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Milestone man Nick Daicos in game 100 was everywhere in a devastating final term that saw the Magpies kick seven goals to seal a 13.10 (88) to 12.11 (83) win at the MCG.<\/p>\n
Such was Daicos\u2019 devastating display, two-time premiership Roo David King was scathing of Voss\u2019 \u201cincredibly poor coaching\u201d to allow the Magpies cult hero to run riot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ripped their heart out. They got Nicked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Blues simply had no answers in the final quarter after carrying an 18-point lead into three quarter time.<\/p>\n
But for the third time in four games, Carlton couldn\u2019t hold on \u2013 and now sit at an AFL worst -119 for points in final quarters.<\/p>\n
The loss was further soured by a nasty head knock to forward Harry McKay, who played no further part after crashing to the MCG turf from a stray Harry Perryman blow.<\/p>\n
For Collingwood, the win ensures they break their two-game losing streak and square the ledger at 3-3.<\/p>\n
THE 3-2-1… (What we learnt)<\/p>\n
3. \u2018OUT OF CONTROL\u2019: HOW MILESTONE NIGHT WASN\u2019T MEMORABLE\u2026 UNTIL IT WAS<\/p>\n
Nick Daicos entered Thursday night having polled 10 of the available 12 Brownlow votes in his past four starts against the Blues.<\/p>\n
And you can believe he\u2019ll poll again tonight, after categorically ruining the Blues in the last quarter.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d played 99 of the better games you\u2019ll ever see prior to tonight, and he had something memorable planned for no.100.<\/p>\n
He began proceedings with a game-high 11 disposals and three inside-50s in the first quarter. He should have had his first goal of the night in the second term after pouncing on a Carlton back-half turnover, but he hit the post.<\/p>\n
Daicos finished the first half with 20 disposals, but just three were score involvements; having little true impact on the game to that point.<\/p>\n
Two-time premiership player David King pondered in the third quarter whether the Collingwood coaching staff had to deploy Daicos in defence, as the Pies had struggled staying composed when exiting their defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he of more value behind the ball, charging out with express speed and getting them going? I think they need to look at where they can apply him right now,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
Later, down 18 points on the eve of three-quarter-time, with Daicos still in the engine room but not having a needle-moving impact, King suggested McRae move the little champion forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need a matchwinner in the forward half; they\u2019re screaming out for someone inside forward 50,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
He added at three-quarter-time: \u201cIt\u2019s Nick Daicos or bust, again. He\u2019s had 26 disposals, but they haven\u2019t been at the normal quality that we expect of Nick. But I can\u2019t see where else it\u2019s coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
And at the first centre clearance of the final term, the Pies\u2019 prayers were answered.<\/p>\n
The dynamic superstar was involved twice in the passage of play before slamming home a major on the goalline.<\/p>\n
The script-writers had finally arrived.<\/p>\n
Within the first 12 minutes of the last quarter, Daicos had a goal, eight disposals, four clearances and three inside-50s \u2014 and Collingwood had kicked five consecutive goals to lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just can\u2019t believe what the little champ\u2019s doing, here. He\u2019s had seven disposals in about six minutes of footy; he\u2019s absolutely everywhere \u2026 he\u2019s out of control,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just have to be here to see this guy play. He is a genius.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wound up a prolific ball-winning night for the milestone man, totalling 26 touches by the last change and finishing on 39 to be the game\u2019s leading possession-getter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like we could\u2019ve probably watched a whole game\u2019s worth of highlights of Nick (in the lead-up),\u201d Pendlebury told Fox Footy pre-game of Daicos\u2019 big night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably been the best 100 games in the last 30, 40 years that anyone\u2019s really seen. I\u2019ve had a great seat to sit there and watch him.\u201d<\/p>\n
2.UGLY NARRATIVE LIVES ON AS BLUES RUE \u2018INCREDIBLY POOR\u2019 DAICOS CALL<\/p>\n
The Blues came into Thursday night having won just two of 10 quarters after half-time.<\/p>\n
And after they\u2019d won their third of the season to lead by 18 points at three-quarter-time, Voss and his men were almost there, just to again be devastated in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Led by 100-game superstar Nick Daicos, Collingwood piled on the first five goals of the quarter as the hapless Blues had no answers, with one Fox Footy analyst lamenting a crucial coaching call.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is incredibly poor coaching to leave (Ollie) Hollands on Daicos when he\u2019s forward,\u201d King said in the last term.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time the ball has gone to him, he\u2019s been beaten. Every time. (Nic) Newman had to be the match-up they had to explore, on the guy that has ripped the game out of their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a difficult night for both Hollands brothers with Elijah recording just one disposal, very late in the match, across 60 per cent game time.<\/p>\n
It came after Carlton looked tremendously promising for three quarters, staving off the Pies\u2019 early tactical challenge to hold the ascendancy for a large portion of the contest.<\/p>\n
Blues coach Michael Voss looks on in the final quarter.Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Carlton entered Round 6 as the number one team in the competition for scores from stoppages, second for contested possessions and third for total clearances.<\/p>\n
But Craig McRae\u2019s Collingwood didn\u2019t allow the game to be played in tight confines from the outset, instead forging an uncontested style of play in a first quarter that saw few stoppages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is great coaching from Craig McRae; this is what you pay the big bucks for \u2014 he\u2019s taken the game out of contest,\u201d two-time flag-winner David King said at quarter-time on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen an incredibly low clearance game. There have been five stoppages around the ground, normally there are 15 per quarter, so that\u2019s taken the game away from Cripps and their strength area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat McRae has done is disarming Carlton. Can the Blues, now, readdress this and get back into this contest? Play wide, play slower, and play to your strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in a perfect response, Carlton kicked the first four goals of the second quarter, getting active around stoppage and preventing the Pies\u2019 uncontested play.<\/p>\n
It was a game-high 21-point lead halfway through the second term before Collingwood had its first of the period. It was the only goal the Pies kicked in the quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey look invested in this one, there\u2019s no doubt,\u201d King said at half-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaches were able to drag the Carlton game back into contest in that second term, and it served them well \u2014 they looked to hold all the aces \u2014 but you know Collingwood is going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while scoring from stoppage has been a Blues hallmark, they managed just 0.2 (2) from the source in the first half.<\/p>\n
Instead, in a surprise, it was off turnover that Voss\u2019 side was doing its damage, kicking 5.3 (33) off the Pies\u2019 mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made some mistakes early, they put that behind them, and then they started to hit some targets and move the ball well. It\u2019s been a different-looking Carlton,\u201d Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy at half-time.<\/p>\n
Star marched for finger point dissent! | 00:39<\/p>\n
Leigh Montagna added: \u201cNow it\u2019s up to the players, in the psyche \u2014 when the pressure\u2019s on out here in front of 80,000 in the second half, can they continue to execute what Michael Voss wants them to?\u201d<\/p>\n
And how did the Blues start the second half? By scoring their first goal from stoppage after Patrick Cripps burst away from the centre clearance. It was feeling like Carlton\u2019s night.<\/p>\n
The Blues had chances to put genuine scoreboard pressure on the Pies but squandered them, kicking three behinds before Jamie Elliott kicked the Pies\u2019 first of the second half.<\/p>\n
After three goals apiece in the third, it was all downhill for the navy Blues, whose fans have more Collingwood trauma to add to the bank.<\/p>\n
1.PIES FORWARD WOES FORGOTTEN FOR ONE QUARTER<\/p>\n
All eyes were on Collingwood\u2019s forward efficiency.<\/p>\n
After all, this has been a side that hasn\u2019t managed to score 100+ points in a game since Round 18 last year, and entered Thursday night second-worst for score-per-inside-50 \u2014 behind only Richmond.<\/p>\n
But early and often at the MCG, there didn\u2019t appear to be an incredible amount of method with the Pies\u2019 forward entries \u2014 but through some good marking and some fortune, they took six marks inside 50 in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
They wouldn\u2019t take their seventh until the 24-minute mark of the third quarter, in a truer representation of the quality of entries the Collingwood forwards were subject to.<\/p>\n
Amid four-straight Carlton goals in the second quarter, Collingwood needed 13 inside-50s before its first major of the term.<\/p>\n
The Pies managed just one goal for the quarter despite leading the inside-50 count 29-17 at the main change. They didn\u2019t take a mark inside forward 50 in the second term, as the Blues\u2019 defence tightened up.<\/p>\n
Collingwood traded goals with Carlton in the third quarter and was fortunate not to have been put to the sword early, with the Blues kicking 3.4 for the term.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all at sea down back, the Pies,\u201d King said on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably as disorganised as I\u2019ve seen them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou accept that because Darcy Moore is not there and maybe he saves them a bit, but there are holes everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the gutsy comeback win, the Pies finished with 14 more inside-50s yet wound up with the same number of scoring shots as the Blues.<\/p>\n
Speaking about his side\u2019s lacklustre forward productivity midweek, McRae said he was still in the process of figuring out what the crux of their issues was. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are just little things that we need to improve \u2014 chemistry, connection. I keep wrestling with \u2018is it method, or is it personnel?\u2019 I\u2019m really living in that space,\u201d he told reporters. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to improve our method to see if it is personnel, but we\u2019re living in this constant growth mindset where we\u2019re clearly not happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran interceptor Jeremy Howe trained forward on Tuesday at Pies headquarters, but while McRae didn\u2019t guarantee the move for Thursday night, he told media: \u201cI want to continue to evolve and look at all the options we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Magpies were missing Steele Sidebottom (hip) and Jordan De Goey (concussion) on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Re-live Carlton v Collingwood in our live blog below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"History has repeated for Carlton and coach Michael Voss as the Blues coughed up another final quarter lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-610762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}