For much of the summer, the hype around Collingwood has centred on their trio of major Trade Period recruits, each tailor made to patch a chink in the Magpie armour that saw them fall from reigning premiers to missing the finals in 2024.
Yet on Friday night at the MCG, what should be simultaneously concerning and heartening for Pies fans is that a thrilling win over the Western Bulldogs could scarcely have had less to do with them.
Dan Houston, the largest of the new fish in the black and white pond, was a peripheral at best force on the game, with the occasional nice moment – a long-range goal for his first major in new colours and a clutch contested mark in the final quarter – the only influence he was able to exert. In a far more contested, fiercer match than his encounter with old side Port Adelaide last week in which he was best afield, the Dogs were mindful enough of the danger his lethal right foot possesses to barely give him a sniff of a cheap ball all evening long.
Even more anonymous was Harry Perryman; ostensibly the defensive midfielder to complement Nick Daicos, Jordan de Goey and co., the former Giant didn’t see a single centre bounce, instead guarding space at half-back following the early injury to Reef McInnes as quite possibly the most expensive fourth tall back you’ll see.
Even further down the scale, Tim Membrey, after four goals last week, barely fired a shot against a Bulldogs defence vulnerable enough that a bag would have been a predictable outcome; with the Dogs working superbly to close up space in the Pies’ forward line whenever given the time to do so, he never looked likely to make the most of the limited one-on-one opportunities that came his way.
In the most finals-like match of 2025 so far, with the heat in the kitchen dialled up to 11 and even the occasion one of significance as the Dogs celebrated their 100th year of VFL/AFL footy, it was not the boom recruits proving the difference, or even lighting the spark that started the fire.
No, it was foundations already set in place at Collingwood, some that have been there for longer than their teammates have been alive for, that wrested this tussle in the Magpies’ favour, dispelled some of the ‘old and slow’ narrative that dominated debate around this team as little as seven days ago, and proved that any premiership push in 2025 will remain theirs to lead.
Steele Sidebottom celebrates a goal. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/Getty Images)
There’s a reason, in short, why the oldest teams in the league tend to be right up the pointy end come finals time.
The Pies had seven players on the wrong side of 30 on Friday night; all, Membrey excepted, ranged from critical contributors to stars of the show.
In a suddenly sizeable forward line featuring, even without Brody Mihocek, Membrey, Dan McStay and Mason Cox, the most dangerous man up front was by far Jamie Elliott.
An old-fashioned footballer, the veteran’s youthful spring heels are by now a distant memory, back from a time before his hamstrings threatened to collapse on him with every passing minute; but this is still a fundamentally intelligent footballer, who knows instinctively when and wear to lead and how to pop up in acres of space without any opposition defender realising until it’s too late.
Elliott’s three marks inside 50 were more than any other Pie, and behind only Sam Darcy on the field – to do it without the advantage of being the size of a giraffe takes craft, timing and forward craft to spare.
At the opposite end of the ground, Jeremy Howe did what he has done for nearly a decade in Pies colours: marshalled the defence, flew for spoils when required, distributed efficiently by foot, and in general pitched in whenever his team needed him.
The excitement that was once 95 per cent of his game has long since faded into memory – when was the last time he took a genuine speccy? 2019, maybe? – but with McInnes down early and needing to play taller, Howe’s ability to zone off his man and assist teammates in dealing with the monster that is Darcy was vital (though helped somewhat by the Dogs regularly bringing too many forwards upfield and leaving him free to patrol the backline without worrying about an opponent).
In a new role out on a wing, Jack Crisp’s work rate was notable all evening: one minute bullocking into a pack to try and help shift the ball the Pies’ way, the next sprinting into space to provide an option for a kicker or to spoil the ball away from a would-be Bulldog mark.
It’s almost beyond doubt now that Crisp will break the AFL record for most consecutive games, but it’s a trivia stat that belies how vital he remains to the way the Magpies transition the ball. He allows an extra big-bodied on-baller at the coalface when time for a boundary throw-in or ball-up, and yet is still capable of doing all the outside running required of a wingman – not many 30-year olds can do both, or hell, even either.
As far as the veterans go, Mason Cox had no one’s idea of a good night even before Rory Lobb punched him in the goggles; but it’s worth noting a pair of acts of unexpected football intelligence from the American Pie, one of which set up a goal, and the other of which should have.
Dan McStay’s horror blunder took the gloss off the play, but the Cox of four or five years ago would not have had the wherewithal to not only recognise the kick at him was going over his head and opt not to fly for it, but then soccer the ball on rather than attempting to gain possession, gifting the ball to McStay for what should have been the simplest of walk-in goals.
He wouldn’t be let down the second time around; early in the last quarter, after being gifted the ball from a nightmare handball from Taylor Duryea, you can actually see Cox think through what he decides to do.
First looking for a running teammate to feed and spotting none, he doesn’t panic, and puts the footy exactly where it needs to go: out in front of his zippiest teammate, Bobby Hill, with no one between him and the goals.
Sometimes all you need are one or two moments to stamp your mark on the game; as it turns out, Cox set up seven Magpie points in a six-point win. Handy indeed.
The elephant in the room, though, when it comes to Pies’ veterans is still undoubtedly the duo in midfield who celebrated their record-breaking 308th game as teammates, and who remain right at the heart of everything Collingwood do.
It seemed a week ago like Scott Pendlebury was being slowly phased into the final stage of his career, having followed a sluggish display against the nimbler GWS by being named sub against Port Adelaide.
But no, Craig McRae had him right back in the midfield rotation against the Dogs, and he wasn’t let down.
The game doesn’t slow down as much for Pendlebury anymore – time stops for no man and all that – but where once he would glide his way through traffic as if the opposition were nonexistent, never rushing and somehow finding space amid the chaos, his performance on Friday night was characterised by fleetness of mind and hand.
I lost count of the fast, accurate Pendlebury handpasses that put a teammate, most often Nick Daicos, into the clear; he had 21 of them for the night, and even the occasional flashy one to remind the world there is life in the oldest player in the competition.
It’s quite remarkable how much faith McRae still has in his oldest heads; when the match was at its crucial flashpoint in the final quarter, it remained Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom around the ball, with Jordan De Goey largely up forward. Nick Daicos, of course, went wherever he damn well pleased.
Sidebottom’s influence was the most glaringly obvious, but not just confined to the two goals – he’s never been a speed demon, so the loss of a yard of pace hasn’t hurt him like it might others, and his beautiful skills on both sides of the body are matched with a midfielder’s mind so adept at working in traffic that you have to wonder whether he’s been wasted as a wingman all these years.
The goals, though, hearkened back to his TAC Cup days, the days where he’d bag 10 goals in a grand final before he even became a Collingwood player, never mind royalty; find a second of space, get balanced, and snap truly.
Pies fans might think differently, but I’m not sure there’s a single Magpie I’d rather have in that identical situation – a point the difference, a boundary throw-in deep inside 50 – to have a chance at a snap than Steele Sidebottom. The rove and goal that iced the match, more or less, was out of the textbook for forward line stoppage goals.
Nick Daicos and his 37 disposals will probably get the three votes out of Friday night; previous year’s recruits from the strong-marking Dan McStay to the fierce-tackling, hard-leading Lachie Schultz (his best game in Pies colours?) all did their bit, too.
But the next time anyone tries to claim the Pies are too old, or too slow, just remember that both those traits morph into experience and wisdom when they’re on the winning side.
And these veteran Pies don’t seem to be done with winning just yet.
