At the start of the 2018 year, very few people would've put down Collingwood and West Coast as the two Grand Finalists at the end of the year. I was no exception to this as I critically underestimated both sides. At the start of the year, I had Collingwood to finish 12th and West Coast to finish 13th. I didn't think the Eagles would thrive without Priddis and Mitchell in the middle and there were question marks about Nic Naitanui coming back from injury and with the Pies, I was thinking about another unfulfilled year with Nathan Buckley at the helm.
Since Buckley came into the side as coach, the Pies regressed each year, ultimately missing Finals in 2014 all the way up to last year. It was a puzzling thing because the Pies have had the talent to be a formidable side over the past few years, but they just couldn't get it together for one reason or another. Then, it was made all the more skeptical when Nathan Buckley got a two-year contract extension for finishing 13th last year, when it looked like he had done absolutely very little.
I believed that they would be competitive at least, but not competitive enough to mix it with the top teams. I was proven wrong by both sides. West Coast have been one of the two top teams all season long, Collingwood dismantled the other top-two side on Friday night in what was billed as one of the biggest Preliminary Final matches of all time.
I had the pleasure of making my way to the MCG this past Friday night, expecting an epic contest between the reigning premiers Richmond and a Collingwood side that finished in 3rd, behind both the Tigers and the Eagles. Instead, the 94,000-plus crowd expected something that not a lot of people had predicted – a Collingwood side that was absolutely clinical, and had the game won by half-time.
Sure, the Tigers had found themselves to within 21 points early in the last quarter, but the Pies held their nerve and Richmond never looked a serious threat with all their constant turnovers and rushed kicks throughout the night. Collingwood applied superb pressure, showed magnificent defence and weaved, ran through and carved up any and every Tiger that was standing in their way.
As I was watching this all unfold before my very eyes, with every Mason Cox grab, with every Steele Sidebottom disposal and every Jordan De Goey goal, something dawned upon me with the 22 in this Collingwood side. It was that everyone out there, at one time this year or another in the past, been doubted or counted out. I'm not afraid to admit it, but even I've had negative thoughts about a number of these players over the past few years. But so have a number of experts in the media.
David King, an expert analyst on Fox Footy and a writer in the Herald Sun, claimed at one stage this year that Carlton were closer to a flag than the Pies – Collingwood were 0-2 at that stage, but even then, claiming that the Pies were further away than Carlton is a very ambitious statement. The bottom line is that Collingwood have made believers out of a lot of people, and from the coach and captain down to the 22nd picked player on Friday night, there have been many doubts about this side that have been proven wrong.
Continuing on with Buckley, there were many puzzled at the decision by Collingwood to keep him on for an extra two years, but in hindsight now, that was a fantastic move, and the players have been open about standing by their coach. The fact that the Pies weren't getting the results probably meant that Buckley was facing an incredible amount of heat, but fair play to him, he's handled it extremely well.
Their captain, Scott Pendlebury has been a magnificent player for the Pies for well over a decade, but only as recent as March this year, were people beginning to doubt him. Mike Sheahan has been one of the AFL's best journalists for so long now, but believed that Pendlebury wasn't an 'A-Grader' anymore. He's 31 next January, but he's been a picture of consistency for so long. His composure, skills and ability to weave through traffic are still as good now as it was when Collingwood were premiers in 2010.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There have been numerous criticisms about their on-ball brigade, despite it being a very talented one at that. I had my beliefs that Taylor Adams was too hot-headed and at times looked more interested in taking out players that winning the contested ball. Adam Treloar made the statement that Collingwood had a better list than Richmond when he arrived at the end of 2015, the rest as they say is history.
Sheahan said both men were susceptible to butchering the footy, but both have proven to be valuable acquisitions since they arrived from the GWS Giants. Adams is a bloody good contested ball winner and Treloar is a great running player and a pretty decent kick at goal on the run. Another ex-Giant, Will Hoskin-Elliott has had injury and consistency problems all throughout his time at the Giants, but he's been a key contributor up forward, kicking 41.15 in 24 games this year in what his second season in the black and white.
Steele Sidebottom is a premiership player, but had been little overlooked at numerous stages in his career, when Dane Swan was a premier ball winner, Dayne Beams was still playing at Collingwood and Scott Pendlebury was still considered an A-grader by everyone both expert and AFL fan. However, this year has been Sidebottom's best year since he debuted for the Pies in 2009. His class and composure with the footy along with a consistency of finding the footy were key catalysts to his first All-Australian selection this year, and on Friday night, he torched the Tigers for 41 disposals.
Another All-Australian Pie, Brodie Grundy was a projected top-three draft pick ahead of the 2012 AFL Draft. However, he was overlooked by 12 other clubs and with the 18th pick, Collingwood pounced on him. The fact that Grundy needed time to develop was enough to scare sides such as GWS, Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide away and not give up their early first-round picks for him. Since then, he's become one of the best ruckmen in the game, picking up his first All-Australian guernsey this year – his ability to win hitouts, and do the things the midfielders do – win disposals, clearances and tackle.
Jordan De Goey had been in headlines for all the wrong reasons in the past 24 months. There was that whole incident last year that involved his dog, when it actually was a bar fight which ended up with him breaking his hand and then there was getting sprung for driving under the influence at the start of this year. In an extraordinary turnaround, this young man had a personal-best year, kicking 41.15 in 19 games and destroyed All-Australian full-back Alex Rance on Friday night.
On draft night last year, Jaidyn Stephenson and his heart problems had been well documented in the lead up. This prompted clubs such as North Melbourne, Fremantle and Brisbane who had draft picks before Collingwood's pick six, to look elsewhere. The Pies believed in his talent and that belief turned Stephenson from a potential problem, to a Rising Star winner. Whichever way you look at it, 35.24 is a very impressive return for a first-year teenager.
The personal storylines in what is shaping to be such a great Collingwood story are endless.
Jack Crisp was remembered for being the 'Steak Knives' in the Dayne Beams-to-Brisbane deal at the end of 2014, Josh Thomas had previously served a two-year ban by WADA in 2015 and spent time as an Uber Driver whilst he was suspended. Brody Mihocek was on a VFL list last year, Tyson Goldsack did his ACL at the start of this year, but recovered to play a starring role in the Finals and Brayden Sier only played his 10th career game on Friday night.
Travis Varcoe tragically lost his sister in a freak collision playing footy at the start of the month, but has played the best he has ever had, that's including his time at Geelong. James Aish and Chris Mayne were afterthoughts before this year, but they have played their roles in the side to perfection. Tom Langdon, Tom Phillips and Brayden Maynard have all elevated their games to another level and Jeremy Howe has transformed from a one-trick pony forward into an elite intercept defender who will still take speckies.
And I haven't even mentioned those who have been injured for large portions of the year. I'm talking about Daniel Wells, Jamie Elliott, Ben Reid, Darcy Moore, Matt Scharenberg and Lynden Dunn. The last two have been the most heartbreaking of the lot.
Scharenberg has had two previous Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries, and had just started to get some continuity in his game before doing it a third time against Richmond in round 19. Dunn had been a pivotal piece in the defence up until the round 15 game against Gold Coast, where he also ruptured his ACL – Dunn had not played a final at all in his 13 seasons at AFL level.
But perhaps one of the biggest subplots in this whole Collingwood team is the development of their 'American Pie', big Mason Cox. A former Basketball player from the state of Texas, Cox tested at a Combine for potential international footballers in 2014. Two years later, he made his debut for the Pies on Anzac Day against Essendon. Standing at a height that rivalled big Aaron Sandilands, he took his first mark and kicked his first goal in the first 80 seconds of the match.
Since then, he has had some ordinary games, but he has also had some outstanding games. The game he played on Friday was something special. The Tigers allowed him way too much room to run and jump at the footy, and with a man the size of big Cox, you aren't going to stop him from marking the ball a great deal. He took eight contested marks on the Tigers and kicked three second-quarter goals that put the result beyond doubt and prove a lot of doubters – myself included – wrong.
Witnessing it live, it was extraordinary how a man like Cox, who has only known about the game for a few years, tear apart such an experienced and usually well-oiled Richmond defence. Even more impressive is that Collingwood have invested so much in the big American, when there were times that they could've done so. Now he's playing in a Grand Final and he is perhaps one of the most loved characters of the game – can you seriously believe that?
The Collingwood Football Club have always been a side that you either love or you love to hate Whatever your stance is on the Pies, they have written one hell of a story so far in 2018. Bu whether or not they can complete the script on Grand Final day remains to be seen.