History has repeated for Carlton and coach Michael Voss as the Blues coughed up another final quarter lead to sink to a five-point loss to Collingwood on Thursday night.
Young Blue Talor Byrne had the chance to level scores after the final siren – but his set shot sailed left and Collingwood hung on to a thrilling victory.
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Milestone man Nick Daicos in game 100 was everywhere in a devastating final term that saw the Magpies kick seven goals to seal a 13.10 (88) to 12.11 (83) win at the MCG.
Such was Daicos’ devastating display, two-time premiership Roo David King was scathing of Voss’ “incredibly poor coaching” to allow the Magpies cult hero to run riot.
“He ripped their heart out. They got Nicked,” he said.
The Blues simply had no answers in the final quarter after carrying an 18-point lead into three quarter time.
But for the third time in four games, Carlton couldn’t hold on – and now sit at an AFL worst -119 for points in final quarters.
The loss was further soured by a nasty head knock to forward Harry McKay, who played no further part after crashing to the MCG turf from a stray Harry Perryman blow.
For Collingwood, the win ensures they break their two-game losing streak and square the ledger at 3-3.
THE 3-2-1… (What we learnt)
3. ‘OUT OF CONTROL’: HOW MILESTONE NIGHT WASN’T MEMORABLE… UNTIL IT WAS
Nick Daicos entered Thursday night having polled 10 of the available 12 Brownlow votes in his past four starts against the Blues.
And you can believe he’ll poll again tonight, after categorically ruining the Blues in the last quarter.
He’d played 99 of the better games you’ll ever see prior to tonight, and he had something memorable planned for no.100.
He began proceedings with a game-high 11 disposals and three inside-50s in the first quarter. He should have had his first goal of the night in the second term after pouncing on a Carlton back-half turnover, but he hit the post.
Daicos finished the first half with 20 disposals, but just three were score involvements; having little true impact on the game to that point.
Two-time premiership player David King pondered in the third quarter whether the Collingwood coaching staff had to deploy Daicos in defence, as the Pies had struggled staying composed when exiting their defence.
“Is he of more value behind the ball, charging out with express speed and getting them going? I think they need to look at where they can apply him right now,” King said.
Later, down 18 points on the eve of three-quarter-time, with Daicos still in the engine room but not having a needle-moving impact, King suggested McRae move the little champion forward.
“They need a matchwinner in the forward half; they’re screaming out for someone inside forward 50,” King said.
He added at three-quarter-time: “It’s Nick Daicos or bust, again. He’s had 26 disposals, but they haven’t been at the normal quality that we expect of Nick. But I can’t see where else it’s coming from.”
And at the first centre clearance of the final term, the Pies’ prayers were answered.
The dynamic superstar was involved twice in the passage of play before slamming home a major on the goalline.
The script-writers had finally arrived.
Within the first 12 minutes of the last quarter, Daicos had a goal, eight disposals, four clearances and three inside-50s — and Collingwood had kicked five consecutive goals to lead.
“I just can’t believe what the little champ’s doing, here. He’s had seven disposals in about six minutes of footy; he’s absolutely everywhere … he’s out of control,” King said.
“You just have to be here to see this guy play. He is a genius.”
It wound up a prolific ball-winning night for the milestone man, totalling 26 touches by the last change and finishing on 39 to be the game’s leading possession-getter.
“It felt like we could’ve probably watched a whole game’s worth of highlights of Nick (in the lead-up),” Pendlebury told Fox Footy pre-game of Daicos’ big night.
“It’s probably been the best 100 games in the last 30, 40 years that anyone’s really seen. I’ve had a great seat to sit there and watch him.”
2.UGLY NARRATIVE LIVES ON AS BLUES RUE ‘INCREDIBLY POOR’ DAICOS CALL
The Blues came into Thursday night having won just two of 10 quarters after half-time.
And after they’d won their third of the season to lead by 18 points at three-quarter-time, Voss and his men were almost there, just to again be devastated in the fourth quarter.
Led by 100-game superstar Nick Daicos, Collingwood piled on the first five goals of the quarter as the hapless Blues had no answers, with one Fox Footy analyst lamenting a crucial coaching call.
“This is incredibly poor coaching to leave (Ollie) Hollands on Daicos when he’s forward,” King said in the last term.
“Every time the ball has gone to him, he’s been beaten. Every time. (Nic) Newman had to be the match-up they had to explore, on the guy that has ripped the game out of their hands.”
It was a difficult night for both Hollands brothers with Elijah recording just one disposal, very late in the match, across 60 per cent game time.
It came after Carlton looked tremendously promising for three quarters, staving off the Pies’ early tactical challenge to hold the ascendancy for a large portion of the contest.
Carlton entered Round 6 as the number one team in the competition for scores from stoppages, second for contested possessions and third for total clearances.
But Craig McRae’s Collingwood didn’t allow the game to be played in tight confines from the outset, instead forging an uncontested style of play in a first quarter that saw few stoppages.
“This is great coaching from Craig McRae; this is what you pay the big bucks for — he’s taken the game out of contest,” two-time flag-winner David King said at quarter-time on Fox Footy.
“We’ve seen an incredibly low clearance game. There have been five stoppages around the ground, normally there are 15 per quarter, so that’s taken the game away from Cripps and their strength area.
“What McRae has done is disarming Carlton. Can the Blues, now, readdress this and get back into this contest? Play wide, play slower, and play to your strengths.”
And in a perfect response, Carlton kicked the first four goals of the second quarter, getting active around stoppage and preventing the Pies’ uncontested play.
It was a game-high 21-point lead halfway through the second term before Collingwood had its first of the period. It was the only goal the Pies kicked in the quarter.
“They look invested in this one, there’s no doubt,” King said at half-time.
“The coaches were able to drag the Carlton game back into contest in that second term, and it served them well — they looked to hold all the aces — but you know Collingwood is going to come.”
And while scoring from stoppage has been a Blues hallmark, they managed just 0.2 (2) from the source in the first half.
Instead, in a surprise, it was off turnover that Voss’ side was doing its damage, kicking 5.3 (33) off the Pies’ mistakes.
“They made some mistakes early, they put that behind them, and then they started to hit some targets and move the ball well. It’s been a different-looking Carlton,” Jason Dunstall said on Fox Footy at half-time.
Leigh Montagna added: “Now it’s up to the players, in the psyche — when the pressure’s on out here in front of 80,000 in the second half, can they continue to execute what Michael Voss wants them to?”
And how did the Blues start the second half? By scoring their first goal from stoppage after Patrick Cripps burst away from the centre clearance. It was feeling like Carlton’s night.
The Blues had chances to put genuine scoreboard pressure on the Pies but squandered them, kicking three behinds before Jamie Elliott kicked the Pies’ first of the second half.
After three goals apiece in the third, it was all downhill for the navy Blues, whose fans have more Collingwood trauma to add to the bank.
1.PIES FORWARD WOES FORGOTTEN FOR ONE QUARTER
All eyes were on Collingwood’s forward efficiency.
After all, this has been a side that hasn’t managed to score 100+ points in a game since Round 18 last year, and entered Thursday night second-worst for score-per-inside-50 — behind only Richmond.
But early and often at the MCG, there didn’t appear to be an incredible amount of method with the Pies’ forward entries — but through some good marking and some fortune, they took six marks inside 50 in the first quarter.
They wouldn’t take their seventh until the 24-minute mark of the third quarter, in a truer representation of the quality of entries the Collingwood forwards were subject to.
Amid four-straight Carlton goals in the second quarter, Collingwood needed 13 inside-50s before its first major of the term.
The Pies managed just one goal for the quarter despite leading the inside-50 count 29-17 at the main change. They didn’t take a mark inside forward 50 in the second term, as the Blues’ defence tightened up.
Collingwood traded goals with Carlton in the third quarter and was fortunate not to have been put to the sword early, with the Blues kicking 3.4 for the term.
“They’re all at sea down back, the Pies,” King said on Fox Footy.
“It’s probably as disorganised as I’ve seen them.
“You accept that because Darcy Moore is not there and maybe he saves them a bit, but there are holes everywhere.”
Despite the gutsy comeback win, the Pies finished with 14 more inside-50s yet wound up with the same number of scoring shots as the Blues.
Speaking about his side’s lacklustre forward productivity midweek, McRae said he was still in the process of figuring out what the crux of their issues was.
“There are just little things that we need to improve — chemistry, connection. I keep wrestling with ‘is it method, or is it personnel?’ I’m really living in that space,” he told reporters.
“We’re trying to improve our method to see if it is personnel, but we’re living in this constant growth mindset where we’re clearly not happy.”
Veteran interceptor Jeremy Howe trained forward on Tuesday at Pies headquarters, but while McRae didn’t guarantee the move for Thursday night, he told media: “I want to continue to evolve and look at all the options we’ve got.”
The Magpies were missing Steele Sidebottom (hip) and Jordan De Goey (concussion) on Thursday night.
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