Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes has called out Collingwood defensive duo Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe for allowing Richmond’s tall forwards to dominate in Saturday’s loss at the MCG.
While Moore and Howe like to peel off their opponents and guard dangerous space, Cornes believes they should’ve reverted to a more “one-on-one” approach as the likes of Tom Lynch (6.1) and Jack Riewoldt (2.2) took the game away from Craig McRae’s side.
Although Cornes acknowledged Lynch’s outing as “one of the individual performances of the year”, he accused Moore of helping him achieve that by “daydreaming” as the key Tiger dominated inside 50.
“I thought the way Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe played (was disappointing),” Cornes said on AFL.com.au’s The Round So Far.
“It hasn’t just been today, even though they’ve been okay Collingwood and winning games, they’ve been let off by actions like this.
“It (a lack of one-on-one defending) is the biggest cop out in modern football, they give themselves an out.
“What is Darcy Moore doing? Why are you leaving the hottest man in Round 8 to do nothing, to not influence the ball or get it over the boundary line. He is your direct opponent.
“Unless you’ve got this behind the ball footage … Tom Lynch runs past Darcy Moore and Darcy Moore is daydreaming … the hottest man in the AFL right now has 10 metres on him in the space of five seconds.”
As Collingwood identified Moore as one of their key pillars by signing him to a six-year deal just last month, Cornes called for the defender to not get complacent with his future locked in.
“They’ve signed him for six years,” Cornes added.
“There’s undoubtably something that subconsciously creeps in and a complacency that comes with a long-term deal, that’s why I dislike them.
“If he wants to be the captain of the Collingwood football club – which I’m hearing that he is – then he’s got to play a lot more accountable football than what he played today.
“Jeremy Howe is probably lucky not to be shown with the amount of room he gives his direct opponent.
“I’m not sure who’s coaching them down there with the way that they’re defending.
“But at some point, you have to defend one-on-one with your direct opponent and they refused to do that (against Richmond).”
Collingwood will be hoping for a better defensive performance when they face the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.