{"id":159082,"date":"2025-09-21T15:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T15:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159082\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T15:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T15:34:07","slug":"young-lions-deal-knockout-blow-in-what-feels-like-ageing-collingwoods-last-swing-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159082\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Lions deal knockout blow in what feels like ageing Collingwood\u2019s last swing | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darcy Cameron executed the perfect tap, Nick Daicos executed the perfect kick and Mason Cox executed the perfect stuff up. Sometimes in life, and in football, you just know it isn\u2019t going to be your day. And when the ball ballooned off big Mason\u2019s belly button, a bad Collingwood<\/a> moon was rising. A few minutes later, Scott Pendlebury was zipping up his tracksuit top, done for the day and the year. He\u2019s their compass and their second coach but he also plays a critical defensive role at stoppages. Several times in the opening quarter, the Lions waltzed out the front of packs where Pendlebury would normally have been the doorman.<\/p>\n

One thing Collingwood had in their favour was precedent. So you\u2019re three goals down at quarter time, all at sea and without one of your best and most experienced players? Sound familiar? But unlike Geelong\u2019s violent wrenching of the contest<\/a> the night before, Collingwood\u2019s was more of a stabilisation, a reset, a gradual ratcheting up of the pressure. As Brisbane conceded a 100-metre penalty, Ryan Lester was having his head stitched up, Ty Gallop was being tested for concussion and Collingwood had kicked six goals from 15 entries. Watching the Lions trudge to their rooms didn\u2019t inspire confidence.<\/p>\n

But as the little leaguers toddled off, a different Lions team emerged. Zac Bailey, so good hitting stoppages at full speed and with perfect timing, parted a sea of bodies at a deep ruck contest and Will Ashcroft kicked a ripper 30 second later. Collingwood\u2019s hopes at that stage rested with Jamie Elliott, whose two goals came completely against the run of play and who twisted himself like a piece of fusilli to take one of the marks of the year. His direct opponent Brandon Starcevich took out his frustrations by whacking the leather bench seats, like George Foreman pummelling a heavy bag. If it\u2019s any consolation, Bruce Doull in his prime couldn\u2019t have stopped those goals.<\/p>\n

Jamie Elliott takes a spectacular mark over Brandon Starcevich at the MCG on Saturday. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n

Elliott was terrific all year and it would be a crying shame if he\u2019s not in Collingwood colours next year. But most of his fellow forwards struggled. Their lack of scoring power was a question mark even when they were riding high on top of the ladder. Even so, they were still within striking distance with 10 minutes to go. But the moment Tim Membrey decided to lob a nine iron to Elliott instead of taking the shot was the moment their hopes were extinguished. The umpire lost his whistle and Collingwood lost all momentum. And as is football law in those circumstances, the ball pinged straight up the other end for a 12-point turnaround.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, the Lions were the superior team. They had too much class, especially among their hybrid forwards who have a great sense of when to step up and separate a game. It was one of the loudest home crowds you\u2019d ever see at a football game but it didn\u2019t bother the visitors one whit. It was a brutal preliminary final, with players cannoning into one another, popping shoulders, ripping goggles and leaving in moonboots. Chris Scott was up in the stands, scouting and devouring packets of snakes with his daughter. Every time a Lions player was injured, he\u2019d have the same look he gets when he\u2019s trying to downplay a big Geelong win. But despite the carnage, he would have seen a young, resilient team that was still running on top of the ground at the finish, a team that will ask more of his side than they did a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

Cam Rayner (pictured right) kicked two important goals in Brisbane\u2019s win. Photograph: Michael Willson\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brisbane had nine of the 11 least experienced players on the field but five of those are premiership players and most of those nine played crucial roles in the second half. In contrast, it\u2019s too easy to analogise and catastrophise a knockout final like that but it felt like an ageing team\u2019s final swing. Craig McRae was as devastated as we\u2019ve seen him. \u201cIt comes to an end really quick,\u201d he said. He was talking about the season, but could easily have been talking about the team itself. They\u2019ll remember that win in Adelaide for years to come, but ultimately the Crows were the only top eight side they beat from late May onwards.<\/p>\n

And so we\u2019re left with the two best performed teams of this decade, two teams that have been circling one another for years, two very different teams that can completely switch up their modes of play according to the conditions, the opponent, the scoreboard and the occasion. In terms of patronage, atmosphere and individual brilliance, it would be hard to surpass the two preliminary finals but this grand final is well placed to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darcy Cameron executed the perfect tap, Nick Daicos executed the perfect kick and Mason Cox executed the perfect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-159082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}