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It would be good to be able to say that Steele Sidebottom does not seem like a 34 -year -old player in the football field, but strictly speaking that would not be true.
Unlike his friend of the retirement community, Scott Pendlebury, who through a combination of health, well -being and witchcraft seems to have another 400 games on him, can be said simply looking at him that Sidebottom has been doing this for a while.
The hair was sacrificed many years ago and if he ever hit something that approached at the maximum speed, he spent a long time before they had trackers to measure such a thing.
Sidebottom moves at his own quiet rhythm and implores the game that joins him on his walk. He has been a sensational footballer for so long that his excellence is taken for granted.
It is not so Friday night in Adelaide, when in a often frantic game against Sydney he worked as Collingwood compass.
That Collingwood is an old team is not news and in itself it is not particularly interesting. But what we are seeing weekly is the true value of the experience, that if the body of certain players can be kept in passable conditions, the brain can only be enough to win games.
How Sydney could have used part of that cunning and clear flavor. Swans could match the urracas for intensity and speed, but when that pinch of composure and creativity was required to unlock the game, too often they were missing.
It seemed for long periods that this was a game between two teams trying to do the same. The ball moved quickly, often by hand and through the ground whenever possible.
James Rowbottom from Sydney picks up the ball before Steele Sidebottom from Collingwood. (Getty Images: Michael Willson)
Instead of any really prominent initial option in the front line, both sides would seek to suck the game and sneak the back to obtain opportunities in the break.
After all, these are two good teams: there has been no great final played on this side of the Covid years that have not included one of them.
And even when Collingwood seemed to have a firm understanding of the game in the second quarter, Sydney’s threat was delayed.
Isaac Heeney spent a little more time in the center of the field, Hayden McLean kicked one from the bar in the oval hill of Adelaide and somehow the advantage was only 10 points in the long term.
In the half time, Sidebottom had been involved in more than half of his team’s scores.
Young Ned Long was in the middle of a breakup game in the center of the field, and Nick Daicos was having an example despite James Jordon, but there was no rival for the influence of Sidebottom.
Which is not to underestimate Long’s work, who won 194cm on the rest of the center of the field with an action that will make it terribly difficult to omit even when some big names return to the fold.
Long is sometimes messy, but there is room for that in a Collingwood machine room that otherwise contains so much enamel. Its size and effort around the ball proved to be a critical counterpoint tonight, and the swans do not fall so easily without their graft graft.
The only other clear advantage that Collingwood had at night can be found in the air. Sydney’s highs were overcome at each end, a problem exacerbated by Joel Amaryy’s injury.
Joel Amartey limited an injury to the hamstrings before part time. (Getty Images: Michael Willson)
It is a Dean Cox puzzle and its swans have not yet been resolved in 2025, and if you love you, any moment will be lost with your concern for the hamstrings and the discomfort Tom McCartin Switch must be done again, it could be enough to spit the season.
The URACAS have addressed that area through the recent ones outside the sheets and acquisitions of Tim Membrey and Dan Mcstay, although low profile and relatively cheap, they are proven to be significant. What Sydney would not give for such a plug-and-play target in its own reference line.
Collingwood, for great dismay of his many enemies throughout the country, is in a good position to fulfill his plans declared for immediate domination.
Each decision that Craig McRAe has taken has been for the now, with anything beyond that a problem that can be solved in and fly.
Who can blame him for wanting EKE until the last fall of players like Sidebottom while he can still?
The only wrinkle could be that, in the current evidence anyway, the Uracas could be blessed for their serene influence even longer than expected.
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