A fun Notebook this week, if I do say so myself. It’s a two-topic post for Round 7:
1) How Collingwood’s midfield has improved from 2024 to 2025, through a mix of complementary player roles and some new faces
2) A rare Notebook occurrence with an entry focusing on a single player, looking at Matt Johnson and how he’s almost there
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Collingwood’s midfield working in tandem
Through seven rounds, Collingwood are the team to beat, and it’s been fuelled by a superb team defence. No team concedes fewer points per stoppage loss or turnover loss, which includes their Opening Round loss to the Giants.
It’s all started from their on-ball unit, which has had some tweaks from last year. In pre-season, I wrote about how Harry Perryman’s addition made perfect sense to soak up the dirty minutes while Nick Daicos and Jordan De Goey strutted their stuff offensively.
Due to injury (De Goey) and needs elsewhere (Perryman), it hasn’t quite played out that way. In many ways the theoretical Perryman role – defensive responsibilities first, most other things second – has fallen to Steele Sidebottom. Meanwhile Ned Long has earned a spot in the rotation with his form and an interesting role.
It’s been a relatively tight on-ball unit, the quartet of Daicos, Sidebottom, Scott Pendlebury, and Long taking the lion’s share of minutes, with De Goey pinch hitting from his forward role when fit. In many ways the forced changes from what might have been their first-choice rotation before the season has been a blessing in disguise.
Collingwood run so much* of their play through Daicos, whether as a direct target or to free him for the following possessions in a chain. Sometimes when De Goey was playing heavy midfield minutes, his naturally aggressive instincts (and instructions) would run Collingwood into trouble defensively.
(*And fair enough too. It’d almost be negligent if they didn’t)
That issue doesn’t rear its head when Sidebottom is on-ball instead. He’s rarely – if ever – the target man at centre bounces, often playing as the defensive sweeper as shown here:
When it works he provides the cover which then allows his teammates to springboard after he wins possession:
Around the ground, it’s a similar type of instruction, but with a touch more freedom to take more ground if the situation calls for it:
It’s all a function of Sidebottom’s experience, his intangibles, and Collingwood as the best drilled side in the competition. While Sidebottom’s physical attributes have diminished slightly, as had become apparent at various points in the last 12 or so months across the wing or half back, it can be minimised through all of the above points in certain roles.
Positioning – both individual and in the midfield unit – along with a role that amplifies strengths and minimises weaknesses, makes for a better fit to play alongside Daicos.
Speaking of playing alongside Daicos, Ned Long has been the surprise packet of Collingwood’s year so far, solidifying a best-22 position for the first time in his career.
The interesting thing watching Long is how he moves to naturally aggressive positions, but often – not always, of course, but often – to be used later in a possession chain instead of the first-choice man.
Take these passages from Anzac Day v Essendon as examples. It’s not always the cleanest football in the world, but more often than not it gets the job done:
Long is still doing his role around the contest as well. He actually leads the Pies in total pressure acts for the season, even though he’s started as the sub three times, with two of those games yielding just 25 percent game time (Opening Round v GWS) and 24 percent (Round 4 v Carlton).
Although no one is claiming Long is a better player than De Goey, Long’s current role better suits Collingwood’s midfield needs at this stage. And then De Goey is playing the forward-midfield hybrid role well when available, able to fluctuate between the two depending on the game situation.
It all makes for a nicely balanced midfield. Between Sidebottom and Pendlebury* doing their thing as defensive cover balanced with nearly always making the right choices in possession, Long playing somewhat of a hybrid role, and Nick Daicos being … Nick Daicos, it covers all bases while the quartet are in this current run of form.
(*criminally undermentioned in this post, but by now we all know when Pendlebury does so well on-ball, right? … Right?)
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For those who have missed it, the last five posts on The Shinboner, plus…
2025’s Team Structures Page
North Melbourne’s Round 7 analysis v Port Adelaide
Veterans, offence, and scoring: Round 6’s Notebook
North Melbourne’s Round 6 analysis v Carlton
Checking in on the 0-5 teams: Round 5’s Notebook
North Melbourne’s Round 5 analysis v Gold Coast
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Matt Johnson, almost there
A Notebook entry for a single player isn’t a common theme, but this week is an exception.
Players being *nearly* there both fascinates me and drives me insane depending on the passage of play. Case in point, Matt Johnson’s game against Adelaide.
It was objectively a good performance by Johnson! An equal career-high 27 disposals! He earned coaches votes! (only from one coach if I’ve read the votes correctly, but still)
It was also so close to a very good performance from Johnson. For all the good passages he was involved in, there were also plenty of times his good was nearly immediately cancelled out by a mistake.
There’s every chance this Notebook entry will reach some readers relatively unfamiliar with the blog, which means it’s time for the semi-regular disclaimer when it comes to topics like this…
Disclaimer: In a vacuum this entry will look like criticism because it’s only focusing on the passages where there’s good + bad from Johnson, ignoring all the times he was purely good. The point of this is supposed to be positive, showing how close Johnson is to making a significant step from solid – where he’s already at now – to very good.
To the tape, illustrating the passages I’m talking about:
Most players don’t progress to the level Johnson is at right now, constantly in the right areas, finding himself involved with play, and in theory, these errors should gradually fade with time.
More minutes running these types of patterns and areas should make it easier for Johnson to recognise situations and make the right reads; not rushing his disposal, because he knows what’s available to him.
In the meantime, it’s simply a matter of continuing to put Johnson in these situations to get the reps needed. Bit by bit, the passages where good is cancelled out by bad should turn into net positives based on the current rate of improvement.