From outsiders to the AFL grand final, Collingwood and West Coast prove how even the league has become
COLLINGWOOD and West Coast started the season off the pundits’ list for contenders to the AFL grand final. Their moment at the MCG on Saturday proves how quickly fortunes can change
- The inspiration behind Grundy’s prelim demolition
- Varcoe’s stirring message to Magpies
- Eagles condemn Demons to prelim hell
IT is not the AFL grand final many expected at the start of the year … and it is not the match-up many had hoped for last week when Melbourne appeared capable of putting away the longest-running premiership drought.
Collingwood was the 23/1 bet to rise from 13th to the Magpies’ first premiership since 2010.
West Coast was 34/1 as the doomsday theme came with the retirement of the Eagles’ Brownlow Medallist midfielders, Matt Priddis and Sam Mitchell. And the Eagles have reached their first grand final since 2015 while dealing with the loss of lead ruckman Nic Naitanui with another serious knee injury and prime midfielder Andrew Gaff with a stern penalty from the AFL tribunal.
And even though the bookmakers considered (marginally, of course) Collingwood a better bet than West Coast for the VFL-AFL’s 122nd flag, the thought of the Magpies returning to the game’s top perch seems a grander achievement than the Eagles reaching their seventh grand final in 32 seasons.
There is, yet again, a club reaping the benefits of being brave to tear itself apart with a review — a real review that led to change rather than protected an empire misguided by its own arrogance and sense of entitlement. This is a big step for Collingwood.
There are, at a time when the AFL executive needs to be reminded this game is built on people, so many great human stories with Collingwood. There is the giant American, Mason Cox, who has followed a remarkable dream from Texas to be the biggest man to play in the AFL.
But the most emotive story is coach Nathan Buckley with it all captured beautifully in the photograph of his hugging his oldest son Jett in the MCG changerooms at the end of Friday night’s preliminary final that brought an unexpected end to Richmond’s reign.
There will be with Collingwood’s rebound — after missing finals for the previous four seasons — the confirmation that the league has found its “even” platform again, seven years after the AFL was last turned upside down with expansion from 16 to 18 teams. The bookmakers might find it more difficult to set a market in the summer, more so if there are new rules endorsed by the AFL Commission next month.
It is remarkable that the rise of Collingwood — a team that is either loved or despised — makes for the best unexpected story of Season 2018. Although, anyone who saw the Magpies boldly take on Adelaide, when the Crows were in form, on April 13 might now reflect on that wet night at Adelaide Oval as the moment a premiership team emerged.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au