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2012 – Jarryd Blair soccers a late goal to win Anzac Day game by one point
Everything just feels bigger on Anzac Day, doesn’t it?
Besides a Grand Final, and perhaps a preliminary, this is a big as footy gets. On a drizzly kind of day, we held sway for most of the game, and led by three goals early in the last. But the Bombers came hard and got their noses back in front, and they were still in front with just 90 seconds left. Then a last desperate thrust to the top of the square resulted in the ball spilling to the onrushing Jarryd Blair, who soccered it off the ground to put us in front by a point with 1.20 left on the clock.
Or did he? To add to the already nailbiting drama, the goal umpire called for a video review. And while the replay showed the ball didn’t exactly come flush off Blairy’s boot, it did come off his shin – well below the knee. The goal stood, as did the Pies lead.
There were still nervy moments to be had in the time that remained, but the Pies hung on for the one-point win. Swannie was huge that day, with 42 touches, three goals and the Anzac Medal. He also produced another magic moment when, after bursting through a pack to score his third goal, he rubbed his belly as a not-too-subtle dig at Mark Robinson, who had queried the champ’s weight in the lead-up.
All in all, one of the great Anzac Day games.
2016 – “Is it Grundy? It’s Grundy”. Last minute winner v Richmond
Last-minute winners against an arch rival at a packed MCG are one thing. But last-second winners are something else again.
That’s what we got at the ‘G in 2016, when Brodie Grundy snapped the winning goal against Richmond with just nine seconds left on the clock (four by the time it went back to the bounce). Bruce McAvaney’s fevered commentary – “Is it Grundy … it’s Grundy! It is unbelievable!” – helped make the moment even more special.
At the ground it was initially hard to work out what had gone on. Darcy Moore (remember him as a forward?) had kicked the ball to the top of the square from the boundary line after a free for deliberate, hoping that Grundy or another tall might have grabbed the mark, or a smaller player might have crumbed it. Instead it was Pendles who flew for the mark and the ball spilled to everyone’s favourite crumber, the 2-metre Grundy. Brodie threw it onto his boot from the top of the square and the ball wobbled through – despite instant concerns it might have been touched (it wasn’t).
It was absolute mayhem at the ground, and one of the undoubted highlights of a season in which they were few and far between. We won only nine games that year – but this was one of the very best.
2018 – Cox destroys Richmond in the prelim
It’s fair to say that we were not favourites going into the 2019 preliminary final against Richmond. The Tigers were the reigning Premiers, whereas we had come from nowhere to be unlikely finalists, then unlikely preliminary finalists. But a Grand Final? That had been beyond even the wildest of pre-season dreams.
Nevertheless, we started that game like the proverbial house on fire, leading by five goals to one at quarter-time. We knew it was unlikely to last, but still … it had been quite the start. And then came the second quarter, and the Mason Cox blitz. In around six minutes of game time, Coxy took three huge pack marks at the Ponsford Stand end, nailing each of the set shots. Coxy began to strut, the crowd went berserk and chants of “U.S.A, U.S.A” reverberated around the MCG.
Bruce McAvaney in the commentary box could not believe what he was seeing, nor could he contain his excitement. He pronounced that no American had dominated at the MCG like this since US evangelist Billy Graham back in the 1950s. “What has Collingwood unleashed here?,” he pondered. “We’re seeing the future of the game perhaps.”
Not quite. But this was a performance to behold. In the end Coxy took 11 marks, a staggering eight of them contested. It was by some distance his best game for the club (at least to date).
At the end of Mason’s second quarter heroics, the Pies led by 44 points (unnervingly, the same half-time margin as in the 1970 Grand Final). But this time there would be no fadeouts, no ‘what ifs’. Instead, we were on our way to a Grand Final.
2022 – Pendles breaks the 350-game mark
Scott Pendlebury has broken so many records in his career that it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how extraordinary that career has been. And every season seems to bring another haul of new landmarks.
In 2022 it was the achievement of becoming the first Collingwood player to ever reach the
350-game mark, against the Crows on a wet afternoon at Adelaide Oval. He and heir-apparent Nick Daicos were brilliant that day, helping to reel in the Crows not once but twice after they had threatened to skip away with it.
But there was a moment late in a tense third quarter that was memorable. Pendles cruised past Brayden Maynard to receive a handball, ran to 50 and slotted a goal that brought us within four points. Instantly mobbed by his teammates, Pendles broke into the kind of broad, unrestrained smile we haven’t seen too often on the field during his stellar career. Even he seemed to relish the joy of goaling in such a memorable milestone game. It was the 184th goal of his career, and few seem to have given him as much pleasure.
And the best thing is he looks for all the world like he’s got plenty more games, and more goals, in him still.
2022 – Jamie Elliott wins it after the siren v Essendon
Jamie Elliott has long been a fan favourite with the Magpie Army, from his days as a high-flying specky machine to his more recent incarnation as a hard-tackling, fast-leading pressure forward.
But he’s never been as popular as he was in the dying seconds of the game against Essendon in Round 19 of 2022. The Pies’ long run of close wins looked like ending when the Bombers led by a point with less than a minute to go, and with Harrison Jones having a set shot on goal from about 35m.
Luckily, Jones hit the post. When Pendles kicked off there were 45 seconds left. A precise kick to an already moving Darcy Moore. A change of direction and a long kick to a running Trent Bianco. Another precision kick to Jamie Elliott, sandwiched between two Bomber defenders, 40m from home and pretty much on the boundary.
The whole transition had taken 11 seconds.
Now it was with ‘Billy’. He didn’t play on to widen the angle. He didn’t look for other options. He just calmly walked back, crossed the boundary line, and prepared to take the biggest set shot of his career.
The siren went as he was walking in, and the kick never ever looked like missing. Cue absolute mayhem.
This was only the second time in Collingwood history that we’ve won a game with a kick after the siren. And how sweet it was.
2022 – Jamie does it again – and dumps Carlton from the finals
After his heroics against Essendon, most sane football fans knew that Jamie Elliott would never again experience the kind of buzz he must have felt that afternoon. We also knew that we fans would likely have to wait years before we’d enjoy a win as much as we had that post-siren win over the Bombers.
Nah. It was only a few weeks.
The stakes could not have been higher going into the final round game against arch rival Carlton. The Blues needed to win to make the finals. We needed a win to make top four.
We were well in control at half-time, leading by 19 points but probably having played even better than that. Then the Blues blew us out of the water with an eight-goal third term that left us four goals points adrift at the last change.
Slowly, inexorably, we made yet another last quarter charge – although this was more of a creep than a charge. Goals to Johnson, Cox, Elliott and a freak McCreery effort from the boundary drew us within a goal. But the clock was ticking, and as it ticked under two minutes with the ball deep in the Carlton forward line, we all kept thinking: we couldn’t do it again, could we?
The answer was an emphatic yes. Once again it took only seconds to transition the ball the length of the ground. And once again it was Jamie Elliott, this time with an assist from a smart Jack Ginnivan shepherd, who goaled on the run from 30m to put us a point in front and spark pandemonium.
There was still time for plenty of heart scares in the 1.40 that were left but we hung on for a result that had it all. It was a one-point win that secured us a top four berth. At the same time, and without going all schadenfreude-esque, we knocked out the Blues, who had been in the top eight for all but the last 100 seconds of the season.
It was the perfect way to cap off what had been a quite bonkers season of football.