![]() Jason Akermanis says a lot of silly things but he said something interesting: the two things Leigh Matthews stressed above all else to his players was to use their instincts and to play on at all costs, particularly in the forward half. For all the fluffy talk, all the dad jokes and all the meditation sessions, he’s a Leigh Matthews man. Anyone, at any level, who’s ever played under some trumped-up little corporal has the same reaction when they watch and listen to McRae – that’s the sort of man I wished I played under!īut it’s worth remembering who he is and where he’s come from. They’re supposed to tell you why you should win, not how. They’re supposed to have scores to settle. He’s too nice, too sensible, too measured. skip past newsletter promotionĪ lot of that is due to McRae. But I doubt even Mick’s crack 2010-11 side garnered this level of admiration. Mick Malthouse’s band of honest scrubbers in 2002 was beloved, as was the 1990 side. It’s hard to remember a Collingwood team that has engaged its supporters quite like this one. All through the final term, he was galloping through the middle of the MCG, setting up multiple attacks. He must be one of the best last quarter footballers in the country. Jack Crisp is the perfect example of that. A recurring image all last season, and again here, was of rotating Collingwood players sprinting for the bench, while the Essendon players staggered off like exitees from a Bikram yoga studio. They ran the Bombers into the ground in the final term. “Swing from the hip” is another one of his. “You’ve got to play the minutes to beat us,” their coach, Craig McRae, said afterwards. And when Nathan Krueger was subbed out, it was the Bombers who had ruck dominance and all the ascendancy.īut as I said, this was Collingwood. Now they were the ones running on top of the ground. Now they were suddenly the more efficient team. They’d been challenged in the previous quarter but, unlike last year, they were able to stem the flow and reset. The third term felt like the making of this Essendon side. It felt like Essendon’s biggest acid test in years: Had they matured? Did they have the cattle? And did they have the mettle? It felt, and proved to be, one of the biggest home and away crowds in the history of the game. It felt like the last sip of summer in Melbourne. It felt bigger than those of recent years. Tuesday will go down as one of the great Anzac Day clashes.
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