The things we loved about the Cats' VFL and AFL clashes with Collingwood on the weekend …

1. JORDAN MURDOCH'S GOAL OF THE YEAR CONTENDER
The young Cat was featured in the round five edition of Mighty Monday thanks to his brilliant smother in the dying minutes against Richmond. And he's back in our column this week thanks to his brilliant running goal in the 41-point win over Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night. Murdoch looked to have been sold into trouble by a wayward Steve Johnson handball, but he dodged and weaved around a couple of defenders before letting fly from 50m out. "That is the best goal he's ever kicked in the AFL," roared Channel 7's Bruce McAvaney. You're not wrong Bruce.

Showreel: Classy young Cats

2. NAKIA COCKATOO'S BRILLIANT SNAP
There were just over seven minutes left in Friday night's game, and the Magpies had narrowed the margin from 60 points to 23, when Steve Johnson received the ball around 60m out from the Cats' goal. Johnson sent a long kick to a pack of players inside 50. Collingwood's Nathan Brown sharked the crumb but was brilliantly tackled by Josh Caddy. The ball then fell to Nakia Cockatoo who brought the house down by snapping a superb left-foot goal – his first goal in AFL footy. His celebration was almost as good as the kick!

 

Nakia Cockatoo celebrates his brilliant left-foot snap (AFL Photos)

Watch Nakia Cockatoo's goal

Watch CatsTV's post-match interviews with Steve Johnson and Harry Taylor

3. MITCH DUNCAN'S MAGNIFICENT FORM
After playing in a range of positions during the early rounds, Duncan returned to the midfield against Richmond in round five and produced a dominant performance. He backed that up with another impressive showing against Collingwood, finishing with a game-high 38 possessions along with seven clearances and four inside 50s.

Read the match report from the win over Collingwood

4. JOSH COWAN'S ATTITUDE
The clash with the Magpies was Cowan's first AFL game since round 18, 2011. He looked up and about early, gathering four disposals in the first 10 minutes, but he then suffered a heartbreaking hamstring injury, which forced the Cats to sub him out of the game. Despite his misfortune, Cowan kept his chin up. He was out on the field congratulating his teammates after the final siren, and he will now put his head down and work towards getting back on the park as soon as possible.

Watch CatsTV's post-match interviews with Rhys Stanley and Josh Caddy, which features comments on Cowan

Watch Chris Scott's post-match press conference

5. PADRAIG LUCEY'S FORM UP FORWARD IN THE VFL
The big rookie-listed Irishman is the definition of a 'project player', but there's no doubt that he's improving by the week. Lucey demonstrated this by bagging four goals in the Cats' narrow VFL loss to Collingwood in Bendigo on Saturday night.

Check out the details of our VFL win