Big Freeze 10: Injury-hit Collingwood Triumphs over Melbourne

An injury-hit Collingwood took the honours in the ‘Kings Birthday Clash’ with a convincing victory over Melbourne before a monster crowd of 84,659 at the ‘G’.

The Magpies had an unlikely hero in Nathan Kreuger, who was plagued by hamstring and calf issues for most of the year. He was re-called up to the line-up, having impressed in the VFL, and made the most of the opportunity by scoring his first goals in 407 days.

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Jack Crisp (pictured above) (27 disposals, six clearances and five marks), playing his 227th consecutive game, won the Neale Daniher Trophy for his best-on-ground effort.

He now sits just 17 matches behind the 2× All-Australian, Brownlow Medallist and Hall of Famer Jim Stynes (1987-1998), who still holds the VFL/AFL record 244.

Prior to this blockbuster, the annual Big Freeze event took place, where nine well-known personalities went down the celebrity slide as part of the big fundraiser. The participants were Pat Rafter, Erin Phillips, Nic Naitanui, James Brayshaw, Joel Selwood, Sally Pearson, Meg Lanning, Jack Riewoldt, and Mack Horton.

Iconic landmarks and buildings across Australia were lit up in cornflower blue to commemorate all those who had been impacted by the ‘Beast’.

Along with sales of the Beanies, over $3 million has been raised in 2024 for the charity FightMND, founded in 2014. The charity aims to find effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure for Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

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King’s Birthday Eve Clash

The previous night, in front of another packed house, midfielder Elijah Hollands (pictured below) kicked a career-high three majors as Carlton got one on their arch-rivals Essendon.

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They broke the deadlock through Mitch McGovern and led for the whole evening, holding off a third-term charge from the Bombers to secure a 26-point win.

For the first time in their nine-year careers, this fixture finally saw Harry McKay (pictured below, left) line against his twin brother Ben (pictured below, right) – the two playing on each other for the most of it.

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Talking in the rooms to the club’s website, Blues captain Patrick Cripps said, “It’s always good when you play the big rival teams, and the crowd was awesome; always good to beat them. That ability to hang on in the third when things weren’t going our way and then counterpunch them in the fourth, to put the game away pretty early, was something I was really proud of.”

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“The comp is so even and you always want to test yourself against the best. I think we have played everyone in the top ten now, so it has been good to see where we are at – we know we’re in a good spot, but also that have still got a lot of work to do.”

He concluded, “It’s a long season; we get to go away now with the bye, get a few troops back and then hit the last part of the year red hot.”

Tigers cause upset in the city of churches

Lowly Richmond caused the upset of the weekend and put a huge dent in Adelaide’s finals aspirations by getting over the line, in the City of Churches, by a close margin.

It snapped a run of eight straight defeats for the injury-ravaged Tigers that really broke the game wide open, in the third quarter, and were then able to see it out.

‘Horse’ celebrates 200th win as coach

Sydney coach John Longmire chalked up his 200th victory after watching his team-best, Geelong, in the big top-of-the-ladder clash, played before a decent crowd of 44,714 at the SCG – the third-highest home and away ever at the venue.

He wouldn’t have been pleased with the opening, as they conceded the first six majors of the contest and couldn’t even fashion one of their own initially.

However, to their credit, the Swans hit back strongly and, from the second, had the better of it to now sit on top at eleven-one – the best start to a campaign since 1935.

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Speaking in the presser, the 53-year-old, nicknamed ‘Horse’ (pictured above), said “We’ve still got a bit of work to do on our starts. But in the second quarter, we turned that right around and were really strong in all areas as the game went on. So that was good to be able to really turn that around; the way we worked from quarter time onwards was strong.”

“They did come at us a bit in that last quarter and they’re a good team, so to steady the ship, win some contests, get the game back on our terms and then kick away again was a real credit to our guys and good to see.”

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He went on “When you’re playing well, you have just got to keep on going. We saw what happened in the first quarter against a good team when you just take the pressure off a little bit, so you have just got to be at your maximum the whole time.”

hawks beat giants in a thriller

Luke Bruest (pictured below) was the hero, snapping the defining goal from a tight angle with just a minute to go as a bang-in-form Hawthorn defeated Greater Western Sydney.

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In what proved to be a thrilling contest that went right down to the wire, Sam Mitchell’s outfit mounted a strong second-half comeback to draw the scores level before going on to get the job done and make it five triumphs from the last six.

It continues what has been quite an amazing turnaround by the Hawks that have gone from a zip-five start to now being talked about in the finals conversation.

Last year’s Grand Finalists Brisbane showed they are more than capable on their day after travelling interstate and knocking over the Western Bulldogs.

So far this campaign, they have been frustratingly inconsistent, but they were ‘on’ for this encounter that they led, dominated for most of the evening, and were worthy winners.

Eric Hipwood kicked a career-high six majors, whilst Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale (38 disposals, 14 contested possessions and 10 clearances) also starred.

kangs finally pick up first win of the year

On the bottom side, North Melbourne picked up their first success of the year, just the fourth under coach Alistair Clarkson’s reign, by getting the chocolates against the West Coast.

They looked to be cruising, heading into the fourth, but then conspired to concede six goals in 21 minutes, actually falling behind on the scoreboard, before managing to regain their composure with youngster Paul Curtis kicking the sealer.

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This fixture marked the return of co-captain Jy Simpkin (pictured above) to the side following a month out with a quad strain, and he made a real impact with a superb performance.

controversial calls

Max King booted a highly controversial winner with less than four minutes remaining on the clock, as St.Kilda got up over Gold Coast in a very dour and low-scoring affair.

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The forward on the receiving end of a ‘down field’ free-kick, given by the umpire who penalised Mac Andrew for holding him in a tussle. To his credit, he then held his nerve to go back and convert through the big sticks to the delights of the Saints fans.

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It was a missed opportunity for the Suns, and they were really filthy about the decision. This result continued their winless run on the road as the club chased a first top-eight finish.

In the aftermath, the AFL subsequently issued in a statement in which Stephen McBurney, Head of Officiating, conceded that both players were grappling and the correct decision should have been to call play on rather a ‘holding the man’ free-kick.