And that included Josh Battle,who has become a key piece on the Lyon chessboard,and Cal Wilkie,an outstanding tall defender who repeatedly foiled the Magpies with interceptions for much of the match,especially in a dour and error-filled first half.
Indeed,you could say that for three quarters,what the Adelaide Oval hosted was an alternative blockbuster,known as the Slowdown.
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At the end,a dour game turned into an unexpected thriller,as the Saints rolled the dice and wiped off a lead of more than four goals in three rapid minutes,flicking the switch suddenly with goals to Crouch,Ryan Byrnes and Jack Higgins,forcing the Magpies to reprise the lead-protection methods that served them so well in 2022.
They won a largely ugly game,only by sheer weight of forward entries;eventually,the wall of Lyon busted early in the final quarter,when Bobby Hill kicked and created a pair of goals and Ash Johnson marked and converted to stretch the margin to four goals.
Much has been made of Collingwood’s fast and attacking method of play under coach Craig McRae,but there was always a question of how that purportedly irresistible force would cope with the immovable object of Lyon,aided and abetted by Wilkie and Battle.