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11 hours ago
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St Kilda spent the summer talking up Sunday night’s opening round game, and Collingwood spent the summer being talked down. It was St Kilda’s occasion, but it was Collingwood’s game. The Saints had the hope, the hyper-inflated recruits, the best paid player in the sport and the largest home-and-away crowd they’d ever played in front of. But Collingwood had cool heads, manic pressure, a wily old fox in his 426th game and two brothers who had 77 touches between them.
The Pies didn’t have the greatest of summers. It felt like the majority of pundits, including this one, had them missing the top 10 (do I have to say that now?). There were all sorts of rumours swirling about regarding the coach Craig McRae, which he and the club were forced to confront publicly. Their captain Darcy Moore was injured. They were coming off less than convincing scratch matches at La Trobe University and Ballarat.
This was more their scene. They excel in these occasions. They revel in spoiling another club’s party (hello Adelaide). And they demonstrated, as they have for the entirety of the McRae era, that they have a system that only the best teams can short-circuit, a system built on frontal pressure, quick hands and fast feet. Without Moore and Jeremy Howe, they went in with a bit of a patchwork back six. But they still devoured space, still had the right appetite for risk, and towelled up a St Kilda forward line that is still green, and still a bit headless at times.
The Daicos brothers and Scott Pendlebury racked up the numbers, the votes and the plaudits and deservedly so. But Dan Houston deserves a shout out for his game on Sunday night. He was a subdued player last year, and never seemed entirely comfortable in the Collingwood system. Not every Collingwood player is wired like Braydon Maynard, but Houston always seemed to be holding something back. He was everywhere on Sunday night however – lurking forward, drifting back, prowling the wings and spearing through the middle. He finally looked like the assured, sublimely skilled footballer he was at Port Adelaide. And Collingwood clearly played through him a lot more than they did last year.
This was a big occasion for St Kilda and they didn’t quite meet it. They lobbied hard to get this game. They thought they were ready. They feted their only premiership-winning team. They released a documentary that leant heavily into how much this game meant, and how important it was to step up. They were far from disgraced but they weren’t quite ready for what Collingwood threw at them. They squandered a lot of chances whenever they attacked. Too often, they played right into Collingwood’s hands, kicking straight down the line. Too many fumbles, airballs and shanks cost them dearly.
It’s rare in this era that they would go into a game against Collingwood as favourites. Coach Ross Lyon none too convincingly suggested that the Pies should be favourites, and that he was bracing for an ambush. It wasn’t quite an ambush, but it was a wake-up call. He was his usual acerbic, gnomic, increasingly hard-of-hearing self in the post-match presser. But he wasn’t too shattered. Some of his best players had patchy games and the new look line will take time to properly gel.
The hardest thing about the opening round, apart from how much it compromises the draw for the rest of the season, is knowing how much to read into it. Did Carlton burn an entire summer of positivity and goodwill and regeneration in half an hour? Is the best way to approach it to walk into a press conference the way Chris Scott did – arms folded, shoulders shrugged, the demeanour of a man saying “you mugs can all write us off, we’ll be absolutely fine”.
It was hard to top what was a crackerjack game at the Gabba on Saturday night. Brisbane and the Bulldogs were stacked with some of the best footballers in Australia, showcasing a level of skill you rarely see in the first week of March. It was a magnificent win by the Bulldogs, exactly the sort of game they would have found a way of losing last year.
They still conceded over 100 points but there was a lot to like about the way they defended. They were more proactive, more composed and more competent than they were in that type of game in 2025. You could tell how much this win meant to coachLuke Beveridge and his players after the game. But at the risk of sounding like a wet blanket, Carlton had an equally rousing win at the Gabba in the opening round of 2024, and they’ve barely been the same club since.
