By Jake Niall
Collingwood entered Friday night’s potentially season-shaping game against Essendon mindful of the damage that could be inflicted by Zach Merrett’s surgical left foot.
“We went into the game with a mindset about him, because we know how much he generates,” said Collingwood coach Craig McRae after his team’s 12-point defeat.
But that awareness of Merrett was not backed up by actions. Merrett, one of the game’s smartest and most skilled midfielders, was afforded enormous latitude by the premiers and, unsurprisingly, dissected Collingwood’s lax defensive zone.
Victorious Bombers skipper Zach Merrett walks off the MCG arm-in-arm with deputy Andy McGrath.Credit: Getty Images
The laissez-faire treatment of Merrett contrasted with the way Carlton had hunted the Essendon skipper a few weeks earlier, deploying the indefatigable Alex Cincotta and recruit Elijah Hollands as a tag team for Merrett.
Bomber Sam Durham took the task of shadowing Nick Daicos literally.Credit: AFL Photos
The space – and lack of close-up attention – permitted to Merrett was also the complete reverse of how the Bombers dealt with the similarly destructive powers of Nick Daicos, who was smothered, to a crucial extent, by the blue-collar pairing of Sam Durham and Jake Kelly. Durham is the spirit of Essendon.
Collingwood and Essendon are close enough in talent this year that the outcome was always a fair chance to be determined by which of Merrett or Daicos found room to execute; the difference lay not in the possession tallies, but in the carnage that Merrett caused – 15 score involvements – compared to the much less potent Daicos disposals.
The different approaches to Merrett and Daicos bespoke differences in each team’s psychology.
Essendon hunted the Magpies. The Dons had a plan of how they would curtail the young champ, and they also had a method for controlling the ball – chipping the footy around for 129 uncontested marks – to prevent the game from descending into Collingwood-friendly chaos.
Collingwood appeared to be focused on playing their game – which, at its best, is fast and furious, in the old Richmond manner – rather than modifying that method to take down the Bombers.
Like many sides, the Magpies don’t tag per se and prefer a team defence, but they did successfully stymie Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps via a combination of Scott Pendlebury and Jack Crisp in round eight.
No such intent was directed at Merrett.
McRae said his side had expected to see the ball-control and uncontested marks. “Credit to Essendon. They moved the ball extremely well ... 129 uncontested marks – we knew that was coming.”
But the Pies were unable to defend the field, suffering from an attention deficit where Merrett was concerned.
Friday night, thus, had the feeling of an older team’s decline and the younger side’s ascension; in large part, this was evident in selection.
The Bombers, missing only Darcy Parish, had the luxury of resting their oldest pair, Dyson Heppell and Todd Goldstein – and in recalling a talented first-round draft pick in Nate Caddy. The Magpies, by contrast, were patching up holes by blooding a mid-year draftee (Ned Long) and bringing back an ex-VFL tall defender (Charlie Dean) for his seventh match before subbing him out, while putting an iffy Josh Daicos through a fitness test on the MCG before the game. The Daicos selection hinted at desperation.
Merrett celebrates a goal while Josh Daicos watches on.Credit: AFL Photos
Essendon had the energy of aspiration. Collingwood was the tired incumbent, their energy – already depleted by injuries and age – further diminished by Essendon’s ball-control game style. It is instructive that whereas the Dons rested their oldest pair, Collingwood was heavily dependent on their oldest duo, Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom (albeit the latter made some crucial blunders), and gained little output from Jordan De Goey.
The Bombers’ unflattering record against top-eight teams was highlighted last week, but their trajectory is still upward; that they mightn’t be top four this year isn’t the point – they’re an unfinished product under Brad Scott, who took the points over his former Lions teammates McRae and Justin Leppitsch for the first time.
Collingwood, in contrast, look much like the weary Geelong of 2023 – an older team that achieved glory after a long campaign and which subsequently struggled for constancy, in personnel and form. Like the Cats of last year, the ageing premiers lost their first three games, recovered and appeared to be storming back into contention, but couldn’t take a trick on the injury front, as their capacity to defend dissipated.
Geelong missed the finals in 2023. For the Pies to make it this year, they’ll have to regroup without Brody Mihocek, having lost Nathan Murphy in pre-season. Dan McStay and Jamie Elliott will return relatively soon, but this has the feel of a team that is gamely hanging on, rather than storming to the finals.
Geelong have re-grouped somewhat this year, albeit they still seem short of flag contention-class. This coming Friday, they meet the banged-up, patched-up team that increasingly resembles the Cats of 12 months earlier.
While the outcome rests on various factors – whether Collingwood can improvise a forward structure and if Chris Scott can subjugate Nick Daicos as successfully as brother Brad – the team that succeeds in hunting, and which finds reserves of energy, is the most likely to succeed.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.