By Greg Baum
Essendon and Collingwood were ships passing in the MCG night, heading for opposite ports. Once they were the SS Unsinkable and the SS Unsalvageable, but no more. After a blip last week, the Bombers’ finals credentials are again in order and ready to be stamped. The Magpies are dangerously close to a shoal that could sink their season.
After the first quarter, the Bombers controlled this game utterly. They were plus-60 for disposals, plus 50 for marks and had pronounced ascendant in every statistical category. Yes, they play different styles, but that alone does not account for the discrepancy.
Nate Caddy and Sam Draper of the Bombers.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Essendon were potent – they should have kicked a bigger score – and Collingwood were impotent. Take out Jack Crisp’s freak three-minute three-goal salvo and three inconsequential goals when the match was already lost and they have only six to show for the night. Not even St Kilda would be content with that. Admitted coach Craig McRae: “It was hard to watch at times.”
Why the reversals? Form and confidence are ethereal qualities, hard to capture, easily lost and not always measurable.
Manpower is. Collingwood have been playing hurt all season and this night lost Brody Mihocek for the balance of the season with a torn pectoral and possibly Isaac Quaynor for a week or two because of a calf strain, and although Josh Daicos played after a week under a fitness cloud, he was far from his usual effective self. Ned Long this night became the Magpies’ ninth club debutant this year, surely unprecedented for a reigning premier.
Coaches don’t like to use injuries as an alibi and McRae didn’t. “Magnets don’t win games,” he said. “It’s not about personnel for us. It never has been. It’s not about who’s playing, it’s about how we play.”
Left: Brody Mihocek of the Magpies is seen injured. Right: Isaac Quaynor is seen with medical staff.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Magnets might not matter, but their functionality does. Half the Collingwood team had 10 touches or less. Again, numbers don’t explain everything, but lack of them explains much. The Magpies have been patching up all season.
Now they must cobble again to bodgie up a forward line without Mihocek, Jamie Elliott, Mason Cox, Beau McCreery and Dan McStay for matches against Geelong and high-flying Hawthorn. They will be tempted to rush back McStay and his reconstructed and now rehabilitated knee, but McRae intimated that they would resist.
Essendon are in, well, a different boat. This night, they rested veterans Todd Goldstein and Dyson Heppell. Coach Brad Scott admitted that Heppell did not necessarily need a rest, but the Bombers did not want to wait until he did.
“Now we have a bit of squad depth,” Scott said. “It’s the first time in my time here we’ve had the luxury of being able to rest Goldstein and Heppell. What I do know is that you need depth and flexibility to cover whatever happens.”
“I’m confident in myself”: Nate Caddy of the Bombers.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
In place of Heppell and Goldstein came veteran midfielder Dylan Shiel for only his second game in a year and teenage tall Nate Caddy for only his third game total, bringing sighs to Essendon throats. His stats sheet might look modest, but nothing else about him can or should be understated.
“It’s hard not to get too excited about him,” said Scott. “He’s a point of difference. It’s very rare that you see a first year key forward who can have an impact on a game like he can. He just looked like the most athletic player on the ground tonight.”
Structurally, Caddy provided an extra target up forward, pushed Harrison Jones to a wing and allowed Sam Draper to roam free and play one of his very best games for the Bombers.
Scott noted that Caddy had in common with all great key forwards a lust for the big game and the big stage. He made his debut in the Dreamtime Game and now excelled before 80,000-plus again.
“He doesn’t get overawed,” Scott said. “He rises to the occasion. It’s a rare gun key forward who doesn’t want the big moment and doesn’t want the ball kicked to him. He certainly wants it.”
Perhaps because of this, the Bombers have handled him with kid gloves. With four capable talls at their disposal, they could indulge themselves in that way. If later in the season it means they are spoiled for big-man choice, Scott said it would be a delicate but pleasant conundrum to solve.
Caddy does not hide his light under a bushel. Post-match, he was happy to oblige media in a way that youngsters are not always. “I’m confident in myself,” he said. “I had a decent game last time I played. I have confidence - but (playing in a winning team) definitely helps.”
Caddy’s timing, whether leaping for a mark or forging a place in the Essendon team, is impeccable. “I said that when I got drafted,” he said. “I thought the list was a bit underrated. We’ve got some great players, we’re third now, so 100 per cent I came in at a good time. They’ve had some rough patches, but they’re definitely on an upward track.”
Steele Sidebottom of the Magpies handballs whilst being tackled by Jye Caldwell of the Bombers.Credit: Getty Images
Scott said what pleased him most was the way the Bombers had regained control after an opposition surge, as they had not been able to do when beaten by Geelong the previous week. He again marvelled at captain Zach Merrett, who continues to set new standards and maintain them, and praised Sam Durham and Jake Kelly for their tag-team to keep Nick Daicos to merely very good.
“Have we proven anything?” he asked. “I don’t think so. We’ve just taken another step forward.”
Collingwood looked a pale imitation of its premiership best self. Their best player was Steele Sidebottom, quarterbacking off the half-back line, which is a credit to him, but at 33 and after 324 games was hardly a Caddy-like portent of an imminently bright future. For the Magpies, it’s suddenly cloudy.
McRae exhibited a politician’s capacity to put a good face on a bad set of numbers. He said he understood that the footy world dwelled on outcomes, but the club focussed on all the interim steps, forward and back. He said that an innocent visitor to the Magpies’ training ground on Monday would not be able to tell whether they had won or lost (we’ll send spies).
He said what was missing most was intuitive connection. Evidently, magnets need time to attract. “You’ve got to learn to dance together,” he said. “We’re stepping on each other’s toes at times.”
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.