Collingwood -19.12 (126)
Melbourne – 8.12 (60)
Rain fell heavily for much for the big annual Queens Birthday Clash between Collingwood and Melbourne. The Pies came out firing straight out of the blocks, to record their second win against the Demons this year and their third consecutive win by a massive 66 points.

Turning points of the match

From the first bounce, Collingwood came out all guns blazing. They kicked the first 8 goals of the match (7 of them in the first quarter) to set up the remainder of the game. It took Melbourne until the ninth minute of the second quarter to kick their first goal for the match and while this followed with another 2 goals and the Dee’s lifting their game, they were never going to stop the Pies pressure and dominance.

Key Players for Collingwood

Dane Swan – Another outstanding game, though he didn’t beat his huge 48 possession effort from last week, he still dominated. He had a brilliant first quarter. He was then tagged by McDonald. But though he was quietened slightly, he still managed to gain 32 possessions, take 7 marks, 5 tackles and 2 goal assists.

Brad Dick – Had a second consecutive exceptional game for the Pies. This week however was career best. He was the highest scoring goal kicker on the ground kicking 5.2. He collected 16 possessions had 5 marks and 3 goal assists.

Heath Shaw – Played loose man in defence for most of the day. He ran off Maric easily and with that collected 30 possessions, had 10 marks and 2 tackles.

Alan Didak – Was tagged by Grimes, but still managed to kick 2.3, with 4 marks, 2 tackles and 33 possessions. One of his goals came from a handpass from Swan into the goal square, which he kicked in mid-air without taking possession.

Key Players for Melbourne

Colin Sylvia – Was the Dees most dominant player for the day and continued in his good form. He had a solid performance with 32 possessions; he kicked 3.1 and took 11 marks.

Cameron Bruce – Spent much of the game tagging Dale “Daisy” Thomas and did a good job. He collected 28 disposals, took 9 marks and kicked 1.2.

Nathan Jones – Had a relatively consistent performance for the Dees. He collected 26 disposals, took 6 marks and kicked 1 goal.

Musings from the match

• Collingwood dominated in kicks (242-173) and handballs (196-175) and overall disposal of the footy (438-348).
• Collingwood also had more marks than Melbourne 105-81.
• The Demons won the hit outs for the day 55-17. Josh Fraser as the Pies main ruckman had 10. Where as for the Dees, Mark Jamar had 31.
• The Pies had 9 more goal assists than the Dees.
• Collingwood had more contested and uncontested possessions.
• Collingwood had four players with over 30 disposals, where as Melbourne just had the one.
• The Pies finally have found some good forward targets, but it is not only its big men in Leigh Brown, John Anthony and Travis Cloke. Many of the smaller forwards seem to be kicking goals, including Tarkyn Lockyer, Brad Dick and Alan Didak. It was these small forwards that opened up the game for the Pies especially in the first quarter.

Supercoach news

Dane Swan is awesome and he continues to play consistently and dominate in games and is on the way to his second Copeland Trophy in my opinion. He now averages 115.45 points per game this year and is definitely worth being put as captain.

Brad Dick had his second consecutive great match for the Pies. He is a small developing forward who has kicked 8 goals in the last 2 weeks. His Supercoach average is 83.60 and he is worth $305,700.

Jack Watts did not have the best of debuts but it wasn’t completely horrible. He started on the bench and finished the match with 8 possessions and 1 behind. He collected only 42 Supercoach points.

Colin Sylvia is continuing in his good form for the Dees. Averaging 87.50 points per round this year.

For Nathan J.Brown, John Anthony and Matthew Whelan; keep an eye out for possible injuries and soreness.