St Kilda spent the summer season speaking up Sunday night time’s opening spherical recreation, and Collingwood spent the summer season being talked down. It was St Kilda’s event, nevertheless it was Collingwood’s recreation. The Saints had the hope, the hyper-inflated recruits, the very best paid participant within the sport and the biggest home-and-away crowd they’d ever performed in entrance of. However Collingwood had cool heads, manic stress, a wily previous fox in his 426th recreation and two brothers who had 77 touches between them.
The Pies didn’t have the best of summers. It felt like the vast majority of pundits, together with this one, had them lacking the highest 10 (do I’ve to say that now?). There have been all types of rumours swirling about concerning the coach Craig McRae, which he and the membership have been compelled to confront publicly. Their captain Darcy Moore was injured. They have been coming off lower than convincing scratch matches at La Trobe College and Ballarat.
This was extra their scene. They excel in these events. They experience spoiling one other membership’s occasion (good day Adelaide). And so they demonstrated, as they’ve for everything of the McRae period, that they’ve a system that solely the very best groups can short-circuit, a system constructed on frontal stress, fast fingers and quick toes. With out Moore and Jeremy Howe, they went in with a little bit of a patchwork again six. However they nonetheless devoured area, nonetheless had the precise urge for food for threat, and towelled up a St Kilda ahead line that’s nonetheless inexperienced, and nonetheless a bit headless at occasions.
The Daicos brothers and Scott Pendlebury racked up the numbers, the votes and the plaudits and deservedly so. However Dan Houston deserves a shout out for his recreation on Sunday night time. He was a subdued participant final yr, and by no means appeared solely snug within the Collingwood system. Not each Collingwood participant is wired like Braydon Maynard, however Houston all the time gave the impression to be holding one thing again. He was all over the place on Sunday night time nevertheless – lurking ahead, drifting again, prowling the wings and spearing via the center. He lastly seemed just like the assured, sublimely expert footballer he was at Port Adelaide. And Collingwood clearly performed via him much more than they did final yr.
This was an enormous event for St Kilda they usually didn’t fairly meet it. They lobbied laborious to get this recreation. They thought they have been prepared. They feted their solely premiership-winning group. They launched a documentary that leant closely into how a lot this recreation meant, and the way vital it was to step up. They have been removed from disgraced however they weren’t fairly prepared for what Collingwood threw at them. They squandered numerous possibilities at any time when they attacked. Too typically, they performed proper into Collingwood’s fingers, kicking straight down the road. Too many fumbles, airballs and shanks value them dearly.
It’s uncommon on this period that they’d go right into a recreation in opposition to Collingwood as favourites. Coach Ross Lyon none too convincingly urged that the Pies ought to be favourites, and that he was bracing for an ambush. It wasn’t fairly an ambush, nevertheless it was a wake-up name. He was his regular acerbic, gnomic, more and more hard-of-hearing self within the post-match presser. However he wasn’t too shattered. A few of his finest gamers had patchy video games and the brand new look line will take time to correctly gel.
The toughest factor concerning the opening spherical, aside from how a lot it compromises the draw for the remainder of the season, is understanding how a lot to learn into it. Did Carlton burn a complete summer season of positivity and goodwill and regeneration in half an hour? Is the easiest way to strategy it to stroll right into a press convention the way in which Chris Scott did – arms folded, shoulders shrugged, the manner of a person saying “you mugs can all write us off, we’ll be completely fantastic”.
It was laborious to prime what was a crackerjack recreation on the Gabba on Saturday night time. Brisbane and the Bulldogs have been stacked with a few of the finest footballers in Australia, showcasing a degree of ability you not often see within the first week of March. It was a powerful win by the Bulldogs, precisely the form of recreation they’d have discovered a manner of dropping final yr.
They nonetheless conceded over 100 factors however there was lots to love about the way in which they defended. They have been extra proactive, extra composed and extra competent than they have been in that sort of recreation in 2025. You would inform how a lot this win meant to coachLuke Beveridge and his gamers after the sport. However on the threat of sounding like a moist blanket, Carlton had an equally rousing win on the Gabba within the opening spherical of 2024, they usually’ve barely been the identical membership since.
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