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COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse is wary of a potent Hawthorn side after seeing the “danger signs” in the reigning premiers’ gritty win last week.
While the Hawks’ gutsy round 15 win over North Melbourne wasn’t pretty, Malthouse says Alastair Clarkson’s team still possess plenty of firepower and his team must improve in order to reverse last year’s results against the brown and gold.
“The way they finished off last week – and they held there long enough against a very determined North Melbourne in pretty atrocious conditions – I thought they played pretty well,” Malthouse said from the Lexus Centre on Friday.
“The danger signs are that [Lance] Franklin got up and kicked four goals and [Sam] Mitchell got the ball to him and [Jordan] Lewis got the ball to him and [Brad] Sewell had plenty and their backline held up.
“So we’re under no illusions whatsoever that it’s going to be a tough game of football … we didn’t do well against them last year.”
Malthouse said Hawthorn was likely to field 16 premiership players in Saturday night’s clash, but few had a more imposing recent record against his side than the Hawks’ Coleman Medallist, Lance Franklin.
Franklin booted 14 goals in two matches against the Pies last year – a record Malthouse described as “magnificent” – and said when he got on a roll there was little any opponent could do to stop him.
“He’s as quick as any player on the ground and he’s more talented than probably 95 per cent of the footballers,” he said.
“It’s very hard to stop a player like that. The sure way of stopping him is don’t let the ball get to him.”
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Collingwood defender Simon Prestigiacomo missed most of 2008 – including his side’s matches against the Hawks – and will be one option for Malthouse when it comes to trying to curb Franklin.
But the coach gave little away when discussing whether he would turn to his oldest defender for one of football’s biggest jobs.
“I’d like to think we’ve got more than one … anyone too short for him or anyone too slow for him, he’s going to cut up,” Malthouse said.
As for last year’s 65 and 54-point drubbings, Malthouse was uncertain if those losses would have a bearing on Saturday’s clash at the MCG. But Collingwood hasn’t forgotten those matches.
“We recognise what took place last year; you can’t dismiss it,” he said.
“What you do is you recognise it and know where we went right and where we went wrong and we do something about it.
“Are we in better form than last year? Are they in the same form as last year?
“No two games will ever be the same … some sides have good records against certain sides but the personnel changes and the result or how close you are changes.”
Collingwood will go in without ruckman Josh Fraser (knee) but is likely to regain him next week.
“He was very close to playing … he’s close but not close enough,” Malthouse said.
“We can’t afford to ease back; we’ve got to pick our best side that we possibly can and we will.”
