Inside the final two minutes of Collingwood’s heart-stopping win over Greater Western Sydney

A ‘stop’ sign was held aloft on the bench, Scott Pendlebury went full traffic cop and eight back-to-back stoppages followed. It was clock killing at its best and this is how the Magpies did it.

Collingwood stars Nathan Murphy and Darcy Moore react on the final siren. Picture: Getty Images

A talkback radio caller on Friday night rang up with a suggestion for Collingwood chief executive Craig Kelly.

The caller said that Magpies memberships for those over the age of 60 need to start coming with pacemakers, after yet another heart-stopper.

A pulsating one-point preliminary final win over Greater Western Sydney followed a seven-point qualifying final triumph over Melbourne.

Over the past two seasons under coach Craig McRae, Collingwood has now featured in 20 matches decided by single-digit margins.

The Magpies have won 16 of those – including the past five.

That’s no fluke.

As good as Collingwood has been this year, it has not been a dominant force like the Brisbane Lions were in the early 2000s when McRae was playing, or even like Geelong was last year.

The Cats won 14 games by more than 24 points on their way to the flag last season, including belting Brisbane by 71 points in their preliminary final.

Collingwood has won just nine games by more than four goals this season and scraped into a Grand Final by the narrowest of margins.

The Magpies are making their premiership push in a different way, not by putting opposition sides to the sword each week but instead through owning the moments when the game is on the line.

Scott Pendlebury, Darcy Cameron and Steele Sidebottom celebrate on the final siren. Picture: Michael Klein

In one of the closest AFL seasons in history, Collingwood has been the competition’s best-drilled team in those moments and showed it again in the last quarter against the Giants on Friday night.

Call them the ‘Moments Magpies’.

“We just had to find a way to stand up in big moments and we had so many guys that did,” Magpies captain Darcy Moore said after the win over GWS.

“We’re just trying to execute what we’ve practised so many times before. We win these close games for a reason – because we’re organised.”

A ‘Stop’ sign was held aloft by the Collingwood bench in the last two minutes, as the side clung on to a one-point lead.

But when you have a player like Scott Pendlebury – in his 382nd game – in the middle of the ground pointing fingers like a traffic cop, the players hardly needed to see the memo.

The Magpies didn’t need to kick another goal at that point – they just had to stop GWS from scoring.

McRae’s side orchestrated a loose man a kick behind the play in Jeremy Howe – at least briefly.

From there, they saturated stoppages with perfect defensive shape around the contest to stop the Giants in their tracks.

During the last two minutes on the clock, Collingwood ensured that there were no less than eight stoppages created through their tackling, defensive shape, ability to win crucial contests – and some professional fumbles.

Tom Mitchell – celebrating with Nick Daicos and Jack Crisp – was massive in the final term. Picture: Michael Klein

It was clock killing at its best.

It also meant that in the last two minutes GWS was only able to register one drop punt kick through Harry Perryman coming out of defensive 50.

That kick looked like landing in Jesse Hogan’s hands in the middle of the ground, before Moore left his man to press up and spoil.

From there, five stoppages within a 20m radius saw the seconds tick down, before a Jamie Elliot kick wide to open space on the wing.

Josh Daicos was first to that footy, gathered it cleanly and sent a bullet kick to Will Hoskin-Elliott down the line.

With that, a Grand Final berth was sealed.

Hawthorn is at a different stage in its development, but coach Sam Mitchell revealed after a one-point loss to Richmond in round 19 that his side “haven’t done a lot of scenario training” on how to close out matches.

Quite the opposite has been the case ever since McRae walked in the door at Collingwood.

“(It’s been) two years of doing one-on-one fight drills,” McRae said on Friday night.

“You saw some of those contests in the last quarter, how much we rehearsed those moments.

“All those lessons are why we’re here now and we’re still breathing, because we practice it … two minutes to go, kill the game, two minutes to go, we need to win.

“It’s over and over, it’s rehearsed for these moments … but we’ve got work to do, there’s a couple of scenarios in particular in that last quarter I thought we could have executed better.”

It was not just the last two minutes where Collingwood nailed the moments, either.

Mason Cox kicked Collingwood’s only goal in the final quarter. Picture: Getty Images

Wingman Steele Sidebottom ran 70 metres to slide back and support his defence with just over four minutes to play.

His efforts led to a mark on the goal-line which saved what would have been a certain Toby Greene goal – that would have handed the Giants a five-point lead.

Defenders Nathan Murphy and Isaac Quaynor also had crucial moments in the final minutes, while Nick Daicos logged nine disposals in the last term and Tom Mitchell laid five of his side’s 14 tackles for the quarter.

Mason Cox slotted Collingwood’s only goal of the final quarter at the seven-minute-mark, splitting the middle from a set shot just inside the 50m arc.

After losing a preliminary final to Sydney by one point last year, the impressive Magpies moments made sure that they were on the right side of the ledger this time.

Now comes the ultimate test.

The last time Collingwood featured in a Grand Final in 2018, it failed to hold up in big moments late in the contest against eventual premier West Coast.

The Magpies had led that decider for 104 minutes before Dom Sheed’s match-winning goal with 1min 45sec left on the clock, which put West Coast four points in front.

Based on their first two finals, it would not surprise if Collingwood made its fans suffer through another heart-stopper next Saturday at the MCG.

But if the ‘Moments Magpies’ are in the game with two minutes to go, you’d back them to claim the silverware this time around.

Originally published as Inside the final two minutes of Collingwood’s heart-stopping win over Greater Western Sydney