AFTER patchy performances that resulted in successive losses, Collingwood played consistent football throughout Friday’s clash with Essendon which coach Mick Malthouse highlighted as the key factor in the 73-point win.
“I thought all players contributed,” Malthouse said.
“Geelong are the trendsetters, they have wonderful contributions right across the board, and if you’re going to be a contender to make the eight, and that’s our goal at the moment – we can’t get ahead of ourselves at three and three so we’re hardly setting the world on fire – then you must have a capacity to play from one to 22.
“Otherwise you end up carrying blokes that are just not delivering and that then takes away from your goal set of having players interchange at the right time and passing the baton.”
Malthouse felt the performance had been an important part of the evolution of a playing group that lost three champions in Nathan Buckley, James Clement and Paul Licuria at the end of last season.
“We know we may have allowed two games to get away from us; that is a learning curve in itself,” he said.
“We’re all learning and we have to accept that we lost those games, [but] where do we get better? We persist, we’re not going to bring back those retirees and we ask more of our playing group.
“We know we’re not the best side at this stage, but our process is that we aim for that. It may not happen this year and it may not happen at all, but it’s the process of trying to get that to happen. You’ll have your ups and you’ll have your downs; today was a good up.
Full forward Anthony Rocca was a late withdrawal from the side, but his absence did not adversely affect the Pies’ forward set-up.
“We’ve kicked 20-odd goals and had 40-odd shots … which is significant against a side that has been a bit of a nuisance to other sides this year, but I don’t whether that’s the best we can do,” Malthouse said.
The coach refused to speculate on a likely return date for Rocca who has an unspecified injury which Malthouse wasn’t about to divulge.
“He’s got a couple of niggles that players his age get from time to time,” he said.
“You’ve got to remember he came off a very serious ankle injury at the end of last year.”
With attendance at a dawn service on Anzac Day not feasible for his players, Malthouse organised the club’s own service at the shrine of remembrance on Tuesday.
“We came out of it better because we learned more about it,” he said.
“I’m a great believer that football, like most sports, can present opportunity. This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along often; we grabbed it.
“I’m hoping the players have come out of it wiser and more aware of their responsibilities as citizens and more aware of what people went through to give us the opportunity to be the citizens we are.”
