Anthony Rocca thought it was the biggest roar he’d heard in his life.
Having not played in September for seven years, Collingwood fans were champing at the bit as the Pies came out of the race in the 2002 Preliminary Final against Adelaide.
And Rocca couldn’t quite believe the noise they were making.
“There are a few things I remember. When we ran out it was the loudest roar I’ve ever heard,” Rocca recalls.
He pauses for a moment though, as his mind drifts back to 21 years ago, and reconsiders that statement.
Little more than an hour later, there was a moment would trump it.
“Actually, it was the second loudest,” he says.
“The loudest was the goal I kicked.
“That was the loudest roar I’ve ever heard.”
Pies fans won’t need much reminding of that goal.
Marking it just outside the 50 – which Rocca says gets hyperbolised each year – the star forward shielded his eyes from the sun, took a few momentum-generating steps, and launched - from just inside the centre square.
“The build-up was massive, it came from a stoppage in defensive fifty and Ryan Lonie, he took about five bounces and hit me,” he says.
“I took the mark probably about 50, 55 out and I remember turning around and the sun was glaring in my eyes.
“I had a feeling someone might’ve been on forward and I just didn’t have time to kick the ball at that stage.
“I thought ‘most of my good kicks are out from long’ so I got good momentum and it just sailed through.”
That was Rocca’s moment.
The pre-game roar might’ve been loud as anticipation grew, but his third quarter bomb put a nail in the Crows’ coffin that couldn’t be extracted.
“We got out to the banner and the roar was still going and you just looked at other players and you could see they were feeling the same emotions,” he says.
“We got through the banner and the biggest roar was after I kicked that big goal, which was something you never forget.”
Momentum ensued, as the Pies eventually ran out 28-point winners.
While Rocca said the crowd that day is comparable to the Magpie Army’s efforts in 2023, he’s come to expect it now. Back in 2002, it was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
“Walking down the race it was something we hadn’t really experienced before, a lot of the boys talk about that and it’s probably the first time I had goosebumps walking out through the race,” he says. “It almost seems like a norm now whereas it didn’t seem like it back then because we hadn’t had a lot of finals success.
“You probably have as we did in 2002, 80 per cent of the crowd which is an enormous factor.
“It’s hard to beat the momentum that the crowd gives you.”
88,960 were in the house that day, and even more are tipped for this year’s Prelim – all ready to blow the proverbial MCG roof off once again.
