This one means more. The old enemy, an arch nemesis. A rivalry so historical that Ken Mitchell wrote a book about it here.
We must win tonight, the chips have been moved fairly and squarely to the middle of the table and we are all in. There are a range of least favourite teams here on Demonland but for as long as I can remember there is something that has set this mob apart from the rest and by the length of the Hume Highway.
My father is a Collingwood fan. I bucked this trend simply because my best friend at Kindergarten was a Melbourne fan so that sealed my fate. The first time he took me to a Melb v Collingwood game I learned very quickly what this experience was going to be for the rest of my footy going life, walking up Clarendon St seeing 5 Collingwood fans to every 2 Melbourne fans was a clear message that you were in the minority and that you would need to be very strong taking this life path (mentally and physically).
The pulse never gets racing for me in any game quite like this one. I’ve seen it all, scuffles between fans, filthy and vile language in the outer etc. One year for QB when they were smashing us and some Melb fans were leaving I saw a Pies fan say to one of them “Off you go Melbourne” and hock a big loogie onto his pants. Make no mistake I’ve never seen quite as much gutter behaviour from opposition fans as much as them and that includes Richmond and there’s no other game where I feel I have to have my wits about myself around their fans.
There were great times too. Farmer’s Cloud 9 day, Wattsy’s winner, doing the double on them in Roosey’s last season. The lows are low but the highs are as sweet as it gets.
From about Round 20 it looked like this would be the game and even from then I felt there would be no game that would shape the finals series like this one. Still waiting for the citation from Joey Montagna on that one 😝 but it doesn’t take a genius to know that these are two of the best teams and would make a great Grand Final. If the finals are a chess game then the winner of tonight takes the queen.
Of course no-one has a devine right to win anything and from the other side of the fence the Pies want to avenge that 1 point loss in Sydney last year. We need to want it more and that’s what I want to see tonight. We get bogged down in tactics but tactics can sometimes go out the window in finals. Allan Jeans said that as far as strategy and tactics go in finals in always comes down to winning the footy, executing correctly under pressure and when you haven’t got the ball, working extra hard to put that pressure on. Lastly to add to all that, we must have the desire. As I said before these Pies players will want it bad after last year, we need to match or beat their desire. What will it mean to win and give ourselves the best chance this year? What would a potential grand final on the G mean and most importantly, what would it mean for these guys’ legacy? You’re in rare territory of having the chance to repeat a major achievement, most people never get the chance for 1. At this point I don’t really care what side has been selected, as long as every one of these 22 +1 players gives 110%.
Let’s revise the book on this rivalry and pump it up with some air again. Let’s also remind everyone that we are the ones that beat them when it counts. It’s in our blood. Come on Dees, go out there and give em hell!
