Two minutes of desperate West Coast defence that won the game before Dom Sheed’s moment arrived, writes Mark Robinson
THE two minutes which won the game for West Coast prompted high praise but the five seconds which helped lose the game for Collingwood will prompt cries of injustice, writes Mark Robinson.
IT always comes down to moments won and lost.
The two minutes which won the game for West Coast — at the end of a fervent final quarter — prompted the highest praise from Eagles legend Glen Jakovich.
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The five seconds which helped lose the game for Collingwood will prompt cries of injustice.
Brayden Maynard should have won a free kick for being blocked off the ball.
It’s as simple and cruel as that.
He was denied by Willie Rioli from contesting the ball which was marked by Dom Sheed, who then kicked the winning goal.
It was blatant and illegal from Rioli, and hardly subtle, and the umpire missed it.
If the AFL ticks off the non-free - and it will be asked about it - it will be a travesty.
Of course, it means little now as the premiership cup heads west, the fourth premiership won by the powerhouse club from Western Australia.
“It’s the greatest victory in our club’s history,’’ Jakovich said in the rooms after the match.
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“(The) 1992 (premiership) was one of the greats because we broke a 100 years of Victorian stranglehold and turned it into a national competition.
“1994 we win it and we won well.
“2006 was epic because you had two powerhouses.
“Then these guys, they’ve had to live in a bit of a dark shadow over the past two or three years because of what happened in 2015.
“Talk abut a horror story three years ago and they vindicated themselves today.
“They put up their hand and accepted all the critiques from the eastern seaboard … how they dropped their heads, they dropped the mark, crucial times and this and that, and they took that on board.
“They went out against the Western Bulldogs the following year, Jack Darling has another bad moment, but what do you do? You keep putting your hand up and say ‘I’m going to have another crack at it’.
“With that comes maturity and standing on the biggest stage and saying it’s not going to happen again on my watch today.’’
The free kick aside, the match and the Eagles were magnificent.
Will Schofield, Luke Shuey, Nathan Vardy, Josh Kennedy, Mark Hutchings, Tom Barrass, Jeremy McGovern, Liam Duggan … each had huge roles and played monster games.
Collectively, the Eagles recovered from five goals down and swarmed the Magpies after half-time.
The final three minutes of the match were drama-filled, two of the final three minutes were mayhem before the magic.
Sheed’s mark and goal — the moment of the game — was born from a 100 moments played out in the Eagles defensive 50m a minute before.
With 3.52 to play on the clock, and Collingwood leading 74-72, there was a stoppage 20m from the Magpies’ goal.
Within 15m of the ball there were 12 Magpies and 12 Eagles players and what unfolded was an epic defensive scramble.
Brodie Grundy won the tap out, McGovern bumped Brody Mihocek off the ball, Sheed won the ball, Adam Treloar tackled Sheed, the ball spilt, Jordan de Goey won the ball, Hutchings tackled him, the ball fell into Taylor Adams’ hands, Chris Masten lunged at Adams, his kick was smothered by Lewis Jetta, the ball rebounded to de Goey, he was tackled by Jetta and Masten, the ball spilt to de Goey and he kicked the ball into teammate Levi Greenwood.
There was 3.41 on the clock.
The accidentally smothered ball fell to Jamie Cripps, he was tackled by Chris Mayne and Greenwood. The ball spilt to McGovern, he fumbled, Mihocek won the ball, he handballed to Grundy but missed the target, Josh Kennedy won the ball, he was tackled by Grundy, the ball spilt to Jaidyn Stephenson, he was tackled by Vardy and the ball spilt.
Elliot Yeo tried to grab it and missed, Jack Redden, Will Hoskin-Elliott, Scott Pendlebury and Shuey dived at the ball. Shuey was first there — just — he tapped it to Duggan, his quick kick was almost smothered by Mihocek, the ball was marked by Cripps near the 50m line.
It was pinball footy, furious and instinctive. Body after body was thrown at the footy which was pushed and shovelled and squeezed out of wanting arms and eventually out of the defence.
There was 3.12 on the clock.
Jack Crisp marked Cripps’ kick, he switched to the members’ wing to Steele Sidebottom, he was closed down by a sprinting Tom Cole, who crept the mark by a metre and Sidebottom switched back to Crisp as the Eagles tried to clamp every Collingwood player.
Crisp wanted to go back to Sidebottom but Cole closed him down again, Crisp kicked it down the line of the Southern Stand wing, Treloar ran on to the spillage and his left-footer into the 50m was marked by McGovern.
There was 2.41 on the clock.
McGovern’s mark, naturally, came when he flew third-man over Jetta and Mihocek which is his signature play. His opponent, de Goey, trailed in 10m behind. “McGovern. McGovern. what a play,’’ boomed commentator Bruce McAvaney.
McGovern’s kick was marked by Vardy on the wing, Vardy’s kick was marked by Liam Ryan at half-forward, a towering, courageous and acrobatic fly against Tom Langdon and Crisp which squared his humiliating effort under a high-ball in the third quarter.
Ryan’s kick to the pocket was marked by Sheed who, remember, first got his hands on the ball back at Grundy’s tap up the other end.
The game went from mayhem to purity to the controversial.
Asked if there was a block on Maynard, Wayne Carey said at the time: “He probably was.’’ Cameron Ling was more defiant. “It was,’’ he said.
Put it another way, if a forward was blocked off the ball like Maynard was as a defender, a free kick surely would’ve been paid.
In the end, Sheed’s goal, captured perfectly by TV cameras behind the kick, decided the game, but it was the staunch defence from the moment Grundy won the tap which gave Sheed the opportunity to decide the game.
Those two minutes will forever live in Eagles folklore as a symbol of commitment and ultimately the grandest of achievement.
Originally published as Two minutes of desperate West Coast defence that won the game before Dom Sheed’s moment arrived, writes Mark Robinson
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