Senior Coach Mark Riley reviews Melbourne’s 11 point loss to Collingwood, exclusively on melbournefc.com.au

Round 20 - Melbourne v Collingwood

Pre Match:
- It was a light week on the training track after a six day turnaround following the Bulldogs game.  We had a big build-up ahead of David Neitz’s 300^th Melbourne Football Club game. 

- We needed to continue maintaining our focus on playing the entire match with high pressure and intensity. 

- It was important to continue to play with spirit, which has been very good within the group, considering the circumstances of the year.

- We needed to have a good start.

- We brought Brock McLean and Matthew Bate into the side.  Brent Moloney (groin) and James Frawley (ankle) were unavailable due to injury.

- We went for Ben Holland to play back on Anthony Rocca.  Holland has kicked seven goals over the last two weeks, but has been a very good match-up for us against Rocca over the past few years.

During the Match:
- Collingwood got off to a flyer against us.  They kicked the first three goals of the match.  They were playing some very good football early in the game.  They kicked six goals to our three.  Collingwood was better at the stop plays and the contested ball, which was very disappointing as these areas were focus areas and we had shown good improvement at them over the past two weeks. 

- We struggled to hit the scoreboard in the second term, only kicking four points as opposed to Collingwood’s three.  We lost Ben Holland for the day after he dislocated his shoulder. 

- Our kick turnovers in this half killed us.  Collingwood scored four goals from our direct turnovers. Nobody means to kick the ball to the wrong colours, but it occurs when confidence is low and release options are not plentiful.  We needed much greater energy to spread offensively, rather than hang around for cheap handball receives. 

- At half time we were 29 points down, which wasn’t helped by inaccurate kicking (3.9), and we weren’t matching Collingwood’s intensity around the ball.  They were running harder than we were. 

- We struggled to get it inside our forward 50 enough times to give our forwards maximum opportunities in front of goal.

- We certainly weren’t out of the game at half time, being five goals down, but we knew we hadn’t played anywhere near our best football.

- Early in the third quarter, we lost Daniel Bell and Aaron Davey to injury, and only had the one rotation on the interchange.

- Our players worked exceptionally hard, not only to get themselves back into the game, but also with just 19 available men.  They played with plenty of spirit and determination.

- We kicked five goals to Collingwood’s one in the third term, and were finishing with more run than the opposition. We were two goals down at the final break.

- We had five scoring shots to four in the final quarter, but unfortunately couldn’t maximise our chances, kicking 1.4.

- Our back line held together strongly during the second half, restricting Collinwood to two goals for the entire half, and eleven for the game.

- We then started moving the ball more quickly and directly.  With good decision making and longer kicking, we got it inside 50, giving our forwards some opportunities.  We kicked six goals to two in the second half.

Post Match:
- We lost the game because we didn’t play four quarters of football.   It was a great effort to come back, showing great fighting spirit and belief, but we cannot expect to win games from large deficits.

- The back line performed very strongly over the four quarters, restricting the  Magpies  to just 11 goals from 56 entries inside 50.  Our forwards were limited by opportunities, only having the ball inside 50 on  41  occasions.

- Overall it was a brave and courageous effort, given the circumstances, but as Mick Malthouse himself once said, "Bad kicking is bad football!"

 -We will probably make five forced changes to the team due to more injuries, and give some guys another look at AFL football.  We expect these players to bring extra hunger, energy and enthusiasm to the table.

- Our season is still going, two games ahead.    Fremantle this week at Subiaco - another difficult road trip - and another opportunity for our guys to show what we are made of?