Pies ‘embarrassment’
Roos slams coaching staff over failed tactics against Mitchell
COLLINGWOOD’S inability to stop Tom Mitchell has been labelled an “embarrassment” to the coaching staff as the Pies await more bad news today.
The Pies could face GWS next week without Mason Cox, whose forceful elbow to the head of Hawthorn’s Daniel Howe should see him suspended. The elbow could be deemed deliberate and hand him a week’s penalty, given he ran past the ball and cocked his elbow.
The Pies will also have to replace defender Josh Smith (hamstring), with Daniel Wells and Jamie Elliott still a fortnight away from a senior recall.
But the midfield’s inability to constrain Mitchell for a second season in a row saw Paul Roos savage the Pies yesterday.
Coach Nathan Buckley said the Pies sent Steele Sidebottom and Jack Crisp to Mitchell although it clearly had no ef- fect. Since Buckley started coaching Collingwood in 2012, only five players have amassed 49 possessions or more in a single game.
Four of them are against Collingwood (Mitchell’s 54 and 50 and Gary Ablett’s 53 and 49) and the fifth was Collingwood’s Dane Swan (49).
Former Melbourne coach Roos yesterday disputed Buckley’s statement he had tried to tag Mitchell.
“If I’m a Collingwood mem- ber . . . I’ve got every right to be filthy today about my football team in that one aspect,’’ Roos told Triple M.
“He’s got 27 [disposals] at half-time. I watched the last quarter and no one went near him. No one went anywhere near him.
“It’s an embarrassment to the Collingwood football club, it’s an embarrassment to their midfield group as a whole.
“No other player — let’s be really frank on this — no other player has got two 50-possession games, and he’s done it against the same team.”
“I hate being critical of other coaches, I hate being critical of match committees, but if you’re a Collingwood supporter, today you should be filthy with your match committee.”
Pies captain Scott Pendlebury said post-match that his team mixed trying to stop Mitchell and hurt him the other way.