The Coburg Tigers are finally back on the winners list after outlasting Collingwood at Mantello Holden Oval on Sunday, as Adem Saricaoglu reports.
Despite a horrible goal-kicking display, the Tigers were able to break away from the Magpies in the last quarter to win by 26 points.
Coburg kicked 10.23 in calm, ideal conditions, while Collingwood’s 7.0 after quarter time kept them in the game until halfway through the last quarter.
Coburg coach Adam Potter says goal-kicking is becoming a serious problem for his side.
“(I’m) disappointed with some of our set shots on goal, we had some gettable ones,” Potter said.
“It’s an issue because we’ve kicked more points than goals in most of our games this year and particularly on our set shots.
“The guys are aware of it and they’ll continue to work on it.”
The Tigers’ wayward kicking was evident from the start, with its 2.6 putting them up by just three points at quarter time.
In a highly contested game the Tigers slowly started to get on top as their momentum eventually paid dividends on the scoreboard.
Two goals to Luke McGuane (who kicked 2.6 for the afternoon) and one to Jeromey Webberley helped Coburg extend its lead to 20 by halftime, while the Magpies were hurt with limited supply.
By halftime all three of Collingwood’s goals had come off the boot of Irishman Caolan Mooney.
Mooney then strung together two more goals early in the third quarter to bring the Pies back within 14.
Coburg added another four behinds before Jackson Paine eased Collingwood’s deficit to 13, handing the Pies momentum heading into three-quarter time.
Up by just 13 points despite dominating possession, Coburg found itself on the back foot at the final change, however three minutes into the last quarter, the situation became a little more desperate.
Tom Sundberg brought Collingwood within eight points as the game looked set for a grandstand finish.
But Coburg refused to let its loyal fans down, and many of them were out of their seats when Willie Wheeler provided a quick reply at the five-minute mark.
The Tigers continued to win possession over its younger opponents, but Collingwood’s last line of defence held firm.
Coburg’s persistence eventually paid off when skipper Nick Carnell nailed a rare set shot goal from 50 to extend the lead to 16 halfway through the quarter.
The Tigers were then able to work down the clock before Daniel Venditti added icing to the cake with a goal minutes before the final siren.
Potter said his side’s resilience in the second half was “the most pleasing thing” about the win.
“The resilience, our effort (and) our ability to win the contested ball I thought was really good,” he said.
“I think there were opportunities to put them away a little bit earlier, but we didn’t take some of those opportunities.”
Collingwood coach Tarkyn Lockyer said Coburg’s inaccurate kicking was the only thing that kept the Pies in the game.
“I didn’t think we played overly well, but I certainly thought that up until the 15-minute mark of the last quarter we were still in with a chance, so it was disappointing,” Lockyer said.
“We went in with a plan and a way that we wanted to play, and to be honest I don’t think we executed that the way we wanted to.”
Lockyer recognised a lack of four quarter performances throughout the season as a continuing problem, but stopped short of blaming fitness as a major cause.
“I don’t think it is fitness because some of the best periods of our games have been our last quarters,” Lockyer said.
“We’re just having trouble closing out games, we’ve been in games but we just haven’t been able to close them out.”
Coburg remains tenth on the ladder with four wins while Collingwood sits one spot lower.
The Tigers will be going on a road trip on Sunday to take on the Cats in Warrnambool, while Collingwood will feel a little more at home at Victoria Park when it faces Frankston, also on Sunday.
Last Modified on 25/06/2012 17:01