Thursday night AFL LIVE: Don’t look now, the Pies are coming: McRae’s men steal momentum to make their charge

Beau McCreery kicks the first goal after half-time, and it’s four in a row for the Pies.

Make that five in a row. Harvey Harrison has marked unguarded inside 50.

After trailing by 48 points early in the second term, the margin is now 16 points. The game has changed completely. The Cats were in control through their dominance of stoppage and their pressure, but they’ve dropped their intensity, and the Pies are capitalising.

They’re taking risks going through the corridor, and it’s paying off.

Beau McCreery kicked the final goal of the first half and the first goal of the second half. But he was very lucky the umpire did not call play on after he took that mark and then took a step there.

Harvey Harrison is going to sit forward from his wing to make Ollie Dempsey less keen to push forward. He kicks the goal – their fifth in a row – and the margin is just 16 points. The crowd is roaring. We have a game.

Geelong’s lead is down to 16 points midway through the third term – 9.4 (58) to 6.6 (42).

This is a real arm wrestle, with both teams wasting opportunities on goal. The Magpies are coming.

Both teams have wasted opportunities in this quarter.

Shannon Neale missed from 20 metres out on the run in the pocket, Ollie Dempsey’s set from shot didn’t make the distance, and Lachie Schultz fell over trying to gather a loose ball metres from goal. Had he picked it up, it would have been the easiest of goals.

Both sides yet to score a goal. The margin is 28 points.

Collingwood rallied late in that quarter – just as they did last week against Adelaide – to bring the margin back to 29 points, which gives them a chance.

That margin had stretched out to 49 points at one stage, but the Magpies trapped the ball forward with eight of the next nine inside 50s and eventually got a goal from Charlie West.

It was a good effort from the Magpies to lift their pressure midway through the quarter, and they looked a completely different team by the time Beau McCreery used his strength to kick a crumbing goal.

The Pies have lifted their intensity, and earned themselves another goal – this time to Beau McCreery.

They’re taking on the tackle from the Cats and challenging them on their physicality.

It was this time last week against Adelaide when they arrested the slide against Adelaide before running all over the Crows in the second half.

The margin had got out to 48 points early in the second term. The gap is now a manageable 29 points.

... and the answer to that is yes.

The Pies take the ball through the corridor from an intercept mark by Jack Crisp in their defensive 50.

Ed Allan found Angus Anderson streaming back towards goal. Anderson had no troubles converting from 30 metres out. The margin is back to 35 points, and the Pies fans have found their voice.

The Pies are taking risks with ball-in-hand now, and they’re paying off.

The Pies have started the long way back.

Charlie West has curled one through from a forward-50 stoppage for the Pies’ first of the quarter, and their first since the 21-minute mark of the opening term.

Can they get back-to-back goals now?

Collingwood 2.4 (16) – Geelong 9.3 (57)

Harry Perryman is out for the rest of the game with hamstring injury as the Magpies finally begin to win some territory.

The Pies thought they had scored a goal – but the umpire has ruled an illegal shepherd on the goal line. It’s cost Tim Membrey a much-needed major.

Charlie West could have done a bit more to disguise the block, but he’s a touch unlucky in that umpires tend to allow players to get away with more on the goal line.

The bad news for the Pies is they’re not making inroads into the lead, but they’ve at least stemmed the bleeding – for now.