While Cats are now primed for flag assault, Collingwood’s journey just doesn’t seem finished

It was another finals epic. And another Collingwood close one. Of course it was. How could we have expected anything different this amazing season?

The only difference this time for the Magpies was the most painful one, a record which now reads 13 games decided by 11 points or less, but still “just” 11 wins from all those close shaves.

The popular narrative will be that Collingwood’s luck finally ran out when it was most required. But that will be wrong and unjust to both the victor and the vanquished.

2dRohan Connolly

16hAAP

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The Magpies’ achievements this season have been about far more than luck. And surely, even in defeat, their efforts in this superb game confirmed that.

They were enterprising early, they were bold throughout, they were resilient when Geelong’s edge in talent and experience on at least a couple of occasions threatened to overwhelm them.

Collingwood has been one of the best-starting teams in the competition this sesason, Geelong one of the tardiest, an imbalance perfectly reflected in the opening to this game.

The Pies got their hands to the footy early and often at the start, the Daicos brothers with 17 disposals between them in the first quarter alone, Jordan De Goey just as busy.

But it wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard until almost time-on, the Pies’ lightning quick transition from a Jeremy Cameron “poster” ending in a goal to Daicos J. and Collingwood now 19 points to the good.

Collingwood leave the field after falling short of a home preliminary final. Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Geelong wouldn’t panic, though, and when Cameron found his range only a minute or two later, for all the Pies’ dominance, they only led by 13 points.

It was the Cats who had the greater scope for improvement when the second term commenced, and boy, was the improvement realised.

Geelong’s pressure went through the roof in the second term, the Cats almost doubling Collingwood for contested ball in that quarter alone, more of their midfield contingent making their presence felt to capitalise on the forced fumbles, spills and turnovers, Max Holmes, Brad Close and Isaac Smith particularly dangerous.

And now the goals did come. Tom Hawkins got Geelong closer, Gary Rohan, having a welcome good September game, reduced the gap to just three points, and a shot on the run from Close put the Cats in front.

After a fast Collingwood start, the tables had turned. But we already knew the Pies don’t know how to quit. And again, like so many weeks in this amazing season for them, they didn’t.

They’d been dominated for an entire quarter, but Will Hoskin-Elliott’s goal after the siren was enough to regain them the lead. And as his teammates gathered tightly as they returned to the rooms, you knew it was “game on” once again.

Tyson Stengle celebrates Geelong’s win with Tom Hawkins. Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

And so it remained. Throughout five second-half lead changes, as one side then the other had their little mini-surges, the only query each time the extent to which the Cats or Pies could make it count in ultimately the only forum that really mattered.

Any number of players on the ground could have ended up the hero. For much of the last quarter, that man seemed destined to be De Goey.

He’d already been pivotal, but his first goal of the last quarter gave Collingwood a two-goal lead — its biggest advantage since the first term — while his second, with under five minutes remaining, restored Collingwood’s lead for the last time.

It might have been Tom Atkins, who had a dozen disposals and won four clearances in that frantic, gripping final term. Or the ageless warrior Joel Selwood, who won eight.

Perhaps it was Rohan, whose underwhelming finals performances have long been the stuff of social media derision, but who was “on” in this one from the word go, and saved his best for last – his huge grab and long bomb for a third goal from 55 metres gave Geelong the lead once more with under four minutes left.

Jack Crisp levelled the scores and extra time looked likely. Josh Daicos, too, prolific all game, might have been that guy, but his hurried snap sailed out on the full.

It was the tireless running of young Holmes which finally got the Cats over the line, the just-turned 20-year-old latching on to a handball from Rohan to tear into an open goal and give Geelong a six-point lead with just over a minute remaining.

The 80 subsequent seconds in which the Cats ran down the clock may well be the moments which help secure Geelong’s 10th premiership.

Who knows what inner demons might have plagued even this super version of Geelonh had the football’s finals gods not smiled upon them with a bounce of the ball here and a shot on target there in this one?

The Cats couldn’t be better placed now to finally deliver the silverware for which a whole club has waited patiently since 2011.

But, for that matter, so is Collingwood well-placed, albeit with different objectives.

The rise of a team which finished second to last in 2021 and was on Saturday only a kick away from a preliminary final appearance the very next season is some sort of story.

They’re game, these Pies. And who’d confidently attest they don’t still have a chapter or two left to write in the ripping yarn that has been their 2022.