MIGHTY MAGPIES BOUNCE BLUES

It was close for three quarters but Collingwood’s class showed at the Gabba yesterday, as the Magpies pulled clear from Carlton in their round 14 AFL match to win by 24 points.

MATT TURNER

CARLTON’S season is on the ropes, while Collingwood has moved closer towards sealing a top-eight spot after the Magpies’ gritty 24-point win at the Gabba on Sunday.

Blues coach David Teague spent the week playing down the significance of the match, calling it “just another game” and saying Collingwood was one of the club’s “17 rivals”, but it clearly had extra significance, and the intensity reflected an elimination final from the outset.

Neither team could break clear all day and the biggest margin to either side was 10 points until Josh Daicos extended the Magpies’ advantage to 13 with eight minutes remaining.

In the end, Carlton failed to kick a goal in the second half and Collingwood came up big in the final term after leading by six points at three-quarter time. Goals were hard-earned for most of the match, apart from the second term when eight majors were kicked. It became an arm-wrestle again in the third quarter and the first goal did not come until the 16th minute when Mason Cox trimmed the Blues’ lead back to three points.

Jaidyn Stephenson then butchered two chances to put the Magpies ahead — when he played on from 25m out on a slight angle late in the third term and with a set shot from 40m early in the last, which Liam Jones touched on the goal line, giving Collingwood its first lead since the opening half.

But he redeemed himself with a dribbled major from close range seven minutes into the last term.

Once Daicos and Brody Mihocek kicked their goals, the result was sealed.

Carlton is up against it to make the eight now, sitting 12th with a 6-7 record.

Eddie Betts has played his role over the past two months but there was one thing he had not done since round six until Sunday — kick at least two goals in a game.