QUARTER-BY-QUARTER MATCH REPORT

Tom Wilson (Magpies) and Jack Bytel (Saints) were the subs.

The Saints got the opening goal through Brad Crouch after Nathan Murphy got pinged for holding the ball in the defending goalsquare.

Meanwhile Collingwood switched Billy Frampton into the ruck after Dan McStay and Ash Johnson handled the bulk of the ruckwork together last weekend.

“I think it makes sense,” Fremantle great Matthew Pavlich said of Frampton’s move.

Tom Mitchell finished a nice chain of play for the Pies with a long-range bomb from outside 50m to get his side on the scoreboard.

Both sides had opportunities to convert scores throughout the first term but couldn’t make good on them including the returning Jack Ginnivan missing a running goal from distance.

Collingwood however had the majority of the play and were sharper with ball in hand, with Lions great Jonathan Brown noting on Fox Footy: “The Pies are on early.

“They’ve come to play. Defensively they’ve been fantastic. It’s a really good example of the Pies at their best. When they won their first three games this year, they applied really good defensive pressure and then when they go, they apply quick hands through the middle of the ground (and) gain territory and get it inside 50”

The Magpies gave away their second 50m penalty of the term, leading to the Saints’ second goal through Hunter Clark to tie up the scores at 14 apiece.

“They’ve got to fix up these undisciplined free kicks or 50m penalties,” Brown said of Collingwood.

The scored were all tied up, 2.2 (14) to 2.2 (14) at the first break.

After being assessed with a finger injury late in the first quarter, Dan McStay was subbed out at quarter-time for Tom Wilson in yet another blow to Collingwood’s big-man stocks.

Jack Higgins booted the first goal of the second term after a Magpies turnover to give Ross Lyon’s side a seven-point advantage.

Collingwood was on top in general play and kept pushing throughout the second quarter, but was wasteful in front of goal until Brody Mihocek converted a set shot to even the scores yet again.

Mattaes Phillipou responded at the other end through with a big contested mark and goal to tie up the scores at 27 apiece.

Jamie Elliott came from the ground worse for wear after copping a crunching tackle from Liam Stocker, but luckily for Craig McRae’s side, returned later in the quarter.

The Pies ultimately took a one-point lead into half-time, 4.4 (28) to 4.3 (27) in what’d been a tight and tough contest.

Collingwood got an opportunity inside 50 early in the term, but Callum Wilkie like he had consistently in the first half, took another key intercept mark.

The Saints’ defensive flood again stood up to every attacking Magpies entry in the early minutes of the third quarter in a credit to Ross Lyon and his coaching staff.

That was until Elliott found Mihocek in the forward pocket, with the forward kicking a crafty snap around his body to give the Pies a nine-point lead.

“Look at the smarts here, I love this play, I love the connection,” Brown said of Elliott’s pass to Mihocek.

“They need to be smarter Collingwood, we spoke about their execution going into forward 50 in the second quarter … clearly that was a message from Craig McRae (for his side to lower its eyes more and find targets).”

Next Anthony Caminiti took a big mark inside 50, although another umpire called play on, prompting a furious response from Magpies players. But it mattered not as Caminiti went back and kicked the goal to bring the Saints’ deficit into two.

Bobby Hill would converted a set shot at the other end to extend Collingwood’s lead back to eight.

The Magpies had several more inside 50 as they constantly threatened the goals, but couldn’t put any more damage on the scoreboard.

St Kilda meanwhile finally broke through Collingwood’s press as Caminiti got on the end of one for his second goal to bring it back to a one-kick game.

The Pies led by six points at three-quarter time, 6.10 (46) 6.4 (40).

Ginnivan got Collingwood off to the ideal start to the final stanza with a snap goal – his first of the season – to ignite Pies fans as he was mobbed by teammates.

The Magpies got two more via Johnson and Hill to suddenly open up a 24-point and look like running away with it.

But suddenly it was the Saints’ turn to attack, getting repeated inside 50s but failing to convert their chances – kicking three behinds.

In another injury concern for the Pies, a dazed Nathan Murphy came from the ground in the hands of trainers after an exchange with Caminiti deep in defence.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Higgins, Ryan Byrnes and Crouch quickly stacked on three more goals to get the Saints to within a kick.

Ross Lyon’s side even got one last potential look at the goals with an inside 50, bit it wasn’ able to comeback the miracle comeback as Collingwood hung on.

The 3-2-1 (with Jono Baruch) …

3. PIES OVERCOME INJURY CHAOS AMID RESHUFFLE

Collingwood has overcome another blow to its big man crisis after Dan McStay exited the game in the first term with a finger injury to also leave its already undersized forward line even more depleted.

Having entered the game for a second-straight week without a recognised ruckman due to injuries to Darcy Cameron and Mason Cox, 201cm key defender Billy Frampton was moved into the No. 1 ruck role to give the Pies a better contest to last week when McStay assumed the role.

But McStay’s injury left a key void in Craig McRae’s attack and forced it to change its style.

The Magpies in the second half made an obvious shift to lowering the eyes to mobile targets in the pockets instead of going long to contests, given St Kilda consistently picked off their entry kicks with intercept marks in the first half.

In terms of Collingwood’s ruck situation, Lions great Jonathan Brown thought it looked better with Frampton shouldering the load.

“ Frampton has gone in there and hasn‘t had to play as a defender. I think they’ll continue with that experiment going forward while their injury stocks are cruelled in the ruck,” Brown said.

However Fremantle legend Matthew Pavlich highlighted that the Magpies had more flexibility to reshuffle their defence against St Kilda’s undermanned forward group.

“It‘ll be an interesting one because they’ll play teams that are much taller in their forward half compared to St Kilda. So will he have to be called upon to go back?” Pavlich posed.

For Brown though, Craig McRae already has enough coverage down back.

“They‘re confident enough that Isaac Quaynor can play on a tall forward,” he said. “Nathan Murphy has been very good and they’ve got Darcy Moore there.”

2. ‘ROSS LYON GAME’ DENIED AS DAM WALL BREAKS

The Ross Lyon dam wall in defence eventually broke.

While Collingwood had to wait and fight to eventually break through the St Kilda defence, which once again had stood tall for the majority of the game led by Callum Wilkie, the Pies’ territory dominance eventually saw them rewarded with the score on the board and victory.

After both sides traded early goals, the Saints settled into their work into the second quarter.

Fremantle legend Matthew Pavlich, who played five seasons under Ross Lyon at the Dockers, remarked that the contest on field looked like “a Ross Lyon game” early, with scoring proving difficult for both sides such was the numbers behind the ball and at the contest.

“It’s a dour, tough, tight, really defensive type of game to watch,” the Fremantle champion said.

Collingwood had the better of the territory in the opening half, going inside 50 five more times than St Kilda. However, the Saints had 14 defensive half-intercepts in the defensive half as they flooded numbers back, most notably Wilkie, who took six first-half intercept marks.

“We know it‘s a feature of St Kilda’s game and the way they intercept the ball in the midfield, but today, There’s enough pressure around the ball that the Collingwood team is able to get through… But they’re mopping up everything in their back half,” Pavlich said.

The Magpies though continued to win the field position battle with the game being played predominantly in the Collingwood forward half, with the floodgates opening in the final quarter as the Pies kicked away.

1. DAICOS STUNS AGAIN WITH CAREER-HIGH 42 DISPOSALS

Nick Daicos just goes from strength to strength in his second AFL season.

The 20-year old star continued his phenomenal campaign against St Kilda, racking up career-highs in disposals (42) – beating his previous record of 40 – and metres gained (856), consistently driving the Pies’ run off half back.

Not that he was keeping an eye on his video-game like stats.

“That’s awesome to hear (he had career-high numbers), I wouldn’t have guessed that, so that’s nice. But I genuinely am just the beneficiary of players around me,” Daicos told Fox Footy post-match.

“It’s great and we’ll move on to next week against Essendon.”

The 30-gamer’s big day came as Ross Lyon made the curious move to allow Daicos to run free after long deploying a tagger over his coaching career.

If you could predict when Daicos would’ve copped a tag, it’d have been against Lyon’s Saints, although opting not to seemingly mattered little on the contest as a whole as St Kilda stuck it to the Magpies all game.

But the Brownlow favourite and AFL’s leading disposal getter will surely start receiving more opposition attention soon … won’t he?

“He was fantastic, he’s great to watch, isn’t he?” Lions great Jonathan Brown said of the son of a gun on Fox Footy.

“Only in his second year, imagine what he’s going to be like when he grows up. He’s just unbelivable.”

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