IT'S Saturday afternoon and I’m in my bedroom, sitting on the chair at my desk, my own personal stronghold of football. Posters hang upon the walls and there are many discarded pieces of paper around the place with statistics that I have thought of and compared. The radio sits on the left of my desk, and my scoring folder is on the right. Many footy magazines and books lie around, including Footy Almanac 2007 and 2008 and A National Game. The Saturday sport section is spread across the face of the desk, overlapping several footy related items. My footy is on the ground, under my feet, where it usually is. More than 50 Footy Records are held in my draws. The radio is on and the footy is starting in an hour. This is the footy season.
Collingwood come into the game as warm favourites and kick the first goal within seconds, thanks to a tidy Collingwood play resulting in a Travis Cloke goal. This is as good as it got for Collingwood in the quarter, however. Adelaide were adopting Hawthorn’s rolling zone, and its effect was evident early. Andrew McLeod had the ball on a string running out of defence, which didn’t help the Pies cause either. A beautiful display from Adelaide saw the quarter out, despite a late goal from Marty Clarke. One of three Crow debutants Taylor Walker kicked a good goal for the Crows. When the players emerged to their huddles, Adelaide were leading by 23 points. Collingwood started the quarter with a comeback that was expected. They were able to string a couple of goals together and work their way back into the game. At half time, the margin was reduced to 13. Accurate kicking from Collingwood was a plus, despite 16 scoring shots to eight Collingwood were very well in the contest.
Nick Maxwell kicked a goal early in the third term that lifted the spirit of his team, and the Pies were on a roll. Five goals were kicked in a row to the Pies, and they looked on top. At this stage, I was expecting a big Collingwood victory. Adelaide didn’t concede ground, and fought their way back into the contest with smart footy. Jared Petrenko deserves an honourable mention, his commitment to the cause with impressive. He had started off his AFL career wonderfully. Petrenko had fought his way into the side, having been an emergency a number of times during the 2008 season. The scores were locked at three quarter time, and the nightmare was about to begin for Collingwood supporters.
Adelaide came away with a hard fought victory, a well deserved one. The last quarter was tight, close and controversial for Magpie fans. Missed opportunities, questionable umpiring decisions and cleverness from Adelaide is what the black-and-white mob had to put up with. The Crows started off the season with a very convincing victory, as for Collingwood; don’t blame it on the umpires.

Collingwood 2.0 7.1 12.3 13.8 (86)
Adelaide 5.5 8.8 11.9 13.12 (90)
GOALS Collingwood: Cloke 2, Clarke 2, Maxwell 2, Medhurst 2, Anthony 2, Swan, Pendlebury, Davis.
Adelaide: Stevens 3, Van Berlo 2, Dangerfield 2, Porplyzia, Walker, Bock, Douglas, Knights, Petrenko.
BEST Collingwood: Pendlebury, Swan, O’Bree, Clarke, Maxwell, Lockyer.
Adelaide: McLeod, Vince, Edwards, Bock, Petrenko, Stevens.
Umpires: Nicholls, Schmitt, Meredith.
Crowd: 41,591 at the MCG.

•Jared Petrenko of Adelaide in action during the AFL round one match againste Collingwood at the MCG. Photo by Michael Willson. The Slattery Media Group

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