To summarise this game as a one-point win is like saying the Mona Lisa’s not a bad painting. To claim it,the Magpies had to reassert themselves after an eight-goals-to-one third quarter from Carlton that turned a 20-point deficit into a 25-point lead early in the last quarter.
The Magpies did it with the last score of the match,Jamie Elliott’s ice-cool shot on the run. Just more than 100 seconds remained. It’s fair to surmise that people had heart attacks and relationships broke up in that time. Blues skipper Patrick Cripps was fairly judged best player on the ground,but when he was held up in a tackle for perhaps the first time in the match,that was that.
On a made-to-measure footy afternoon at the MCG,the turnstiles stopped clicking at 88,287. This was back to the footy future. To add to the effect,there was a reserves match between the two clubs in the prelude. The epic terms of this match demanded that there be a curtain-raiser. For the record,Carlton won it.
The main game was a de facto final. It was a wonder that there wasn’t an airing of the national anthem,with the teams lined up. Instead,there were the club theme songs,the incantations of football nations. For Carlton,this was an elimination final in all but name,for the Pies a qualifying final.
As often happens in finals,the premium weighed on the contest. Many kickable goals were missed at both ends;who could have known then what that would mean in the final reckoning. But there were also some boundary-line gems.
It meant that in between the mighty roars,there were long lulls. In them,the crowd hummed and tensions pooled. This is footy’s rhythm. These are natural footy noises;only the AFL thinks they must be overridden by puffery and pap.
Collingwood controlled the first half without dominating it. In the third quarter,the match changed gear. Carlton’s strengths emerged in the power marking of Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay,also providing opportunities for flea-like forward Jesse Motlop. The turnaround was 45 points.
The Blues looked as they did in the first half of the season,the real deal. Momentum is everything in footy,and theirs had almost tilted the ground their way. This was despite the absence of midfield gun Sam Walsh for only the second time in his career. The Magpies looked like a team that,Icarus-like,had flown too high too soon. After 11 successive wins,they had succumbed to Sydney last week,seemingly breaking their spell.
But unlike Icarus,they grew new wings. The impossible became improbable,then possible,but was never probable until it was suddenly real. Again. In the last quarter,both teams had six shots at goal. The Magpies kicked 5.1,the Blues 0.6. Little known Pie Beau McCreery kicked the best,from a sliver of an angle in the Wayne Harmes pocket in contradiction of the time-space continuum. So was history shaped.
Considering what was at stake,this might have been the match of the season. Then again,it might not have been even Collingwood’s match of the season. They’ve had that sort of year. Last year,they finished 17th. Two years previously,Carlton were 16th. Here,at least,is solace and inspiration for Essendon.
At day’s beginning,it was the Carlton faithful who had caused the MCG to shake. At the end,the ground vibrated again,to the strains of the Collingwood chant. The “final” was over:let the finals begin.
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