Scott is also a guest on this week's edition of the one-eyed match preview radio show 'Pie Night' available as a free stream on collingwoodfc.com.au.
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MAGPIE RADIO > Rnd8 Pie Night with guest Scott PendleburyWe’re all obviously disappointed to be only three wins from seven rounds, but rather than dwell on a few near misses, the club is firmly focused on rectifying some of our deficiencies.
If the collective attitude of the group on the training track is anything to go by since our loss to Hawthorn, I think we’re on the verge of getting back to some of our best form.
I see signs at training of guys working harder defensively, and I think that’s where the big change is going to come from, ensuring each player is focused on doing the defensive things well and shutting their opponents down.
We haven’t been forcing the turnovers around the middle of the ground like we did last year, meaning our big forwards like Travis Cloke and Anthony Rocca haven’t had adequate supply.
Another positive is that we’re fielding a side that is not far from full strength, although we’ll obviously be without Josh Fraser this week which is disappointing, but we do have a chance to capitalise on our good run of health.
Simon Prestigiacomo had a run on the track the other day, which got the boys’ spirits up. We all know how valuable Presti is, and while he doesn’t get a lot of the ball, his ability to negate a key opposition forward is supreme, so having him back in the next month or so will be good.
One area that we’ve been down in, but again, I can see signs of it turning around, is the overall output of our midfield group.
The dynamics of the midfield group have changed significantly from last year, and it’s probably taken a while for us to become accustomed to the changes.
Last year we had a set group, then towards the end of the year we added a few players to the mix, and while we had success in the finals, the changes have increased again, and we’re still getting used to having new guys through there.
We have a lot of guys who can go through the midfield now, and perhaps the group’s still adapting to increased rotations. It’s all about getting the right combinations of speed and strength.
Half forwards like Leon Davis, Dale Thomas and Alan Didak are now spending more time in the midfield, providing a spark and increasing our defensive pressure in short bursts, while finding the footy and complementing our core group of midfielders.
I think we’re starting to get a good routine going, knowing when to change, understanding rotations, and which systems work better with different people. We’re getting into that now and I think you’ll see a big improvement from the midfield in the coming weeks.
Our backline copped a fair bit of grief for allowing Hawthorn to kick so many goals in round seven, but in my opinion the problems lay further afield.
The Hawks shut us down and we only had 38 inside 50s, which is probably our lowest number for the year, and we really struggled to score.
Because we weren’t scoring we were all pushing forward, they would get the ball across half back and run it straight through the corridor, and we’d only have one or two guys behind the ball manned up.
Players like Hodge and Mitchell can hit targets, and they put it out in front of Franklin and Roughead, there’s not much Shane Wakelin and Nathan Brown can do in that situation, particularly given how much quality ball we were allowing the Hawks forwards to have access to. We should have midfielders back there to drop into holes, unfortunately against the Hawks we didn’t.
Now, at 3-4, we simply have to win. St Kilda is a hardened, disciplined side, which is probably the test we need.
I think we’re just 5-10 per cent down on where we need to be with our discipline. I’ve got no doubt we’ll pick that aspect of our game up, and this Friday night we can get back to our best.
Scott Pendlebury's exclusive collingwoodfc.com.au column is published fortnightly. Heath Shaw's column 'Heath's Headline' appears every other week.
