Collingwood’s top four hopes are slipping away – despite the club sitting 10 points clear at the top of the ladder only a month ago.
In a woeful turnaround, the “broken” Magpies have fallen to a fourth loss in five games as a number of “red flags” are now raised for Craig McRae’s men.
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Thursday night’s 64-point defeat at the hands of Hawthorn is the second-worst recorded under McRae – with their worst a 66-point loss also to Sam Mitchell’s Hawks just 12 months ago.
Statistics show the Pies are averaging just 69 points in their last five games while conceding 39 points from clearance in those losses.
The 25 points scored by Hawthorn off Collingwood turnovers on Thursday night is also a third-worst under McRae.
“There’s some real concerns with Collingwood,” Fox Footy’s Leigh Montagna said.
“20 players with 100 games (-plus experience) but they looked rudderless really with their leadership and what they were trying to do through the game.
“They couldn’t problem solve, they couldn’t work out how to stop Hawthorn and how they could challenge themselves.”
Collingwood’s woes were laid bare in the third term as damning vision showed just how easily Hawk Jai Newcombe was able to stroll inside 50 and convert for his side.
“This is a toasting – a midfield toasting at the moment,” two-time premiership Roo David King said.
“Newcombe just exploded and they couldn’t go with him. Look at Newcombe – all by himself, 30 from goal, corridor.
“Not one Collingwood mid responsible for Jai in the hottest of hot spots.
“You can’t go with this midfield.
“I’m sorry – but they refuse to defend at the moment … Right now, they are being absolutely sizzled in the middle.”
Montagna warned it was “starting to unravel” at the Pies late in the season.
“I don’t think the midfield mix is right,” he conceded.
“Now that both ends of the ground are sort of falling down, they are just a bit clunky.
“Now it’s all starting to look a bit broken.
“They’ve got a bit of work to do to try and get their system back because there are areas of their game now that are becoming real red flags.”
The loss was so brutal, coach Craig McRae issued an immediate apology to Collingwood fans.
“I apologise to our Magpie army – that’s a disappointing performance. You can’t sugarcoat that,” he said.
“We’re hurting. That one really hurt.”
AFL great Jason Dunstall said the Pies’ “panic” was ringing alarm bells as the fumbles crept in against the Hawks.
“Your confidence is shot and that’s something you’ve got to get back very quickly,” AFL great Jason Dunstall added.
“You can’t just go out and pick it up off the supermarket shelf.
“I don’t quite know what has happened … maybe the good teams have just caught up? Maybe just worked them out a little bit, or they’ve had a few players drop off? I don’t know what it is. But they need to discover something quick.
“They look a little bit lost … there’s some pow-wows need to be had down there.
“When you look at 139 percent and they’ve dropped 14.8 – nearly 15% – in the space of five weeks, that’s massive.
“When they got that 10 points clear we all sat here and thought, they’ve prepared beautifully, they can manage their players, pick and choose the way they head to September. All of a sudden they are one of the teams in the top half of the table that have the biggest queries over them just about how well they are going.”
Two-time premiership Roo David King accused the Magpies of looking “rattled” and “all at sea” with their ball movement.
“Collingwood are now in a flat spin with their defensive 50 work. Which is their best midfield mix? I don’t know. There’s question marks now.
“We’ve talked about the heavy reliance on Nick Daicos – you can avoid that answer all you like but it’s obvious for all of us to see.
“They’ve got queries you don’t want.
“Over the last eight weeks, they are the easiest team to move the ball coast to coast against. Their back 50 is now a big concern.
“(Billy) Frampton looked all at sea. We don’t know how Jeremy Howe comes through tonight … how is he long term?
“(Darcy) Moore is not the player right now that we had six weeks ago.
“I think they’ve got real concerns defensively behind the ball.”
And it doesn’t get any easier for the Magpies who will now take on ladder leaders Adelaide in Adelaide next week.
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