Magpies unveil ‘ferocious’ new midfielder as Swans sweat on Amartey hamstring scan

Collingwood were depleted by injury and suspension when Jordan DeGoey, Lachie Schultz and Dan Houston were sidelined ahead of this match.

Fortunately for the Pies, they faced an opponent who has shown their Medicare card more often than most in 2025 with Errol Gulden, Tom Papley and Callum Mills the biggest names of the eight players missing from last year’s grand final side.

It gave the Magpies confidence they could defeat Sydney to make it three-from-three from Gather Rounds, and a perfect 10 out of their past 10 at the Adelaide Oval. And they began with a certain arrogance – using their speed at ground level to create opportunities before building the pressure to a level Sydney got nowhere near to matching.

The Pies were simply better and stronger for longer to win comfortably by 31 points. Such was Collingwood’s belief in their front half game, they initially pushed too high and left doors open for Sydney to score, which they did with three of the first four goals of the game.

But all that did was snap the experienced Magpies into action, aware – due to their dominance around the ball – they only needed to stifle Sydney’s ball movement to win the game.

Like a python, they began to strangle their prey, with the Swans unable to match the Magpies’ pressure and intensity.

Sydney began to force the issue and made mistakes, which led to Collingwood scores.

Occasionally they would open the Magpies up, but it was rare. The ball either lived in Collingwood’s forward half or was repelled by an intercept mark or spoil – a dominance accentuated when Joel Amartey hurt his hamstring just before half-time.

As the Magpies pressed home their advantage during the third quarter, Sydney moved Tom McCartin forward in a desperate attempt to win a contest inside 50, but it made no difference.

Collingwood did it without Nick Daicos making as much of an impact as usual, with James Jordon arriving, as expected, with his clamps in hand. The superstar onballer still worked hard to finish with 34 disposals.

Brayden Maynard and Beau McCreery played their best games for the season, while Steele Sidebottom and Darcy Cameron continued their outstanding early season form.

Ned Long was a revelation in the middle after being the sub against Carlton a week earlier, and is beginning to establish himself as a permanent member of the midfield.

In the end – having won their past six matches at Adelaide Oval by a goal or less – they won comfortably, having 29 scores from just 55 inside-50 entries. By contrast Sydney ran into dead-ends and one-way streets as though they were tourists driving around harbour town.

The Swans only managed 18 scoring shots from their 56 entries and their season is hanging by a thread as they wait for reinforcements. Collingwood, meanwhile, head to Brisbane to take on the Lions on Thursday night in good shape with four wins from five matches, while the Swans play Port Adelaide in a preliminary final rematch that sees both sides in strife so far in 2025.

That’s all we have for tonight as the Magpies celebrate their win over Sydney at Adelaide Oval.

We will have more coverage overnight and over the weekend, so please keep visiting our sport pages and we will be back at lunchtime tomorrow for our AFL Saturday live blog as we follow all four matches from Gather Round.

Thanks so much for joining us, and please join us tomorrow afternoon.

Bye for now.

Magpies coach Craig McRae spoke to the media post game and praised Scott Pendlebury’s leadership when the team needed to lift their pressure after quarter-time.

Did you think you could get into the contest?Honestly, going into the game, they are such a hard team to play against. We’ve had years of struggle to beat them. Even when we were four or five goals up last year, we couldn’t hold on. We have great respect for them. We came into tonight thinking this is going to be a hard game. I thought it was a really cracking game of footy early. Then the game got on our terms and I thought it was a great performance by our guys.

It was a free-flowing game to half-time with 18 goals. What held together in the second half?
In the second quarter the pressure lifted, and it was low in the first quarter. Credit to [assistant coach] Matty Boyd and the centre bounce work. He has never coached midfield before and he came into our environment and he is an unbelievably hard worker.
[They’ve got] Brodie Grundy and all the great mids and you get territory and it goes a long way to winning the game. To half-time it was about pressure, really. The only way to get pressure is keeping the ball off the contested marks, mostly. A couple of things like that. We love Pendles. He is ... such a leader and coach on the field for us. He just organises everything and gets everything in-tune. He has this ability to connect others. Lachie Sullivan comes in and plays a role for us, and Scott Pendlebury connects with him all game and he has an impact on the game. He is pretty incredible.

Collingwood made it 10 wins in a row in South Australia with tonight’s victory, but they still have some work to do to catch Hawthorn’s record of 19 in a row in Tasmania.

Collingwood were depleted by injury and suspension when Jordan DeGoey, Lachie Schultz and Dan Houston were sidelined ahead of this match.

Fortunately for the Pies, they faced an opponent who has shown their Medicare card more often than most in 2025 with Errol Gulden, Tom Papley and Callum Mills the biggest names of the eight players missing from last year’s grand final side.

It gave the Magpies confidence they could defeat Sydney to make it three-from-three from Gather Rounds, and a perfect 10 out of their past 10 at the Adelaide Oval. And they began with a certain arrogance – using their speed at ground level to create opportunities before building the pressure to a level Sydney got nowhere near to matching.

The Pies were simply better and stronger for longer to win comfortably by 31 points. Such was Collingwood’s belief in their front half game, they initially pushed too high and left doors open for Sydney to score, which they did with three of the first four goals of the game.

But all that did was snap the experienced Magpies into action, aware – due to their dominance around the ball – they only needed to stifle Sydney’s ball movement to win the game.

Like a python, they began to strangle their prey, with the Swans unable to match the Magpies’ pressure and intensity.

Sydney began to force the issue and made mistakes, which led to Collingwood scores.

Occasionally they would open the Magpies up, but it was rare. The ball either lived in Collingwood’s forward half or was repelled by an intercept mark or spoil – a dominance accentuated when Joel Amartey hurt his hamstring just before half-time.

As the Magpies pressed home their advantage during the third quarter, Sydney moved Tom McCartin forward in a desperate attempt to win a contest inside 50, but it made no difference.

Collingwood did it without Nick Daicos making as much of an impact as usual, with James Jordon arriving, as expected, with his clamps in hand. The superstar onballer still worked hard to finish with 34 disposals.

Brayden Maynard and Beau McCreery played their best games for the season, while Steele Sidebottom and Darcy Cameron continued their outstanding early season form.

Ned Long was a revelation in the middle after being the sub against Carlton a week earlier, and is beginning to establish himself as a permanent member of the midfield.

In the end – having won their past six matches at Adelaide Oval by a goal or less – they won comfortably, having 29 scores from just 55 inside-50 entries. By contrast Sydney ran into dead-ends and one-way streets as though they were tourists driving around harbour town.

The Swans only managed 18 scoring shots from their 56 entries and their season is hanging by a thread as they wait for reinforcements. Collingwood, meanwhile, head to Brisbane to take on the Lions on Thursday night in good shape with four wins from five matches, while the Swans play Port Adelaide in a preliminary final rematch that sees both sides in strife so far in 2025.