> Watch Mick Matlhouse address the media postmatch COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse says history has taught the Magpies they must not underestimate the wounded Western Bulldogs when they meet in the first qualifying final next weekend.
The Bulldogs have limped into the finals having lost Adam Cooney (hamstring) and Dale Morris (back) for the season and Brad Johnson (achilles), Shaun Higgins (thyroid/calf) and Easton Wood (hamstring) for at least the first final.
They have since fallen in premiership betting and have been labelled the most unlikely side from the top four to win the flag.
But Malthouse says the Magpies’ 2002 finals experience when they defeated Port Adelaide in a qualifying final away from home despite injuries and poor form defining their August has provided a valuable example of why outside opinion should be ignored.
“We were written off in 2002. It was a great lesson,” he said, after the Magpies’ three-point loss to Hawthorn in round 22.
“We’re not going on someone else’s misfortune or fortune. It is something we are ever mindful of and today and last week gives us a very good indicator we cannot afford to be listening.
“Certainly the boys haven’t, I know they’ve been talking about in the last half hour about that very thing, that this is a game, a final.
“It’s not who’s sitting in the grandstands; it’s who’s playing for the club and they’re a very, very good football side.”
The Magpies went on to play in the first of two straight grand finals against the Brisbane Lions that year.
Despite losing to the Hawks on Saturday and ending a nine-game winning streak, Malthouse says the Pies are well-placed heading into their fifth-straight finals series.
“We’ve got a reasonably healthy list and that’s an advantage,” he said. “We’re not going to be the first or last side to head the ladder and lose the last game. I know it happened [before] one of the premierships we won at West Coast.
“Is it ideal? I don’t know. Is it poor? No. Is it panic stations? Absolutely not. Do we change the side? We see who’s available.
“Our VFL side got beaten today so we’re down to what we see and we’ll train up the list we think is the list that will take us forward.
“We’ve got a minimum of two finals and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
The only injury concern the Magpies had on Saturday was Darren Jolly, who left the field with a broken and bleeding nose after a collision with Hawthorn’s Ben Stratton in the final quarter.
Ben Johnson was a late withdrawal with illness and was replaced by Leon Davis, who had 12 touches and kicked two goals.
