Magic Moments – Collingwood Forever https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au The complete history of Australia's greatest sporting club Tue, 30 Jan 2024 23:13:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.21 Five of the best from 2010 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/five-of-the-best-from-2010/ Sun, 04 Nov 2018 23:46:50 +0000 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=13066
  • MAXY’S DESPERATE DIVE, 2010 GRAND FINAL DRAW, LAST QUARTER
    • It’s hard to believe there were some (not Magpie supporters, mind you) who doubted Collingwood’s 2010 captain Nick Maxwell. The comeback to them should always be ‘Go back and have a look at the last quarter of the Grand Final draw’. Do that, and you will find a footballer who did everything in his power to try and save, and then try and win his team a Grand Final! Maxwell’s last quarter heroics were extraordinary. Time and again, his desperation was critical to Collingwood’s fortunes that day, as it had been throughout his career. One of the biggest moments of the 2010 Grand Final came about 18 minutes into the last quarter. The Magpies were clinging to a one-point lead, there was seven minutes of game time on the clock and St Kilda appeared to have the momentum. A stoppage inside the Saints’ forward 50m ended with Maxwell’s counterpart Nick Riewoldt getting hold of the ball and slamming it onto his boot in the general direction of goal. It evaded a horde of players around the contest and bounced towards goal as the Magpie army held its collective breath. The only man between the ball and the goal line was Maxwell, who chased desperately as the ball bobbled up and down. It looked like a certain goal. Then, Maxwell launched himself at full stretch, and somehow extended his hands to touch the ball just before it crosses the line. It was stirring, inspirational stuff. As Denis Cometti said: “Maxwell tracking it back, touching it right on the line … watch it again, for a moment it looks gone … he does brilliantly.” “Captain’s kick; captain’s spoil,” Bruce McAvaney said. The slow-motion replay and aerial shows the full extent of Maxwell’s effort to get to the ball to touch it. Contrast that with the image of the anguish on the faces of the St Kilda supporters who had, for the briefest of moments, thought it was a goal, and that the flag was headed back to Moorabbin. As Scott Pendlebury said on The Final Draw, “That’s why he was the captain.”
    1. MAXY’S MARK, DAWESY’S HANDBALL, TRAV’S GOAL, 2010 GRAND FINAL DRAW, LAST QUARTER
    Not content with his first act, Nick Maxwell played just as important a role in what would be Collingwood’s last goal of the 2010 Grand Final draw. The Saints led by five points, with less than four minutes remaining, when a clearing kick from Sam Fisher looked for a target in Sam Gilbert on the wing on the AFL members’ side. Stationary, Gilbert looked set to take a steadying mark. But Maxwell, a player in full motion, had other ideas. He came in from the side and launched himself at the contest, edging his opponent out of the way, taking a stirring mark. Better still, sensing the time ticking away, he immediately turned around and played on. He took a bounce and his little chip kick found Alan Didak, who followed the club’s game plan by pushing out deeper towards the boundary line where he found Steele Sidebottom, who then chipped to a loose Brent Macaffer. Macaffer ran to almost the 50m line and fired the ball deep in towards the square. Chris Dawes was edged off the ball and fell to the ground as Heath Shaw almost dragged down a mark. Almost inexplicably, the ball fell to Dawes, still on the turf, and he had the good sense and accuracy to handball to Travis Cloke who was beside him. Cloke stepped into the goal square and slammed it though the goal that put Collingwood in front again – by a point. As Tom Harley said: “It was a typical Collingwood build-up, it went down the line …” Yes, there was plenty to play out in the next 205 seconds of game time – that Lenny Hayes point, the bounce of the ball that evaded Stephen Milne and the desperation of the Collingwood defence – but without that Maxy mark, there might not have been a draw.
    1. MICK’S MESSAGE, 2010 GRAND FINAL DRAW NIGHT, AT THE FUNCTION CENTRE
    Chaos ensured after the Grand Final draw, but a handful of select people from Collingwood helped to provide some certainty to what was an uncertain time. Eddie McGuire was one of those who made sure the lessons of history would be understood. Remembering the stories of what had happened in 1977, after another drawn Grand Final, the president made sure the Pies players still attended the Grand Final dinner; St Kilda’s players did not. There, at the function that night, coach Mick Malthouse set the scene for the week ahead. In a stirring speech, directed at the players, but which also gave some strength those around the club and those barracking for it, Malthouse declared that the drawn game had simply meant it was “half time”, with four more quarters to play. It provided a message of hope, not lost opportunity; of confidence rather than of dented pride. He gave his players great praise for the way they had fought back when the game looked to have slipped their grasp, and for holding on when they had to. “We are in the same place as we were eight days ago,” he said, leaning defiantly into the microphone. He expressed his faith in the club’s conditioning staff to ensure the players would be ready for another shot at the flag, and said the players’ experiences in the preseason camp to Arizona had steeled them for what was to come next. Then he finished with the message that summed up the club’s week ahead, which have now gone into folklore. “If you treat this as a loss, it will be,” he said. “If you treat this as an opportunity, it will be. If we treat this the way we have rebounded all year, then we will go in with the utmost confidence.”
    1. SMOTHER OF THE CENTURY, 2010 GRAND FINAL REPLAY, FIRST QUARTER
    Collingwood was desperate to make a fast start to the Grand Final replay and had much of the play in the first 20 minutes. For all that, two goals (to Tyson Goldsack and Ben Johnson) were the only rewards. So when Nick Riewoldt was lurking deep in attack – seemingly all on his own – and the ball was sailing to him at the 20-minute-mark, the hearts of Collingwood fans every sank. It seemed certain the Saints were about to get their first goal. Enter Heath Shaw. Almost from nowhere, the Collingwood defender emerged to produce one of the most inspiration single passages of play in Grand Final history. “The Smother of the Century”, as Shaw would later call it with a smile”, was precisely that. He snuck up on Riewoldt “like a librarian”, as Dennis Cometti so perfectly put it, and knocked the ball from the Saints’ skipper hands, through for a behind. Shaw recounted: “I thought, ‘You don’t die wondering … I might as well have a crack at it’.” That one desperate lunge would be the defining moment of the game, a sign of what the Collingwood players were prepared to do to win the flag. It was an extraordinary team-lifting moment, one that his teammates couldn’t help but be inspired by, and one that will be remembered forever. What is less frequently recalled is the following passage of play that saw the ball move from one end of the MCG to the other. From the kick in, the ball wound its way down to the other end, resulting in Brent Macaffer kicking a goal to put the Magpies in front by 19 points. The Magpies never looked back from that moment.
    1. DIDS TO THE FORE, 2010 GRAND FINAL REPLAY, THIRD QUARTER
    Alan Didak almost didn’t play in the 2010 finals series. He had torn a pectoral muscle leading into September, but was determined that it wouldn’t stop him from chasing that premiership dream. The fact that he produced one of the best moments of this Grand Final – at the 15-minute-mark of the third term – was a remarkable achievement, one forever etched in the memories of Magpie fans. The Magpies were 40 points clear at that time, but fans were still a little twitchy, worried about a possible comeback. Jason Blake was looking to clear the ball out of the defensive zone when Didak sensed an opportunity. He smothered the kick then re-gathered the ball before launching a right-foot kick around his body to kick the goal. It went through the middle. Then he let out a trademark shimmy, knowing the goal had quelled any hope of a Saints’ revival, signalling to the Pies fans. It was an act of pure genius. For a footballer who loved the clutch moments, he loved having the ball in his hands when his team needed it. Sure, in hindsight, the Magpies looked to be safe even before this Didak goal, but his sensational goal put a full stop on any fears this game was in danger. It was vintage Didak, and all the more memorable because he was doing it under sufferance. Collingwood would go on to win the game by 56 points, the biggest margin of any Magpie Grand Final win.]]>         Rocca’s Long Bomb https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/roccas-long-bomb/ Sun, 04 Nov 2018 23:38:12 +0000 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=13064 Herald Sundetailed, “Conservatively, it went 70m. But if you said it went 80m few would think you’d exaggerated … the fans were back in full voice and the noise became deafening … the goal seemed to lift the Magpies even further.” A breathless Daicos added: “If that can’t lift you, nothing will.” It was one of six goals to Adelaide’s one in the third term, which helped turn the match in Collingwood’s favour, and ultimately propelled the Magpies into the 2002 Grand Final. Collingwood narrowly outscored Adelaide in the final quarter and went on to win by 28 points. Rocca had only had eight disposals in the game, but his booming goal had been the defining moment of the contest. But he would go on to kick four goals the following week in Collingwood’s brave nine-point loss to Brisbane in the Grand Final, which was a huge performance. If you believe anyone who saw it live, or the man himself, or even president Eddie McGuire, who was right behind its path, it should have been FIVE goals, with a controversial goal umpiring decision going against him, and the club, at a critical stage.]]> Jack’s Moment of Truth https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/jacks-moment-of-truth/ Sun, 04 Nov 2018 23:30:41 +0000 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=13060 Brewer sinks the Lions https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/brewer-sinks-the-lions/ Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:09:57 +0000 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=12948 For the Love of the Jumper, “I was in the goal square when Ross Brewer has picked the ball up and he’s just gone to kick. I’ve gone to smother, and he’s kicked it about 30 metres in the air and three metres in distance. It’s just gone over the goal line to put them in front.” The difference was two points in Collingwood’s favour, but the question mark was whether there was enough time left for the Lions to score. Lee Murnane tore the ball out of the middle and drove the ball long into Fitzroy’s attacking zone. Fortunately, for Collingwood, McCormack was able to see the ball over the goal-line for a behind. It was a point to difference. Somehow Collingwood was able to run the clock down, and hold on to win this match by the barest of margins to advance to the preliminary final. The Magpies celebrated; the Lions lamented. As the Age recounted: “There’s never been a football survivor quite like Collingwood. For totally inexplicable reasons, its heart continues to beat when for all intents and purposes it is dead. It clawed its way out of the grave again. “Of all Collingwood’s astounding September reversals, rallies or revivals – call them what you will – this surely must have been one of the greatest, one of the most important. It is though this club, soaked in tradition and more proud than any other, has elevated Lazarus to the patron saint of Victoria Park.” Unfortunately, there would be no miraculous revival in the Grand Final a fortnight later against Carlton. The Magpies defeated the Cats in a preliminary final but went down to Carlton by 20 points in the premiership-decider. Still, Brewer became a part of Collingwood folklore for his miraculous goal to sink Fitzroy, even after he transferred to Richmond the following year. That gave him some bragging rights too at work the following week. He worked in the Commonwealth Bank in Lygon St, Carlton, where one of his work mates was Lions wingman Peter Francis. As Brewer told the Age:“We got to work on the Monday and he (Francis) wouldn’t talk to me.”]]> Daicos confounds Cats https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/daicos-confounds-cats/ Tue, 04 Sep 2018 01:54:26 +0000 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=12938 actually do know which goal Daicos rates as his favourite, as he revealed in his autobiography in 1991 – Collingwood and Me– with the goal he kicked in that preliminary final a decade earlier a clear top pick. His view hasn’t changed a generation later. In a recent interview in the Sunday Herald Sun, when asked about his favourite goal, Daicos said: “People constantly re-live the West Coast goal, but for me there was a goal in 1981 that gave me a lot of pleasure. It was a preliminary final against Geelong.” A year earlier, Daicos had celebrated his 19th birthday with one of the great marks of his career, riding aesthetically on the side of Cat Malcolm Reed. The following September, it would be a goal that would live on in the memory of Magpies’ fans. To set the scene, Collingwood trailed by less than a goal at the 20-minute-mark of the penultimate game of 1981. Most of the forwards had pushed up the field, leaving only Daicos and Geelong defender Ian Nankervis, and Craig Stewart and his opponent Richard Murrie deeper in attack. Warwick Irwin gained a free kick in the middle of the ground and saw Daicos as a serious option in attack, eager to get the ball to him. Daicos recalled: “I led out wide to the half-forward flank. Warwick … shot me a perfect pass and I marked it out in front.” With time running out, he knew he had to think quickly, and sum up his options. “I thought ‘Crikey, there’s no one to kick to’. The options seemed to be, to kick the ball into the square, or handball over Nankervis’ head, and then try to win the ball back.” “I was feeling strong in the legs, I wasn’t overly tired or anything, and I realised there was plenty of space. So I made an instant decision, I handballed out in front of myself, as I ran around Nankervis. I didn’t handball until I was level with him, to make sure he couldn’t cut me off. I spurted out in front of Nankervis, tapping the ball while he tripped over his feet. “I regained the ball from about 35 metres out, and kicked the goal that put us in front.” It was Daicos’ fourth goal of the game, and put the Magpies back in front. Daicos felt as if he was “floating on air” as the ball went back to the centre of the ground. His other recollection of the moment relates to well-known and well-loved Collingwood trainer John MacGibbon who gave him a drink and a pat on the back after booting the goal. “I was rapt,” he said. “I was so high I had to stop and take it in, to saviour the moment. I had only played three seasons, but I knew it would always be one of the great memories of my career.” Daicos’ goal wasn’t the last. Teammate Craig Davis scored another to put the issue beyond doubt, but Daicos’ moment had been the catalyst for putting Collingwood into another Grand Final. What he wasn’t prepared for was the questioning from chairman of selectors Ron Richards in the rooms after the seven-point win over the Cats. Richards asked: “What the hell were you thinking?” Daicos replied: “I wasn’t thinking!” “I have always said, as a player, if you took the time to measure the degree of difficulty in executing what you were planning on doing, you wouldn’t contemplate trying many things,” Daicos told the Sunday Herald Sun. Thank goodness, he didn’t that day in 1981 against the Cats, or during so many other crucial moments of his career.]]> Seeds of the future https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/seeds-of-the-future/ Tue, 27 Sep 2016 01:09:06 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10799 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun Mick McGuane remembers it as the moment his Collingwood under 19s team was linked to the man who would ultimately determine their destiny, Leigh Matthews. It came in April 1986, in the days after Matthews replaced Bob Rose as senior coach, and McGuane credits it with part of his future success, and the bridge between the young up-and-coming Magpies and the man in charge of the club’s direction. McGuane was 18 at the time, having come to the club from Sebastopol, and already displaying good potential alongside some highly-rated teenagers in the club’s “thirds”, as the under 19s were sometimes called. Among the group was a skinny kid from Templestowe devoid of fear (Gavin Brown), a big lump of a lad from Woori Yallock (Damian Monkhorst) and a resolute left-footer from Queensland (Gavin Crosisca). Other likely lads brought together under the coaching of Keith Burns came from all parts of the state. Plenty of them came from the fertile recruiting grounds of the northern suburbs, including captain Jason Croall, and Damian Keating from Bundoora, Athas Hrysoulakis from Lalor, Terry Keays from St Marys, Neil Brindley and Paul Smith, from Greensborough, as well as John Mrakov, from Preston Wanderers. “We were a very close group (in the under 19s) and we felt as if we really connected to each other, and connected to the Collingwood Football Club,” McGuane said. “The first time that I felt really connected to the club, and a part of Collingwood, was when Leigh Matthews got the whole club together in the one room at Vic Park.

    LIST: View profiles of those who won an under 19s best-and-fairest while playing for Collingwood.

    “It was the whole club, too, and that included the under 19s. We all felt connected because we were included in it. “He spoke about what he expected from us. He told us that, as an outsider looking in, he thought there were too many egotistical bastards in the room, and he was prepared to name them. It didn’t matter that we were in the under 19s. We knew we were a part of what was happening at the club then and in the future.” Fast forward five months, to September 26, 1986 – 30 years ago this week – and the highly-rated Collingwood side defeated North Melbourne to win its fourth VFL under 19s premiership as the first game of a big day of football at the MCG, culminating in the Hawthorn-Carlton VFL Grand Final. Coached by Keith Burns, a great tutor of young footballers, this Magpies under 19s team would prove to be one of the most celebrated, with four players going on to play in the first AFL Grand Final four years later on a day where Collingwood broke a 32-year premiership drought. All four – Brown, Monkhorst, McGuane and Crosisca – played important roles that day in 1990, and had long and distinguished careers in black and white. Others from that 1986 under 19s side had solid careers with the Magpies, 11 of the Grand Final team represented the club at senior level, and a number of them were very stiff not to play a league match, given how strong the competition was. Many of them are still connected to the club – and to each other – as evidenced by the 30-year reunion alongside their former mentor Burns in early September. “We’ve always been pretty close,” Paul Smith, one of the team’s best defenders, said. “We’re all still close 30 years on.” Burns has always had the philosophy that developing players was more important than wining flags, but he knew this particular under 19s side had the talent and the temperament to achieve the ultimate success. “We knew we had a good side, and we had a great year,” Burns said recently. “We tried a lot of young players out that year and tried to develop them as players.” “We used to send them up to the seconds when they were ready to go. But the seconds that year (in 1986) weren’t going to make the finals that year. We still sent some boys up to the seconds (Mark Orval and Paul Tuddenham), but we knew we were a chance to win the under 19s flag, so we kept a lot of the group together.” Incredibly as the season would later pan out, Collingwood’s under 19s side started 1986 slowly, winning only three of the first nine games. Two of the early defeats – one of them to North Melbourne – were floggings. But somehow they clicked, and with Matthews keeping an eye on the young charges, and with Burns polishing their skills and their commitment, the Magpie thirds stormed home to finish third on the ladder, giving them the double chance by 0.01 per cent.

    PREMIERS: The records of our under 19s team.

    Better still, they knocked off Denis Pagan’s highly-rated Kangaroos in the second semi-final, launching themselves in the premiership playoff. Monkhorst admitted he was “a bit wild” in those days, but Burns was able to chisel off some of his rough edges. One of those times came in a match against North Melbourne earlier in the year when the ruckman took offence at an opposition player having a go at him. Burns laughed when he recently recalled: “Monky was about to kill him, and I had to take him off just to settle him down.” The big man said he loved being a part of that side, saying: “I was just going out there having some fun … We had a really good side.” “Mick McGuane was the greatest football brain I ever played with. Browny was the bloke you would just look at and admire as he was a really competitive bugger.” “But there were other guys in the team who should have been destined for long VFL careers, but for whatever reason, didn’t get the chance. But some of them went onto really good careers in the suburban leagues.” McGuane credited Burns as the man who set the standards for that under 19s side, saying he taught them about professionalism. “Burnsy was ruthless in his approach to get the best out of you,” McGuane said. “And that was even more so for the country boys … Burnsy was really hard on a lot of the country boys, and he was the making of us. “I still love Keith dearly for what he did for us.” Smith, who would later go on to play reserves with Collingwood and Richmond, agreed: “Even after all these years, you realise Burnsy was the best coach I ever played under. He was hard, but he was fair, and he called a spade a spade. You knew where you stood.” McGuane added: “They were all champion blokes in that team – Browny, ‘Croally’, Greg Faull, Paul Smith, ‘Bolts’, Damian Keating, all of those boys.” “We just really connected as a group. We trained hard as a group, and that was an extension of Burnsy’s demands. He just helped us evolve as players.” Burns was also confident after defeating North Melbourne in the second semi-final that the same result would follow in the Grand Final. His confidence was undented, even when the Kangaroos shot out to an early lead. A massive brawl erupted before the first bounce, which centred on David Stagg, who had formerly played with North Melbourne, and who had penned Pagan a letter (not a complimentary one) before the Grand Final. But the young Magpies reeled the Kangaroos in as the game wore on. “We had a good rivalry with North Melbourne, but we always felt confident we would win it,” Burns said. “We got far enough in front in the last five or so minutes, so we put an extra player in the defensive zone, and there was never going to be a chance that we would lose that game, I don’t think.” McGuane agreed: “North Melbourne had Denis Pagan as coach and Mick Martyn, who had kicked a hundred goals that year (and three goals in the Grand Final), so they were a tough side to beat. But here was the opportunity that I had dreamt of since I was a kid. I had black and white running through my veins.” The Kangaroos never gave in, but the Magpies held on to win by 16 points – 12.11 (83) to 9.13 (67). The young Collingwood side celebrated wildly on the MCG, had a victory lap and chaired Burns off the ground. They were even given a guard of honour as they went back to the Collingwood Social Club for “a few beers” that night. But what came next was more important than what happened on that day 30 years ago. In 1987, as the Magpies had an injury epidemic at the start of the season, Matthews had to look at the group of young talent from that under 19s side for senior selection. Four of the nine new faces for round one, 1987 had played in the under 19s premiership six months later – the previous year’s ‘thirds’ B&F winner Neil Brindley, Athas Hrysoulakis, Gavin Brown and Gavin Crosisca. Brindley, 19, received a phone call from Matthews on the Friday night before the game, informing him he would shadow star Swan Barry Mitchell for the game. He recalled: “It was a bit of a shock to be picked … I debuted with a number of under 19s players and also some recruits who came across (from interstate).” “It was a very, very new side … I think it was the start of the building block for the 1990 premiership.” Mitchell had had 35 touches and kicked three goals, which made for a busy afternoon for Brindley in what was his only game in Black and White. “I managed to play the whole four quarters without being rested … I didn’t get picked the following week,” Brindley recalled. It was a tough call on Brindley, who was an exceptionally good footballer, and a quality individual, as Mitchell was one of the most exciting players in the AFL. Burns said of Brindley: “They (Collingwood) crucified him a bit, didn’t give him much of a chance.” Hrysoulakis showed great promise, but never produced the consistency that once saw him touted as a future star. But Brown, Crosisca, McGuane (who debuted later that year), and Monkhorst (who played his first senior game in 1988) would make their mark on football’s biggest stage. Four years on from that under 19s premiership, those four were among the 20 players who helped to end one of Australian sport’s long-running and most embarrassing droughts. And Burns, for one, felt exceptionally proud of the role he – and the under 19s side of 1986 – had played in that.]]>         Taylor’s ton https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/when-taylor-topped-the-ton/ Wed, 17 Aug 2016 02:06:09 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10649 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun It looked like being the simplest of tasks for a player in white-hot form. Brian Taylor needed two goals in the final game of the home-and-away season (round 22) to become the fourth Collingwood player to reach a century of goals in a season, a mark reached by Magpie full forwards just nine times in the previous 89 seasons. Given that the 24-year-old powerful full forward, in only his second season in Black and White, had kicked 10 goals against his old side Richmond the previous week; it seemed as if it was a fait accompli. What could possibly go wrong? What seemed less assured was whether Collingwood’s 1986 season would be extended into the finals? That equation wasn’t just predicated on the Magpies beating St Kilda at VFL Park on the last day of the regular season; it also had to rely on second-placed Sydney beating fifth-placed Fitzroy at the Magpies’ home base of Victoria Park on the same afternoon. That result would elevate Collingwood into the finals on percentage in what was Leigh Matthews‘ first year as senior coach, having taken over after Bob Rose‘s resignation following losses in the first three rounds. So the Collingwood fans who traipsed out to Waverley that August afternoon were almost certain Taylor would join the likes of Gordon Coventry, Ron Todd and Peter McKenna as Magpie centurions, but somewhat less convinced that the team would be required to play the following week. A crowd of 30,442 turned up for the match that saw the Magpies take on the bottom placed Saints, who had won only two games for the entire season. Collingwood was in the midst of reshaping its playing list, but there was still a core group of senior players in the team. It was David Cloke‘s 249th game, and the likes of Tony Shaw (170th game), Ricky Barham (151st), Peter Daicos (132nd) and, Mark Williams (135th) brought considerable experience to a team that had nine players yet to reach the 50-game mark. A few of those relatively young players would go on to become decorated Magpies, including Darren Millane, playing his 45th game. Others would have relatively shorter careers in the Black and White. One of them, 22-year-old Peter Adams, was playing his second game for the club. It would be a day that he would never forget, kicking four goals. As far as the Saints go, Trevor Barker was playing his 197th game. Geoff Cunningham and Greg Burns had been around for a long time, and plenty of the focus was on a burly full-forward in his 71st game, a 20-year-old called Tony Lockett, who had already kicked 235 goals. 160817_taylor600b ‘BT’ on the lead, out in front of his former club, Richmond, during the 1980s. As highly regarded as Lockett was, few would have believed this kid with the strong hands, powerful frame and a prodigious punt still had more than 1000 goals left in him. Or that he would, in 13 years, overtake Coventry as the most prolific goalkicker in VFL-AFL history. A 23-year-old called Ricky Nixon was playing his 14th game. His future in the game would be off the field more than on it. And a 22-year-old from Bungaree, Danny Frawley, was developing a reputation as one of the toughest full-backs to beat in the competition. A date with Taylor awaited ‘Spud’ Frawley. Taylor, himself, had been in rare form. He craved the history that stood before him – becoming a 100-goal kicker – but speaking in the lead-up to the game said that the chance to play finals was more important to him. “Goals don’t mean anything to me,” Taylor said. “If we don’t play in the finals it will be a disappointing year. We have to win on Saturday if we have any chance of making the five.” But he knew he had his work cut out on Frawley: “Danny is a very, very good player, and he has always played well against me and given me a hard time. I am expecting a tough contest.” Three decades on, Taylor and Frawley are firm friends, and a part of Triple M’s football team, but there wasn’t a lot of love lost between them back then. Taylor recalled years later in the Herald Sun: “I was playing against a 22-year-old potato farmer named Danny Frawley. We had taken an instant dislike to each other a couple of years earlier (1984) when I kicked seven on Danny. He reminded me of Rick Kennedy and Danny Hughes, never leaving you alone.” In that same article, Frawley said of his 1984 encounter: “He had three (goals) by half-time and a teammate of mine, Stephen Pirrie, who had played with Brian at Richmond, said to give him a whack because Brian was a big sook. So naive old Danny from Bungaree whacks him behind the ear after he marked early in the third quarter. He kicked the goal then came back and drove me into the ground, throttling me until I was blue.” So the pair was wary of each other as they locked horns in the round 22, 1986 clash. Taylor needed two goals to reach the ton, Collingwood need four premiership points and some luck elsewhere, and Frawley simply wanted to annoy the hell out of the most productive full-forward of the season – without turning blue again. However, Taylor’s afternoon did not go to plan. In an early passage of play, he suffered a groin injury, and there were fears he might be done for the day, left stranded on 98 goals. He tried to hide his injury. And fortunately, 21 minutes into the opening quarter, he managed to shove Frawley out of the way and take a mark in the goal square. The goal was his 99th … only one major to go. However, coach Leigh Matthews knew the extent of the injury, and wanted him off. He told Taylor so at quarter-time. There was still a game to be won – and potentially a finals series to be a part of – and if the club’s main spearhead could not run, that was a serious problem. Taylor recalled: “Leigh Matthews said, ‘You are off’. I insisted I was OK and pleaded for five minutes.” The coach reluctantly agreed. The burly forward was relieved when he marked a few minutes into the second term. Fans began to leap over the fence, preparing to run out, and the bluecoat security staff realised there was nothing they could do. But it was a false alarm, as Taylor explained in an ABC TV interview after the game. “It was a shocking kick actually. I think I was in two minds … first of all, what to do with the ball and secondly, was my injury going to affect my approach. I wasn’t concentrating on the correct things,” he said. His kick sailed to the right, and didn’t even score. It was out of bounds on the full. Taylor feared he might not get another chance. Collingwood’s runner was soon out on the field, trying to get him off. Matthews knew he was lame and couldn’t run. However, Taylor was having none of it, and limped the other way when the runner came out. Frawley was gaining in confidence that he could deny Taylor. He recalled: “I could tell ‘BT’ was struggling with injury early and thought, ‘Hang on, I’ve got him here’. I started to think I would go down in folklore.” Enter umpire Peter Cameron. Taylor somehow threw everything into this passage of play late in the second term. He led Frawley to the ball – but only just – when the whistle sounded. It was a free kick to Taylor within kicking distance … right in front. 160817_taylor600a Carlton great Stephen Silvagni and Brian Taylor square off during the late 1980s. “I thought I deserved it, I thought I was a chance 20 yards out and dead in front,” Taylor said after the game. Years later, he told a different story, when he said to the Herald Sun: “Peter Cameron, who was a good bloke, gave me a dubious free kick. The players didn’t know whether it was downfield or what and Danny, who was five metres away, couldn’t believe it. This time I was only 25m out. It was about as far as I could kick.” Cameron, perhaps putting a little mayonnaise on the events, said in 2008: “We knew that Brian was injured and I could tell it was fairly serious, so the whole thing was pretty well set up.” “In those days there wasn’t the same scrutiny there is today and you could get away with something like that. I think I paid the free kick for hands in the back. “Was the free there? I don’t think so, but Brian needed only one goal for his century, so what was I going to do – let him limp off on 99? That was a time when the circumstances were such that we looked after each other.” This time Taylor could not miss. His kick sailed through the middle for his 100th goal of the season – the first time in 14 years since a Collingwood player had reached that milestone. And on cue hundreds of the Magpie faithful rushed out on the ground as Taylor’s teammates, led by Mark Williams and David Cloke, circled around him for protection. Huge numbers of kids with banners and streamers, teenagers eager to be a part of it, and older supporters simply living in the moment crowded around the Magpie players to celebrate Taylor’s feat. The game was held up for more than five minutes. When the crowd reluctantly began to leave the ground, so too did Taylor. The message had come from Matthews that it was time for him to come off. The game was still to be won, and given Taylor could barely run, the coach wanted him on the bench. Other than a short, brief run in the third term, his day was done. “I was really of no benefit to the team, I wasn’t able to run properly,” he said. “I was able to jog a bit, but not run how the coach wanted me to.” Taylor had achieved what he wanted – 100 goals – and the Magpies would end up doing what they needed to do – win the game by 52 points, off the back of a seven-goal to one third term. But, on the other side of town, the Lions upset the party. They proved a little too strong for the Swans, winning by 10 points, as disheartened Magpie supporters listened forlornly on the radio to the progress scores. Collingwood’s finals were sadly over before they started. The only consolation for those Magpie fans headed home from Waverley that night was the fact they had seen Brian Taylor reach the magical three figures.

    MAGPIES WHO TOPPED THE TON

    1929 – Gordon Coventry (124) 1930 – Gordon Coventry (118) 1933 – Gordon Coventry (108) 1934 – Gordon Coventry (105) 1938 – Ron Todd (120) 1939 – Ron Todd (121) 1970 – Peter McKenna (143) 1971 – Peter McKenna (134) 1972 – Peter McKenna (130) 1986 – Brian Taylor (100) ]]>         A final quarter comeback https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/a-final-quarter-comeback/ Wed, 03 Aug 2016 04:12:15 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10621 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun It was 23 minutes into the third quarter of Collingwood’s round four Easter Monday clash with Richmond in 1987, and more than a few frustrated Magpie fans began to make their way towards the Waverley Park exits. After three successive losses to start the season, a fourth seemed a foregone conclusion for Leigh Matthews‘ Magpies. The scoreboard showed the discrepancy; but general play seemed to make it look ever worse. And when David Palm kicked the Tigers’ 14th goal at that stage, the difference was out to 51 points. So you could hardly blame some sections of the crowd from trying to cut a break early from the ‘notorious’ car park at what was then VFL Park. Blue coats were always aplenty in the lead-up to matches at the venue, but they were almost non-existent when it came time to go home. And few thought they were going to miss much on that public holiday Monday as Collingwood’s injury-riddled, young team appeared to be headed for defeat. The Magpies had not been able to take a trick in the first month of the season as injury after injury had hampered their preparations, and allowed a host of fresh faces to be tried out of necessity than willingness. Those who came to watch the curtain-raiser at least had the chance to watch Peter Daicos make his return from a troublesome foot injury. He did well enough to suggest a senior recall sooner rather than later, saying immediately after the match: “I had 16 or 17 touches in the first half, I was reasonably happy.” Eleven of the 20 players who took the field for the VFL match against Richmond that day had played 26 games or fewer. Eight of them had played less than 10 games – interstate recruits Michael Christian, Craig Starcevich and Grantley Fielke, as well as home-grown Magpies Gavin Brown (Templestowe), Jason Croall (Bundoora), Terry Keays (St Marys), Paul Rizonico (Bundoora) and Matthew Ryan (Eltham). The powerfully-built Keays was playing his first game that day, in the No.60 jumper. His grandfather, Fred, one of 57 ANZACs to have worn the Black and White before and/or after World War One, played three games with Collingwood in 1922, joining the club after two seasons at Fitzroy. Incredibly, Terry Keays was less than two weeks out from his 17th birthday when he ran out against the Tigers, even if he looked considerably older. Only three players in the side against the Tigers had played 100 or more games – David Cloke (253), Paul Morwood (157, but only his second in Black and White) and Denis Banks (101). And three Magpies to take the field had originally played with Richmond – Cloke, full-forward Brian Taylor and defender Michael Lockman, who started on the interchange bench before playing a big role in the game. Taylor, who had kicked a century of goals a year earlier, was playing his 88th VFL game. But he had been soundly defeated in the opening half by first-year Richmond defender Michael Laffy, failing to register even a kick let alone a goal until midway through the third quarter. In fact, Taylor had even been dragged for a period at one stage of the second term. His frustration, and the frustration of others, boiled over in the shadows of three-quarter-time, and it would prove to be the spark that the Magpies, and their forward, needed to launch a comeback from the dead. The fight had come almost from nowhere, and the pushing, shoving and whatever else lasted almost five minutes before the umpires could restore some order. Taylor was, according to one journalist, “right in the middle of it” and with his blood pumping again, he was in the thick of the action when the play resumed. He took a strong mark to set the scene and two goals to Collingwood in the dying moments cut the difference to 39 points. No Collingwood team in history had ever trailed by as much as three-quarter-time and come back to win. Still, that wasn’t a part of the message Matthews gave his young team before the resumption in the last term. The Age’s Harvey Silver could sense a momentum shift. In his match report, he noted: “: “If a turning point had to be found, it was probably the brawl which erupted in Collingwood’s forward zone.” All of a sudden there was hope, but it was only a flicker. Those who had already left the game, and were listening on the radio on their way home, felt no compulsion to turn around and come back again. Still, Matthews spoke passionate to the Collingwood huddle, expressing a belief that a few early goals could turn what had looked like a disappointing defeat into the most unlikely of victories. But did they believe him, and believe enough in each other? That remained to be seen. But Matthews made a few changes to try and dull the Tigers’ dominance. He switched Paul Morwood onto Terry Wallace and used Shane Kerrison on Dale Weightman. And the coach knew that the fight had lifted the spirit of his team, saying later: “Sometimes it takes something like that to change the course of the game.” And Matthews’ words gained more traction when Taylor, revitalised after being in the middle of that third term stoush, kicked the opening goal of the final term to give the Magpies a sniff of what was to come. But Richmond’s Maurice Rioli pushed the margin back out to 40 points with a fine goal at the seven-minute-mark as a quick reply to Taylor’s opening major of the final term. It would, however, be their only goal for the quarter. Collingwood was on its way to kicking nine for the term, leaving those who had left early to avoid the traffic snarl cursing their impulsiveness. A few flashes of brilliance for Collingwood helped to spark the revival – a smart intercept and some strong play from Darren Millane, Lockman’s hard work in defence after coming off the interchange bench, some clever play in attack from Starcevich and Rizonico, and the powerful work of Taylor deep in the forward line. In his first year at the club, Starcevich launched a long bomb from half forward that looked for a moment as if it had been touched by Taylor in the goal square. Fortunately, the umpire said he hadn’t, and in the days before goal reviews, the six points were on the board. The margin was now back to 33. Lockman set up a chain that provided the next goal, with a clearing kick from half back finding Starcevich, who handballed off to Paul Morwood. He then ran forward and gave it off to a clear Fielke at half-forward, and he had a bounce and spotted Ryan at the top of the goal square. Ryan’s goal brought the Magpies to within 27 points. It wasn’t quite game on, but the momentum was in Collingwood’s favour at the 10-minute-mark of the final term. There was still plenty of time to spare, too. Millane was stiff not to be paid a holding the ball decision, but never gave in. He fought hard to win the ball back soon after, and his long boot into attack ended up in the arms of Taylor, who made no mistake from 50m. It was the full-forward’s 350th VFL goal, and it reduced the margin even further. Collingwood’s desperation levels were ramped up in the belief it could now win this game. One of Rizonico’s long kicks deep into attack gave Taylor the opportunity to take a spectacular mark, dragging it in at the second attempt. He kicked truly to make it a 15-point margin at the 19-minute-mark. Cloke’s aggression with David Palm in one passage of play showed just how much Collingwood meant business, although it ended in a free-kick to the Richmond player. But a crucial miss from Weightman a few moments later left the door ajar, and the Magpies were intent on barging straight through it. Lockman, in only his third game for Collingwood, played inspired football, continually running the ball out of defence. And Cloke was enormous against his old side. He took a strong mark from a Richmond kick-in, and drove it long, with Fielke roving and giving it off to Ryan on an acute angle. Ryan’s snap from an almost impossible angle produced his second goal for the quarter, cutting the margin back to nine points at the 23-minute-mark. A minute later Taylor lost his mouthguard in a passage soon after, and the ball funnelled out to Rizonico. He ducked and weaved around an opponent, and steadied himself from 45 metres and nailed the goal. Three points was the difference; there was still time left on the clock. Richmond went forward and Maurice Rioli looked as if he was a chance to get one back the other way. But two Collingwood players, Ryan and Paul Morwood, made a desperate lunge to stop him. Two things happened. Rioli was stopped, and the collision between the three players saw Ryan, fall to the ground, with blood streaming from his mouth, and his sternum injured. As the Magpies cleared the ball out of defence, Ryan remained on the turf. Croall took a strong mark and gave off to Mick Gayfer, who handballed to Jamie Turner. His kick landed in the arms of Starcevich at the other end of the ground. The West Australian missed, and the margin was two points, as Ryan was assisted from the field. The ball was up for grabs in Collingwood’s attacking zone when Graeme Atkins found space. His right foot snap brought the crowd to its feet, putting his team in front again from what had been a hopeless position. Collingwood fans danced on the Waverley seats, the Magpie players rushed to Atkins and Paul Morwood who had taken a critical mark a few moments earlier after the ball appeared destined to sweep out of the zone. The Pies were four points up at the 28-minute-mark, with only a few minutes remaining. Trevor Poole tried to rally the Tigers and sent the ball long, only to see it marked strongly by Millane. There would be no passing him in this instance. A long kick by Starcevich found a pack of players including Taylor, who read the ball superbly, and out the back, snapped around his shoulder. It was Collingwood’s ninth goal, and the sealer. And it was Taylor’s sixth goal – all of them in the second half, including four in the last term. Taylor had been, according to Silver, “possibly the worst player on the ground for almost three quarters, (but) his form epitomised the change in Collingwood.” Keays had the ball when the final siren sounded, symbolic of the fact that the Magpies’ younger players had played a strong role in the comeback victory. He booted it high in jubilation as fans stormed out onto the Waverley Park ground to greet their heroes on their way to the dugout change rooms. The Sun said: “Move over Lazarus”. And when he was introducing the replay for the ABC, who had the sole television rights that season, Tim Lane didn’t cop any flak for suggesting: “Now for the comeback almost as big as the one that prompted the day that we celebrated yesterday … Easter Sunday.” Richmond coach Tony Jewell was devastated by the result, describing the loss as “sickening”. Leigh Matthews was happy, but still mindful that 1987 – the year of the VFL expansion, which included the introduction of West Coast and Brisbane – was going to be a tough year for the young Magpies. He said: “As a team, we have a long way to go. One performance does not make the season, but at least the players will gain confidence. One terrific quarter has got us four points, and it will help club morale.” It would end up being a difficult season for Collingwood, but that 10-point victory over Richmond still sits as the club’s best last-term comeback – and a great memory for those who were out at Waverley that afternoon. Collingwood      2.4, 4.10, 7.11, 16.14 (110) Richmond          3.5,7.7, 14.8, 15.10 (100) The Herald Sun’s best Best – COLLINGWOOD: Ryan, Millane, Starcevich, Cloke, Turner, Taylor, Lockman, Atkins, Fielke Goal kickers: Taylor 6, Ryan 2, Starcevich 2, Banks 2, Atkins, Fielke, P Morwood, Rizonico]]> Daicos versus Ablett https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/daicos-versus-ablett/ Wed, 18 May 2016 04:35:29 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10467 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. This match wasn’t simply Collingwood versus Geelong; for much of it, this was Daicos versus Ablett. The round two, 1993 clash between the Magpies and the Cats was not only an early-season blockbuster; it had the added bonus of taking place at one of football’s suburban battlegrounds, Collingwood’s Victoria Park. And, fittingly, the game would duly live up to the expectations. This would be the last time these two great sides would square off on the Magpies’ hallowed turf and it also proved to be a cracking contest, centred on two champions of the game. Collingwood had beaten Footscray in the opening round of the season; and Geelong, the previous year’s Grand Finalist, had beaten St Kilda in their first game. Given the limited number of people who could attend Victoria Park matches, many fans were going to miss out on the occasion. The Cats lobbied unsuccessfully with the AFL to have the game transferred to the MCG, but the fact that the home of football already had games scheduled for the Friday night, Saturday and Sunday made that problematic. In contrast, the Magpies were steadfast that the venue needed to be retained. But they did seek to have the game played live on television, but the AFL wouldn’t allow Channel Seven to do it. Daicos was coming into the game under a fair amount of pressure. The 31-year-old almost retired after the end of the 1992 season, but the club coaxed him into returning. Ablett, also 31, and born 11 days after Daicos in 1961, was still at the peak of his powers, and clearly Collingwood coach’s Leigh Matthews’ biggest worry going into the match. 160518_daicosheader02 Gary Ablett kicked seven goals in Geelong’s loss to Collingwood in round two, 1993. In a Herald Sun column days before the game, the Magpie forward said that “in my 15 seasons as a senior player … never has the depth been greater.” “Maybe that’s why people have been asking me all week how I felt about my own game (against Footscray in round one). It’s a funny thing. Obviously, I have played many better matches of football, but some of those have received far less favourable response from my coach Leigh Matthews. On Friday night, he asked me to perform a certain role, and while a few extra touches would have gone down well, Leigh was pleased I stuck to my task.” Collingwood took a gamble in selection before the game, bringing in “burly rookie” Glenn Sandford to give some assistance in attack, while Gavin Crosisca was also back in the Magpies’ side. On the same day, across town at the MCG, a 17-year-old kid called Dustin Fletcher would play the first of his 400 games, in a match where Essendon and Carlton drew after a Stephen Kernahan miss. A total of 24,147 fans squeezed into Victoria Park on 3 April, 1993, with Magpies president Allan McAlister apologising to the many fans who missed out on seeing the game. Ablett kicked the first two goals of the match, as well as adding a third goal and two behinds before quarter-time. Matthews had a dilemma – should he stick with Gavin Brown on Ablett or swing an early change? Matthews backed his judgment, and as Ablett tired during stages of the game, Brown helped to set up many forward entries off the back of running off his opponent. During the second term, Ablett let frustration get the better of him. He was reported for striking Gary Pert with a left-forearm during a fiery second term. It would see the tribunal ban him for two weeks. He kicked a fourth goal soon after, but he didn’t get a touch in the third term. Then he came home with three last-quarter goals to push the Cats closer to their opponents. But if Ablett was putting on a show at one end, Daicos was faring even better at the other. Those who crammed into the Magpie star’s favourite pockets had the perfect chance to see his artistry in what would ultimately prove to be his fourth last game. Daicos kicked two goals late in the first term which dragged Collingwood back into the contest. His second came as he read the ball off the pack to give his team a narrow lead at quarter-time. He was looking dangerous, boosted by the home crowd support he was receiving. The Age recorded: “Sure, he has played well elsewhere, but Daicos trapping the ball deep in the (Victoria Park) pocket, looking up and threading the ball through the sticks from a position where most would hardly bother to try is a performance that deserves its own theatre. Like Jack Nicklaus playing a great round at Augusta, or Don Bradman cracking a century at Lords, a Daicos bag somehow seems even better at Victoria Park. All the more so yesterday because the performance was so unexpected.” The goals kept coming for the Magpie star, with his eye in, and his tongue out, as he put his team in a winning position. 160518_daicosheader03 Fans would only witness the magic of Peter Daicos just thrice more after his eight-goal game against the Cats. One of the best of his eight goals for the game came when in the last term he had three bounces “before pinning himself against the boundary with an opponent bearing down”. It was his seventh, and it put the game beyond doubt.Sensing the moment, Daicos waved to his father as he ran towards the boundary. He added an eighth goal when he launched a left foot shot around his body when the ball came out of a ball-up stoppage. Halfway through the last term, the margin was 33 points, and even though the Cats made a late charge, Collingwood never seriously looked like losing the match. The final margin was 10 points. One interesting sideline to the game was Collingwood’s use of Barry Mitchell, the most expensive recruit of the season. He spent most of the game on the interchange bench. His stats were one kick and one handball, and that kick was partially smothered off the boot. “It wasn’t his performance today – I mean you can’t perform if you are on interchange,” Matthews said. “We chose to play him there because we had a better 18 in terms of balance.” Cats coach Malcolm Blight summed up the difference in a handful of words: “We just couldn’t find anyone to stop Daicos.” In the rooms after the game, Daicos admitted he was delighted with the win, and his return to form. “Two people I need to thank, who I live with day in and day out, are my wife Colleen and my little daughter Madison who have had to put up with a lot of s— and they’ve been fantastic,” he said. “When I’ve had doubts I’ve always talked to Colleen about it and she has never been negative about things. “I’ve got to thank her for the turnaround.” He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, saying just what it meant to him to be playing again at Victoria Park: “I would have loved to have been in the outer at the 20-minute mark (of the last quarter) and seen how some of the other guys were acting … It’s all part of the emotion of the game … That’s what it is all about.” Jubilant Collingwood fans would have said the same thing. But instead of a rebirth for Daicos, it turned out to be his last great moment in the game. He would only play three more matches – the following week against Essendon, when he kicked two goals, and goal-less games against North Melbourne in round 10, and Sydney in round 15. That last game – his 250th – was spent mainly on the bench, and it wasn’t the farewell he so richly deserved. Still, Collingwood fans prefer to recall that memorable day at Victoria Park against the Cats as the lasting image of Daicos’ final season – when he went head-to-head in an enthralling goal kicking duel with Ablett.]]> A night of hellos and goodbyes https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/a-night-of-hellos-and-goodbyes/ Wed, 11 May 2016 01:17:03 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10447 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. It was a match that seemingly had everything. There was a bold beginning and a farewell of sorts. There was a 23rd birthday, a milestone of longevity and some past demons buried. There was an unusual career-best effort from a club champion, as well as a victory crafted from adversity, owing to a quartet of injuries – one of them which proved career-ending. There was even a banner held up in the Cheer Squad which may have summed up the feeling of many Collingwood fans, but caused some angst among MCG officials. It was round 10, 2006, and it is match worth revisiting. Collingwood took on its nemesis, the Brisbane Lions, that June Saturday night before a crowd of 54,280 fans. Those in attendance and those watching at home on television were in for a real treat. Let’s start with the beginning. It belonged to an 18-year-old young gun called Scott Pendlebury. Wearing the No. 16 jumper – he didn’t switch to No. 10 until 2007 – the No. 5 draft pick from Sale had his first pre-season rudely interrupted by glandular fever, but showed enough form in the VFL to be elevated for his first senior game against the Lions. And it was a beginning of great promise. Pendlebury would join the “first goal, first kick” club that night, having 11 touches, including eight contested possessions. It was a sign of what was to come in the future. 160511_pendlebury600a Scott Pendlebury takes possession during his first senior game in round 10, 2006. The farewell centred on 29-year-old Blake Caracella, though no one knew it at the time. He was playing his 187th game – and his 27th in a Collingwood jumper – and it came against his former side, with whom he had won the 2003 premiership, against the Magpies. This would be his final match, with an incident bringing about a premature end to his successful career. He was the player to wear the No. 10 immediately before Pendlebury took it on the following year. The demons undone that night in 2006 were directly related to that 2003 Grand Final. The Magpies hadn’t beaten the Lions since the 2003 Qualifying Final, and the mental of scars of what happened in the Grand Final that followed, and in the years after, still plagued some of the Collingwood players. It was time to exorcise some of the Lions’ demons. The 23rd birthday was Nick Maxwell‘s. An incident with Jonathan Brown early in the match would provide him with the sort of gift that no one wants – a broken leg, and six weeks on the sidelines. The milestone was Mick Malthouse‘s 700th VFL-AFL game as both a player and a coach – 174 as a player for St Kilda and Richmond, and 526 as coach of Footscray, West Coast and Collingwood. More milestones were ahead. And the banner? It was held aloft by ‘Joffa’ Corfe and read: ‘P— off Brisbane”. Many Magpie fans clearly agreed with the sentiment, even if the ground’s security didn’t have the same regard for it. The unusual career-best came from Nathan Buckley, and it was interconnected with the injuries. Aged 34 and playing his 263rd game, Buckley was shifted forward to provide a target, given the numerous injuries suffered. The Magpies’ midfield maestro would produce a night to remember, kicking a career-best six goals, including his 250th in a Black and White jumper. Robert Walls, who had coached Buckley in his one season with Brisbane in 1993, predicted the Magpies would break their drought against the Lions in a column he penned in The Age on the morning of the match. 160511_pendlebury600b Blake Caracella leaves the MCG for the last time after injuring his neck during Collingwood’s win over Brisbane. “Tonight will be the start of ‘payback time’ for Collingwood,” Walls explained. “Over the past five seasons, the Lions have felt superior to the Pies, physically and mentally. (But) it’s Collingwood’s time.” The opening to the game was as hard-fought and ferocious as the rivalry between these two teams demanded. They didn’t like one another, and it showed. The past was very much dictating what was happening in the present, and this time around Collingwood was determined to make sure they would not give an inch. When Paul Licuria mistakenly gave off a handball to Ash McGrath, and the Lion kicked the first goal, the bad blood was on show for everyone to see. Some scuffles followed and more than a few Lions mouthed off. In one passage of play, Brown crashed into Maxwell, and the Lions forward emerged with blood on his forehead. But the birthday boy fared worse. He had put his body on the line, and never flinched, even when one of the toughest players in the competition was coming at him. By quarter-time, Maxwell’s night was over. But the injuries kept coming. Dane Swan, 22 and playing his 40th game, suffered a hamstring injury. He, too, was out of the game, while Josh Fraser was also injured, but he managed to hobble back on late in the game to kick an unlikely goal. No one was prepared for what happened next. Early in the second term, Caracella’s career changed forever. Fortunately, his life didn’t, but it was a close call. The two-time premiership player went for a ball that came in short, and then appeared to lose his footing. His former teammate Tim Notting slid into him, with his hip inadvertently crashing into the Magpie’s head. As Notting swept the ball away, Caracella was unmoved. No free kick was awarded, and almost as disturbingly, the play carried on as trainers rushed to Caracella’s aid. One reporter noted: “A motionless body and a stretcher are among the two things you never want to see on a footy field.” At least with the stretcher being called, the game was temporarily halted. An eerie feeling went around the MCG, with fears as to what had happened to the likeable Magpie who just couldn’t get up. Caracella would later explain to Buckley in an exclusive interview in the Sunday Herald Sun: “I just got hit in the side of my head. Then I slowly rolled over and tried to get up.” “If you look at the video, you can see my head raised, but my arms and legs don’t do anything. That was me being paralysed for a split second. The doc asked if I could move my feet and I could just wiggle my toes a bit. Within 30-40 seconds, he asked me to move my legs and I did a bit. I got worried because I could see he was worried. “At the same time my arms were really sore. I actually said to the doc to take me through the interchange bench, but he said that wasn’t an option.” Caracella was taken immediately to hospital. He had suffered a fractured vertebra and bruising to the spinal cord. Subsequent X-rays revealed that he had a pre-existing flaw in his spine. The game was important, but Caracella’s welfare was infinitely more so. Again, there was a strange mood in the Collingwood rooms at half-time – when the Magpies led by seven points – as the seriousness of Caracella’s injury began to sink in to his teammates. Many in the crowd felt as if the Magpies’ hopes of winning ended with the limited interchanges they would have for the rest of the game. Jon Ralph explained in the Herald Sun: “Enter Buckley. Pushed forward instead of resting on the bench as he normally would, he dragged the Pies back into the game.” The Magpies kicked five goals to three in the third term, opening up the break to 21 points, and closed the game out with five more goals in the final term to secure a resilient 26-point victory. Buckley had 29 possessions. But for once it was his goal tally which was more important than the disposals. He kicked six goals for the game, his highest tally in AFL football, but the four premiership points felt better. “I’m happy to rotate through the forward line,” Buckley said after the game. “I think Mick was going to use the goal square as an opportunity to rest guys through the midfield because we didn’t have an opportunity to rotate through the bench. “When I went down there late in the third quarter it was to take that rest opportunity and it was good to get on the end of a couple of great passes. “I know what forwards mean when they talk about getting good service because that was basically what I was able to get on the end of.” Buckley won the three Brownlow Medal votes that night – the last of 34 BOGs he would awarded across a stellar career. Malthouse described the victory as “an excellent win, an absolutely terrific win, and a very, very good win under the circumstances.” “We’ve taken another step today . . . are we growing as a football team? Today I thought we grew a bit more. “I think we’d lost our third player by the five-minute mark of the second quarter, or thereabouts, and under the circumstances, I thought the boys were just terrific.” The relief of winning was satisfying, but there was relief too when it emerged that Caracella had narrowly dodged a bullet in terms of how the injury could have been infinitely more serious. A leading sports physician Peter Brukner later detailed how Caracella was “very close” to becoming permanently incapacitated – “he is a very lucky man.” Collingwood President Eddie McGuire agreed: “He’s lucky in his unluckiness, if you like. There doesn’t seem to be any permanent damage. (But) it was a close thing.” 160511_pendlebury600c All smiles again: Blake Caracella walks to the Collingwood coaches box four weeks after sustaining his neck injury against Brisbane. Caracella retired two months after the incident, explaining: “I’ve seen a specialist … and I’m at an increased risk of doing further damage to my spinal cord and possibly being paralysed (if he played on).” “I’ve seen all the specialists and … it was guaranteed that it was too dangerous to play again, so I was obviously very disappointed.” One of the first phone calls Caracalla took in the days after the incident came from Notting. Another was from Neil Sachse, a former Footscray player, who had become a quadriplegic in a match in 1975. That put into context just how lucky he had been. Caracella said later: “The CT scan showed the arteries that go through the vertebrae . . . there are holes in the back of the vertebrae where they go through and are held in place and I actually cracked the rim of the hole. “So if that bone had gone backwards or splintered a bit and cut the artery, it was pretty much goodnight. “You can see on the scan that there is a bit of bruising in the spinal cord behind C5. I said, ‘Does that happen very much when it comes to these types of injuries?’ He said, ‘No, not really, normally there is no bruising or it snaps in half.’ Amazingly, I didn’t snap it. I have been incredibly lucky in that sense.” Fortunately, he was never going to be lost to football. Caracella became a Collingwood assistant coach (2007-2009) and has been an assistant at Geelong since 2010. And many good judges think he has what it takes to become an AFL senior coach one day.]]>