AFL Grand Final 2023: How Collingwood shut down the final moments against Brisbane to seal another close win
The Pies have lived in the thrillers since Craig McRae took over, and on the grandest of stages, they once again proved it’s not a fluke. Go deep into how the Pies closed out the 2023 GF.
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Brody Mihocek was “hoping and praying”.
Jamie Elliott was “so clear” on what he needed to do.
Patrick Lipinski “knew exactly what to do”.
And Mason Cox was looking at the bench hoping for “some relief”.
As just over 100,000 fans chewed their fingernails in the MCG and millions more screamed at their telly at home, the Magpie players flipped into their famous game saving mode.
Books will be written about Collingwood’s supernatural ability to Houdini its way out of tight finishes under Craig McRae and the marquee chapter will be about Saturday’s grand final.
When Charlie Cameron gave the Brisbane Lions the lead with nearly six minutes to play, Collingwood knew it had to score to win the premiership and flashed a No.23 sign from the bench – a signal to take risks named in honour of Anthony Rocca.
Jordan De Goey goaled on the run seconds after the bounce and then Steele Sidebottom converted from long range not long after to create a 10-point buffer with 4min23sec on the clock.
And the McRae switch was flicked.
The Magpies decided they had enough on the board to win the game and it was time to lock the MCG down.
“Over the last two years we’ve had a system in place when we are up or down, we know what to do and the roles are so clear,” Elliott said.
“You see that in the last quarter. We were actually trying to score straight away and at the end with five minutes to go we needed to score and we did and then straight away we went into a different system to save the game.”
That famous Collingwood system locked into place.
Wingers Sidebottom and Josh Daicos swept behind the ball to help out in defence when they could and Scott Pendlebury floated back to be a loose man in defence in the final minute.
The Magpies kept the ball moving – but only in tight confines when possible.
They got it wide to the boundary and they ticked down the clock.
How many times will Collingwood fans watch those last few minutes over summer?
Even the most tense moment imaginable, the Pies backed their style and believed in each other.
“I had faith in the team,” Mihocek said.
“I was hoping and praying in the last five minutes. We were ten points up but even when (Joe) Daniher kicked that goal, I had faith we would get it done.
“We practice it all the time. It is no fluke what we do. I would say Brisbane would have known it was coming and everyone plays their role. We stay on the ball a little longer than we need to, get energy in, use the boundary and it works every time. Everyone is so in tune with each other to get it done and it shows.”
Brisbane broke through only once in the closing stages, with Hugh McCluggage brilliantly finding Daniher to reduce the margin to four points with 93 seconds on the clock.
Closing down a minute-and-a-half was a cinch for these Magpies – they didn’t allow the GWS Giants to score in the final 6min18sec in the preliminary final and froze Melbourne for the final 2min48sec of the qualifying final.
The Magpies mostly played the clock to perfection on grand final day.
There was Jack Crisp passing up a long shot at goal to soak up precious moments with a pass to Jeremy Howe and Tom Mitchell winding down the last minute after drawing the final free kick of the game.
With just over a minute to play, Nick Daicos pulled off one of the toughest kicks of the day to pull the ball wide for Will Hoskin-Elliott instead of blazing away to Brisbane defenders.
It was a touch of class that will be forgotten, but cast iron proof of how special the Magpie youngster is.
As with any finish that tight, there was some luck before the cup came out.
Brisbane will be thinking about the call to play on advantage after Lachie Neale was tripped all summer.
There was no way Zac Bailey heard the whistle and even the mild-mannered Matthew Richardson labelled the advantage call as “ridiculous” on the Channel 7 broadcast.
In nearly the exact same spot just 30 seconds later, three Magpies – Isaac Quaynor, Brody Mihocek and Pendlebury – dived on top of a loose ball and the umpire chose not to deem it holding the ball.
Both times, the Lions would have been in perfect position to kick the ball inside 50 and search for the winning goal.
Mitchell’s free for high contact with 36 seconds left in the game was there on a day the umps battled with their interpretation of high free kicks.
But McRae’s cardiac kids have made their own luck.
The stats will have been tattooed on a Collingwood fan at some point the last 48 hours: of McRae’s 51 games in charge, 21 have been decided by single digits.
Collingwood has won 17 of those games, with two of the four losses coming in last year’s finals series.
In front of an average crowd of 96,775 at three MCG finals this September, the Collingwood average winning margin was four points.
Some sections of footy fandom scoffed last year when the Pies kept spruiking their training habits and the amount of time they spent working on how to close out tight games.
Scoff no more.
“We train it every week,” Elliott said.
“So when we are in those positions, home and away and grand finals, we know what we are doing. We go into these different plays that we need to do, whether we need to score or save the game.
“Everyone plays their part. Everyone is so clear and that is why Craig is such a super coach. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
Cox was Collingwood’s ruck of choice to see out the game, even if he was looking for a breather after first cramping in the third term.
“I was staring at the bench,” he said.
“To be honest, the whole thing is a bit of a blur. I was so exhausted. I was probably looking for some relief at the end.”
The American said it those hours on the track at Olympic Park painstakingly going through positioning and tactics were well and truly worth it to shut down three finals in a row.
“We have trained it over and over and over,” he said.
“We talk about it in meetings, we talk about it all the time.
“When it came to the day (on Saturday), the proof is in the pudding.
“It happened (in the grand final), it happened in the prelim. You could see the way we play is totally different to the rest of the game.”
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