Pies' stampede shows rattled Bombers just who are the top guns
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday July 4, 2009
Collingwood 15.12 102 Essendon 9.13 67EXPECTATION can be a bitch. Essendon, under-rated all year, received plenty of attention this week. Given a chance against Collingwood, they could not come close to grabbing it. With minimal fuss and plenty in reserve, the upstart pups were smacked.There were plenty of questions going into last night and a bumper crowd of 77,699 to see them resolved. Would Josh Fraser dog it? Could the young Bombers prove dogged? Would the celebrity hydra known as Tomkat reportedly watching from the stands dig it?Really, though, there was only one answer and it was emphatic. Collingwood's quality, experience and organisation was too much for Essendon's exuberance. By half-time, the Bombers were dog-gone.If anybody at the MCG finished the match happier than Fraser, then they may have held a winning lottery ticket. Maligned to excess for his performance on Anzac Day, when a young Patrick Ryder was called into the ruck and outshone the veteran Magpie, Fraser more than made up for it last night. By half-time, he had helped himself to 18 hitouts; Ryder had four. By the end, the margin was 35 to 15.It was a domination that spoke volumes of his competitive character and will presumably lead to redress from those who publicly questioned his courage.Just before three-quarter time, he grabbed the ball out of the ruck, took a step to get free and booted a crucial goal himself. It was the act of a man playing with impunity, for whom the battle of wills had long been won.At this, he took another step towards the crowd as if considering a James Hird-style public embrace. Then he realised that, as with Hird, he stood in front of the Essendon cheer squad and instead settled for the arms of his teammates.For once and it does not happen often expectation had been Collingwood's ally. Seldom can a Magpies team have won five matches in a row and been said to have avoided hype as the football world admired the young Bombers, deconstructed the struggling Hawks and salivated over the undefeated Cats and Saints.Now it is six and the premiership though not a cakewalk looks at least like an item on the buffet.The match did not quite reach the heights promised in the build-up. The Bombers never gave in but nor did they really threaten. As for the Pies, at season's opening it seemed talk of Mick Malthouse's contract and Nathan Buckley's possible return might distract the team.Instead it has distracted the rest of the football world while the Pies gradually got its best players fit and just kept winning games.Now Malthouse looks as safe as airbags and Collingwood looks like a top-four side.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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