I had the chance to chat with a mad Collingwood supporter earlier this week. As always, it was an enlightening experience.
I don’t say that to belittle the fella – I loved his passion and his footy knowledge, and he was genuinely fun to talk to, but when your team is up and about – and make no mistake, the Pies are about as up and about as it gets – it can tend to skew your perspective a little.
“Back-to-back!”
That was the phrase that was mentioned a dozen times in our two-minute conversation about the 2024 season and his club’s chances at lifting the flag again. You’ve gotta admire the belief, and based on the way the Pies went about things in 2023, there is a very good reason they enter the new season as raging favourites to make this man very happy.
But winning back-to-back flags is not something teams do easily. So many things need to go right, and things can snowball very quickly. Obviously, the Pies are a team that can endure hard times – hell, in 2021 they were close to rock bottom, with the entire club in upheaval. It takes a special group to push all that to one side and come together the way they did.
Yet, that was the thought I kept coming back to with whenever he started on the back-to-back tangent.
“Winning back-to-back flags is easier said than done.”
In the AFL, every year provides a new series of challenges, as the opposition coaches (the good ones, anyway) go to work on what made the premiers so good the previous season. One big injury, one bad day in September, and dreams of consecutive flags turn into nightmares pretty quickly.
Oh, what the hell? Article continued behind the Mongrel paywall? Yep, I believe my work is worth twenty-five cents per day. If you don’t, that’s fine. Standalone articles, off-season news, into season previews and pre-season game reviews, before we hit the 2024 season are all part of Mongrel Membership. You’re welcome to join/rejoin
