Collingwood's Real test in 2010 - The Saints and the Cats | Thebigtip

Collingwood has braved the 2010 season and seems to have passed many of their tests with flying colours. They've defeated the Western Bulldogs, the Hawks, The Blues and comfortably put away the red hot Dockers at Subiaco.

But Collingwood's real test, and the only one that matters, will be in Round 16 and Round 19 when they take on the two benchmarks of the competition in St Kilda and Geelong.

Collingwood has been a great story in 2010, taking their side of young players and dominating for the majority of the season. But if Collingwood can't learn to beat St Kilda and Geelong, all their effort this season will count for naught.

Everyone knows that Geelong and/or St Kilda will be in the Grand Final this year. Much like we saw in the 2009 season, Collingwood played a brand of football that many people thought would take them all the way. And many people are on the Collingwood bandwagon this year thinking the Pies will be the premiers, ending their 20 year drought. BUT... Collingwood still haven't been able to beat the Saints or Cats.

We've seen that despite Nick Riewoldt being injured the saints have been able to maintain their good form. Despite some initial teething problems where they dropped games to Port and the Dons, the Saints have bounced back from their poor form to become an even better side with players likes Goddard, Milne and Gilbert stepping up to the plate. Add that to their already unstoppable midfield of Hayes, Dal Santo and Montagna, and the no.1 tagger in the league in Clint Jones, the Saints became the premiership favourites after keeping the Cats goalless in the second half and taking their scalp in the Round 14 Blockbuster.

When Collingwood met the Saints in Round 3, it looked like the Pies were in with a chance. But the St Kilda structures, despite losing Riewoldt, held up, and in the end the Saints kicked away to win the game in the final quarter. Collingwood was unable to beat the Saints in last years Prelim's and also failed to beat them in Round 7 of last year. Add that to this years tally and the Saints have beaten the Pies every time in the last two years. But it's not that they've won that's disturbing, it's that they've seemingly won comfortably. Although Collingwood have put up a good fight, they haven't been able to find what it takes to put the Saints away. It always seems like the Saints are on top of the game and that Collingwood are fighting to stay in it, rather than win it.

And if Collingwood's struggle to beat the Saints isn't bad enough, their recent record against the Cats is worse. Collingwood were kept goalless in the final quarter by the cats in their Round 9 clash this year. Although inaccurate kicking always contributes to Collingwoods losses, there was something more that contributed to this loss. It was as though Geelong weren't playing until half way through the third quarter, and when they decided to turn on the guns, they easily blazed away. In last years semi, Geelong thrashed the Pies. Collingwood was helpless against the Geelong midfield, who tore Collingwood defensive structures to shreds.