AFL legend Leigh Matthews was intrigued by the ruck battle between Brodie Grundy and Sean Darcy last weekend.
Collingwood’s Grundy and Fremantle’s Darcy both starred during Saturday’s match at Marvel Stadium with the Dockers running out 12-point winners.
Matthews noticed that Darcy was copping verbals from Magpies players after Grundy pushed forward to kick two goals with his second coming in the final quarter.
The four-time premiership coach wonders if Collingwood “poked the bear” as it seemed to spur Darcy on late in the match.
“It was an intriguing duel between Brodie Grundy and young Sean Darcy,” Mathew told Sportsday.
“You’ve got the hard-running ruckman in Grundy and Darcy’s bulky and not a great runner.
“Early in the game, Grundy’s running to the forward line unopposed, took the big mark, and he looked at Sean Darcy who was about 40 metres behind him back in the centre square thinking, ‘I didn’t go with him’.
“Grundy then did that again about halfway through the last quarter, ran into the forward line, took the big grab and kicked the goal. So, he’s now kicked two goals just running off Sean Darcy.
“But they poked the bear.
“You could see Grundy and his Collingwood teammates were getting into Darcy about probably being slow … like that he just couldn’t go with Grundy.
“We know that Fremantle kicked the last three goals and won the game – Sean Darcy’s last 10 minutes was outstanding.
“He took a couple of strong marks, a good second effort clearance player - don’t poke the bear.
“You could see Sean dig in and say, ‘I’ve got to find something here’, which he did in the last 10 minutes.”
Grundy finished with 22 disposals, two goals and seven marks, while Darcy also impressed with nine clearances and 18 touches.