Take The Steps: Mark Robinson on the memories, moments and what makes Collingwood’s premiership documentary
As Collingwood coach Craig McRae often says, moments will become memories. And in 2023, there were so many that we didn’t see – until now. Mark Robinson Takes The Steps with the Magpies.
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Among countless tales of positive thinking, personal challenges and ultimate accomplishment, there is a tale of two car rides.
The first is of an anxious Darcy Moore driving down Smith St and Clarendon St to the MCG ahead of the 2023 preliminary final. The second is of the skipper in his car after the game, emotionally rattled after what was another palpitating Collingwood victory.
If sports docos are judged by how much the audience is captivated by the moments, which is a world away from those who actually live the moments, the Collingwood documentary, Take The Steps, is a resounding winner.
Focused on Moore, coach Craig McRae, veteran Scott Pendlebury and boy wonder Nick Daicos, the documentary is easily the most complete team-based AFL production.
Access to all areas does that. We are taken into private meetings and pre-game talks, into team dinners and people’s homes.
And into Moore’s car.
On this night, 12 months to the weekend when Collingwood lost to Sydney by a point, Moore was two hands to the wheel and a million thoughts to the game.
“There’s a little bit more expectation on us to deliver than there was last year,’’ he says. ‘’We just believe in ourselves and we know if we bring our best anything is possible. There’s talking about it and there’s going out and enjoying it, and they are two very different things. I feel the pressure, the responsibility to deliver, but that’s what you play for, that’s what makes it fun.’’
Three hours later, Moore is slumped in his car in the MCG car park, his scrambled head in his hands.
“Whoa,’’ he says. “That was pretty f---ed … I feel really like, just … I can’t think. It was such a grind, it was so hard. There’s so many people, so pumped … literally for two hours you can’t even enjoy it because you’re so f---ing stressed …. Aaahh … whoa. We’re in a Grand Final, what the hell, one point. If we do that next week I’ll probably pass away.’’
The best ideas in football can be borrowed, massaged and adopted.
McRae said he latched on to the theme for 2023, Take The Steps, when he was at the foot of one of London’s Tube Stations stairwells.
The motto? Do the work, take the steps, be present, enjoy the moments.
It was a mantra not too dissimilar to Damien Hardwick’s theme at Richmond in 2017. Hardwick used the steps of climbing Everest as the Tigers’ mission statement.
At the Pies, an actual ladder accompanied the team to most games. Two games it was left behind resulted in Collingwood defeats. With mindfulness paramount, the missing ladder didn’t go unnoticed by the players.
It was a significant piece of equipment because after each victory, a player of significance would paint a rung.
For the finals, another theme was added. In the lead up to the first final against Melbourne, and at a dinner at the MCG, McRae introduced Latin. “We’re going with an operation here, a mission, ‘imperium momentum’, the Latin word for command empire,’’ McRae says.
“And we’re going to call on our army. And it’s a big f---ing army we’ve got. We are going to call upon them to command the empire and the momentum part is just (us) living in it.
“We are going into battle and the first assault is on the Demons. ‘Carpe diem’ … seize the moment.’’
They were battle ready. In pre-training meetings, the players wore dark green army-like T-shirts. McRae even wore a camouflage T-shirt under his Collingwood top in the pre-match meeting before Melbourne. When he showed it to the players, they erupted in laughter. Talk about breaking the ice.
Clearly, the Pies were protective of their IP. There were no tactics meetings on show in the doco, or whiteboard revelations, which gave to old-school motivation and encouragement, not unlike what you’d hear from a country coach.
Like McRae at halftime of the GWS final: “The last two games they have put teams away in the second quarter. They haven’t done it to us. They’ve thrown their best punch. Come on, execute your role, play our system, let’s get to work.”
Like McRae in the rooms before the Grand Final, when he announced to the players his wife had a baby boy that morning – and then corrected himself and said girl. The players went berserk, cheering and whooping. Talk about breaking the ice again, this time on footy’s biggest day. Composed, McRae said: “It’s all about pressure … that’s what we do.’’
And McRae at three quarter-time of the Grand Final: “we’ve got to be f---ing brave here, boys. One minute at a time. All those steps we’ve taken … this is what it’s for. Trust each other, go get the job done.’’
Daicos’ knee injury was a story within the story. We learn that a training session eight days out from the preliminary final was his crossroads moment. “If I don’t get through this sessions, it’s done,’’ he says, “I won’t be able to play.’’ He got through it.
His next major moment was when he emerged from the bench in the first quarter of the preliminary final. The reception aroused the packed MCG. “I was a little emotional at the time,’’ he says.
Stories abound. There’s the pre-finals questioning of Collingwood, there’s the Maynard bump and Daicos’ Brownlow medal anxiety.
And Moore’s telling of the superstition of being the captain who last holds the premiership cup at the parade is the comical highmark.
Not unexpectedly, Pendlebury is the cool head. McRae leans on him and Pendlebury gives himself to the players. Always has. “My mates would say socially they don’t see me that often and there is a cost,’’ he says. “The reason why I’ve done what I’ve done … it definitely feels validated by this, getting another go at it at 35.’’
Leadership is not endorsed by how many kicks and handballs. A pivotal moment came deep in the final quarter of the Grand Final, moments after Charlie Cameron gave the Lions the lead.
Re-gathering in the middle, Nick Daicos had a plan.
Pendlebury: “Nick’s like, ‘Do you want me to go to half-forward, I can get Titch (Tom Mitchell) in’. I said, ‘what, don’t you want to be a part of this? This is going to be amazing.’’
Daicos: “I think, when he tests me out like that, this is my chance to try to help the boys get one forward.’’
We know the next play. Daicos wins the ball from the tap, gets it to Pendlebury, who kicks it inside 50. The ball is spoiled high and back past the 50m line, where Daicos’ has followed up. His now famous signature move – the handball while in the air – gets to De Goey who kicks the goal.
To think, if Pendlebury didn’t challenge Daicos that play wouldn’t have happened. It was the moment among many. “It doesn’t get much better than that,” Pendlebury says.
The Grand Final ran and won, the on-ground access was unprecedented.
Even St Nick was lost in the moment. Daicos dropped something like seven F-bombs in a 20 second synopsis of how it felt.
The scenes were of utter jubilation. There was Darcy and his dad, Bobby Hill and his Norm Smith, and there were hugs galore. It culminates with the players gathering in the middle of the MCG hours after that.
As the coach often says, moments will become memories.
The doco ends with the coach. It’s three months after the Grand Final and he sits at home, with baby Maggie on his legs, pondering the impact of winning the premiership.
As tears took hold, he says: “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry … we all have own stories haven’t we and this is a pretty cool one.’’
Take the Steps is now showing exclusively at Hoyts Cinemas across the country.
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