Box Hill was overrun by a fast-finishing Collingwood in the VFL on Saturday.

With scores tied late in the final term, Collingwood midfielder Dayne Beams got his eighth clearance and kicked the match-winning when he snapped amongst heavy traffic.

Despite the loss, Box Hill coach Damian Carroll wasn’t disappointed in his side’s effort.

“Today was as good a performance as we’ve played all year. We can’t beat ourselves up about a loss, we were ordinary last week, this week we played with a lot of spirit and we didn’t get the result but we tried to do the right thing.” 

Box Hill went into quarter time with a four-point lead thanks to a sneaky Mitch O’Donnell intercept mark and goal just before the siren. They built on their lead with an impressive second quarter where they managed to hold Collingwood to a solitary goal while they added 3.2 to take the largest lead of the game into half time. 

It was in the second quarter where Box Hill looked most like the team that recently won seven games in a row. They provided stifling pressure, which enabled them to force Collingwood into creating turnovers and capitalised on the Magpies’ errors.

The Collingwood midfield began to exert their dominance in the second half and control possession. It ended up being the difference with the top five ball-winners on the ground at the end of the day wearing black and white.

“The bigger bodied midfielders from Collingwood like Beams and [Kyle] Martin are pretty hard to stop,” said Carroll.

“They had a strong side and certainly worked us over there [in the midfield] as well.”

Despite a lacklustre second half Box Hill almost managed to snatch a win when Xavier Murphy kicked a goal to draw level at the 18-minute mark of the fourth term before Beams closed the door on an upset.

The loss didn’t drop Box Hill any further down the ladder, however it created a gap between them and the ladder leaders. It also brought Collingwood on equal points with the Hawks, reigniting the race for top four.

Carroll is aware just how tight things are within the top eight but is glad he doesn’t have to rely on other results to decide Box Hill’s future:

“We still have a lot to be excited about over the back half of the year if we get ourselves together over the next couple of weeks to make a final assault. We’ve just got to get back on the winner’s list when we play the Blues and hopefully things will start to fall into place.”

Final score
Box Hill 4.5 7.7 8.9 11.14 (80)
Collingwood 3.7 4.7 9.11 12.15 (87)

Goals: L. Tobin 2, X. Murphy, D. Wanganeen, T. O''Brien, L. Lowden, W. Johnson, M. Lock, S. Grimley, B. Harvey, M. O''Donnell
Best: J. Kelly, A. Litherland, S. Iles, M. O''Donnell, L. Tobin, K. Cheney

Hawthorn listed players

34. Jordan Kelly

Stats: 20 disposals, 4 marks, 5 inside 50s
Not sure you’d want the ball in anyone else’s hands when heading inside 50. He moved well through the centre of the ground and got a lot of his ball on the run. Was the most influential Box Hill player in the final term and probably the game. 

35. Sam Grimley
Stats: 6 disposals, 11 hitouts, 1 goal

Spent a bit of time on Lachie Keeffe who is an AFL quality defender and managed to kick Box Hill’s first goal with a beautiful snap from 40. He was pretty quiet apart from that and spent more time away from goal sharing the ruck duties until the last quarter where he looked threatening but wasn’t able to convert a couple of opportunities.

40. Tim O’Brien

Stats: 9 disposals, 5 tackles, 1 goal
Uses the ball beautifully whether it’s a set shot or he is spotting a teammate up inside 50. However, today the most impressive aspect of his game was his willingness to chase and provide pressure with plenty of second and third efforts.

46. Derick Wanganeen

Stats: 12 disposals, 4 tackles, 1 goal 3
His 12-disposal game this week was much better than this 12-disposal game last week. Managed to find space several times where there was none, provided the biggest highlight of the match when he dodged and weaved his way through the centre of the ground to gave Harvey a shot at an open goal.

61. Angus Litherland

Stats: 9 kicks, 9 handballs, 5 rebound 50s
Spent some time on Goldsack and Mooney down back providing good rebound. He finished the game strongly and along with Kelly was one of the best in the last quarter when the game was there to be won.

63. Kyle Cheney
Stats: 15 disposals, 7 marks, 7 rebound 50s
Lost count of the amount of times he chopped off a Collingwood attack. Spent most of his time playing as the loose man in defence and was very effective in that role. He also stepped up and shut down Jackson Paine when he spent some minutes next to the Pies’ forward.

65. Will Langford

Stats: 15 disposals, 8 tackles, 6 clearances
Wasted no time getting right back into the gritty stuff after he travelling with Hawthorn last week. Harassed and generally made a nuisance of himself to any Collingwood midfielder unlucky enough to be in his vicinity. Third in clearances and tackles for the team.

70. Luke Lowden

Stats: 15 disposals, 36 hitouts, 1 goal
Was pretty good all day particularly at one point where he gathered the ball on the run as cleanly as someone half his size would. Another one who stepped up in the fourth quarter when he kicked a goal then followed it up by taking a pivotal contested mark against Pies big-man Brodie Grundy.