West Coast has pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in Grand Final history to stun Collingwood
DOWN five goals to none in the first quarter, West Coast has pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in Grand Final history to stun Collingwood and break Victoria’s hold on the premiership.
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AT half-time Jack Darling and Mason Cox had touched the ball just four times between them.
For the Eagles star it was a case of a nightmare repeating itself from his horror 2015 Grand Final performance.
As for Collingwood’s big American he was staring at being labelled a one-hit wonder after his preliminary final heroics.
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In the next hour both not only redeemed themselves but they provided auditions for being their respective team’s premiership hero.
Eventually the title went to Darling although in keeping with this crazy game he nearly blew it in the final 90 seconds.
With the Eagles hitting the front at the 28-minute mark of the final term, courtesy of a brilliant Dom Sheed set shot goal from the boundary line, a chance to ice the game fell Darling’s way.
Yet somehow he botched a straight forward mark two metres out from goal with no-one around him.
It handed Collingwood one last chance but a Brayden Maynard attempted torpedo from the kick-in didn’t work with the Eagles then able to control the ball and win the premiership.
Before that clanger, Darling had exorcised his demons with an extraordinary third quarter.
After a horror first quarter, the Eagles had at least neutralised the game and with a couple of late goals in the second quarter the margin was back to 12 points.
They call the third term the premiership quarter and that’s when Darling decided to resurrect his standing in the game.
The Eagles forward was a different person and in that 30 minutes he had seven kicks, six marks - four of which were contested - and kicked a goal.
He had an able assistant in Norm Smith Medallist Luke Shuey who had 11 possessions for the quarter to lead all-comers on the ground with 29.
But the Darling explosion saw the Eagles kick four goals to two which meant scores were tied at the final break.
Enter Cox.
The seven-foot giant had been the story of the preliminary final, taking eight contested marks to destroy Richmond.
He’d been one of the biggest stories of Grand Final week with some of the biggest papers in the world back in his homeland wanting a piece of this remarkable story.
At half-time he’d had just one kick.
A nice mark on the lead early in the third quarter got Cox his first goal but it was in the early stages of the final term where he took over with good things starting to happen every time the ball was in his vicinity.
When he took a massive pack mark at the six-minute mark and slotted the goal from 45 metres, the Pies had kicked three of the opening four goals of the final stanza.
Cox the premiership hero was starting to have a nice ring about it.
However, for the rest of the game the ball effectively lived in the Eagles forward half. The inside 50m count was off the charts - at one stage it was 14-3 for the term - but they couldn’t score.
Josh Kennedy kicked his third goal for the day at the eight-minute mark and then it was another 20 minutes before Sheed, who had been prolific all day, put in his nomination for premiership hero with the goal which iced the game.
Before that they’d been in serious danger of blowing away the flag but Collingwood simply couldn’t find a way.
Cox had a set shot at the 25-minute mark but didn’t make the distance from 50m while a few half-chances just didn’t go the Pies way.
The Eagles defence deserves some serious love here with Tom Barrass enormous all day with 10 marks while Jeremy McGovern stood up despite his injury-plagued preparation.
In a bizarre way the Pies seemed to control the game for longer periods than the eventual premiers.
They kicked the opening five goals of the game with some crucial cameos happening everywhere.
Rising Star Jaidyn Stephenson kicked two goals in as many minutes in the first quarter, Jordan De Goey kicked three goals for the game and loomed large all day while Taylor Adams tried his guts out with 31 disposals which included 18 contested possessions and nine clearances.
Travis Varcoe kicked the opening goal of the game and seemed inspired by the memory of his late sister with his tackling a highlight.
Then there was the unheralded Tom Langdon who looked like being a Brian Lake-like Norm Smith Medallist early doors such was his intercept marking dominance.
Unfortunately the Pies ‘Mr September’ Steele Sidebottom was blanketed by Mark Hutchings and had just 14 possessions while Collingwood’s tagger Levi Greenwood was serviceable on Elliot Yeo early but no good when switched to a rampant Shuey in the second half.
In the end the Grand Final is probably best summed up by borrowing a line from a Divinyls classic: “It’s a fine line between pleasure and pain.”
Just ask Jack Darling and Mason Cox.
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