Premiership skipper Nick Maxwell believes Collingwood’s young brigade beat the might of the Hawthorn midfield in Friday night’s loss at the MCG.
Maxwell believes a solid performance from the likes of Taylor Adams and Jack Crisp, in addition to a best-on-ground performance from Scott Pendlebury have the Magpies the advantage in the centre of the ground.
While inaccurate goal-kicking cost the home side an unexpected win, the Magpies were just the third team this year to beat the reigning premiers in clearances.
“It was the clearances that really caught my eye,” Maxwell told co-host Michael Christian on Collingwood Media’s ‘Monday’s With Maxy’.
“The most impressive part of all that is that for the match, Hawthorn only scored 2.4 from stoppages, and the Pies scored 8.9…
“It was just great to see the boys getting in and really taking it up to these quality Hawthorn mids in Lewis, Hodge, Mitchell, Shiels and these guys.
Despite Hawthorn having the first nine clearances of the game, Collingwood responded to take a 24-22 lead at half time.
They added another 22 clearances in the second half, while the Hawks had only 11 in the second half to finish with a total of 33.
While Maxwell highlighted the efforts of Adams and Crisp, it was Pendlebury who impressed the man who he took the captaincy from prior to the 2014 season.
Pendlebury had 37 disposals, 20 of these contested, including six clearances on Friday night.
It was his highest disposal count of the season and the first time he’s had 30-plus possessions since his 200th game in round eight.
“A lot of people have been saying that he’s been injured,” Maxwell said.
“But he’s just class. You could just see that he had that time back. He would get the ball and they were running rings around him. They just didn’t want to go and tackle him. He was sensational, he really led from the front for the Pies.
He’s almost un-taggable. Not many players have really gone and had the better of him one-on-one. He’s a sensation, he just continues to amaze. I think he was best on the ground across both teams.”
Pendlebury will once again front an in-form Collingwood midfield when the Magpies travel to Adelaide to take on Port Adelaide on Thursday night.
