Despite the “one more left in me” status that they have achieved, that win against Brisbane on Saturday - how impossible and inevitable it was - felt like the end of something.
The end of a particular kind of Collingwood magic.
But even if I’m wrong and Collingwood is good again next year after missing the finals this year, I want to reflect on a three-year run that has done the impossible and made Collingwood likeable.
In 2021 the Pies were dour and bad, finishing 6-16.
In 2022 Craig McRae showed up and plugged them in.
In 2023 they jagged a premiership and completely upended how teams had been winning premierships since 2017.
They were a pressure side but not a forward half side. They did most of their scoring from the back half.
For most that’s a hard way to live, but especially for Collingwood given the frenetic way they moved the ball from defence.
That premiership was a high-wire act and Collingwood never fell off.
That year was fun but for a neutral this year has been more fun.
In 2024 they’ve put together a 24 week-long answer to one question: “does the old guy still have it?”
With the oldest list in footy, Collingwood have answered a resounding sometimes.
“The old guy’s still got it” is the best sporting trope.
It always comes at the point where the collective mind is past the hating of a successful team or athlete and is appreciating them for what they were, and what they still could be.
The reason I love it so much that the great athlete is still great, but the greatness manifests differently than before. His athleticism might be faded, but his brain is sharper than it ever was, and his heart has never been bigger.
For the greats, those last couple of years are the love letter to the game he knows he’ll be leaving soon.
More recently the “old guy’s still got it” was the driving force behind making Team USA basketball winning gold at the Olympics feel cool rather than fucking America fucking winning again.
Those old guys still had it, and Curry’s threes in the semi-final and final felt like his love letter to the shot that he revolutionised.
Collingwood’s refusal to give up has been their love letter to what matters in footy: heart and run.
They have been at such a talent deficit for most of the season forward of the ball, prior to Dan McStay’s return. Will Hoskin-Elliott was the crucial piece. It was dire.
(I think part of the reason I liked Collingwood so much is that Jordan De Goey barely played because, it appears, he was too busy eating).
Instead of throwing up their hands and playing boring footy, they adapted.
When their game hummed this year, Collingwood was launching rockets off half back like they were a daydreaming Castro in 1962. They played basically with three forwards but pushed everyone high up the ground.
From there they created havoc.
They got the ball at stoppage or off a turnover, utilised their numbers advantage around the ball, and moved the ball out from contest to the perimeter at the speed of light.
Once the ball got out, they ran into green grass and open forward lines.
Even with McStay, the only time their forward 50 entries were successful was when they were at breakneck speed, with forwards running toward goal and mids with low eyes.
At that point I truly thought that the old guy still had it. It entered my mind that the Pies might win again purely on the back of a novel plan, pressure, and unrelenting self-belief.
That stat is insane, but if you add some context you can see that the magic dust is wearing a bit.
While they’re still an absurd 5-1-2 in games decided by less than a kick, they got run over by Gold Coast and Essendon in rounds 16 and 17 and were blown away by Geelong and Hawthorn in rounds 19 and 20 after entering ¾ time relatively close.
Even the loss to Sydney last week, where they couldn’t pull it out one last team against a team who seemed to steal Collingwood’s magic seemed telling. Another team that lacks forwards but not effort pulled one out after a flat performance.
It doesn’t change the fact that their win against Brisbane was special. Even as thy have aged and occasionally played poorly, there’s still that little bit of magic to them, and that lotta bit of heart.
It was best exemplified by Isaac Quaynor. Quaynor has been poor this year, mostly because he has been forced to play as a lockdown player rather than the rebounding weapon that he was last year. Despite playing out of his best role, who was it that kept those faint Collingwood hopes alive? Isaac Quaynor, with his chase down tackle on Zac Bailey.
The key to “the old guy’s still got it” is how far the old guy is willing to push himself to prove it. The Pies, old and young, pushed themselves to the brink to beat Brisbane and give themselves a glimmer of hope.
That’s been the joy this year. The effort. The heart. The will to hang on.
And they’ve not been boring or slow in the process, nor have they stopped trying. They’ve been more Martin Scorsese than Mark Wahlberg.
Thanks for the run, Collingwood. Footy has been better for it.
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