Autopsy Round 5, 2023: Collingwood v St.Kilda

[#gosaintas]

I've only ever read accounts of the result of the incident, which are undisputed. I've never read an account which reads "I saw the whole thing, O'Dea did <action> and Greening fell to the ground". Only ones like "I saw something out of the corner of my eye, turned, and saw Greening fall to the ground".

There is a special breed of Collingwood supporter who believe our lack of success since 1972 is some sort of divine intervention for that incident. This was especially prevalent around 2010. It is, of course, utter shash.

One of the few things I wrote for this site in a columnist role that survives from 2012 is on this very topic:

Greening

Godwin’s Law states that the longer an online discussion goes […]

www.bigfooty.com

I remember a quote from Len Thompson that said he saw it out of the corner of his eye and that he suspects most of the damage was when he fell and hit his head on the old cricket pitch section of the ground.

 

[austinnn]

Having watched the game again on replay two things stood out to me. As expected both teams applied heaps of pressure but their ball use was much cleaner. Even when under duress they executed properly for most part. Not so much for us.

The other noticeable thing was the number of our possessions that were smothered by the Pies. Was that their hard work or at times were we being too indecisive with the ball in hand?

On a player note I was buoyed by Clark's game. The first real signs of him becoming the midfielder we've been hoping for. He's not there yet but the signs are good if he can have an injury free year.

Stocker has the look of Stevie Baker 2.0 Love his attack on the ball and player. Someone should make a gif of his tackle on Elliott in the second quarter.

From an uneducated perspective, I'd say that too many Saints players tried the same stuff that had succeeded against the lesser teams we've played in rds 1-4 and the Pies anticipated the quick play on better and have the fitness to keep on trying to get to the next contest. They spoilt so many our our disposals like we were always getting spoolt in the Ratten Era. Some of our players were smart and waited for their opponents to commit, but not too many.

In short, we tried to play the same way we have all season and found its limitations. Hopefully, the players will now train for the next level up.

 

[sunny3193]

Im 35 and have followed footy pretty closely most of my life from about 10.

Genuinely never heard of it.

History: the incident happened off the ball and only the two of them were in the vicinity.
Fact: no one really knew what happened though many claimed to have witnessed it.
Fact: clearly O’Dea did something that caused Greening to be injured.
Fact: O’Dea was never criticised by the Club and played out a very respectable career.

FYI: there was a big back story that was never publicised.
I am surprised that the story isn’t on the web somewhere.
It’s not like every man and his dog didn’t know about it, post incident.
Suffice to say, there was some bad blood between Greening and O’Dea external to football, involving close family.

 

[Hayes4PM]

Haha found this on my security cam from last night. I’m home alone.

View attachment 1663026

I was waiting for “RUNNN WILLLLLLL!!!! **** you you big shit head!!”

 

[austinnn]

Im 35 and have followed footy pretty closely most of my life from about 10.

Genuinely never heard of it.

Me either, and I've followed footy for 27 years.

 

[Sully111]

From the tribunal thread




He ducked down.... otherwise he doesn't get hit in the head. Idiot

 

[botts]

From the tribunal thread




He ducked down.... otherwise he doesn't get hit in the head. Idiot

Tried to go forearm across the chest. Murphy clearly drops his knees. That gets rid of intentional I reckon. But he’s a saints player so probs 4 weeks

 

[Sully111]

Tried to go forearm across the chest. Murphy clearly drops his knees. That gets rid of intentional I reckon. But he’s a saints player so probs 4 weeks

You'd think it has to rule out intentional high. I guess we'll see.

 

[RobbieMuir]

History: the incident happened off the ball and only the two of them were in the vicinity.
Fact: no one really knew what happened though many claimed to have witnessed it.
Fact: clearly O’Dea did something that caused Greening to be injured.
Fact: O’Dea was never criticised by the Club and played out a very respectable career.

FYI: there was a big back story that was never publicised.
I am surprised that the story isn’t on the web somewhere.
It’s not like every man and his dog didn’t know about it, post incident.
Suffice to say, there was some bad blood between Greening and O’Dea external to football, involving close family.

My Aunty saw the incident. She said Greening kept grabbing O’Dea’s jumper so O’Dea swung his elbow around at Greening and unfortunately hit Greening in the temple region and knocked him out cold.
I watched heaps of games with O’Dea playing and he was never a dirty player - tough but fair. My best mate became friends with him many years later and said he was nice bloke. I will always believe it was just one of those unfortunate - and unlucky - things that happen in life rather than Collingwood’s narrative that O’Dea was a dirty player.

 

[dougiemac]

Reminds me why I hate these meth-heads. Next time we will bury them.

 

[Baldur]

Many did not play well and still so very close. If I was a glass half full sort of guy I would be pleased at that, but I am not. They outplayed us most of the match and we need to fix the massive weakness in our playing style, that is the very poor inside 50's to scoring rate. Sure it may improve when some players come back, nevertheless we need to fix it now so when the forward line gets reinforced a weakness can flip to a strength.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

You'd think it has to rule out intentional high. I guess we'll see.

I didn't think that was how it worked.

Thought....
Was it an intentional action. YES
Did it hit high . YES
Was it low moderate or high impact : High ( because he got concussed ).

 

[PostmanBish]

I often think he does it on purpose to protect his own integrity. ( and like you said, dimwits still think he shows favoritism ).

I see it as a good trait for Fisher, but bad luck for us.

The problem is that all 4 umpires tend to go the full human centipede once one is showing a bias.

 

[Sully111]

I didn't think that was how it worked.

Thought....
Was it an intentional action. YES
Did it hit high . YES
Was it low moderate or high impact : High ( because he got concussed ).

You're probably correct.

And I probably haven't got a clue lol

 

[PostmanBish]

Hunter Clark's jaw says hello......

St Kilda players don't have heads ... or backs ... get with evolution ...

 

[my name was taken]

Intresting only 8 players registered over 2 tackles. In those 8 are 2 key defenders in Wilkie and Battle, and our ruckman.

11 players combined for 5 tackles.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

This reminds me of the nervous/anxious wait in the days following Plugger pluggerising another unfortunate opponent

 

[PostmanBish]

Last night was a fact finding mission to see where we were at and what we need to improve on, a win would have been nice but it wasn't the main goal.

Co-Sign ... as we discovered in 2009, the outrageous high of the regular season win becomes pretty sour if reversed in the finals ...

 

[Plugger35]

From the tribunal thread




He ducked down.... otherwise he doesn't get hit in the head. Idiot

Looked like he was hoping for head high contact to try and get a free kick but got more than he bargained for when he had to go off with concussion.

That footage is in slow motion too so makes it look worse, Murphy adjusting his height in a split second made it pretty much impossible for Caminiti to adjust when he was already in the action of making contact with Murphy and where he would have been intending to hit him in the chest or shoulder.


.

 

[Sully111]

Looked like he was hoping for head high contract to try and get a free kick but got more than he bargained for when he had to go off with concussion.

That thought crossed my mind

 

[Saintos The ITK]

**** it just say it was intentional and the next campaigner that tries it on gets nutted as well.

 

[bird_man]

I'd expect Sinclair will get a fair bit of midfield time this week. Carlton really seen to struggle to handle midfielders with pace.

Dawson tore than apart on the weekend and made them look very slow.

It's also why I'd lean towards keeping Windhager in over Bytel. Just not sure another inside mid with not a lot of pace is what we need against them.

 

[St Kilda Death]

Intresting only 8 players registered over 2 tackles. In those 8 are 2 key defenders in Wilkie and Battle, and our ruckman.

11 players combined for 5 tackles.

I think that reflects how fast Collingwood moved the ball out of congestion,
Pendlebury, Sidey and daicoses were flicking it round like the golden state warriors to get it outside.

Read those names again.
Not many teams will have the silky skills to pull that off.

 

[Munga]

From the tribunal thread




He ducked down.... otherwise he doesn't get hit in the head. Idiot

Have a look at the softc*ck backpeddling and wincing. Absolute paper tiger. If he stood up like a man he wouldn't have copped it in the head!

 

[my name was taken]

From the tribunal thread




He ducked down.... otherwise he doesn't get hit in the head. Idiot

wtf is he actually doing there. I cannot actually fathom what Murphy thinks he is doing. Leads with his head, I doubt he believes the umps are watching if he's sticking some cheapshot in. For a bloke with concussion history, this is a case of protecting the player from themselves.