Darcy Moore called out over startling vision as AFL greats clash on Collingwood furore
The backlash against Moore comes as debate swirls around the reigning premiers.
Collingwood captain Darcy Moore has been taken to task by AFL great David King over his efforts in the loss to the Sydney Swans. The reigning premiers slipped to their second successive defeat against the Swans, with a high-fiving incident between teammates Jordan De Goey and Brayden Maynard sparking debate between a number of AFL legends.
But it was the performance of Pies skipper and two-time All-Australian defender Moore that caught the eye of King - for the wrong reasons. The two-time premiership winner showed a number of clips on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Wednesday night that he said highlighted Moore's positional and decision-making mistakes at the back for Collingwood.
King said the Magpies skipper was guilty of leaving his man on the 50m line to try and effect the contest up field, but ended up giving Sydney a man advantage in attack when he didn't return to his original position. King also referenced a number of other clips that showed Moore being indecisive in several marking contests in which he came out second best against the Swans.
The Kangaroos legend pointed to the fact that Collingwood's defensive group were ranked third last season but are languishing as the 17th best in the competition after their first two games. The Pies are certainly missing premiership defender Nathan Murphy, who is sidelined with concussion, but King says Moore's form is alarming.
“This sort of play here is the play of a 10-gamer – not the guy at the front of your footy club,” King said on AFL 360. “That’s not Darcy Moore. I’m wondering what’s going on with Darcy. Is he injured? Has he lost confidence? How do they step forward with this?”
Collingwood coach Craig McRae has dropped Murphy's replacement Charlie Dean for Thursday night's showdown against St Kilda at the MCG, but described his side's tough start to the season as a "gift". McRae is determined to remain positive amid suggestions his Magpies side are experiencing a premiership hangover, or reading too much into their own hype.
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Critics have pointed to the high-fiving incident between De Goey and Maynard during the big loss to Sydney as evidence that the standards have slipped at the reigning premiers this season. Four-time premiership player Jordan Lewis described it as a "lazy" effort from the Pies stars and said they should have been rushing back to stop Sydney's counter-attack, rather than high-fiving one another.
Jordan Lewis questions motivation of Collingwood stars
Collingwood's Jeremy Howe said this week he didn't have a problem with the actions of his teammates. But when Lewis was asked to expand on his criticism, the four-time premiership winner explained that it all comes down to how teams respond after winning a flag.
"Once you’ve played in a grand final and won a grand final... the biggest challenge for teams is to find motivation for the start of the season. That is real and the hardest thing you can possible find,” Lewis said.
“If this was the last game of the season, do you think those efforts would’ve been increased? Clearly. So for sides looking to go back-to-back and sides wanting to become teams that are spoken about for years and years, you have to be better at the start of the season. That is just what I’ve learnt over the years and being a part of it.”
AFL greats clash over Collingwood incident
Richmond three-time premiership great Jack Riewoldt said he understood criticism of Collingwood's defensive effort but said it was "trivial" to make a deal out of the high-fiving and referred to Lewis as a "GOF" (grumpy old footballer). “We’re happy to separate the two incidents, aren’t we?
"We’re not lumping the high five in with the defensive running? That’s one of the great trivial things of all time that high five – to make issue out of that. The defensive running, I’ll cop that. But (not) the high five.”
Riewoldt echoed Howe's argument that De Goey and Maynard "won a premiership off those behaviours" and said part of being a successful team is that "encouragement" of one another. But Lewis maintained the contentious high-five was evidence De Goey and Maynard “weren’t engaged in the game” and therefore lumped it in the same "basket" as their defensive effort.