By Peter Ryan
It was as tense and tough as everyone expected, a football match produced and directed by Collingwood coach Craig McRae, the man who earned his nickname ‘Fly’ from movie character Marty McFly, and found a way to produce thriller after thriller in 2022.
This was the most thrilling of all, a heartbreaker that left Collingwood fans holding their heads in shock before melting in tears and disbelief. It was a feeling Magpie fans know too well, young, or old, a Daicos or a Moore, the crushing weight of reality that befalls them all too regularly.
On this night the Magpies played with dare and desperation in front of 45,000 foes and friends until the final credits rolled when the Swan who loves the spotlight most, Tom Papley, put an unlikely premiership just beyond Collingwood when he marked and kicked a goal 16 minutes into the final quarter of the preliminary.
Jack Ginnivan and Nick Daicos.Credit:AFL Photos / Getty Images
At that point Collingwood were surging having somehow stayed upright like Monty Python’s Black Knight character as the Swans attempted to kill them off but that goal put them 20 points up, a bridge too far.
Again they came with goals to Brody Mihocek, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Steele Sidebottom to draw the margin back to under a goal and the ball was rushed through the Magpies’ goal with three seconds remaining, to finally end the charge one point short.
It was frenetic and crazy and fitting of a season that provided more thrills for Collingwood fans than might an acrobat with a death wish.
The moments the Magpies will regret were obvious with champion midfielder Scott Pendlebury, who was brilliant all night, sure to rue his decision to handball to John Noble rather than kick long to Mihocek, a call that opened the door for Papley.
They will regret the opening when they stalled on the starting line and the Swans jumped them with the opening four goals of the match to create a lead they never lost.
The next sign they were wobbling on the tightrope they had walked all season came 26 minutes into the second quarter.
Combative All-Australian defender Brayden Maynard gave away a free kick to equally pugnacious forward Papley just outside the forward 50.
But as the ball was tapped away and a word of advice hit the umpire’s ear, Papley received a 50-metre penalty which allowed him to kick a certain goal that stretched the lead back to 25 points.
Brayden Maynard and Tom Papley.Credit:AFL Photos / Getty Images)
Maynard ran from the ground where he received counsel as he walked the boundary with club psychologist Jacqui Louder.
As McRae’s windscreen wipers flung from side to side at speed, the Magpies found it harder and harder to ignore what was happening on the scoreboard. The Swans had repelled a Collingwood surge and turned an 11-point lead back outside 20 points.
Even Collingwood’s Houdini-like qualities could not escape Sydney’s chains this time, the two teams they did not overcome in 2022, the Swans and Geelong, ultimately blocking the Magpies’ passage to a grand final.
It was impossible to find fault with the Magpies’ effort, even the impetuous yet loved Maynard who was not having his greatest night, perhaps battling an adductor, was wholehearted as they attempted to follow skipper Pendlebury’s lead and find a path to victory when none seemed to exist.
Craig McRae.Credit:AFL Photos / Getty Images
It was Pendlebury and Collingwood’s accuracy which brought the Magpies back into the game after the Swans settled local nerves when they kicked the first four goals, one of them importantly coming from Ryan Clarke who once again had the job of quelling the precocious Nick Daicos.
They will rue the fact Collingwood could not defend inside 50s as well as a final demands as they switched their match-ups so regularly they confused themselves with multiple Magpies drawn to aerial contests while multiple Swans crumbed goals.
Darcy Moore was outstanding, as he had been throughout the finals, but when a switch kick to Jeremy Howe hovered above the high-flier like a frisbee, the Swans’ Justin McInerney pounced to run into an open goal and roost the ball high into the Victor Trumper Stand it should have signalled the end.
But such is this team’s spirit the Magpies came again, with Moore leading the way to keep coming in one of the best seasons in the Magpies’ storied history, just short but no less memorable.
Unfortunately, the margin stayed just out-of-reach as it became clear the Swans were the only team with the potential to win the Holy Grail as the siren sounded and McRae’s directorial duties ended in a blaze.
