| 2018 AFL Grand Final COLLINGWOOD v WEST COAST Time & Place: Saturday September 29, 2:30pm EST MCG TV: 7mate / Fox Footy Weather: Min 6 Max 14 Chance of rain 40%: < 1mm Wind: SW 14kph Betting: Collingwood $1.68 West Coast $2.25 |
Collingwood and the West Coast Eagles are left to fight it out for the AFL premiership this Saturday afternoon.
Entering this season, neither the Pies or Eagles were considered serious premiership contenders. Nathan Buckley’s men missed the finals in four consecutive seasons, while many predicted Adam Simpson’s side to slide down the ladder this year after losing several star players to retirement at the end of last season.
However, both clubs have defied the odds to make it to the summit match of the 2018 AFL season, which will be a battle of the birds for the second time in four years.
After winning a vote of confidence from the board last August following a dismal 2017 season, Buckley faced some early criticism after the Pies dropped their first two matches of the season against Hawthorn and the GWS Giants, both at the MCG.
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Magpies coach Nathan Buckley (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
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His efforts in lifting the club from 13th place last year to potential premiers this Saturday has won him the AFL Coaches Association’s coach of the year.
Foremost to their season of improvement was the good form shown by Steele Sidebottom, who finished runner-up to Tom Mitchell in the Brownlow Medal count with 24 votes, as well as the emergence of young stars such as Jaidyn Stephenson and Brady Mihocek.
They then lost a pulsating qualifying final against the West Coast Eagles in Perth before rebounding to defeat the GWS Giants, and then Richmond, in consecutive matches to qualify for its first Grand Final since 2011.
The win over the Tigers, regarded by many as the upset of the season, was orchestrated by a stunning ten-goals-to-two first half – at the end of which they led by 44 points.
It also broke the Tigers’ 22-match winning streak at the home of football, but that win will mean nothing if they cannot overcome the West Coast Eagles this Saturday afternoon at the MCG.
Adam Simpson’s men entered this year having been convincingly beaten by the Giants in their semi-final last year, after which Matt Priddis, Drew Petrie and Sam Mitchell retired from the game.
Many predicted they would slide down the ladder this season, with Robert Walls even going as far to predict that they’d win the wooden spoon.
The Eagles started the year with a 29-point loss to the Sydney Swans in the first game to be played at the new Optus Stadium, but from that point on, they’d win ten matches in a row, including thrashing reigning premiers Richmond by 47 points at home, before the run came to an end with another loss to the Swans at the SCG in Round 13.
Two further losses to Essendon and the Adelaide Crows followed, before they got back on track, winning six of their final eight regular season matches, including defeating Collingwood at the MCG for the first time since 1995.
It was in that match where their season appeared to take a turn for the worse, when ruckman Nic Naitanui suffered another serious knee injury which will see him not return until at least past the halfway mark of next season.
Shortly after, Andrew Gaff copped an eight-match suspension from the judiciary following his sickening blow to the face of Andrew Brayshaw; Saturday’s Grand Final will be the sixth match he will miss, and it also means he will miss the first two rounds next year.
Those distractions wouldn’t prevent the Eagles from finishing second on the ladder, the second time in four seasons that they’ve finished this high.
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Jack Darling and Josh Kennedy of the Eagles (Photo by Will Russell/AFL Media/Getty Images)
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The Eagles kicked ten goals to nil and then got on with the job in the second half to comfortably qualify for their second Grand Final in four seasons, where they’ll start underdogs against a Collingwood side which will be aiming to join Carlton and Essendon on a record-equalling 16 flags.
Twelve Eagles players will return for a second shot at the big prize, after they were part of the team humiliated by Hawthorn three years ago.
Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling and Elliot Yeo were among the players who easily had their colours lowered, with Kennedy, the 2015 Coleman Medallist, being held goalless by James Frawley, who’d just crossed over from a Melbourne side once labelled “an impediment to the industry”.
From their preliminary final side, only Lewis Jetta has tasted the ultimate success, having been part of the Sydney Swans side that was victorious against the Hawks in 2012. Thus, an Eagles win this Saturday would be the perfect sixth anniversary for him.
That win by the Swans is also the last time any non-Victorian side has won the flag, so Adam Simpson’s men will have their work cut out for them if they are to capture their fourth flag, and first since defeating the Swans in that classic 2006 decider by a solitary point.
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Adam Simpson could feel the heat (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
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Now that you’ve got the info, it’s time to crunch all the important numbers below.
This season
- West Coast Eagles 15.12 (102) defeated Collingwood 9.13 (67) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in round 17
- West Coast Eagles 12.14 (86) defeated Collingwood 10.10 (70) at Optus Stadium in the second qualifying final
- This is Collingwood’s 42nd Grand Final (excluding the 1977 and 2010 replays), while for the West Coast Eagles this is their seventh.
- Collingwood are shooting for a record-equalling 16th flag, which would see them level on Carlton and Essendon on that many flags, while the West Coast Eagles are going for their fourth flag but first since 2006.
- Nathan Buckley is the first man since John Worsfold to captain and coach the same side into a Grand Final. While he couldn’t lead the Pies to a flag in either 2002 or 2003, he did win the Norm Smith Medal in the former year. In a twist of fate, Worsfold led the Eagles to flags in 1992 and 1994 as captain, and in 2006 as coach.
- Buckley is the first former Norm Smith Medallist since Gary Ayres in 1995 to coach a side into a Grand Final.
- Collingwood is 0-2 against non-Victorian clubs in AFL Grand Finals; both of those losses were to the Brisbane Lions in 2002 and 2003.
- West Coast has never lost a Grand Final in an even year.
- Collingwood has not won a premiership in September since 1958 (their last two flags were won on the first Saturday of October, in 1990 and 2010).
- West Coast has not won a finals match at the MCG since the 2006 Grand Final.
- West Coast has not won a finals match against a Victorian club at the MCG since the 1999 qualifying final, when it defeated the Western Bulldogs by five points.
- Both clubs’ last flags were in years where a Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games and FIFA World Cup were held (West Coast in 2006 and Collingwood in 2010). The Eagles’ last flag came in a year when Australia hosted the Commonwealth Games (Melbourne).
- Match: Collingwood by 18 points.
- Most disposals: Steele Sidebottom (Collingwood), Elliot Yeo (West Coast Eagles)
- Most goals: Jordan De Goey (Collingwood), Josh Kennedy (West Coast Eagles)
- Norm Smith Medal: Steele Sidebottom (if the Pies win), Luke Shuey (if the Eagles win)
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