Australian Football

Match Report

**DEMONS RIPPED HOLES IN ALL THE MAGPIES’ PLANS!

By HUGH BUGGY**

Storming through with strong and masterful football, Melbourne, in a shattering last quarter, ripped holes in a tough Collingwood defence to win the 1955 League pennant convincingly by 28 points on Saturday.

lt was a smashing recoil that struck the tiring but dogged Magpies with the force of a battering ram. lt gathered its full momentum in the last 13 minutes of a desperate grapple, which had been lit with flashes of fire. And it broke a deadlock of baulk and counter baulk to vindicate the fitness and the fighting quality of the young Demons. The Demons' winning break-through came as a rousing climax to a game in which these two fearless sides had been locked together like a couple of straining wrestlers.

It was too intense and breathless to yield much vintage football. Survival went to the fittest, but there was little to please the football purist.

Each side fumbled through every mistake in' the book. Early in the game the Magpies found that their zest, their unbounded confidence, and their pace, which had rocked Geelong, was being met everywhere by a stiffer resistance. They were under much more menacing pressure from physically stronger opponents. They had to ride waves of solid bumping, and found it hard to maintain that sustained, hornet-like attack by their squad of small men. Nothing went according to plan for Collingwood. Nor could Melbourne swing into its long game long enough to gain any early mastery. Everywhere the Magpies chopped through passing movements.

The Demons played it hard, and they had the grit to take a thumping without flinching. Their force and gusto cracked the Magpies' teamwork. Winning at most key points, Melbourne looked definitely the better side in the second quarter, when the Magpies were held goalless. But that haphazard attack of the Demons, which had been their bugbear all through the season, robbed them of the reward of a valiant effort further a field.

Yet while Melbourne's mark manship was erratic Collingwood’s forward line was nebulous. It was seldom out of trouble. Lanky, Geoff McGivern completely foiled the Magpies' centre half-forward, young Ken Smale. There was little punch from the half-forward flanks, and full-forward, Keith Batchelor was always bewildered by the more agile Peter Marquis.

Melbourne shrewdly played a defensive third quarter. The Demons allowed the Magpies to drain their stamina in "do or die" assaults that withered before a resilient, hard fighting defence.

Collingwood's star was solid full back Jack Hamilton, who, under intense pressure, gave a classic display of intelligent and effective defence. Big Jack has never played a better same in the last four years.

Melbourne: 8-16 (64) Collingwood: 5-6 (36)

GOALS MELBOURNE: Clarke 3, Ridley 3, Laidlaw, Mckenzie COLLINGWOOD: Weideman 2, Smale, Jones, Rose

INJURIES MELBOURNE: Case (cramps), replaced in last Warier by Adams; Adams (concussion), replaced in last quarter by Gleeson; Spencer (cramps), collapsed in room after game. COLLINGWOOD: Tuck (ankle), replaced at three quarter time by Kupsch; Parker (cramps), replaced in last quarter by Hickey; Healey (concussion, broken nose),

ATTENDANCE: 88,053

UMPIRE: Beitzel