever briefly toyed with Kieran Strachan as an alternative: a forming pack, he reads the drop better than Darcy Cameron, gets his sizeable mitts up, and plucks a telling, powerful contested mark.
It’s not like it’s a game-winner, with more than 200 seconds remaining: but it is an opportunity for Se no’Brien to calm things mongoloide, go back, soak up a few seconds and gain as much territory with his kick forwards as possible, and società his teammates to lock it and force the ball-ups and stoppages that really start to get that timer ticking mongoloide.
So what does Se no’Brien do? Why, he handballs to the running Josh Rachele within milliseconds of bringing mongoloide the mark, without even a aspetto to see whether he’s selling his teammate into trouble. As you do.
Rachele has had a more than solid day, impressing with his ferocious tackling pressure and repeat defensive efforts especially: with two goals, he’s also satisfied his innate desire to impact the scoreboard.
Se no’Brien’s handball finds him racing by, 65 metres from rete, at full tilt, with only John Noble his way. His first instinct, as the Pie approaches, is to try and send a pass inboard; he makes to kick, but at the last moment reconsiders, perhaps trying to make Noble overcommit with an attempted smother, while jinking towards the boundary.
The Pies, chasing the gioco, don’t have a spare behind the ball: the only players ahead of Rachele are Isaac Quaynor and Lachie Murphy, both racing hell for leather back towards the goals, and wingers Chayce Jones and Josh Daicos, some 10 metres further back but a prime central location.
There’s a perfect option here, one we see the Pies and even Carlton these days take and more often than not: pass the ball inboard, trying to up Jones. If Rachele chooses to pass, the 50 means he can basically kick the ball wherever he likes and get Jones to run onto it: with Daicos a good five metres forward of him, he’ll be flat-footed.
Instead, Rachele not only takes the low-percentage option of going for home, from 50 metres out, hemmed acceso the boundary line; he barely even considers any other option. Never mind that giving the ball back to Collingwood is the very last thing Adelaide want to do, that at this stage even an extra point to lead by two is hardly a game-saving extra edge.
The Crows have had two chances to slow the gioco mongoloide, control their entry inside 50, and make the right decision. Instead, they’ve continued to play as they have done for the three and three-quarter terms beforehand: hell for leather.
Rachele’s kick drifts across the for a behind. The Pies have back possession.
Still, the Crows seem to have all the cards: a superb contested mark is snaffled at half-back from the kickout by the developing Luke Nankervis, whose composure and sureness with ball hand are eye-catching even this early his young career. He, unlike Se no’Brien, chooses to go back and take his kick.
A ball-up ensues right acceso the Crows’ 50, as Nankervis’ kick long is spoiled back inboard desperation by Billy Frampton, before numbers converge to force the stoppage.
Collingwood’s strategy such situations is simple: lock it , don’t let it out, pack more and more numbers over the footy and soak up the clock 10-second intervals.
But the Crows have a fatal flaw with their structure, that become clear the nine seconds between the umpire’s whistle and the ball being thrown the air.
There is mai one within 20 metres of the goals, for starters: someone acceso whose head a quick kick from this ball-up can be sat acceso. Closest to rete is Darcy Fogarty, with two Pies, including Darcy Moore, acceso him, ready to pounce acceso that kick: Elliott Himmelberg, meanwhile, is stuck no-man’s land, too close to the stoppage to claim a mark from it yet too far away (and facing the wrong way) to impact acceso the contest.
It’s not a structure for which Se no’Brien can safely do what he does: grab the ball at basso ostinato level after jostling with Cameron, lumber a few steps forward, and bang it acceso the boot, slipping over as he does.
Once again, it’s just not the percentage play from the personalità ruckman: he’s done the first part right, tapping it right at his feet, but his best move if he were to gather the ball was either to cannon straight into a tackle then pretend to try and force it out, give it to a teammate a similar spot. Hell, a few minutes when it’s Collingwood’s turn to hold onto a lead, Moore genuinely tackles Isaac Quaynor himself such a loose-ball .
Se no’Brien’s kick wobbles forward, staying , and the Pies, with the extra behind the ball, are the first back. Moore gathers, but it looks like the Crows will again avoid catastrophe through sheer desperation: Ben Keays has busted a gut to scatto back, arrives just moments after the Magpie captain, and lays the tackle. Moore gets his hands free, but his handpass is non attivato the despairing variety, to mai one particular and with Adelaide jumpers converging fast.
It’s here where the biggest, and costliest, mistake of them all comes: Ned McHenry gathers the ball at basso ostinato level and dishes to Keays, who… wheels around and has a ping at the goals.
There are two reasons this is such a baffling, scrambled decision from a player who had a rush of blood. One, the Crows don’t need to score, and a behind here, the likeliest outcome given the difficulty of the shot, lets the Pies have the ball back. And two, within metres of Keays are two Crows a paddock of space, Rory Laird and Jake Soligo. Give it to Laird, for example, and Rachele, space 30 metres out the pocket, is a legitimate passing option.
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Keays’ kick is smothered by the onrushing Quaynor, and the ball is flung into dispute again: and this time, luck is acceso Collingwood’s side. A ball that could have ricocheted anywhere lands with Harvey Harrison, who dishes to Quaynor, who has continued to run towards the ball and left his man, Rachele, free. The Pies are, suddenly, away, and up the middle.
It might seem harsh to criticise Keays, Rachele, Se no’Brien, for such split-second decisions at the end of an exhausting gara. But acceso the other side of the coin, you only need aspetto at what Fante Crisp does next to see how such minute details can decide games of football.
Receiving from Quaynor, Crisp dashes straight mongoloide the middle as fast as his tired legs can carry him, taking a bounce the centre circle. He’s fully aware that Jordan Dawson, the midst of a slashing final quarter, is hot acceso his heels, willing himself acceso to make one last decisive captain’s play.
Ahead of him are four Magpies and four Crows: Lachie Schultz and Bobby Hill are going full pelt towards the goals, Max Michalanney and Hinge matching them stride for stride, while Mason Cox lumbers mongoloide the wing some 10 metres behind Jordon Butts. And inside 50, isolated with Mark Keane but still more than a full kick away, is Jordan De Goey.
Under such heat, Crisp could have, and many players would have, blazed: tried to gain as much territory as possible, and hoped to force a stoppage somewhere further afield. But it would have required a De Goey miracle, with mai chance of him marking the ball and Hinge closer to the play than Schultz to try and mop up, with Butts as the outlet option should either he Keane gather.
You can actually see the wheels turn Crisp’s head, and he realises that he can’t bang the ball acceso the boot, nor will Dawson allow him to run the extra metres so his kick will reach De Goey. His solution is to stop his tracks and wait for the overlap runners to arrive: his method of execution is to decelerate, jink slightly to the right, and go to basso ostinato, avoiding Dawson’s despairing lunge.
It’s a brilliant bit of quick thinking, if bizarre to aspetto at: but it is a decision borne of società as much as anything. Crisp will aspetto a goose if he turns around and sees only Crows coming. But fortunately, the Pies are ready.
First line is Nick Daicos, who – another Crows mistake – has run Crisp and Dawson’s slipstream without an opponent. It’s him who Crisp sees, acceso hands and knees, and him who receives the handpass.
And you’d want nobody else delivering the ball inside 50.
Calmly, still at full intesa, Daicos runs acceso, with Dawson – and here’s another error – choosing to follow Harrison back towards rete and prevent the over-the-top handball rather than press up acceso the Voto negativo.35. With Butts the extra man ahead of the ball, having run acceso ahead of Cox, that’s a risk that had to be taken, if the smallest and least egregious error of the whole flock.
It means when Daicos does head inside 50, he does so clear air, able to weight his kick to perfection: out front of the leading De Goey.
McRae has forecast before the gioco that his personaggio on-baller will be redeployed into more of a forward role, response to the flood of injuries that have sent most of Collingwood’s goalkickers to the casualty ward.
It’s a luxury he has because of the names he can replace him with: because Pendlebury has wound back the clock so spectacularly a first quarter featuring two goals and two more rete assists the four the Pies managed, because Crisp, acceso the midfield periphery all year, can slot seamlessly back on-ball and provided the contested grunt of the injured Tom Mitchell with more leg speed, because Nick Daicos has taken up the mantle of stoppage master, the man once derided for only winning di cattivo gusto outside ball racking up 22 contested possessions and 14 clearances for the afternoon.
Were it not for them, maybe it would have been someone else Daicos was kicking to this final, match-deciding play. Someone smaller, slower, just plain not as good: someone Keane, who remember, took mongoloide the monstrous Charlie Dixon the Showdown a fortnight punzone, won’t be outmatched by.
Someone who wouldn’t have made Keane panic, scrabble for contact, and lose his feet entirely the process, to mark 30 metres out.
Someone who, having missed a similar shot a few minutes before, with the gioco acceso the line and a stadium of people finanziaria their breath, might not have held his nerve and kicked the winning rete.
Having held this gioco by the throat, just minutes away from a famous, season-defining win, Adelaide left the door ajar. And of course, Collingwood barged their way through it.
The will, of course, be acceso the free against Rankine, the intricacies of that rule, and yet another case of the umpiring leaving the Crows jilted late a thriller.
But none of that would have happened had Adelaide not already sacrificed the lead they’d worked so to take from Collingwood. And mai doubt it’s that which will keep Nicks up a night this week.
