I had a muck around with the ladder predictor after last week’s win against Port Adelaide. Was Collingwood really locked into a finals appearance? I was having trouble believing it, even sitting on 14 wins, the last 10 in a row. And yet. How on earth were we third on the ladder? Our percentage, usual a reliable indicator of these things, did not speak of such dominance.
Despite another result that went down to a kick, I didn’t think we were ever really in trouble against Port. My thoughts were already turning to tonight’s match. And Melbourne were awesome against Fremantle last week, the defending premiers looking every bit like they were ready to go back to back. Collingwood’s famous victory over the Dees in Round 13 was a distant memory.
Well, this was better than that — better than the after-the-siren win against Essendon, better than the win against Adelaide where we bested their 107 tackles with 126. None of those games against lesser-ranked opponents was remotely easy, not even North Melbourne, but this was the acid test. What Collingwood delivered was a win that forces even me to take this team’s extraordinary, unlikely tilt seriously.
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