Round 10 – Sydney v Collingwood: PENDLES! No … Wait …
Round 10
Sydney V Collingwood
Friday 15 May 2026
SCG, Gadigal
sarcasm
noun
“she didn’t like the note of sarcasm in his voice”
Pies v Swans! What a game! Collingwood, spot in the 8 on the line, could make or break their entire finals campaign… ONE goal short! One kick! If only they had another quality midfielder playing! Just one! Someone who is not injured, and can make it look like time has stopped when they have the ball. And almost always kicks a goal when it counts.
If only!
If only they had that bit more experience out there. Someone who’d played a lot of games. If only they had a bit more leadership, especially with Darcy Moore out. Someone cool in a crisis. Someone who never, ever panics.
Thank the heavens they didn’t put PR in front of team success. Flash and shallow in front of genuine love of the game. Thank the skies above they didn’t break the very first rule of footy!
The first!
The one they teach you above all else: the team comes before the individual.
Collingwood know that, surely. They’re working class. That’s in their DNA! What the club represents.
Thank FUCK they didn’t tarnish the grandest of achievements of one of the most likeable champions footy has ever seen by putting hoopala ahead of the spirit of the game. I’m glad the powers that be at Pieland know how soft and pathetic that would look.
That our great game revolves around the awkward bounce of an oval ball, and milestones fall wherever they may.
I understand some players are afforded the luxury of not playing interstate, as if being cradled to milestones, but not in the Wood! There they know Sydney is so close I’ve done longer farts than the flight up. All hands on deck, boys! This is a MUST win! Shirk no excuses! Take no prisoners! All for the team! The mighty Pies!
Imagine being fit, good to go, knowing you’re worth several goals, watching your teammates fight for blood and glory and fall just one kick short.
Fancy potentially, hopefully, missing out on FINALS, for a club’s vanity.
And cash.
Not the Pies. They’re already the richest club in the League. They wouldn’t be as dumb as that.
I’ll speak about the rise and rise of Grundy later. Maybe even do another match report. For now, I’m just peachy happy that the Pies put the team before the individual, and in doing so, gave the individual the genuine, unmanufactured moment he deserved.
And didn‘t taint his legacy one bit.
SYDNEY 1.4 3.6 9.12 11.15 (81)
COLLINGWOOD 5.2 6.9 8.12 10.15 (75)
GOALS
Sydney: McDonald 2, Papley 2, Grundy, Curnow, Serong, Blakey, McInerney, Warner, Heeney
Collingwood: N.Daicos 2, Long, West, Schultz, Anderson, McStay, Hayes, Steele, Elliott
BEST
Sydney: Grundy, Blakey, Heeney, McInerney, McCartin
Collingwood: N.Daicos, Quaynor, De Goey, Houston, Maynard,
INJURIES
Sydney: Nil
Collingwood: Steene (knee)
LATE CHANGES
Sydney: Nil
Collingwood: Nil
Crowd: 40,627 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Round 10 match reports can be read Here.
More from Matt Zurbo HERE.
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