Preliminary Final – Collingwood v GWS: Reasons to believe
It was the prelim. The Pies and the Giants. The Pies had been hot and had stormed into the finals. They were playing at home in front of a big, big crowd. The Giants had shown some good things at their best this year and some pretty poor things at their worst. They had limped into the finals. They had never won a final at the MCG. Lose this and they were gone. Win and they were playing for a flag.
The Giants had come a long way. They had been belted week in and out in their first few years. The Giants stadium was a lovely ground in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by redundant sporting stadia and endless roads that ended where they began. The Giants had a small but passionate group of supporters that were the the subject of ridicule from the AFL intelligentsia. There was a constant complaint that they were some fake franchise created for broadcast payments. A team made of gifts given by the AFL. A huge spend but not a real team. The commentators had made it clear. The Giants could not win. Collingwood had just fallen short last year and weren’t going to make the same mistake this year.
Eddie McGuire of course had got involved of course. He had described Western Sydney as the the land of the falafel and boasted how he was going to go and steal all of their best players. And so he tried. He attacked the Sydney teams for having a cost of living allowance and got the AFL to whittle it away. Collingwood had picked up Treloar, Hoskin-Elliot and Adams. And during the week, Toby Greene had been rubbed out for the game by a number of former Collingwood players. You could become a bit paranoid.
The game itself began as a dreary and sodden affair. While the Giants were less than a goal down at half time; they hardly inspired. Something sparked and the third quarter saw them rattle off five goals and another in the fourth. It seemed wrapped up. But good teams come back and so did the Pies. They cranked up and by the last few minutes of the last quarter there was three points in it and Collingwood were on the attack. It seemed wrapped up. But the defence held firm and the siren blew with the margin stuck at three points. A win best described with superlatives. A truly astounding game.
It looked like half of the Collingwood fans had left before the Giants fans had finished singing the song. Having said that, they do have one of the best songs in the league. As they finally did leave, you got the sense that they had a real team.
COLLINGWOOD: 2.0 3.2 3.5 7.10 (52)
GWS: 1.3 2.5 7.7 8.8 (56)
GOALS
Collingwood: Stephenson 2, Thomas 2, Reid, Elliott, Mayne
GWS: Cameron 3, Finlayson 2, Taranto, Williams, Daniels
BEST
Collingwood: Grundy, Pendlebury, Crisp, Maynard, Wills, Howe, Treloar
GWS: Williams, Taranto, Haynes
Umpires: Stevic, Stephens, Meredith
Official crowd: 77,828 at the MCG
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2GB’S ALAN JOED INTERVIEWED ADAM TOMLINSON ION HI TOP RATING SYDHEY BREAKFAST PROGRAM BEYRE THE INTEREVIEWED ADM TOMLINSON FRINM GWS YESYERDYA YOU CAN LISTEN TI THE IONTERVIRE VIA PODCAST ON 2gb.com