Yesterday felt momentous for a host of reasons. I felt blessed to be part of it.
If you were among the 78,113 back at a sporting event I’d love to hear your sense of it. There hasn’t been a crowd like this since the onset of the pandemic.
The remembrance was brilliantly executed and solemnly observed. The roar at the conclusion of the national anthem contained so many emotions. This is what we treasure in Melbourne.
It had the impact of suggesting we’ve made it through … we made it back.
I had read in the morning that Collingwood and Essendon should be relieved of custody of this showpiece event. To be there was to be reminded what nonsense that is.
It is the people who make this such a cherished occasion. Decisions are made by those who show up and show up they do.
The quick comparison with Saturday night tells you that. 56,418 versus 78,113 tells you everything you need to know.
It proved a great day for Essendon’s development. Bombers fans would’ve drifted from the ground with visions of an emerging future.
But less so the Magpies.
The morning carried the declaration of the new President that they expect to see finals.
The reassurance of the football bosses that we’ve got a good enough list and good enough team to make it into the finals.
Collingwood is slow to grasp its predicament given it is the architect of its own demise.
1-5 and sitting 17th having been beaten on merit by the Giants and Essendon, two teams clearly in development mode.
The Magpies aren’t playing finals. They had to know that privately coming into the season.
They remain desperate to plead misunderstanding over the trade period fire sale and all that is doing is deluding themselves.
In the great salary dump the club didn’t get market value for any of its commodities, that reverberates through the list and makes you weaker.
The team that finished last year’s home and away season eighth was going backwards… the only question was how far.
So now Collingwood faces the question of purpose in 2021. And the purpose is not making finals.
It’s developing and planning what the next wave of contention looks like and when it comes.
Privately Nathan Buckley would’ve known this coming into the season and it’s the most impossible position to be in as a coach coming out of contract.
Do you coach for the here and now to give yourself the best chance of continuing? Or do you coach for a tomorrow you might not see.
That’s the conversation Collingwood has to face up to this Monday morning.
From the dawn of the season this has had such strong echoes of 2017. Collingwood lost Anzac Day by 18 points and fell to 1-4.
It was broadly assumed that night that Buckley wouldn’t make it. They fell to 2-6 before that fateful night against Hawthorn when Buckley almost took the car keys and headed home before a stirring comeback.
Collingwood posted a nine-win season, but made the calculated decision it had the right man and it had the parts to contend. History says they were right.
When the review is done this time, it will be much harder to make the case they have the pieces to rebound instantly.
