Is there a point where even the non-believers have to sit back, shake their heads, and admit they got it wrong?
Remember back to the start of the season when so many people said Collingwood would fall back to the pack because they got lucky last season? Remember them stating that they just happened to fall on the winning side of so many games and that it couldn’t happen again? Unlike Katniss Everdeen, the odds were not ever in their favour.
I’ve asked the question before – how in the hell did these people think Collingwood got themselves in those positions to win the close games? Did they think it occurred by accident and suddenly the Pies came to their senses and thought Hey, we can win this?
That’s not the way things work.
As we headed to the final break in this top-of-the-table clash, the game sat on a knife’s edge. Yes, Port Adelaide had done very little wrong up until that point – they had managed to establish a healthy 17-point lead in slippery conditions, and with rain imminent again, against any other team you would have had them as heavy favourites. Butters and Rozee were doing their thing, they had players bobbing up for important cameos, and Willem Drew was doing a pretty good job in curtailing the run of Nick Daicos.
Everything was in place… but in place for who?
You see, this wasn’t just any other team that Port held a lead over – this was the Comeback Kings of the AFL. This was the Houdini disciples that find a way out of almost any situation to emerge victorious. And as Steele Sidebottom slotted the goal on his opposite foot to open the last quarter, any feeling that Port were going to run away with this game quickly evaporated. It was game-on. And you knew right the and there, it was going to go down to the wire.
And when that happens, the Pies are at their best.
Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Talking Points from one of the games of the year.
Oh, what the hell? A Mongrel paywall? Yep, I believe my work is worth twenty cents per day. If you don’t, that’s fine. Don’t complain, though. Sometimes, I open these reviews up after 24 hours or so. Sometimes, I don’t. There is no favouritism… I just don’t. Want to join us and access the members’ game reviews, as well as columns like the Wingman of the Year, Recruit of the Year, and other nonsensical stuff HB comes up with each week?
