but big question over their opponent<\/a><\/p>\nAs a result, the Hawks will sit briefly atop the ladder heading into the weekend despite their run of six straight wins coming to an end and will look to straighten themselves up for a testing task against the Dockers in Perth next week, with skipper James Sicily to be monitored after hurting an ankle.<\/p>\n
The Magpies, meanwhile, kept their win-loss ledger on the right side to remain middle of the pack after a mighty effort given stars including Scott Pendlebury and Jeremy Howe were rested and others including Nick Daicos, Darcy Cameron and Jamie Elliott were clearly sore. <\/p>\n
While it looked as though Cameron knocked a knee in a ruck contest, McRae said he had hurt an ankle, while Daicos and Elliott were \u201cboth just generally sore\u201d.<\/p>\n
And the footy world? While the usual chatter about the merits of extra time were raised, both coaches noted the draw is a result and the two points will add an element of intrigue in the finals race as the year progresses. So half-full it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cFundamentally I said to the boys, \u2018We didn\u2019t win tonight, but we definitely, definitely didn\u2019t lose\u2019\u201d McRae said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s important to acknowledge that we played some really good footy against what is arguably the best team in the competition. We were coming tonight to see how our game stacks up and I think most of our fans would have been pretty happy with the territory battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Moore celebrates after he kicked a goal after the siren to draw the clash against Collingwood at the MCG. (Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
In an intriguing match, both coaches walked away identifying points of improvement and areas to work on.<\/p>\n
The numbers do not lie. Hawthorn smashed Collingwood at the centre bounce stoppages 19-4, an area where the Hawks were below-par earlier in the year, doubled their clearances and had ten more scoring shots.<\/p>\n
On paper that would win most matches, but it took a goal from Dylan Moore after the siren just to draw it.<\/p>\n
The Magpies, in contrast, were extraordinarily efficient converting their 50m entries, with their first and third term results exceptional as they kicked five goals in both terms from just seven forays into their forward arc.<\/p>\n
This McRae attributed to their cohesion and nous, while the Collingwood coach was also delighted with the Magpies ability to stymie the aerial supremacy of Hawthorn\u2019s intercept defenders, saying Daniel McStay had played one of his best games for the club.<\/p>\n
But they could have won and McRae identified the red-time goals Hawthorn kicked in the second, third and last quarters as crucial to their ability to draw the match, noting they should have been able to close it out despite the frantic finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have just got to get better and drill down those little moments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are having a kick in with 40 seconds to go … that\u2019s the moment where you go, \u2018Surely we find another mark\u2019 and, if we don\u2019t, surely we get it out of bounds or whatever that looks like. It\u2019s got to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collingwood coach Craig McRae lauded the deeds of Daniel McStay in attack, with the key forward effective in restricting the usual aerial supremacy of the Hawthorn defence. (Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Mitchell, for his part, lauded the efforts of small forward Nick Watson, whose skill to set up the goal in the shadows of three-quarter time was just one of his many highlights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he did that handball thing … I was like, \u2018Far out, I\u2019m glad he\u2019s playing on our team\u2019,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how you stop him. He has played some pretty good footy for us. It is hard to be consistent as a small forward but the thing about his game is he is finding a way to have an impact every week. He\u2019s a really difficult match-up and we will continue to try to maximise him as best as we can.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are pretty lucky we had him on our side in a game where we struggled to find for goals, so for him to kick two himself and then he created the Calsher (Dear) one, they were pretty important in the context of the match.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood coach Craig McRae was embracing the glass half-full approach after the Magpies\u2019 extraordinary draw against Hawthorn in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[310478,638,64,63,689,55,639,3567,10143,107025,28452,310480,12735,659,52904,2105,310484,310482,310486,310477,20778,55242,36873,36878,10132,310485,3530,677,46,3247,57754,12936,25838,19083,85,310481,24318,310483,3439,310479],"class_list":["post-641361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-aerial-supremacy","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-courtney-walsh","tag-craig-mcrae","tag-daniel-mcstay","tag-darcy-cameron","tag-extraordinary-draw","tag-finals-race","tag-footy-world","tag-game-stacks","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-glass-half-full-approach","tag-goal-secures","tag-handball-thing","tag-hawk-dylan-moore","tag-hawthorn-coach","tag-intercept-defenders","tag-james-sicily","tag-jamie-elliott","tag-jeremy-howe","tag-ladder-heading","tag-nick-watson","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-ruck-contest","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-scoring-shots","tag-scott-pendlebury","tag-sports","tag-term-results","tag-territory-battle","tag-testing-task","tag-western-australia","tag-win-loss-ledger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641361","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=641361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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