Collingwoodfc.com.au breaks down the key statistics from Sunday’s 15-point win over Carlton at the MCG.

Points of note
- You can tell a lot about a player from the way he responds to a suspension. Steele Sidebottom’s professionalism and maturity shone through against Carlton when he put in his best performance of the season to date after three weeks in the sheds. The 23-year-old collected 33 disposals, laid nine tackles, cleared a stoppage seven times and kicked two goals – including the sealer – for good measure. What’s more, he used the ball at 90.9 per cent efficiency. Outstanding.
- Granted he twinged a hamstring in the warm up last week, but credit must still go to Brent Macaffer for his job on Marc Murphy. In round seven, the tagger restricted Murphy to 20 disposals. On Sunday night, it was just 15. Another job well done for Collingwood’s giant killer.
- Ben Kennedy has started as Collingwood’s substitute more than he’d care to remember during his first 18 months as a Magpie. Included at the eleventh hour in place of Tom Langdon, Kennedy left his mark on the game when summoned from the bench midway through the third quarter. His speed and run and carry helped break open the congestion and won plaudits from his coach in the press conference after the match. With several weeks’ worth of consistent VFL form behind him, Kennedy will be aiming to cement his place in the senior side as the run to September begins.
- Never underestimate Sam Dwyer’s importance to the Collingwood machine. Few players are blessed with his clean hands and level headed approach to the madness that unfolds around him. He had a hand in three of his side’s 13 goals, taking his season tally of goal assists to seven. Of his 21 disposals, five took the ball inside 50, ranking him behind only Clinton Young, Dayne Beams and Heritier Lumumba who had six each.
- Much of the pre-match focus was directed towards the likely crowd figure for the obscure Sunday night fixture. When a total of 40,936 fans turned up to the MCG to watch Collingwood and Carlton, you know it’s going to create headlines. It was the smallest crowd to a match between the two traditional rivals since 30,096 turned up in round 18, 2000, though that match was played at Princes Park as the ‘last suburban’ showdown’. You have to go all the way out to Waverley Park back in round 12, 1991, to find a Collingwood-Carlton fixture at one of the league’s neutral venues that pulled less than 40,000 (39,832 turned up at Waverley that afternoon). To dig even deeper, the crowd was the smallest between the two clubs at the home of football since 37,813 rolled through the gates on 1 October 1921 for the Semi-Final.
Vote for your top three players from Collingwood's 15-point win in the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award.

Player K H D M HO FF FA T G B
22. Steele Sidebottom1716336011920
36. Dane Swan1218304000200
13. Taylor Adams1511264011101
10. Scott Pendlebury11132440101120
8. Heritier Lumumba1111223002301
2. Sam Dwyer1110213000101
17. Dayne Beams156217001513
40. Paul Seedsman1010205010201
34. Alan Toovey911203000700
15. Jarrod Witts981762611610
12. Luke Ball89175010621
7. Ben Kennedy88161000000
6. Tyson Goldsack88163000110
11. Jarryd Blair511161010700
23. Lachlan Keeffe87154002110
14. Clinton Young123154001620
24. Josh Thomas114150000600
32. Travis Cloke84129001212
18 Jesse White93123800300
3. Brent Macaffer74113001701
45. Jack Frost28101000400
19. Jamie Elliott3253000101


Key
K: Kicks, H: Handballs, D: Disposals, M: Marks, HO: Hitouts, FF: Free Kicks For, FA: Free Kicks Against, T: Tackles, G: Goals, B: Behinds.

Vote for your top three players from Collingwood's 15-point win in the Magpie Army Player of the Year Award.