Coach Neale Daniher reviews Melbourne’s 13 point victory over arch enemy Collingwood, exclusively on melbournefc.com.au

Pre-Match:
- Areas of our game had been improving over the last month, and last week’s win against Adelaide gave our club some reward after a number of very competitive efforts, unfortunately resulting in close losses.

- Needed to continue with high pressure and intensity from the opening bounce, and keep it at this level throughout the entire match. 

- Collingwood has been in very good form, and we needed a good start, not only to continue our momentum from the week before but also to reduce theirs.  We didn’t need them getting off to a flyer with their confidence already at a high level.

- We have slowly got close to our best team back on the field, and they will improve over the next few weeks with further game time.  McLean, Robertson, and Neitz, who have missed games, have been able to gain some valuable match time over the past few matches.

- We elected to go with Ben Holland to play on Anthony Rocca, who has been in good form for Collingwood.  Holland has matched up well against Rocca in the past, so we were confident he would do the job again. 

- We unfortunately had to leave out Nathan Brown, who had done an excellent stopping job on Adelaide’s Andrew McLeod the previous week.  But we were well aware of their forward line structure, and had to select the team to do the job against the opposition.

- We went with Daniel Bell on Alan Didak, and Daniel Ward on Leon Davis.

During the Match:
- We started well again, and continued this form throughout the first quarter.  We had 12 shots on goal, kicking 6.6, and had good opportunities to kick eight or nine goals for the quarter.  Collingwood kicked two goals for the term, and we were well on top at quarter time.

- We were very even across the board in the first quarter, winning the clearances, and getting it deep inside our forward 50.  Robertson started well, kicking three goals for the quarter, with other forwards – Neitz, Sylvia, Paul Johnson, and Bate - also looking dangerous.

- Collingwood had six scoring shots to our five during the second quarter, but were able to kick four goals as opposed to our two, which reduced our lead to 16 points at half time.  Travis Johnstone had a hamstring injury and was out for the game.

- After half time we knew that Collingwood would come out aggressively and try and run over the top of us.  They had a good third quarter, kicking three goals.  We had opportunities, but could only manage 1.5 for the quarter.  Our forward line wasn’t working during this period and we lost David Neitz with a knee injury.   We led by three points at three-quarter time. 

- We adjusted our forward line structure, and started winning the ball at the stoppages.  We moved it long and direct to the forward 50, kicking four goals to their two.

- It was a terrific effort by the group, just to stay composed and win the last quarter to win the game.  Collingwood had all the momentum going into the last quarter.

- It was great leadership from Neitz to get back out on the ground for the last quarter and make an impact.

Post-Match:
- Collingwood had the ball inside their forward 50 on 61 occasions, as opposed to our 52.

- Our back line held together strongly for the entire match, restricting Collingwood to 11 goals, after restricting the opposition to just 10 goals the previous two weeks.  

- Collingwood did miss some chances, but the overall back line group’s pressure was terrific, and created enough pressure to cause missed goals.

- Daniel Bell’s game was again solid, restricting Didak’s impact on the game, while Daniel Ward kept the in-form Leon Davis quiet.

- Russell Robertson was outstanding in the forward half, taking nine marks and kicking seven of our 13 goals for the day.   We took 18 marks inside 50, as opposed to Collingwood’s eight.

- The pressure to keep the ball inside 50 was also very good over the course of the day.

- We have an 11 day turnaround with the spilt round this week.  We’ll be looking to take our momentum and current form into the Richmond game at the MCG on Friday week.