Collingwood assistant coach Gavin Brown says Friday night’s victory over Fremantle typified the "character and quality" of the 2007 playing group.
Speaking on CTV’s weekly match review show ‘The Weekend That Was’, Brown praised the fighting qualities of the players who struck back after Fremantle got out to an early lead.
“It’s been a bit of a theme in some of our games, that we’ve been on the back foot a little bit and we’ve clawed our way back,” Brown said at the Lexus Centre on Monday.
“Last Friday night was a classic example of the way the boys fought out of it, because it was looking a bit ominous early.”
Brown identified the club’s ability to consistently apply pressure, not just last Friday but throughout season 2007, as one of the main reasons for the triumph.
“I think our pressure’s been fantastic this year, so even when we’re not in games, we’re still able to get on top of the opposition through that pressure, and the same thing happened last Friday night.
“We came out in the second half and applied an enormous amount of pressure and got ourselves back in the game.”
Collingwood’s seventh win of the season was due to an excellent team effort, but Brown singled out Dane Swan, Shane O’Bree, Anthony Rocca and Leon Davis for the way they were able to have a major influence on the result.
Brown also made note of new Magpie Paul Medhurst’s magnificent effort in the third term, when, with the game in the balance, he put his body on the line in the forward pocket to set up an Alan Didak goal.
“There’s no doubt when a player first comes into a club, from another club particularly, you look to that player for those sort of acts.
“It typified the way we’ve been going at the moment, and you earn the respect of the whole group when you do those sorts of things.”
Make sure you watch this week’s edition of ‘The Weekend That Was’ to find out what Brown said about the players and watch highlights from the match.