With the Olympic spirit in full swing in Great Britain, the home country is swaggering it's way to a record haul of Gold in front of parochial local fans. Alas, despite also hosting it's own games, the major prize continues to elude the Bendigo Football Club at it's home base, the Queen Elizabeth Oval. Since adopting the moniker of the much-sought-after lustrous metal, Bendigo has not been able to record a single win on it's home patch. The pattern continued when it lost narrowly to Collingwood on Saturday afternoon, placing the chase for a podium finish - in this case a finals position - on a knife edge.

If it wasn't obvious at the time, hindsight soon showed that the first quarter was the defining period of the game. Bendigo opened well, with a host of young hopefuls getting early touches around the ball, but could not convert on the scoreboard. The home side did not play poorly, but Collingwood kicked the first two goals of the game. Worryingly, into a 2 or 3 goal wind. The tough Hal Hunter managed to post Bendigo's first major from a set shot and when Justin Maddern followed suit a few minutes later the game was getting back on even keel. Shortly after, as Cory Dell'Olio slotted Bendigo's third in rapid time, the scoreboard had the home side 21-15 in front and starting to do justice to the wind advantage they clearly possessed. However, what needed to be a continued extension of the lead stalled as Collingwood's forward line was proving to be a handful and they were able to get the final goal of the term. Bendigo clung to a one point lead at the first change, but the nagging thought of this correspondent was that the scoreboard - corrected for wind advantage, if you will - favoured the visitors by at least two goals.

The second term saw a coalescence of this nagging worry into on-field reality. Bendigo managed to scrap and stand up in the early stages of the quarter, but the tide was clearly flowing on the breeze. The floodgates opened in the latter stages as the Pies kicked four goals to one for the quarter. It could have been even worse, as evidenced by the 9 behinds also posted by the visitors. It must be said that in the absence of any genuine Essendon key defenders, the task against Collingwood's fleet of huge ruck/forwards was no easy matter. Captain Trent Shinners performed admirably on the likes of Jarrod Witts and John Ceglar - the scoreline would surely have been far worse without his presence - but a badly undersized Bendigo defence struggled to close down all of the options, and Jackson Paine in particular managed to cash in on some less-than-ideal match-ups all afternoon.The visitors controlled events in the middle of the field, and inevitably made that translate on the scoreboard, however valiant the defence. For Bendigo, positives emerged in the form of young wingman Jackson Merrett, who looked classy with his general disposal, and Michael Ross managed some dash and dare from defence. But such appearances were spasmodic and generally anchored in the defensive half. The problem was compounded by some of the forwards seemingly being slow on the uptake that they needed to venture further afield to present an option for defenders trying to clear into a stiffening breeze. Whether by instruction or not, the net result was an attempt to run the ball out, over-use of handballs and costly turnovers. When the siren drew a close on the first half, the locals trailed 4.7 to 7.12, in some ways having dodged a bullet but ultimately paying the cost for the first quarter under-performance.

The start of the second half saw the breeze shift to more across the ground, gusting into the pocket below the mining poppet-head and fluky by nature. Bendigo opened well, Brendan Lee starting to get his hands on the ball at the stoppages, but misses from Hunter and Jacob Thompson threatened to repeat the first quarter. Dean Putt marked and goaled to redress the issue somewhat, cutting the margin to 15 points. But a missed tackle at half forward granted Collingwood some breathing space again, and when Andrew Krakouer capped his return from ACL surgery with a precise set shot from the angle the lead was growing alarmingly. As if the Olympic gods had taken a set against the hosts, what appeared to be the final nail was driven in when a bouncing ball evaded two Bendigo defenders to land in the hands of Yagmore, who snapped neatly. A five goal deficit and the prospect of coming home into the wind did not bode well for the aim to break the home-ground hoodoo. Pleasingly, the players thought otherwise and increased pressure around the contest allowed Bendigo to effect a turnover at half back, the ball leap-frogging through half-forward to finish with an unmarked Thompson for a goal. Minutes later, Matt Little was on the end of a neat pass from Merrett and kicked truly. The margin read 72-54, and was just a meter from closing further when Lauchlan Dalgleish bombed the ball from long range, but the momentum looked to be favouring the trailing side. Said momentum evaporated in an instant,  however when Paine was awarded a free-kick 60 meters from goal and a somewhat, err, ""technical"" 50-metre penalty took him to the goal square. He followed up with his fifth of the day after a strong mark in the square, and when Rick Ladson missed a shot for the local team after the Three-quarter time siren, the Pies lead 12.12 to 7.14 and seemingly destined to deny Bendigo it's sought-after home Gold.

Bendigo coach, Hayden Skipworth, was surprisingly measured at the final change, calmly asking his players for an increased workrate early in the quarter. Several positional changes also occurred, as it turned out the key one being Dean Putt full time into the ruck. Lee, who had worked his way into the game during the third, started to feast on Putt's ruckwork, and the increasingly impressive Merrett provided the run through the lines. Collingwood missed two early chances, and Gold seized on the opening. Dello'lio kicked an important shot into the breeze. Lee snaffled the following clearance, and a perfectly weighted kick from Merrett found Maddern running into goal. The clouds had closed in and the day had become gloomy, but a spark of hope for the local fans had been lit. Merrett added to that hope with a shot from 45 metres, but the wind held the ball up and it fell agonisingly short on the goal line. Bendigo were well and truly up and about now though, and some tremendous forward pressure kept the ball locked at half forward, before a scrambled kick from Nick O'Brien to heavy congestion 30 metres out saw Thompson somehow emerge from the melee to snap an instinctive goal. 12 points. 16 minutes played. Game on.

Lee reinforced his impact with another quick clearance from Putt's ruckwork, but unfortunately Maddern couldn't hold on to the mark at half forward and the ball spilled out of bounds. Collingwood cleared the footy and several dangerous thrusts forward threatened to seal the game. But the local defence held up, and Merrett entered the fray with another decisive moment. Swooping onto the ball and streaming through half back, a lovely pass was fired in to Stroobants in the middle. Merrett took the return handball and speared the ball onto the chest of a leading Matt Little. Little found Ladson 20 from goal and he made no mistake to have the Gold within six points and more than five minutes left on the clock. The next few plays were frenetic, the ball transitioning between turnovers and stoppages, neither side able to post a goal, but both trading behinds. Unfortunately, coming from behind requires everything to go right. Few would argue that a turnover from a kick-in and resulting goal can be considered ""right"". Alan Didak was the lucky recipient, and extending the lead to two goals gave the visitors much sought-after respite.

Bendigo had one last gasp to keep the game alive, but Little didn't have a possible free-kick payed 40 metres out in a marking contest, and despite keeping the ball forward for most of the final two minutes were unable to get the quick goal required. The thirteen point loss, 13.17 to 11.16, bore a strange resemblance to the home loss against Sandringham two weeks prior. A fast finish unable to correct the evils of a poor opening. The positives on the day - a very promising outing for Merrett and cameo's from various others like Dalgleish and Ross - couldn't quite expunge the disappointment of a season teetering on the brink.

With a bye next week before taking on reigning premiers Port Melbourne, the push for finals hangs in the balance. Much will now hinge on player availability. The final round clash at QEO against Box Hill could very well determine whether the club proceed into September. It would also be a very good time to finally claim a Gold medal at one of its own home games.

My best players: Merrett,Thompson, Stroobants, Ross, Shinners.