Australian Football

Match Report

Collingwood looked lethargic early in the game following a 10-day break after their epic one-point win over Essendon on Anzac Day. Key ruckman Darren Jolly was a late withdrawal for the Magpies before the opening bounce, testing Collingwood’s depth. Despite only beating cellar-dwellers Greater Western Sydney and Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs had been competitive in every game in the opening five rounds apart from being thrashed by St Kilda in round three. The Bulldogs took it right up to the highly fancied Magpies all night, and should have led by much more than 11 points at quarter time, and threatened to cause a massive upset a number of times. The four points were up for grabs until late in the game when Collingwood pulled away to bring up their fourth win of the season. Magpies star Scott Pendlebury was simply outstanding, gathering 34 possessions to claim the Bob Rose-Charlie Sutton medal for best on ground. Dayne Beams was also important for Collingwood, while former Demon Simon Buckley played his best game in black and white colours. Bulldogs' tagger Liam Picken did a good job in shutting down Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan while defender Brian Lake starred for the Dogs and looked to be getting back in top form. He also managed to move forward and kick a contender for Goal of the Round.

GOALS:

Western Bulldogs: Giansiracusa 3, Griffen, Higgins 2, Boyd, Wood, Hargrave, Lake

Collingwood: Shaw, Goldsack, Sinclair, Cloke 2, Dawes, Sidebottom, Swan, Reid, Fasolo, O'Brien, Wellingham 


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Western Bulldogs: Lake, Griffen, Cross, Sherman, Cooney, Boyd, Hargrave

Collingwood: Beams, Pendlebury, Buckley, Clarke, Sidebottom, Swan

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Western Bulldogs: Dahlhaus, Picken, Cooney, Giansiracusa, Griffen

Collingwood: Shaw, Pendlebury, Beams, Reid, Sidebottom, Sinclair

COACHES COMMENTS
Brendan McCartney (WB): It was not a frustrating night; it was disappointing for our club to lose a game that we did a lot right in. We've had a good chat - the leaders, myself and the senior players - and we felt we just didn’t smash in aggressively enough for long enough.

Nathan Buckley (Coll): I still think from that performance we've clearly got a lot of improvement in us. But you can only ever beat the opponent you've got in front of you at the time and you can only ever deal with the circumstances that are presented.

Umpires: Donlon, Stewart, Schmitt