A determined effort from the Collingwood Magpies proved they will play a part in AFL finals action with a high-intensity beat down of top eight hopeful Carlton in front of 72,000 at the MCG on Friday night.
Collingwood’s 17.16 (118) to 12.5 (77) win further decreases Carlton’s chances of making the eight. The Blues dropped to a 6-8 overall record and will be at least two wins behind Port Adelaide for eighth spot on the AFL ladder at the end of the round.
The loss was compounded by a serious knee injury to forward Jarrad Waite while valuable contributors Eddie Betts and Mitch Robinson limped to the final siren.
The loss of Waite allowed Collingwood to test tall defender Ben Reid out in the forward line and the experiment paid off to the tune of four goals. Even better was star forward Travis Cloke who kicked five.
Collingwood turned an inept Carlton outfit upside down after falling behind by as much as 28 points in the first quarter. A 52-point turnaround thereafter in a span of a little over 30 minutes all but ended the game.
The noted tensions between head coaches Nathan Buckley and Mick Malthouse turned in Collingwood’s favour on Friday and the former club champion wasn’t afraid to rub it Malthouse’s face publicly after the match.
“Last thing: we had seven of the youngest eight players on the field tonight,” he said to end his post-match press conference.
“Carlton have eight top 10 draft picks, and we have four.
“Some scribes were saying during the week that they’ve had a better season than us.
“It’s not about Carlton versus Collingwood, but I reckon it’s time for a reality check to assess where we’re at.
“We’re doing all right.”
Dane Swan led the Pies with 41 possessions (but at just 41% disposal efficiency) and three goals while Scott Pendlebury contributed 33 and seven clearances.
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Michael Dodge, Getty Images.
