COLLINGWOOD had the statisticians reaching for the record books, not once, but twice on Sunday afternoon during the match against Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.

At the long interval, the query was over the last time the Pies were held without a goal in a quarter of football. The answer was 2010; in the third quarter of the drawn Grand Final, when the Saints held them to just five behinds, while booting 3.5 to get back into the game.

Sixty minutes of football later, the stats guys were reaching for their exercise books again, trying to find whether the Pies had ever enjoyed a better final term than that against the Crows, where they rattled on 11.3, to turn what was 23-point deficit a few minutes into the final quarter (you have to wonder whether any Collingwood fans had left in disgust at that stage) into a 43-point win.

They didn’t have to look too far. There it was, on page 90 of the AFL Record Season Guide 2011, with an 11.7 scoreline in the final quarter of a match against North Melbourne in 1990.

There was plenty of gushing at the time over that effort, but the praise for what we witnessed this time will surely be immense. On that day at Victoria Park, the Pies had matters in hand throughout and led at three-quarter time by 29 points. The final margin would be 80 points.

This time, the Pies looked to be in dire trouble. Taking their cue from Geelong, Adelaide had used the ball intelligently through the Collingwood press. They also looked a bit too quick. For a brief period in the final term, they looked the likely winner.

And it would have been some victory. Adelaide took a side with nine players with 25 games or less into the match, and eventually it showed. Once Dale Thomas and Scott Pendlebury took charge in the final term, and Andrew Krakouer announced his candidacy for ‘Mark of the Year’, the Pies were on their way. With 22 inside 50 entries to eight for the final quarter, the dam wall soon burst.

It was both ‘seriously entertaining’ and 'absolutely frightening’ as described by Adam McNicol on this website, and it would appear that after seven quarters of middling football, the Pies are back. Their slump is over.

For the stats guys, they may have to start a new category - long goals by torpedo, as per that wonderful moment late in the game when Thomas whacked a barrel from outside 50, and sent it through three-quarter post high, landing 10 rows into the crowd. Truly a memorable moment.

Eagles to face their toughest test
Collingwood’s win and the 123-point monstering of the Western Bulldogs by West Coast that followed later in the afternoon sets up a fabulous match at the MCG next Sunday between the Magpies and the Eagles.

The Eagles were irresistible against the Bulldogs, and finished the game off in similar fashion to the Magpies with 10 unanswered goals in the final stanza. Their 10.4 tally in the final quarter eclipsed by two points their best ever final quarter in any match.

It has been a brilliant coaching performance by John Worsfold this year. Last year’s wooden spooners sit in sixth place with a percentage of 131.1. Their full-field press is strangling the life out of their opponents, and when given time and space (the Bulldogs were most generous in that respect on Sunday) they can keep the scoreboard ticking over. And it helps when you have a key forward such as Josh Kennedy in rare form. His 10-goal haul bettered his previous return in a match by four goals.

Mick Malthouse and John Worsfold go a long way back. Worsfold was captain of the 1992 and 1994 West Coast premiership teams, but the pair reportedly fell out when Malthouse dropped Worsfold for a final in 1998 and relations between them, sadly, have been cool ever since.
 
If this is the last time they coach against each other (although re-match in the finals can’t be discounted) then what better stage than a Sunday afternoon blockbuster at the MCG? Malthouse holds an 8-4 edge in head-to-head play.

One more from the stats guys: West Coast have won just 26 of 62 matches at the MCG, and only two of seven since their 2006 Grand Final win over Sydney. The last time they met Collingwood at the MCG,  (round 10, 2010) the margin was 100 points, and the Magpies equalled their highest score (173 points) against the Eagles.

Talking points
It is Monday, so stand by for lots of discussion around the tea-urn and via the TV pundits tonight about the sidebars out of the weekend - Taylor Walker’s beer at the footy and Alastair Clarkson’s phone ban.

Walker wouldn’t be the first footballer to have played on a Friday night (in his case the SANFL) to have then enjoyed a quiet beverage the following day, but he would be one of the first to have done so at an AFL match (or, in his case, a curtain-raiser to an AFL match).

It wasn’t the greatest look, but no real harm was done and the ever-pragmatic Adelaide coach Neil Craig seems to have taken a commonsense approach to it all.

But it has been interpreted by some as another clear indication that Walker is now signed, sealed and delivered to GWS next year. The logic behind that school of thought somehow escapes this column, and Craig noted in his post-match press conference on Sunday that Walker had done everything the coaching staff had required of him to modify his game, and work hard at any perceived deficiencies.

Now to phone-gate. The immediate reaction towards Clarkson’s 24-hour confiscation of the mobile phones of the Hawthorn players during their trip to Sydney was that it was “draconian”.

That was one description this column read about the move and it was about the same time the Hawks were putting the Swans to the sword in the third quarter. Perhaps the end justified the means.

Front and Square is happy to put it into that growing basket  of those little tricks coaches like to employ from time to time to keep their players on edge, like Kevin Sheedy tying down the windsock at Windy Hill or Mark Williams addressing the players at three-quarter time of a close game on the outer wing just metres from the rabid Port Adelaide fans.

Clarkson himself called it a “numbskull” idea and yes, it worked, but the bigger picture would suggest that Clarkson is again coaching “angry” as he did earlier in his tenure at the Hawks. And that’s when he is at his best.

Club by club
Geelong: Had St Kilda’s Jason Blake not taken a wrong option in round one, Fremantle’s Michael Walters not fumbled on the goal line the next week, Scott Pendlebury been allowed to kick an advantage-rule goal last week and Robbie Warnock not missed that sitter on Friday night, the Cats would be 4-4. Just putting it out there.

Collingwood: Andrew Krakouer will have stiff competition for goal of the week from Chris Judd this week. Mark of the week, however, is all his. 

Hawthorn: Feel-good story of the week is Max Bailey getting through the match against Sydney with only a slight knock to the head to show for it. Showed glimpses against the Swans to illustrate why the Hawks have been so patient through three knee reconstructions and why many believe when all is said and done, he is Hawthorn’s no.1 ruckman.

Essendon: Against Richmond on Saturday night, the Bombers looked every bit like a side that had its mind on the forthcoming bye. Dreamtime at the ‘G may have deserved a bit more from the Bombers, but they had been super until Saturday and can be cut some slack.

Carlton: Medical reports on Chris Judd and his sore ankle (which didn’t keep him from running out the game on Friday night) was the lead item on The Age website through most of Saturday. He is the king of Melbourne.

West Coast: Josh Kennedy’s 10-goal haul should have given West Coast supporters almost as much pleasure as anything served up by Chris Judd in the years before the trade.

Fremantle: An injury list stretching to 15 players and a trip to Adelaide used to be ‘code’ at Fremantle for chucking it in. Not this Freo. Port might be battling, but this was a great win for Fremantle.

Sydney Swans: Just one win from four at the SCG this year. In the last four weeks the Swans have handed Carlton its first win there in 18 years and Hawthorn just its second in 17 years. It is easy to suggest the SCG no longer a fortress for the Swans, but they did win seven of eight there last year, and losses to Carlton, Hawthorn and Geelong may be losses to three top four teams come September. The Swans have Richmond, Fremantle, Bulldogs and Brisbane to come at the SCG.

Richmond: Hope the Tiger fans have enjoyed the four wins from the last five matches because their next three games are outside Victoria. Add a bye into the mix and they don’t play at home again until June 25.

Melbourne: Aaron Davey is going to endure the week from hell after appearing not going hard enough during one particular contest. The timing could not have been worse on two fronts, coming days after he took umbrage at remarks from teammate James Frawley about the Demons giving up against North Melbourne.

Western Bulldogs: Rodney Eade didn’t take too kindly to having his coaching record at the Bulldogs appraised by one senior AFL journalist last week. Good thing then that he was on a plane and not on Twitter on Sunday night as several more debated the same subject.
 
Adelaide: The effort over the first three quarters against Collingwood on Sunday would suggest that there's plenty to like about this lot, and their relationship with their senior coach. Craig would have been chuffed by comments made post-match by Mick Malthouse: "[Adelaide] are close to the most disciplined side I see in the competition over the last four or five years …"

St Kilda: This column happened to chance across the St Kilda boys as they went about their recovery session at Port Melbourne beach on Sunday morning. They were in fine spirits. It was at this stage last year and from even further back that the similarly battling Hawthorn mounted its successful charge for the finals.

North Melbourne: Not sure who angered Brad Scott more - Scott McMahon after giving away a dumb 50-metre penalty or the journalist who asked the North coach whether he took any consolation from the fact that his old side had just won its first game of the year at the expense of his current club.

Gold Coast: The slog starts now - 15 weeks of consecutive footy between now and the finals. Will the Cats tag Gary Ablett on Saturday night?

Brisbane Lions: Lots of love in the house for Jonathan Brown, no surprise there for one of the game's great leaders. But there’s also some for Michael Voss, who is doing the hard yards. Brisbane has shown a lot more in the first third of the year than its record might suggest.

Port Adelaide: Poor effort, poor crowd. It’s a long way back for Port Adelaide from here and while it is still awfully early to speculate, it is hard to see this year’s spoon landing anywhere else.

Player of the week
Josh Kennedy’s 10-goal haul makes him the obvious candidate, but hats off also to Jonathan Brown, whose four goals and 11 marks gave the Brisbane Lions hope and then belief. It’s a cliché but it is true - the Lions do walk taller when their skipper is on the ground.

Twitterati
“What a great comeback by the boys, a hard fort win! Crows were very impressive- Andy krakour best mark I've ever seen!!!!!!” - Collingwood’s Dale Thomas (@DT_13), who plays better than he writes.

“Great win by the boys today. 3rd qtr was awesome!! Glad I don't have to play on Bud anymore!! Haha” - Hawthorn’s Josh Gibson (@joshgibson06) admires the Lance Franklin show.

“Nice work at #Shuebiaco today Shuey Shuey Moi Moi” - Geelong’s Joel Selwood (@joelselwood14) admires the work of West Coast’s Luke Shuey.

The one game not to miss next week
Collingwood-West Coast at the MCG on Sunday afternoon. Two teams in a rich vein of form will try to put the squeeze on each other. Also interested to see how North and Sydney rebound from their poor efforts from the weekend. They meet at Etihad the day before.

You can follow Ashley Browne on Twitter at twitter.com/hashbrowne

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.

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