Ten years ago, in an earlier round, the same two teams played out another match decided by the barest of margins at the MCG, won by Collingwood after it staved off a West Coast fight back from 35 points down.?
As the Magpies and the Eagles prepare to square off on Saturday in a possible 2012 Grand Final preview, it's worth revisiting those two matches from 1992 and 2002. And in doing so, it might even provide a pointer to what potentially could be a similarly tight and tense match this weekend.?
Incredibly, Collingwood has played in 54 games decided by one point - with the ledger standing at 27 wins and 27 losses - and of the ten times it has occurred over the past 20 years, those two clashes with West Coast will forever live in the minds of black and white fans lucky enough to watch them live or on television.?
Many of the Magpies' 1990 premiership stars (desperately missing the late Darren Millane, who had been killed in October 1991) had responded from the hangover of the 1991 season to make the club contenders again. And the Eagles, coming off a Grand Final loss in 1991, loomed as the trailblazers in terms of non-Victorian clubs pushing for a premiership.?
The fact that Collingwood had to endure a number of hurdles leading up to, and during that Round 13 1992 match, made it all the more memorable when a behind kicked by Troy Lehmann less than 10 seconds before the final siren gave the visitors a remarkable return.?
The Magpies had lost their two previous games by less than a kick - three points to Fitzroy and one point to St Kilda - so there was hope from black and white fans in the lead-up to the match that another nail bitter might still be on the cards.?
Those hopes evaporated during stages of the game as West Coast's lead began to balloon out to the joy of the largely parochial home crowd of 32,622. And with Peter Daicos out injured, and the Magpies capable of only two goals in the first half, hopes were forlorn when the Eagles led by 31 points late in the third term.?
To make matters worse, Craig Kelly seriously injured his knee during the third quarter as he went for a loose ball on the wing with his opponent, Karl Langdon. He wouldn't play again until round 6, 1993.
As Kelly was being assessed by the trainers and the stretcher came out, Scott Russell mistakenly ran on from the interchange bench, which meant momentarily Collingwood had 19 players on the field. The Herald Sun reported: "Realising his potential mistake - a head count could have deprived the Magpies of their entire score at that stage - he (Russell) darted off again and waited for Kelly to arrive."
Troy Lehmann and Paul Williams - two key figures in Collingwood's one point win over the Eagles in 1992.
In keeping with his hard-man image, Kelly (two days before his 26th birthday) ended up refusing to hop on the stretcher and gamely hobbled off the ground with the help of trainers. Having already been reported for charging Mitchell White, he didn't want to give the crowd the satisfaction of jeering him. He would say later: “Leigh’s always said, 'don't show them 'em that you're hurt, so I thought, 'stuff it, I'll walk off!''.
Brad Rowe, originally from East Fremantle via Brisbane, had kept Collingwood in the match both immediately before and after Kelly's collapse, scoring back-to-back goals. He would end up kicking three goals for the game, the most in the contest, and was still to play a small role in the game-deciding last play.?
Those goals brought the margin back to a more manageable 17 points at the last change. The four premiership points were there for the taking.
Mick McGuane had been unusually wayward in shooting for goal that day, but he made up for it with an important six-pointer two minutes into the final term to cut the difference back further. It was the midfielder's only goal for the game - his tally being 1.6 with one out on the full.?
Brad Rowe was a handy goal sneak for Collingwood between 1992 and 1995.
Soon after Gavin Brown made the most of some slick handballs from Rowe and McGuane to make the margin less than a goal, and it hovered around that figure for much of the rest of the quarter, with neither side capable of gaining the goal that really mattered.?
Chances came and went for Collingwood - Tony Shaw hit the post; James Manson sprayed a left-foot snap out of play; Lehmann missed another half chance that also saw him lose his boot. West Coast also had opportunities, but could not nail them as eight successive behind came from both sides.?
But the Magpies were not to be denied. With the time clock running down - there was only a bit more than one minute remaining - the ball was locked in congestion in the Collingwood forward line when somehow Tony Francis shot out "a short, high, mongrel kick" that Paul Williams was able to grasp in his hands just outside the goal square. Coolly, Williams went back, slotted it through, and the scores were level.?
Amid the excitement, Channel Seven's Drew Morphett said: "We have a draw ... the scores are level. Well, it's not a draw yet …" He was right. Twenty one seconds remained on the time clock when the umpire bounced the ball, with ruckman Damian Monkhorst steaming in towards his opponent Glen Jakovich.?
Monkhorst, who had been best afield in a superb display, knew he had precious little time to make it count. Explaining his motivation to Lou Richards a few days later, the big man said: "I knew Jakovich was a bit sore, so I thought here was my chance to punch it forward."
That is almost an understatement.
Monkhorst smashed the ball almost 20 metres, and it was followed up by another punch from Brown. Suddenly, the ball was in the hands of Rowe, who handballed off to Williams, who in turn, gave it off to Lehmann, who was playing his 24th game with Collingwood. From 40 metres out, Lehmann's kick sprayed off the side of his boot, but snuck in for the most important behind of his football career.
All that was left was enough time for the Eagles to kick it in, and fittingly, it ended with a strong mark to Monkhorst just as the final sounded accompanied what Channel Seven's Ian Robertson described as "deathly silence". The final scores were Collingwood 8.15 (63) to West Coast 8.14 (62).?
The Eagles went on to win their first premiership three months later, while the Magpies were unlucky to lose an elimination final against the Saints at Waverley Park. It was a cruel end for Collingwood, who had finished the home and away season third (yet equal top on points) and had been forced into a knockout final against St Kilda on their home ground.?
A decade later, when the Magpies met the Eagles at the MCG in Round 2, 2002, it was the first pairing of Mick Malthouse - this time as Collingwood coach - against West Coast's John Worsfold in his second game as senior coach.
Two players made their AFL debuts that afternoon - Jason Cloke, son of former Magpie and Tiger big man David, and the No.3 draft pick from the previous year, late inclusion Chris Judd. After the game Malthouse prophetically said of Eagle Judd (who had 19 touches and kicked a goal): "They have unearthed another one." ?Brodie Holland kicked eight goals in the best performance of his AFL career, giving Collingwood the early ascendancy with four goals in the first term before adding three more in the third and one in the final term.?
Brodie Holland was the match winner in round two, 2002, kicking eight goals; Jason Cloke spoils Andrew Embley on debut.
Holland had given the Magpies a 35-point lead at one stage before the Eagles set about whittling that margin back. By quarter-time, it was 21 points; by half-time just four. West Coast grabbed the lead in the third term, before a Collingwood revival was sparked by a brilliant Nathan Buckley goal from the boundary line just on 50m, and some more magic from Holland saw the lead jump out to 23 at the last change.
But that was not the end of it. West Coast kept surging.
The difference between winning and losing for Collingwood came back to Holland. His eighth goal was the match-winner. It came after Ben Cousins slipped when in possession and Leon Davis swooped to get the ball to the best player on the field. Holland didn't miss, and when the final siren sounded, the Magpies were a solitary point ahead of the Eagles.?
Malthouse was delighted. When the siren sounded, he raised his arms in the air triumphantly in the old coaches' box.
The Eagles may have kicked more goals than the Magpies, but the score line was in Collingwood's favour - 17.18 (120) to 18.11 (119). And that's all that mattered.
