Coburg have fallen agonisingly short to Collingwood by two points in this afternoon’s season-opener at Piranha Park, despite a late charge in the second half.
Going into the final term and trailing by just two goals, our Lions’ boys knew they had to come out fighting.
In a thrilling 25 minutes of football, Coburg applied the pressure and really took the game on, with a goal from Christian Burgess giving them the lead for the first time all day.
However, a quick response from Collingwood’s Jordan Kelly meant the game was back in their favour.
A desperate smother from Blake Mullane in the centre square put the ball back inside our forward-50, but unfortunately couldn’t find the goals.
With less than 5 minutes to play, Collingwood’s uncontested marks (94 to Coburg’s 55) helped them take some time off the clock, and the siren sounded.
The Lions’ hard work and eager attack on the ball was shown in the statistics, recording 65 tackles, and having an inside-50 and rebound-50 count within two of Collingwood’s numbers.
After a goal-less first quarter, the Lions really stepped up to the Magpies’ side, which featured 19 AFL-listed players.
Smooth handballs and some accurate kicking showed some promising signs for the Lions, but unluckily ran out of time to make them count.
Peter McEvoy was strong in the forward line booting three goals, and Mullane kicked two and was on fire in the midfield.
Sean Gregory and Tom Cleary were impactful, while Nick Dodge, Mark Kovacevic and Cameron Holdsworth also went on to kick singles for the day.
Our top ball-getters were Nick Mellington, finishing with 25 disposals, Liam Hunt, recording 24 touches, and Ben Allan who notched up 23.
A disappointing result for Nathan Blair’s 50th game, Coburg will use today’s loss as motivation to secure the four points next week against Box Hill.
Coburg: 0.1 2.6 5.7 9.8 (62)
Collingwood: 4.3 5.5 7.7 9.10 (64)
Goals: McEvoy 3, Mullane 2, Dodge, Kovacevic, Holdsworth, Burgess.
Best: Gregory, Blair, Mellington, Allan, Cleary, Hunt, Mullane.
