By Jake Niall
In winning their fourth premiership in one of the great grand finals, the West Coast Eagles overcame the following: a deficit of nearly five goals, the absence of three key players, a home ground disadvantage and a worrisome case of goalkicking yips that threatened to cost them the flag.
At the end, after a succession of nervous misses, it was a young West Australian midfielder, Dom Sheed, who calmly threaded a shot from 40 metres out near the boundary at the Punt Road end to give West Coast the lead over a tired Collingwood with less than two minutes remaining.
Dom Sheed threads the needle in the dying minutes.Credit: Eddie Jim
In 2005, the Eagles had been stopped by ''the mark'' to Sydney's Leo Barry, reversing that result with one-point victory over the Swans 12 months later. This time, Sheed delivered ''the shot'' - a composed drop punt that went arrow straight and finally broke the staunch Collingwood defensive effort that had held up West Coast in the second half. The Eagles won by five behinds, 11.13 to 11.8, in front of 100,022 enthralled fans.
The Sheed shot ended a jittery run of four consecutives behinds by West Coast, as the ball remained locked in their front half. It would remain there in the last minute, and while Jack Darling fumbled a chance to seal the game near the goal line, it did not matter.
Prior to the Sheed shot, it had seemed that the Magpies - against the tide of play in the second half - might hang on for their 16th VFL/AFL premiership and their third since the advent of the national competition. They had led by a two-goal margin twice in the final term, having burst clear with two quick goals to Brody Mihocek and Jordan De Goey in the first minutes of the last quarter, and restored an 11-point advantage following Mason Cox's wonky finish.
But West Coast replied immediately to the Collingwood onslaught, as Nathan Vardy plucked a pack mark and Josh Kennedy hooked a Steve Johnson-style snap.
Those opening minutes of the final quarter, indeed, were extraordinary, as both clubs scored from decisive centre clearances. But even as the Magpies led by two kicks, there was always a sense that their advantage was fragile, and so it proved.
Having held an edge in play after quarter-time, West Coast owned most of the last 15 minutes. The more measured Eagles decisively won the territorial battle as the ball was marooned in Collingwood's defensive half, their panicked defenders unable to clear the ball while West Coast peppered the goals.
It was a result that cruelly foiled Nathan Buckley's best chance yet to break his premiership drought as player and senior coach. His team faltered - their grip gradually yet inexorably loosened - after setting up what would normally be a flag-winning lead in the opening quarter.
Collingwood's dejection was reflected in their skipper Scott Pendlebury's polite but perfunctory post-match speech, in which he congratulated the Eagles - ''you were too good in the end, well done'' - and quickly stepped off the podium.
It was an outcome that will probably defuse the issue of the MCG home-ground advantage, which should be welcomed by the AFL Commission. West Coast's victory has broken a run of higher-ranked non-Victorian clubs losing grand finals to lower-ranked Victorians - a pattern established by Hawthorn in 2014 (over Sydney) and 2015 (West Coast), the Bulldogs' fairytale of 2016 (v Sydney) and the storied Richmond demolition of Adelaide last year.
The West Coast victory represented a day of atonement for their embarrassing display in 2015, when they seemed unequal to the occasion. Key players who had failed that sunny afternoon against the Hawks rose to the occasion, none more so than Norm Smith medal-winner Luke Shuey, whose 19 contested possessions, eight clearances and five assists made the ex-Victorian a clear best-on-ground.
Key forwards Kennedy and Jack Darling and gun midfielder Elliott Yeo were others who atoned for 2015. Darling had been subdued early, but his third quarter - when he grabbed six marks and booted a goal - was instrumental in turning the momentum towards his side. Kennedy's 3.2 and 11 marks made him the most influential forward afield, with the valour of veteran opponent Tyson Goldsack not sufficient to curb the champion.
For the Magpies, the result will be yet another gut-wrenching grand final near-miss - comparable to 1964, 1966, 1970, 1979, 1977 and 2002 - albeit they cannot say that they were unlucky given West Coast's profligacy in the last quarter. That said, the Pies should rue a decision to kick the ball backwards and try to retain possession in the final quarter when they held a lead of two points and had some small measure of momentum.
Collingwood star midfielder Steele Sidebottom was subdued by his tagger Mark Hutchings and at one stage had to be shifted forward, while neither skipper Pendlebury nor ruck trump card Brodie Grundy managed to exert the kind of influence that the Pies needed.
Their best performers were tenacious midfielder Taylor Adams and defender Tom Langdon, who held up numerous attacks with his shrewd positioning and marking. De Goey threatened to be a match-winner with three goals, without managing to do so.
Giant American Mason Cox can hold his head up, however. Following an indifferent first half - in which he was well beaten by an impressive Tom Barrass and cut off by the superb interceptor, Jeremy McGovern - Cox had a significant influence in the second half, booting two goals and grabbing important marks.
West Coast skipper Shannon Hurn was another key contributor. Major credit must be given as well to West Coast's ruck combination of Scott Lycett and Nathan Vardy, who together constrained Grundy and prevented Collingwood from gaining the kind of centre-square supremacy that had enabled their stunning demolition of Richmond in the preliminary final.
If an injury cloud had surrounded McGovern before the match - the gun defender had trained unconvincingly on Thursday at the MCG - the game's leading interceptor did not show much sign of distress in his opening half, when he was an important catalyst for West Coast's steady turnaround.
Contested ball was even (Collingwood by 3), but West Coast's territorial edge was pronounced, with 63 entries to 48. Collingwood's advantage in the tackling was significant (103-70), yet offset by West Coast's greater composure with the ball.
West Coast coach Adam Simpson became the latest graduate of Alastair Clarkson's Hawthorn school to take the flag, following on from Luke Beveridge (2016) and Damien Hardwick (2017). In his speech, Simpson noted the contribution of those key players who had missed the grand final - Nic Naitanui, Brad Sheppard, the retired Eric Mackenzie and, of course, the suspended Andrew Gaff, who is yet to confirm whether he will remain with West Coast or exercise his free agency and move back to a Melbourne club.
The scores were deadlocked at three-quarter-time, with the Eagles appearing to have the momentum, their dynamo Darling having exploded into the match in the third quarter to turn it towards the Perth club, as Shuey and Sheed more than held their own against the more vaunted Collingwood midfield.
Collingwood, indeed, had managed only three goals from time-on in the opening quarter to this point, their midfield having been worn down by the likes of Luke Shuey and Sheed, although it was West Coast's tall backs Barrass and McGovern who had initially reversed the flow of the match with their intercept marking.
The Magpies had appeared set for a comfortable victory - and the Eagles for a dismal reprise of their 2015 failure against Hawthorn - when the Pies booted the opening five goals of the match.
As he had in 2011 as a Geelong player against the Magpies, Travis Varcoe scored the first goal of the grand final from a running shot that never looked missing. The blinding acceleration of Rising Star winner Jaidyn Stephenson saw him boot the second and third goals of the match, the latter scored when a jittery Tom Cole dropped a mark.
Nathan Vardy performed well on the big stage.Credit: AAP
When De Goey shrugged a tackle and screwed one back, Collingwood had a blazing four-goals-to-nil start. Worse for a fumbling West Coast, Will Hoskin-Elliott drilled one from the boundary - a similar position to Sheed's final shot - to make it five goals to none.
But this West Coast team has been versed in overcoming adversity, just as much as the Pies. The Eagles soon settled, booting the last two goals of the first quarter - the first almost an accidental soccer on the goal line from Willie Rioli. It almost did not matter how the Eagles scored, it was simply crucial that they did to arrest Collingwood's momentum. When champion Kennedy out-marked Tyson Goldsack, West Coast was within three goals and had stemmed the bleeding.
The lift in West Coast's ferocity around the contest was evident when Liam Ryan - no one's idea of a bone-cruncher - upended Collingwood defender Brayden Maynard with an enormous ribcage-rattling bump.
Maynard subsequently left the field with a shoulder injury a matter of minutes later in the second quarter. He would return, but was not a huge factor.
The Eagles began to take some chances with the ball mid-second quarter. Hitherto, they had been too patient with the ball, often chipping sideways, when a more direct approach might have caught out the smaller Collingwood defenders.
Gradually, West Coast wore the Pies down. At the end, it took one accurate shot to complete the job in one of the greatest grand finals since the AFL went national.