Peter Daicos sees a lot of similarities in Collingwood’s 1990 premiership and today’s team
SOMETHING clicked for Collingwood on Friday night. Magpies great Peter Daicos says the club’s Grand Final run is reminiscent of the drought-breaking 1990 premiership side.
SOMETHING clicked.
And Collingwood’s spirit is reminiscent of our 1990 triumph.
Walking to the ground on Friday night, I was nervous. Taking on the Tigers was going to be a big ask.
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I went down Swan Street on my way to the MCG and it was like a Grand Final — people were walking all over the road, you couldn’t move. It was just crazy and I loved the anticipation.
I wasn’t just a supporter hoping my team would make it in to the Grand Final. My son, Josh, is obviously at Collingwood and we’d all really hoped he’d be in the mix for a spot.
While I was really disappointed that he missed out on an emergency position, the most important thing after that was the boys getting a good start which they did absolutely. It amazed everyone.
I was expecting them to give a good account and I was also giving them a chance, but what transpired was pretty awesome. Every time we scored, people were looking around going ‘what’s going on here? Where’s this come from?’.
It was always sitting dormant, clearly you can’t just turn that on.
Something clicked, and was it the sad events of the loss of Trav Varcoe’s sister a couple of weeks ago? I think that had a lot to do with it.
This group is very close, and I liken it to my 1990 teammates. When there’s a really good understanding among players, it’s one of the most important things in a team.
You can hammer tactics and exploit them a little bit, but the one thing you can’t defend against is spirit. With spirit, if it’s on an all-time high - and I think it was on Friday night - you’d have to hit players with sledgehammers to take their focus away.
That is clearly the make-up of this team.
The spirit for us in 1990 was huge. This team plays with a hell of a lot of spirit, it’s a key ingredient and one of the main reasons they are there.
Talent is one thing, but playing with that spirit is really all-important.
I’d been told to be on my best behaviour, but when the siren went, I just let rip.
I let my emotions just get carried away a little bit, which was just fantastic. Leading into the game, Richmond was favourite but looking at it past results, the long break, injury clouds and the fact they’d been up for a long, long, time, gave me hope.
As for Nathan Buckley, well, I had clearly questioned him.
Over the last five years, he’d had a pretty good go at it. He’s clearly got some good people around him now.
They’ve lessened the load a bit, it allows him to sit back and look at body language, listen to players and be able to instruct more.
I just reckon there’s a lot better spread of responsibility and a few more smarts there.
They’ve really been able to blood great young talent, get games into them and now this group has a great asset in its pocket — maturity.
There were plenty gunning for him.
I felt for him at times — he’s got a family and his own emotions to contend with.
It’s been a fantastic turnaround, and we gave him a whack when it wasn’t going well so let’s make sure that if it all goes well next week that we’re rightly singing his praises.
*Peter Daicos played 250 games for Collingwood, including the 1990 premiership win over Essendon, and is a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and Collingwood Team of the Century.
Originally published as Peter Daicos sees a lot of similarities in Collingwood’s 1990 premiership and today’s team