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The day began with an embrace between the Moores, father and son, Collingwood captains, totems of their generations, as the teams broke from the national anthem. It finished that way hours later on the podium, but with a premiership cup between them, the outcome of a classic grand final and paper-thin margin of victory over Brisbane.<\/p>\n
As well as thanking the omni-loud Magpie army, Darcy Moore made a point of thanking the past players from all eras. The symbolism was rich. On that stage, the Collingwood bloodline flowed from an era when they were cursed in the grand finals to a time when they might prove to be blessed.<\/p>\n
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Collingwood captain Darcy Moore and coach Craig McRae in the emotional moments after the final siren.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n New age coach Craig McRae has that mark about him. When he woke on Saturday morning, he had neither a premiership as senior coach nor a third child. By 5pm, he had both, and was there for both deliveries. Truly, times have changed.<\/p>\n There was more symbolism in the identity of the Norm Smith medallist, the electrifying Bobby Hill, who is Indigenous. Collingwood began to change from the handing down of the Do Better<\/em> report in 2021.<\/p>\n It was a rupture in its time and the immediate aftermath was far from smooth, but it was also a marker on the journey to this premiership. Hill\u2019s dazzling performance, reminiscent of Cyril Rioli\u2019s for Hawthorn in the 2015 grand final, felt like the close of a chapter. It was his very own Yes vote.<\/p>\n This is a different Collingwood, with a different coach and captain, a different dispensation, a different vibe, and at last it produced a different outcome. As Collingwood grand finals go, this was against the grain, but they will prefer to think of it as the day history turned.<\/p>\n Darcy Moore hugs his dad Peter as he prepares to accept the premiership cup.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Not that this premiership was a cakewalk for the Pies; it never is. Goals coolly taken despite tired legs from Jordan de Goey and Steele Sidebottom in time-on looked to have brought them breathing space on a breathless afternoon, but Joe Daniher\u2019s late snap turned the finish into, well, a typical Collingwood finish. Not until the last 30 seconds could Collingwood fans dare to pinch themselves.<\/p>\n It was apt that the Magpies won by less than a goal; it has been their motif in the McRae mini-era. They\u2019ve done it so often now that it has to be admitted that it is not a freak. The biggest winning margin across their three finals was seven points. Somehow, this will make the spoils sweeter.<\/p>\n Reinvented as they are, the latter-day Magpies won\u2019t claim that it was all their own work, on the field or off. It is easy to overlook that the Magpies have played in more grand finals this century than any other team. It\u2019s just that they\u2019ve been jinxed in them.<\/p>\n Their two premierships have been widely spaced. Scott Pendlebury is Collingwood\u2019s games recordholder and longest-serving captain, but the span of his captaincy reign sat between them. As of Saturday, he also is the most watched player in VFL\/AFL history; more than 100,000 more this day makes nearly 20 million have borne witness to what some think is the greatest Collingwood career of all.<\/p>\n There is a particular grand-final-morning feeling articulated years ago by Leigh Matthews. It is part excitement, part dread, deriving from the certainty that the day can end only in one of two diametrically opposed outcomes, triumph or despair. Matthews was an unemotional player and a clinical coach and commentator, but even he admitted during the week that he found himself on irrational edge approaching the grand final.<\/p>\n It\u2019s doubly intense for Collingwood people because of their love-hate relationship with the occasion. One old Collingwood player said during the week that he would rather lose the preliminary final than the grand final. Now all such fatalistic thoughts and contemplations can be locked up.<\/p>\n But when you lug a history like Collingwood\u2019s into a grand final, everything becomes an omen \u2013 or a portent. Ancient rockers KISS were a study in black-and-white, but they\u2019ve been that for decades. Fortunately for all concerned, they were not the kiss of death this day.<\/p>\n The loss of key players Taylor Adams and Dan McStay pre-match boded ill, and was compounded by the concussion that forced underestimated defender Nathan Murphy out of the game early. His tears flowed freely; Collingwood\u2019s nerves jangled.<\/p>\n Inexplicably, the DJ played John Denver\u2019s Country Roads at quarter-time and the Brisbane crowd joined in. Since it is Charlie Cameron\u2019s signature tune, this felt like a conspiracy. Cameron had not touched the ball in the first quarter, but within 90 seconds of the re-start had kicked one goal and made another.<\/p>\n But post-siren goals for de Goey and Jack Crisp in the first two quarters signalled hope that this indeed would be the day when the footy gods smiled on them. So they did.<\/p>\n All the while, a brilliant grand final was unfolding between the two best teams of the season, fairly met, replete with a dozen exceptional goals and a vintage screamer from the everywhere man Hill.<\/p>\n Collingwood stole a two-goal lead at the start, Brisbane turned that into a 13-point lead in the second quarter, but thereafter the margin was rarely in double figures.<\/p>\n Cameos from Zac Bailey in the first quarter and Cameron is the second made the match fizz.<\/p>\n The game slowed in the second half as the unseasonably hot day took its toll, but that served only to add to the tension.<\/p>\n When the match had to be won and then saved in the last quarter, the Magpies\u2019 best players all stood up: de Goey, Nick Daicos, and the timeless, ageless Pendlebury.<\/p>\n Daniher\u2019s goal left just enough time for a new Wayne Harmes to pop up like Banquo\u2019s ghost, but these modern Magpies proved themselves to be nerveless exorcists.<\/p>\n At the final siren, the jubilation on both sides of the fence was unrestrained. Once the presentations were done, though, the Magpies made a long, tired \u2013 albeit immensely satisfied lap of honour.<\/p>\n Doubtlessly it was the day taking its toll, but metaphorically, it might have been the effort it took to stave off not only the gallant Lions, but to shrug from their back the biggest monkey in footy.<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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