In the best clutch team in the AFL, Jamie Elliott is the equal of any player in the AFL for the clutch moment.
Is he the best small forward in the competition at the moment? That depends on whether, like Toby Greene, you categorise him as one. He might not be the best but presently none would be in better form. His ability to deliver in the clutch moment is elite.
Jamie Elliott kicks the winner against Port Adelaide.Credit: Fox Footy
That might not read as news for anyone who has watched football in the last year, but it is new for the second half of this season and a reason Collingwood looks stronger heading into September.
Elliott again on Saturday night closed out the game with two goals, both from his preferred left pocket/flank.
If there was a sense of the inexorable about Collingwood’s last quarter as they came from their favoured position – a few goals down at three-quarter-time – to win against Port Adelaide, it was only exceeded by the inevitability that it would be Elliott to kick the winning goal. Or rather goals.
Back in form: Jamie Elliott.Credit: Getty Images
And yet while Elliott has done this numerous times over the last two years, this season he began with a splutter. He was badly out of form. He was missing shots, struggling to get his hands on the ball, looked to have lost a yard of pace (I doubt anyone measures pace in yards but Dad always spoke of sportsmen ‘losing a yard’ when they slowed up, just as fast bowlers were ‘a yard quicker’).
He was out of form and while Craig McRae persisted with him, he must have been approaching the point when his place was under threat. There was pressure from Ash Johnson and the talented but unlucky Reef McInnes, who plays the Elliott role and was kicking goals in the VFL. But they stuck with Elliott because he is an elite talent and structurally important.
Eventually, he succumbed to injury and missed a couple of games around the bye with a shoulder. Evidently, that shoulder was troubling him far more than anyone outside the club knew. Maybe he was also carrying something else that improved with the rest, for he has come back a completely different player. Or, more accurately, he looks like the player from last season and the years before.
Elliott kicked 10 goals in the first 11 games but since his return from injury has 18 in five. And it is clearly not just the number but when he has kicked them.
He does not look now to be troubled for pace, he is sticking marks on the lead, and he is kicking with confidence again.
The difference for Collingwood with Elliott fit and in form is profound. A side that continues to win, they are not a heavy scoring team, but rather the most difficult to score against. They have struggled to have a settled forward line all year.
Brody Mihocek has missed games with injuries, Jack Ginnivan has been squeezed out, Dan McStay missed most of the season with a broken finger, Billy Frampton has played forward at times. Will Hoskin-Elliott has been out with a broken hand.
Dan McStay has helped make the Magpies forward line betterCredit: Getty Images
Saturday night looked closer to what would be Collingwood’s best forward set-up. McStay has added to them as a player able to press up the field for get-out kicks to the wing and, like Mihocek, a competitor who gives an honest contest close to goal.
The return to this sort of form for Elliott is critical to Collingwood’s ability to wrong-step some of their finals rivals. He is like a Greene in that he is a hard match-up – too quick for many key defenders but also has a leap that gives him a strength overhead as a marking player that makes him difficult for smaller backmen.
So he creates a degree of uncertainty about Collingwood’s attack, somewhat like the way Bayley Fritsch does at Melbourne, in that the key forwards are not always the preferred targets and so can create randomness for structured defences to try to combat.
Jeremy Cameron of the Cats.Credit: AFL Photos
Cat lacking impact
Jeremy Cameron has been the opposite of Elliott.
He started the year in the sort of form that marked him as the best player in the competition, with 33 goals in the first eight rounds.
But has managed only 10 in the next eight (including the Demons game when he knocked out early). He was not in good form before the concussion and has taken time to find his game since returning.
Saturday afternoon he finished with a serviceable three goals, but he could have had several more. In his early-season form he would have kicked six. He still wants the ball in his hands which is good: late in the game he took a handball from a teammate at 50 with a free kick and ran onto his left for a shot, but fluffed it under pressure. Even with set shots his normally reliable goal kicking has been off.
To be clear, this is judging him against his own standards. He is so critical to the Cats and their chances of advancing meaningfully in the finals that he needs to rediscover that sort of early -season impact.
And the Cats will play finals. Notwithstanding the loss in Brisbane – as predictable to lose at the Gabba as it is for visitors to lose at Kardinia Park – Geelong is the best side outside the top four. Yes, they play top-two Collingwood and Port Adelaide in the run home, but the Power game is at home.
They also have St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs to come. These are the classic eight-point games for all clubs trying to position themselves in the eight.
Charlie’s big bag
Forget that Carlton was playing a WAFL side that could not kick a goal for a quarter and is on the bottom of the ladder with daylight next. Kicking 10 is kicking 10.
It is like a 100-metre sprinter breaking 10 seconds with a strong wind at their back – you still have to turn your legs over that fast. Charlie Curnow still had to kick the bag. He has played himself into imperious form.
Cashing in: Carlton spearhead Charlie Curnow.Credit: Getty Images
Darcy Moore on Friday night will be a different proposition for the game that is now as anticipated a contest as these two clubs have played in decades. There is something actually on the line.
Curnow in this form can carry his side into a finals place with a win over the Pies, which like Geelong’s run home, is one of the Blues’ critical contests.
Clown round
We’ll keep this brief because it is about all the attention it deserves. This week two ideas were floated with clubs about another change to the fixture.
The thought bubbles included a wildcard round so that teams not good enough to be better than half the teams in the competition across 23 rounds could still get a chance to play finals. The joker round is a clown round.
The second brain fart was for a best-of-three grand final series. Why stop at three? Why not five? Or seven? Better yet weekly until Christmas, culminating on Boxing Day to just further squeeze the oxygen out of every other sport. From the people who brought us AFLX, it is as silly an idea as the wildcard games.
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