Collingwood savaged over ‘horrible’ scenes as AFL greats call out Brayden Maynard act

Collingwood are copping it over an insipid display against the Sydney Swans on Friday night, with footage of Brayden Maynard and Jordan De Goey sparking huge concerns. The premiers slumped to an 0-2 start after the Swans ran out 15.12 (102) to 10.9 (69) winners in front of 78,933 fans at the MCG.

The Pies won centre clearances (17-9), overall clearances (35-30) and contested possession (129-121), but were made to pay for a raft of turnovers – especially in their back half. As the game slipped away from Collingwood, a number of their biggest stars appeared to give up.

Jordan Lewis highlighted damning footage on Fox Footy after the game of the moment Maynard and De Goey shared a high-five as they casually jogged towards their defensive end rather than showing any sense of urgency. Nick Daicos could also be seen tracking back rather casually, and the lack of effort allowed the Swans to score another goal.

Collingwood stars Brayden Maynard and Jordan De Goey shared a high-five as they casually jogged back. Image: Fox Footy/Getty

Collingwood taken to task over eye-opening footage

The same issue arose last week when the Pies were thrashed by 32 points by GWS, leaving coach Craig McRae with plenty to ponder. “I think it’ll be a tough review,” Lewis said after the game. “There were countless times when you watched the play unfold and there were players not communicating, players jogging, players that weren’t willing to buy-in defensively.

“This is where you want Collingwood to be better. It is far too easy (for Sydney) to cut through the middle of the ground. They are ball-watching, there is no communication – there’s even players giving high-fives.”

Brayden Maynard and Jordan De Goey high-fived each other as the Swans streaned downfield again. Image: Fox Footy

In regard to Maynard and De Goey, Lewis said: “That is lazy, that is not being involved in the game, that is not helping your defence. They were waiting for the end of the game. I don’t think you say this too often about Collingwood because they’ve been unbelievable about their effort, but they turned up their toes tonight.

“That is hard to cop as a player. When you sit back and see that in the review on a Monday, that is hard to cop.”

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Garry Lyon described the high-five as “bizarre”, and Lewis said it was “hard to believe”. Lyon added: “There was the first outing (against the Giants) as the premier – and that’s what happens, the pressure comes on them and the expectation and they got it handed to them by the Giants – and now they come out here and they really got it handed to them.

“All through the week, (it was) ‘no one panic’ – and understandably, it’s one game … Now it’s come out and it’s got worse. I think it’s a worse defeat than last week. Early on (in the game) there was want and desire – and then it got a little bit too hard. Sydney deserve all the credit, because they made Collingwood look ordinary.”

Nick Daicos incident leaves AFL world fuming

Collingwood’s loss came about even after they were on the receiving end of a number of questionable calls. Daicos was awarded a very dubious free kick in the third quarter when he appeared to pretend he’d been hit high, which came straight after the Swans were robbed of a holding the ball free kick after a perfect tackle on De Goey.

“That’s not a free kick. I don’t think that’s a free kick,” Matthew Richardson said in regard to the Daicos incident. “Florent can be disappointed there. I can see how they made the error but it shouldn’t have been one.”

James Brayshaw added: “There are four of them out there to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Daicos is somewhat of a serial offender when it comes to play acting for free kicks, and some fans described his actions as ‘pathetic’ and ’embarrassing’ on Friday night.

Collingwood in shocking 0-2 start to AFL season

Speaking in his press conference, McRae said the Swans’ pressure “overwhelmed” his side. He added: “At their best, they’re a great pressure team and we didn’t handle that. We either didn’t hold it in when we needed to or didn’t clear the territory or area when we should’ve, too.

“We tried to keep going through it when maybe we should’ve just gone around it and over it. We’ve played two really good teams early in the season and I don’t think they’ve shown us the level but we’ve got a lot of improvement left in us.”

The win for the Swans was their first at the MCG in six games – dating back to their loss to Collingwood in the 2022 grand final. Sydney will be looking to continue their unbeaten start to the season against Essendon next week, while Collingwood will be hoping to get their first win when they take on St Kilda.

with AAP