CHOCOLATES by Whispering Jack

And so it goes -

Take two or three of their best midfielders out of the Collingwood team and it makes absolutely no difference. Or if there is was a difference this week, it was for the better because there were enough others prepared to take up what might be perceived as the slack to step in and take responsibility in a well drilled, highly skilled combination that the result is beyond doubt half an hour into the game (if it was not clear from the very start).

This game was always going to be a case of men against boys. Melbourne's make up before the game determined that despite the absence of some Magpie stars, the weight of numbers in terms of games played, years experience, height and weight as well as ability fitness, confidence and ability to execute a game plan, this was not going to be an easy day at the office. Nor am I saying that in the presence of Mark Jamar, Aaron Davey, Colin Garland, Jack Grimes, Rohan Bail and Luke Tapscott the result would have changed. It's just that things could have been better. As it was, the only positives from the day were Colin Sylvia, the brilliant performance before the game of My Friend the Chocolate Factory and the fact that the 75,998 people attending the Queens Birthday blockbuster would have helped the club's bottom line.

Melbourne opened up brightly enough with two of the first three goals going to Sylvia but, even early in the game, the team was not helping itself with some atrocious skill errors both by hand and by foot. This allowed Collingwood to break away to a ten point lead at the first break and gave it the momentum to mount an onslaught in the second quarter with key forward Travis Cloke booting four goals against a stunned Demon defence. From then on, it was chocolates!

Last week's hero Jared Rivers was constantly put under the hammer by a midfield that was lazy and did not work hard enough. Nevertheless, the move of James Frawley onto Cloke was too late. The damage was done.

Melbourne worked hard against Collingwood's press in the third term and held on manfully despite having no forward structure at all and in this regard, it was hardly surprising that the team managed to produce the round's lowest score by a good three or four goals. One wonders where it would have been without Colin?

Sylvia, with four goals from 17 possessions was not just Melbourne's best player by far but he appeared the only one who could comfortably stand side by side with a Collingwood player and look him in the eyes.Or look his team mates in the eyes for that matter.

A few others worked hard - Tom Scully (29 touches), Brent Moloney and James Frawley while Jack Watts and Jeremy Howe were honest battlers.

A few Demons are badly out of sorts. Liam Jurrah looks tired and seems to have lost the zest and sparkle that he showed in those last seven or eight games of 2010. The game against Collingwood which rejected him two years ago should have been a spur to a better performance. Jurrah was not alone with several players, who last week shone, reduced to the roles of mere spectators under the bright glare of a premiership prospect.

Scully didn't look to be under pressure at all from David Schwarz's revelations that he was 98% sure that the talented Demon midfielder was on his way to Greater Western Sydney but the rest of the club seems to be affected. Schwarz says he is being honest when he says that his information came from impeccable sources within the GWS organisation and from Melbourne people who should know. Why not then be honest and identify the sources from within the club so that the board can deal with whoever is leaking what should be confidential information, if it is true? But that's for another time …

Meanwhile, back on the ground, the Pies had marking targets in Cloke, Dawes and Brown up forward and the Demons had nothing. Not a key forward and most times, no forward at all so that when the ball was delivered into attack, it would go to a waiting Collingwood defender and, without any pressure at all, the ball would travel from unmanned opponent to the next all the way down the ground.

Melbourne was suffocated and, after kicking the first goal of the final term, the team simply ran out of legs while Collingwood's were still pumping. The last eight goals and four behinds were scored without an answer and sometimes without a Demon touching the football in between Magpie scores.

There are a trillion stars in the firmament. Each and every one of them went as dark as can be for Melbourne and all we could wait for was the final siren.

Melbourne 2.2.14 3.5.23 5.5.35 6.5.41

Collingwood 3.6.24 9.7.61 11.10.76 19.15.129

Goals

Melbourne Sylvia 4, Howe, Jurrah

Collingwood

Cloke 6 Ball Krakouer Pendlebury 2 Blair Brown Dawes Didak Fasolo McCarthy Wellingham,

Best

Melbourne

Sylvia Scully Frawley Moloney Watts Howe Morton

Collingwood

Wellingham Cloke Davis Ball Tarrant Blair

Injuries

Melbourne

Bartram (cut head) Jetta (broken hand)

Collingwood

Nil

Changes

Melbourne

Clint Bartram for Dan Nicholson.

Collingwood

Nil

Reports

Melbourne

Nil

Collingwood

Nil

Umpires Nicholls Chamberlain Mollison

Crowd 75,998 at the MCG

How did you manage to find 7 best players for Melbourne but only 6 for Collingwood?

How did you manage to find 7 best players for Melbourne but only 6 for Collingwood?

I mark Collingwood a lot harder.