Magpies count injury cost after Freo draw as Cox, Mihocek and Pendlebury face scans

COLLINGWOOD 10.15 (75) DRAW WITH FREMANTLE 11.9 (75)

KEY POINTS

THIRD DRAW OF 2024
The third draw for season 2024 – and Collingwood’s second for the year – was in many ways a win for Fremantle. They came from the clouds in the end, pulling back a four-goal deficit in the last 10 minutes, and could have pinched it if a last-ditch shot by Jeremy Sharp hadn’t slid wide. The Pies will also ask about a free kick against Nick Daicos for handing the ball back to the umpire, not his opponent, which gifted Sean Darcy a goal at a critical time. But they should really ask: why do they have to do this, to themselves and their supporters? At the end of the game, Darcy Moore quipped it was as if it wasn’t exciting for them to put a game to bed. Instead, they’re keeping everyone up at night. Moore’s opposite number, Dockers’ skipper Alex Pearce’s late goal shouldn’t be forgotten either, he emotionally pointed to the sky to acknowledge his dear friend Cam McCarthy who died earlier this month.

YOUNG MAGPIES IMPRESS AGAIN
They say that a football team can be measured by its last half dozen. Well, coming into this game, Collingwood had Wil Parker on debut, ditto Ed Allen, Charlie Dean (two games), Lachie Sullivan (two games), Joe Richards (two games) and Harvey Harrison (eight games), probably none of whom would be playing if not for injuries to first-choice players. They’ve probably lost Brody Mihocek to a recurring hamstring issue, Mason Cox is also set for scans on a knee and Scott Pendlebury has a concern with his bicep that will need scans. They couldn’t quite get the job done this time, but in Harrison and Richards, at least, they’ve found two natural footballers who will be impossible to omit on recent form. Richards, especially, is a revelation – a dual-sided, highly skilled player who wins a lot of ball for a half-forward.

LIPINSKI LIFTING
Patrick Lipinski made a splash in his first year at Collingwood after crossing from the Western Bulldogs, finishing fifth in the 2022 Copeland Trophy. He drifted to the fringe of the team last year, after two shoulder surgeries, starting in the grand final as a slightly lucky substitute. But Lipinski has enjoyed his best year so far in 2024. Rated as Collingwood’s best connector inside 50 by his coach, Lipinski was again destructive at half-forward, with a goal, three direct assists and an equal game-high eight score involvements from 20 touches. He’s playing with a confidence and flair that deserted him.

KEY STATS

Thanks everyone. That’s all we have for you tonight.

We will be back in a few hours with our AFL Saturday live blog tomorrow.

See you all then. Bye for now.

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has praised his players for their fightback from 25 points down to draw with Collingwood but he regretted the poor third term in which the Magpies broke away from them.

“I’m proud of the way we fought the game out,” Longmuir said.

“We were 25 points down. I don’t know how long was left on the clock. 10 minutes. We could have found it too hard, I reckon. But yeah, the players found something which I’m really proud about.

“We could have snatched it at the end but I think the way the game was getting played the second half we probably stole two points.

“I was real proud of the way the players fought. Yeah, it was a mixed bag though, wasn’t it? Some areas of our game are going well but a bit of inconsistency within game and we need to iron that.”

The Dockers have plenty to improve on.

“It was probably the main message after the game was to the players was when our mindset was in the right space tonight we challenged them,” Longmuir said.

“But, there was 40-minute patch there where we became a little bit safe, didn’t trust ourselves and played in their back half which we don’t want to do.”

Collingwood coach Craig McRae spoke to the media post game.

First of all, crazy finish. What were your thoughts on the match in general?

I just said to the players, you know, anyone watching at home, Collingwood supporters, would be extremely proud of the effort from our players. We’ve got some young players playing first games, two of them. Six under 10 games. Yeah, they just didn’t look out of sorts. There’s a lot of things to goin’ to the end result, but I think for most of the night, we’ve had enormous effort. To walk away with two points is better than zero. We come over here a long way. They’re a very good team, clearances were enormous coming in. We were worried about that stuff. There’s a lot to take in, but right now I’ve just got this enormous pride of our effort.

The last couple of weeks in the last quarter the opposition has been able to kick on and nearly lost games in both weeks. Is that because of the inexperience and youth?

No, no. If you look at the detail of it, there’s two weeks in a row where we’ve had our key forwards out of the game. Mason got concussed and Brody Mihocek’s got another injury. Might have done his hamstring again. He’s off in the last quarter, so we don’t have any key forwards. If you look at the details of that and go the same thing happened last week, we have makeshift forward lines with key forwards, we’ve got Edward Allan in his first game playing as a key forward for us against Pearce. We’re fighting, scrapping. I’m really proud of that. There’s circumstances around that. Yeah, we’d like to walk away with a couple more points, but, jeez, it’s not through lack of effort.

The talking point is going to be free kick against Lachie Sullivan. What was your interpretation of what happened?

I’m looking forward to what the AFL tell us about that. I wasn’t aware that’s a free kick, but, clearly it is, because they don’t play things that aren’t in there. Looking forward to seeing what they say.

Will you will seek out an answer?

I want to assume that you guys have reported it enough, then it will be spoken of. It will be what it will be. It doesn’t help us, does it?

What was the emotion in that moment?

I was confused. I was told that he touched the umpire. That’s what I got told. I said, “Oh, OK. That’s a bit much in the moment.” But again I was unaware of what happened until afterwards.

Do you think that moment flustered them at all? They’re looking at, “What just happened there? Of go they might not have realised?

I hope not. We made way more mistakes than the umpires did tonight. He’s just, I assume, umpiring to the level of the law. I’d like to think so. Let’s move on, let’s go. What’s next? That’s all you can control. If the umpire comes out, AFL, “That was a mistake.” That doesn’t help. We just move on. Reality is, probably a free kick and we move on.

Do you talk to Lachie post game about this?

Not particularly, no, no. We phrased effort. What about the handball, creating a goal in the third quarter that Lachy did, in his fourth game? I’m living in the space of we drew Anzac Day and felt like that was a pretty even tussle, hard to walk away with a win. Tonight, you know, there’s a little bit in you going, “We’re 25 points up, 7 minutes to go, can we hold on?” This would have been our best victory for the year, if not the last couple. We knew that, it was going to be a really tough challenge for us today. Did we exceed expectations? Maybe not. We just show that we’ve got players that come in, wear a Collingwood jumper, doesn’t matter what number they’re wearing, they do their job. Adversity to it, we’re proud of that. Proud of it.

Magpies veteran Scott Pendlebury’s path to his 400th games could face a delay after he admitted he struggled with a bicep problem in the second half.

Pendlebury was shown on the bench getting treatment before the final term and he played out the game but admits he will need scans or similar tomorrow to assess the damage.

“I’m not too sure. I hurt it in the third quarter, then it pretty much useless after that,” Pendlebury told Channel Seven.

“I was just trying to make up the numbers out there. We didn’t have many rotations left.

“We will have a look tomorrow at what’s wrong.”

Pendlebury had ice on the injury while in the rooms post game.

There is a bit of conjecture about the free kick against Collingwood in the final term for not passing the ball back to the umpire at a ball-up.

It resulted in a Dockers goal and the start of their comeback.

The TV pundits and Seven and Fox Footy are up in arms and think it should have been a warning although I’m not sure there is a spot for that in the rules.

But Dockers midfielder Caleb Serong said he was aware umpires could make that decision.

“I knew that they, at times, have paid free kicks for delaying the game, stuff like that,” Serong told Channel Seven.

“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure that was explicitly the rules. The big fellow Sean was quick to take it, put the hand up to bang it through.“

Serong was asked if he would take the free kick.

“We’ll take it,” Serong said with a smile.

COLLINGWOOD 10.15 (75) DRAW WITH FREMANTLE 11.9 (75)

KEY POINTS

THIRD DRAW OF 2024
The third draw for season 2024 – and Collingwood’s second for the year – was in many ways a win for Fremantle. They came from the clouds in the end, pulling back a four-goal deficit in the last 10 minutes, and could have pinched it if a last-ditch shot by Jeremy Sharp hadn’t slid wide. The Pies will also ask about a free kick against Nick Daicos for handing the ball back to the umpire, not his opponent, which gifted Sean Darcy a goal at a critical time. But they should really ask: why do they have to do this, to themselves and their supporters? At the end of the game, Darcy Moore quipped it was as if it wasn’t exciting for them to put a game to bed. Instead, they’re keeping everyone up at night. Moore’s opposite number, Dockers’ skipper Alex Pearce’s late goal shouldn’t be forgotten either, he emotionally pointed to the sky to acknowledge his dear friend Cam McCarthy who died earlier this month.

YOUNG MAGPIES IMPRESS AGAIN
They say that a football team can be measured by its last half dozen. Well, coming into this game, Collingwood had Wil Parker on debut, ditto Ed Allen, Charlie Dean (two games), Lachie Sullivan (two games), Joe Richards (two games) and Harvey Harrison (eight games), probably none of whom would be playing if not for injuries to first-choice players. They’ve probably lost Brody Mihocek to a recurring hamstring issue, Mason Cox is also set for scans on a knee and Scott Pendlebury has a concern with his bicep that will need scans. They couldn’t quite get the job done this time, but in Harrison and Richards, at least, they’ve found two natural footballers who will be impossible to omit on recent form. Richards, especially, is a revelation – a dual-sided, highly skilled player who wins a lot of ball for a half-forward.

LIPINSKI LIFTING
Patrick Lipinski made a splash in his first year at Collingwood after crossing from the Western Bulldogs, finishing fifth in the 2022 Copeland Trophy. He drifted to the fringe of the team last year, after two shoulder surgeries, starting in the grand final as a slightly lucky substitute. But Lipinski has enjoyed his best year so far in 2024. Rated as Collingwood’s best connector inside 50 by his coach, Lipinski was again destructive at half-forward, with a goal, three direct assists and an equal game-high eight score involvements from 20 touches. He’s playing with a confidence and flair that deserted him.

KEY STATS

Collingwood skipper Darcy Moore spoke to Channel Seven post game.

Darcy, overtime or no overtime?

The way they were coming home, I’m inclined to say no overtime. Yeah, it’s a funny one, isn’t it? I don’t know. I don’t know, back here again. What is it, six weeks since our last one. It’s a funny feeling. Obviously got, you know, some guys with a bit less experience and they get a lot out of that game. Take the positives in that game. Take the positives in that way, but at the moment it feels pretty terrible letting that one slip. Still got two points, I guess.

What is it with you guys and close games?

It’s madness.I know. It’s like we… It’s not fun enough when there’s a few goals in it. It’s like which want to make it interesting. Credit to Freo. They just kept playing their system and really attacking the corridor, as you would have seen, especially late, which is, yeah, credit to them. It’s hard to play that way for a whole game. They did a really good job. They took their chances late. That makes it hard.

Must be a really proud captain, got six players here under 10 games, a couple of debutantes. Whilst you would love to have your senior more experienced guys fit and firing, it’s nice to give some opportunities to the younger guys.

100 per cent. As the captain, it really gives me a lot of energy seeing these guys. I see day-to-day how hard these guys work to get this opportunity and the fans and the viewers at home don’t get to see that. They just see what they deliver on Friday Night Footy. To see them shape and play to their strengths and get an opportunity at this level makes me feel really great as captain and a bit of a marker of our environment, how well they go, and to sort of be as competitive as we were, you know, have that game be in the lead for as long as we were in the second half and just let it slip at the end makes you pretty proud considering how inexperienced we are at the minute.

It’s the third draw of the season and both sides had so many chances across the match.

Jeremy Sharp from Freo was angry with himself after his late miss but Jordan Clark and some other teammates picked him up and told him to hold his head high, after all, his point gave his side a share of the spoils.

Craig McRae doesn’t look happy. Collingwood were well ahead with 10 minutes to go and haven’t won the match.

Collingwood surged forward but they were stopped by the Dockers.

It’s a draw.

Sharp had a shot for goal. He missed to the left.

It’s tied with 40 seconds to play.