Feel the passion, the pain and tension of the infamous draw
Order your Joffa Action Figure Bobblehead Doll Now And we'll guarantee delivery before Grand Final Day Ring Sam 0435 854 229
Well Done Karla Sometime ago Karla had lost her lttle Teddy and her folks were pretty stressed and sent out an SOS to the magpie army to get another one. Thanks to the kindness of a kind heated Collingwood supporter Karla recieved a look a like teddy to replace the lost one.
Last week Karla made the trip from way up north to see her beloved pies. Whilst at the MCG she had her pic taken with Bruce Macavaney check out the pic and see what Bruce is holding..It's Terriffic
Good onya Karla
10.000 wonderful Collingwood supporters joined force for the 2010 Grand Final magpie army march from the Westpac Centre to the MCG. The Grand Final Parade Was fun to mingle with Collingwood and St Kilda supporters This pic shows Brad and Joanne having a great time.
Collingwood
B: Nick Maxwell, Simon Prestigiacomo, Alan Toovey HB: Harry O'Brien, Ben Reid, Heath Shaw C: Sharrod Wellingham, Dane Swan, Ben Johnson HF: Alan Didak, Travis Cloke, Luke Ball F: Dayne Beams, Chris Dawes, Steele Sidebottom Foll: Darren Jolly, Scott Pendlebury, Dale Thomas Int: Jarryd Blair, Leon Davis, Brent Macaffer, Leigh Brown
Emg: Tarkyn Lockyer, Nathan Brown, Tyson Goldsack
In: Leon Davis, Simon Prestigiacomo
Out: Nathan Brown (omitted), Tyson Goldsack (omitted)
Milestones: Dane Swan (150 AFL games)
THE Magpie army is in shock. As their beloved Pies set about making up for one of the biggest missed opportunities in Australian sport, grassroots fans were left stunned.
Syliva Auld, 69, was saddened by her team "throwing away" the game.
"We've got to do it all again next week. I may die in the process," she said.
David Benn, who travelled to Melbourne from Brisbane for last week's clash against Geelong and yesterday's match, said he would have to extend his stay.
"It should go to extra time. Going next week is just crap. It should be the decider today," he said.
Stunned Collingwood players and officials said last night they would go back to the drawing board in a bid to claim the premiership.
Today's club family day and Friday night's Copeland Trophy for Best and Fairest have been cancelled.
But Collingwood players were expected to attend the club function at Crown last night.
Collingwood members who missed out on tickets for yesterday's thriller watched the game at Myer Music Bowl.
Diane Campbell was in tears.
"I'm devastated, but it's better than losing," she said.
Collingwood Cheer Squad leader Joffa was also dejected.
"Everyone feels empty," he said.
'We will come away with the result next week.
"We're happy to wait the extra week. We've waited 20 years."
Another sell-out crowd of up to 100,000 people is expected to pack the MCG on Saturday.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire urged the AFL to prioritise access for Collingwood and St Kilda members.
A GRAND Final rematch between St Kilda and Collingwood will go ahead on Saturday after the two powerhouse teams fought themselves to a heart-stopping draw
The Magpies led the epic battle by 24 points at halftime, but their lead was eroded by the hard-tackling Saints and the result was locked at 68 points each.
A 100,016-strong crowd at the MCG stood in shocked disbelief as the final siren blew on only the third draw in AFL/VFL history.
The last one - in 1977 between North Melbourne and Collingwood - saw the Kangaroos get home by 27 points in the rematch - a bad omen for the Magpies on Saturday.
The only other draw happened in 1948, when Melbourne and Essendon tied on 69 points. A week later Melbourne easily defeated Essendon by 39 points.
AFL rules state that in the event of a draw a rematch will be held the following week - depriving diehard supporters of a medal presentation and cup celebrations.
If next week's replay is also deadlocked, 10 minutes' extra time will be played.
Exhausted players slumped to the ground, while club officials began immediate preparations for the rematch.
The only winner on the day was St Kilda's Lenny Hayes, awarded the Norm Smith Medal for being the best player on the ground.
Earlier at the traditional Grand Final breakfast, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who presides over a hung Parliament, begged the teams for a clear result.
"Please, please, we cannot have a draw. Our nation could not bear it. Australians deserve a result today. A week without a premiership football team, I'm not sure our nation can take that," she said.
Collingwood had started the game red-hot favourites and looked it early, with ruckman Darren Jolly kicking the Pies' first goal only 24 seconds into the game.
It took the Saints' Stephen Milne more than six minutes to get the Saints' first goal.
From there Collingwood steadily pulled away. By halftime the Pies were in control with a 24-point lead.
But the Saints held the Pies goalless for the next quarter - the premiership quarter - and at three-quarter time the lead was eight points.
Collingwood's Leon Davis broke through the pack for an exciting goal with 13 minutes to go and the crowd came alive, the "Cooollingwoood" chant echoing across the ground.
But Hayes and Milne goaled for the Saints and, with less than 10 minutes to go, the score was 61-60 - the Pies hanging on.
With seven minutes 35 seconds on the clock, St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt booted a point after a diving touch by Pies skipper Nick Maxwell on the goal line. The scores were tied 61-all.
But when Saints' hard man Brendon Goddard sat on Harry O'Brien's shoulders for a spectacular mark, then booted a goal, the Saints were six points up and daring to believe their first premiership since 1966 was within their grasp.
After another Collingwood point, Magpie Travis Cloke broke Saints supporters' hearts when he goaled with three minutes 25 seconds to go.
But Lenny Hayes fought back with a point for the Saints with 92 seconds to go, leaving the game in a deadlock.
The final scores were 9.14.68 to the Magpies, 10.8.68 to the Saints.
Exhausted Collingwood players slumped in the rooms after the match, still coming to terms with the fact they will have to do it all again on Saturday. But Collingwood star Dale Thomas was in a buoyant mood.
"We've just qualified for another Grand Final, so we've got to go back now, get everything right, load up and go again," Thomas said.
Teammate Harry O'Brien admitted the players had "missed a lot of opportunities", but were determined to make amends. He said: "We know what we have to do.
"I'm just happy we're moving on forward. I'm just so focused on recovering now for next week."
Victoria Racing Club CEO Dale Monteith said an announcement on the ramifications of the draw for next weekend's horse racing would be made today.
"In light of next Saturday's extraordinary circumstances, we are reviewing the situation," he said.
A spokeswoman for musical blockbuster Hairspray said the show would still open next Saturday night, though producers were holding an urgent meeting today.
A huge musical event, Parklife, will go ahead at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
The game was played in perfect Grand Final weather, with temperatures reaching a pleasant 20c.
The crowd of 100,016 was the biggest Grand Final crowd since 1986, just ahead of the 100,014 who attended the Hawthorn-Geelong Grand Final in 2008.
It fell short of the all-time record of 121,696 at the 1970 Grand Final between Carlton and Collingwood - before the MCG was reconfigured.
Eleven people were ejected from the ground by police and four drunken fans taken to the Melbourne watchhouse to sober up.
Victoria Police Superintendent Rod Wilson praised crowd behaviour.
"Eleven out of 100,000 is a pretty good effort," he said.
EXACTLY 44 years after Barry Breen's fateful wobbly point secured history, St Kilda warrior Lenny Hayes lined up for his attempt at football immortality.
Mark Stevens and Sam Edmund look at what the draw means
Play
Already so many other heroes and villains had etched their name into the extraordinary storyline of this epic Grand Final.
Now with 100 seconds remaining, Hayes own hasty snap tumbled along the MCG turf on a beeline for goal.
History for the taking. The ultimate daylight robbery. How could the Pies lose the unloseable?
And then the bouncing ball suddenly checked right. Hayes' behind would tie the scores, and as the seconds ticked down a baying crowd was suddenly silenced.
As the dust settled on football's third straight epic decider, all that was left was to ask: what happens now?
St Kilda and Collingwood, football's heavyweight contenders, will next Saturday clamber back into the ring for another 12 rounds of punishment.
We should have been able to predict this.
Collingwood, so dynamic and dominant early, letting an opponent back into the game by their inability to finish on the big stage.
St Kilda refusing to give in despite an extraordinary 27 less inside 50s and no real right to be in this contest.
Yet that exact scenario played out in front of a crowd of 100,016, just two short of the ground's total capacity.
In a strange, surreal Grand Final contest, first Collingwood had St Kilda by the throat, then watched helpless as they roared back into the contest.
At the 19-minute mark of a stunning final stanza, after Brendon Goddard reprised his wondrous home-and-away leap then goaled, the Pies were six points down and gone.
Then came the final gut-wrenching twists, dramatic pieces of play that will replayed and analysed for seven long and torturous days.
Travis Cloke, whose two wanton shots at goal on the eve of half time would symbolise Collingwood's wastefulness, looked to have emerged as the hero.
When he slammed through a point-blank goal after a Chris Dawes slick handball, the Pies were a point to the good and their drought looked over.
Twice the Pies would try to stretch the lead as the seconds ticked down, only to be repelled as they had been all afternoon.
Dawes' long shot at goal was punched on the line by Goddard, but the ball rebounded just past the behind post and the margin was still a solitary point.
Then Steele Sidebottom's left-foot snap from 30 metres curled towards goal, only to be marked metres out from goal James Gwilt.
Then, as St Kilda mauled the ball forward, Hayes' snap bounced through for the tieing point.
All of it was totally compulsive, and utterly extraordinary.
The best part - the sequel to this match promises to be just as gripping, because had this match gone another way the recriminations would have lasted a lifetime.
Had Hayes and Goddard dragged St Kilda over the line, Travis Cloke and Chris Dawes might have had nightmares for a year.
Cloke, just like Cameron Mooney before him, contributed to a massive momentum shift on half time.
First he shanked a set shot from 30 metres, then hooked a shot as he ran into open goal with just six seconds left.
Instead of going into the main break 30-plus points up, he gave St Kilda the oxygen to believe.
He would finish with 2.2, but his total misses included another two rushed behinds from long range that were never on line.
In all, the Pies would tie this match despite 27 less inside 50s and five less scoring shots.
That the Saints were ever a chance was down to two men - Goddard and Hayes.
Both were amazing in their own separate way - Hayes as a rampaging bull, and Goddard killing St Kilda with a thousand silky cuts.
For Collingwood, Thomas played the best game of his career as a pacy wingman but also as a brutal battering ram who mixed Heath Shaw was just as brilliant in defence, while Dane Swan's ability to break the lines despite St Kilda's stifling tactics was immense.
But the match-up that symbolised the last ten minutes might have been Harry O'Brien and Steven Milne.
So sure and capable all day, O'Brien suddenly dropped regulation marks and fumbled ground balls.
Seemingly sensing his vulnerability, Milne bobbed up to kick a critical last-term goal.
Now we do it all again. Considering how exhausting and befuddling the proceedings were, who would even try to predict the outcome.
Injuries: Collingwood: S Prestigiacomo (adductor) replaced in selected side by N Brown. St Kilda: M Gardiner (leg).
Reports: Nil. Official Crowd: 100,016 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
JON RALPH'S BEST PLAYERS
5. Brendon Goddard
The best Grand Final mark since 1970, a cool head in a crisis, and along with Hayes, the lead role in a stirring comeback.
4. Lenny Hayes
Only on the second line because Goddard kicked the goal of the match and his behind turned right. Herculean.
3. Dale Thomas
Ran himself to a standstill along the wing, and attacked the contest like never before. Amazing.
2. Dane Swan
Down on touches, but had nine clearances, eight tackles, and gave the Pies momentum when others couldn't.
1. Sam Fisher
Shaw, Sidebottom and Montagna were stiff, but Fisher symbolised the Saints' ability to repel the Pies onslaught.
Fingers crossed before the big one
Little mikey Bonacci in his very own gold jacket at training on wednesday. He also appeared front page Herald Sun Thursday 23rd September. Onya Mikey what a champ!!
Molly reckons we're home
Joffa,
I have been a supporter all my life, and unfortunately witnessed the 66 Grand Final, and again the draw with North Melbourne and then the loss the next week. Thank goodness for 1990.
Here's to 2010!
My dog molly watches the games with me wearing her Collingwood scarf and thanks to technology and some clever friends, she has her own gold sequin, game over jacket. I thought you might like it!!!! Go Pies and Joffa!!!
Bev and Molly
Premiership Bound
AFL Grand Final. MCG.
Collingwood v. St. Kilda
Saturday. September 25.
defender Heath Shaw believes past family disappointments in Grand Finals will count for nothing on Saturday as he prepares for the most important game of his life.
Shaw's father, Ray, played in four losing Grand Finals (1977, '79, '80 and '81) as well as the '77 draw, while older brother Rhyce was a member of the Magpies' 2003 losing team.
His uncle, Tony, is the Shaw family exception, having captained the 1990 premiership side as well as winning the Norm Smith Medal that famous October day.
But the rebounding backman is confident he will get to share some premiership success with his father and brother, who were in the rooms after Friday night's stunning 41-point preliminary final win over Geelong.
"We need to look forward, so there is no need to look back," a determined Shaw said.
"You look at the disappointment they had and the stories that they tell. But this is a different story.
"It has changed a lot since then, so hopefully we can get a different result.
"It was sort of like us in the last few years when we kept getting into preliminary finals and losing.
"Now we are there, and we have the opportunity, we are going to take it with both hands and have a real crack."
A member of the Collingwood leadership group, Shaw said the players had a belief in each other, highlighted by the remarkable first term that all but buried the Cats.
"Mick (Malthouse) said it during the week, if we play to our best, we believe we can beat anybody," he said.
"We will definitely take some confidence out of this match, and we will take it into next week.
"We stuck to our structures and game plans. The pressure was amazing, especially up forward. They made our job a lot easier.
"It (pressure) sets up the game for you, with turnover goals and physical tackling. It put them (Geelong) under the pump."
Shaw said the week off had freshened the Magpies up mentally and played a key role in their almost frenzied attack on the ball in the first half hour.
"It's not to do with the physical side of things," he said. "You still have your normal training, but you don't have the mental pressure of getting up for a game on the weekend. We came here ready to go."
He acknowledged selection would be a difficult one this week, with some of the club's most senior players missing on Friday.
"I'm glad it is not me making the decision," he said.
"It was a last minute decision ... Mick thought that 'Goldy' (Tyson Goldsack) would be better suited tonight over Leon (Davis).
"But you never know what might happen next week. We are a horses for courses team, we will pick our best team to match the opposition.
"You wish you could pick everyone, but you can only pick 22."
COLLINGWOOD humiliated the best team of recent years on Friday night. It is poised to assume Geelong's mantle as the pre-eminent team in football.
Its job on the Cats was awesome. Who would have believed any team capable of building an 81-point lead against Geelong in little more than half a game in a final?
The much-hyped "Grand Final a week early" turned out to be a fizzer. Collingwood won by 41 points, formally ending an era in the process.
Now only St Kilda stands between Collingwood and its first premiership since 1990, and the word "only" is used in the context of teams left standing, not worth.
St Kilda is a genuine challenger, a deserving Grand Finalist.
The Saints have finished top four for the third year in a row. It is the club's most successful period since four top-four finishes in the early 1970s. Ross Lyon's appointment as coach in 2007 was a masterstroke.
A club so long the subject of ridicule will contest the Grand Final for the second year running and has won 64 of 96 games under Lyon.
It is the perfect climax to a season that produced the same top four as the previous year, a vastly superior four.
Barring any bombs from the match review panel this afternoon, the Grand Finalists are at full strength. As lame as Luke Ball was on Friday night, Collingwood remains adamant his problem was hamstring cramp, no tear, and expects him to play.
As cruel as sport can be, surely he deserves his chance after the disappointment of Grand Final day 2009 and the subsequent emotional trauma that led to his move from St Kilda to Collingwood?
There are others who will also ride the emotional roller-coaster in the next few days.
Will Collingwood resurrect Simon Prestigiacomo in what may be his last year? Will Leon Davis get an opportunity to conquer his September demons after being left out of the game against Geelong?
Will St Kilda punt on Steven Baker, who has not played a game since the match review panel took an exceedingly dim view of his six-rounder with Steve Johnson on June 25?
The match review panel may not be finished yet with St Kilda and its premiership hopes. Nick Dal Santo's bump on Callan Ward will prompt serious scrutiny, as will a bump of a similar nature by Dale Thomas on Harry Taylor the previous night.
Given the leniency associated with September, both should escape suspension. Surely the same group that cleared Daniel Cross a week ago can't come down hard on Dal Santo and Thomas?
But we are talking about the match review panel, so who knows?
I'm expecting Ball and Davis to play for Collingwood, Baker for the Saints.
Baker would be the unluckiest man in years to miss. He had to be sanctioned for his sustained attack on Johnson, but his nine-game penalty has stretched to 12 and may deny him a premiership.
On reflection, the penalty was what is described in law as manifestly excessive.
Collingwood has the better form, St Kilda has Nick Riewoldt at or near his best. At 27 and after 10 games back from hamstring surgery, he is perfectly placed to lead his team in the biggest game of the year.
He turned Saturday night's game against the Western Bulldogs with a dominant third quarter. If only he could kick at the level he does everything else. More about these teams later in the week. Let's reflect on the beaten pair.
The era is over for Geelong, just as it was for the Brisbane Lions in 2005 after four years in Grand Finals. The Lions went from runners-up to 11th, the first of four years outside the eight.
The Cats will lose the best player in the game in the next 10 days and are in need of a makeover.
On recent evidence, the defence has two A-graders - Matthew Scarlett and Corey Enright - the midfield remains strong, although Cameron Ling and Brad Ottens are obvious concerns, and the forward zone is mediocre unless Steve Johnson fires, and he struggles in the big games.
It's an old list that is looking tired. There is no way known the 22 on show on Friday night would beat a full-strength Collingwood in a game that matters in the immediate future.
If a quick turnaround is to be effected by "Bomber" Thompson - or whoever might be coach next year - Mitch Brown, Mitch Duncan, Taylor Hunt, Daniel Menzel and one of Dawson Simpson and Trent West all must be played from Round 1.
COLLINGWOOD midfielder Sharrod Wellingham is thankful for a second Grand Final chance to get it right this time.
Wellingham admitted his form was "definitely down" during Saturday's draw as he became constricted by the big occasion against St Kilda.
"Maybe I got a bit overawed by it all. That definitely won't be happening this week," Wellingham said.
"I think we had 16, 17 players for who it was their first time playing in a Grand Final and we're all better for the experience. And we're just going to approach it as another game.
"Mentally, it's not getting caught up in the fact that it is a Grand Final. The mentality we've had all year is just go out there and play your role and the team will tick along as it's meant to. No one has to do anything special just because it's a Grand Final.
"It's definitely not quite as big a build-up as last week, but we know it's only halftime. That's the approach we've taken to the game. We get another opportunity at a Grand Final."
Normality is what experienced defender Ben Johnson has craved in the lead-up to each of his 207 games. And he is glad a city parade will not disrupt his normal Friday lunch with teammates Alan Didak, Dane Swan and Heath Shaw in Richmond this time.
"This week has been amazing. We can just do our normal thing and prepare for the game," Johnson said.
"I'm rapt we don't have to do a parade this week. It's something I really don't like to do.
"I'd rather train, do our normal thing, go out for lunch and just relax and start getting ready for the game. This week we can do that again."
Wellingham had five different opponents on Saturday in the constant interchange rotations by both teams.
"We'll definitely have to look at something different. You've got (Sam) Fisher taking seven or eight uncontested or contested marks. We don't want to be kicking it to him, whether it's getting it in there slower or faster. We'll try to quell his influence on the game as much as possible," he said.
Johnson, who alternated on Stephen Milne, Adam Schneider and Leigh Montagna, nominated Norm Smith medallist Lenny Hayes and Brendon Goddard as targets to try to quell their influence.
"We don't want those two boys playing like they did because they just dominated. They (coaching staff) pick the game (style) and we try and do it," Johnson said.
Collingwood's entire 31-man squad had a 60-minute closed session at the MCG yesterday morning to start preparations for another duel with the Saints.
"It was actually a nice training session," Johnson said.
COLLINGWOOD midfielder Dale Thomas says the grand final replay will give some of his teammates a quick chance to make amends for their below par performances.
Did Harry O panic? Was Goddard robbed? Who will win the replay? Our experts discuss the big issues
Inside the Grand Final
Did Harry O panic? Was Goddard robbed? Who will win the replay?
While Thomas was Collingwood's best player in the heart-stopping 68-68 draw against St Kilda, some of his other high-profile teammates turned in quiet games.
Fellow midfielder Dane Swan, who was the bookmakers' favourite for the Norm Smith medal heading into the match, was down on his own lofty standards, and goal-sneak Leon Davis, apart from a great snap in the final quarter, was disappointing with only six touches for the day.
Other such as Chris Dawes and Travis Cloke were left ruing missed goals which could have turned the result.
Thomas said the re-match presented an unusual opportunity.
"I think the best thing about the group is that many of the boys will say from their own admission that they didn't have great games," he told radio station Nova 100 this morning.
"When you are playing in a grand final it is usually the hurt of not playing well that drives you throughout the pre-season to get back.
"Many people don't get that opportunity to get back in a Grand Final and redeem themselves.
"For our group it's lucky that the boys who were a little bit down get the chance, seven days later to get out there and rectify it."
Thomas admitted he was one of the players responsible for missing gettable shots at goal which would have put the Magpies out of reach in the third quarter.
"I think I have played a couple of maybe better games this year," he said.
"If it had been a win I would have claimed it to be the best game to be a part of.
"It is a bit of a hollow feeling ... you go out there for your two hours and you give pretty much everything you have to give.
"Then it is a nothing result. In that regard you don't know what to think."
Thomas said he would try to approach the replay like any other match.
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