Round 8 – Collingwood v Hawthorn: A draw – it’s like kissing your sister!
Round 8
Collingwood v Hawthorn
Thursday 30 April 2026
MCG
A DRAW – IT’S LIKE KISSING YOUR SISTER!
There are few things in the AFL more emotionally confusing than a draw. It’s like being told your favourite band is coming back on stage for an encore only to have the lights come on and security ushers you out. No closure, no crescendo and for last night’s 93 apiece thriller between the Pies and the Hawks a collective shrug from 80,000 people at the MCG wondering whether to cheer, cry, or check the Uber app before the surge pricing kicks in.
The tension was thicker than a February pre-season hamstring on Thursday night when Darcy Moore dropped a mark he would normally have taken, followed up with an errant tackle and then after the siren Dylan Moore calmly slotted the equaliser. Cue pandemonium followed immediately by confusion. The fans roared, the players gestured, the commentators searched for meaning, and the AFL rulebook quietly whispered, “That’ll do.” That’ll do? That’s like cooking a five-course meal and serving dessert with no spoon.
The first draw in the VFL took place in Round 7 in 1897 when Fitzroy and South Melbourne were deadlocked on 5.13 (43) apiece. Fast forward to 1909 University and Collingwood played an early 20th century draw both booting 5.9 (39). Some of the more recent memorable famous drawn home and away games featured the very first Anzac Day clash in Round 4 1995 between Collingwood and Essendon, the Round 2 1993 high scoring thriller often cited as one of the best home and away matches of all time between Essendon and Carlton who together slammed on 39 goals, the Round 5 2006 St Kilda v Fremantle clash and in 2008 the Round 6 North v Sydney tight defensive struggle that went down to the wire.
Post match in the stands and on talkback radio the following day I reflected on the plight of the Collingwood and Hawthorn fans. They invested four quarters of emotional capital, heart rate fluctuations, umpire abuse, half a meat pie, and at least three ‘that’s holding the ball!’ What do you get? A statistical compromise. No winner, no loser, just a draw that feels like kissing your sister as the old cliché goes, though hopefully with the absence of an ARC review. Hawk and Pie fans didn’t walk away satisfied on Thursday night. They walked away confused, like they’ve just watched the first half of a movie and been told the second half will be released sometime next week or not at all.
It’s no better for players and coaches. Imagine the team meeting post-match. “Well done boys, we didn’t win but we didn’t lose either.” Inspiring stuff. Craig McRae referenced cup half full. Sam Mitchell just didn’t like it. Coaches, who spend all week devising intricate game plans involving stoppage structures, defensive structures, transition lanes, and GPS are reduced to explaining why the ultimate outcome was inconclusive. It’s the sporting equivalent of submitting a university thesis and getting a note back saying, “Interesting—no mark awarded.”
Historically, the AFL has flirted with this ambiguity like a bad habit. The 1977 VFL Grand Final remains the gold standard of unresolved drama. North Melbourne and Collingwood deadlocked, only to be dragged back a week later for a replay following a half Doug Wade torpedo and half Peter Hudson flat punt wobbled through off the boot of Twiggy Dunne to square the match up. Imagine telling modern fans, accustomed to instant gratification and same-day delivery, that they need to come back next Saturday to find out who won. It’s not a Grand Final; it’s a Netflix cliffhanger. And the 2010 AFL Grand Final; another draw, another replay, and another week of media panels asking whether anyone actually won the first game or if it was all just a very elaborate rehearsal.
The AFL, in a rare moment of clarity, has introduced extra time for the Grand Final. Sensible. Logical. Almost revolutionary. But here’s the kicker: in home-and-away games where four premiership points can determine ladder positions, finals qualification, and the difference between a Mad Monday in September or a trip to Bali in August we’re still content with a draw. Four points are the currency of the realm, yet in the most dramatic circumstances, we split the bill like awkward dinner guests.
And with the Wildcard in (or is it the top 10) and the pending introduction of Tassie four points wont just be valuable they will be like oxygen. Without them, your season will slowly suffocate.
So, let’s call it what it is: a contradiction wrapped in tradition. If the AFL acknowledges that a premiership must be decided on the day, then surely the same principle applies when the stakes while not ultimate are still significant. Fans deserve a finish. Players deserve a result. Coaches deserve something more definitive than a philosophical debate. And the game itself deserves to end not with a shrug, but with a roar.
COLLINGWOOD 5.0 7.3 12.3 15.3 (93)
HAWTHORN 1.7 5.10 11.11 13.15 (93)
GOALS
Collingwood: Elliott 3, De Goey 2, Hayes 2, Schultz, Anderson, Maynard, Buller, McStay, Steene, N.Daicos
Hawthorn: Macdonald 3, Watson 2, Lewis 2, D’Ambrosio, Ginnivan, Reeves, Newcombe, Dear
BEST
Collingwood: Houston, N.Daicos, Maynard, Crisp, De Goey, J.Daicos
Hawthorn: Newcombe, Macdonald, Mackenzie, Amon, Ginnivan, Watson
INJURIES
Collingwood: Perryman (hamstring), Cameron (ankle), Sidebottom (hand)
Hawthorn: Sicily (ankle)
Crowd: 76,632 at the MCG
To read other Round 8 match reports click HERE
Read more from Richard Griffiths HERE
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No, no a thousand times no. Do not give the Cardinals another excuse to muck up the season. I am still mourning the loss of the grand final draw, even though the replay wasn’t a patch on the first grand final. The 2 grand final draws were the best games ever, and gave the eventual losing teams something to hang their hat on.
Draws have had some classic results, umpire Nichols complete w@nk about not handing the ball back properly, leading to the draw between Fremantle and Collingwood in 2024, the first Anzac day game where the two teams couldn’t be separated, Footscray’s draw in 1976 giving them just enough points to get a finals berth. If you are not good enough to win the game outright, you do not deserve a handout from the Cardinals in the form of extra time. It hasn’t done English soccer any harm.
Ta Richard, spot on a draw doesn’t fit into the standardization of what we should expect in sport, actually all forms of entertainment. The actual contest, event is secondary, to an ‘exciting finish’: who can dispute that?
I wonder about draws I’ve attended such as; Footscray V Carlton 1974, Footscray V St. Kilda 1977, Essendon V Geelong 1987, should the AFL go through the record books, toss a coin and determine a winner from those matches? Maybe in 2027 the 1974 Carlton V Footscray match is recorded as a Carlton win, then in 2028 it reads as a Footscray win. How good would that be for the footy consumer?
So moving forward the AFL can propose a roster for future draws. The next draw can be next score wins, the following one, next goal wins, the one after 5 minutes at each end, then repeat the process. Every consumer gets a decision.
Then we reach the Wildcard final 10 round: it only gets better. Surely we should be happy moving on from what has worked for well over a century into the standardised world of non stop instant gratification. Let’s not worry about the contest, event, all that matters is the finish that is appealing, not open to question, and dare I say it, a huge money spinner for those overseeing it.
Glen!
It’s a no from me also. No team should get extra time to improve their position. The logical extension of your argument is to give other teams extra time as well. What about another 5 minutes for the 1989 GF? I think the Rd 1 Carlton Richmond game needed another 5 for Richmond to win. What about if any team is 94-99 points ahead at the final siren they get an extra 5 minutes to get a 100 point victory. All just as stupid as giving 2 teams extra time to improve their position and their percentage, admittedly miniscule but still possibly definitive at end of year. Game ends when the siren rings. There’s been dead heats in horse racing, Olympic swimming. A tie is a legitimate result. Some of the most exciting test cricket matches end in draws. Leave it there.
Nuh, not at all. This is a discussion fabricated by the noise of the spoilt I want it now crowd. If neither team can’t win given 120 minutes then they need to improve how they play the game not change the rules. Also, using back of envelope math, if over 130 years of VFL/AFL there has been just over one draw per year, it doesn’t appear to be a “problem”. I suggest the AFL has 10,000 times bigger issues to deal with. A couple of the top of my head are ARC, ambiguity of the rules, and calling the AFL an Australian game yet even after 30 years of that pretense everything is still Victoria-centric (the history, the awards, the teams, the commentators). So, nyh, even though my team was involved in this latest draw, that is the best the Hawks deserved. They didn’t lose and the certainly don’t deserve 4 points for playing an extra 10 mins. Cheers