What did the Collingwood brains trust take out of Wednesday night’s intra-club match?

Collingwood Media spoke to two of Nathan Buckley’s assistants to get their initial thoughts.

Jared Rivers
VFL coach

What did you make of the game?
“It was good, in tough conditions with the heat. They applied themselves to the way we wanted to play, which was really good. At times we could have been better defensively but on the whole I thought we moved the ball pretty well, our hands were pretty sharp and our kicks inside 50 were good as well.

“It was good to come away with no injuries. It’s another hitout for the boys ahead of round one. All in all it was a good result. We’ll look at the tape tonight and tomorrow and hopefully get a fair bit out of it.”

Which new recruits stood out?
“Lynden Dunn was good down back. His squeezing and pressure defensively was really good. It was tough conditions for Chris Mayne as a forward, but he worked himself into the game pretty well. It was good to see Josh Daicos running around out there. He was a lively forward; he seems to find the ball a fair bit too.”

What did you make of the two players returning from knee reconstructions?
“It was just great to see Matthew Scharenberg and Jackson Ramsay back playing footy. Shaz started off really well. His aerial work was really good, and Ramma was running around, twisting and turning and making good decisions with the ball and providing that run off half back. He just needs to keep building on that and play more footy.”

With intra-clubs, it’s just good to get through it. Everyone did their bit. You just have to keep improving and look forward to round one, which is a big game against the Doggies.


Robert Harvey
Backline coach

What are your initial impressions?
“It’s always similar with these games, but it was great to get through unscathed. We’ve got a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot of footy over the journey, and for them to get through, like Scharenberg, Ramsay and Jamie Elliott, it was really important.

“There was a bit to like with some of the new guys like Henry Schade, who did well, and Josh Daicos in his first hitout, so there was a bit to like from a fair bit of it. With the heat, the third quarter got a bit scrappy but there was a bit to like about the first half.”

Are there any injury concerns?
“There’s absolutely no problem at all. It was just about getting match conditioning into the players. It was a positive that they got through and in patches they (the previously injured players) looked sharp. The boys who have done their knees haven’t lost any speed and Jamie is showing no signs of hindrance with his back, so that’s positive.”

How will we approach the JLT Community Series?
“Because of our funny draw, it will be a bit of a juggling act for us just to get games into players. There is quite a large break between games two and three, so that’s a bit of an issue. We just have to work through how we handle that with the players and getting the right loading into them. We will be going pretty hard, and we’ve got good availability, so we just have to sit down and work out who is playing. We will be pretty strong for most of the games.”