This was the draw where there were two winners.
On a night the same two clubs played in their second draw in the same season for the first time in VFL/AFL history, both Collingwood and Hawthorn had reason to celebrate – even though they could not sing the song.
The Hawks salvaged two precious points, which keeps them in control of their fate, though they did much wrong.
Even if Dylan Moore’s shot on the siren was not heroically cleared on the line by Sam Swadling, it would not have changed the equation for the Hawks. They still need to beat West Coast next week to remain in the top four.
There is a silver lining to the two points “lost” and the slide to fourth. A qualifying final against Fremantle in Perth, as seems likely, would spare them a preliminary final in the west when they would not have the safety net of a second chance.
They will need to improve significantly in the next three weeks to challenge Fremantle, Sydney or any of the other leading flag fancies.
In a mid-August encounter that had the feel of a final, the Hawks fell short everywhere but the scoreboard.
Jarman Impey papered over many cracks. Their midfield had individual highlights – like Josh Ward’s two quick goals to start the last quarter – but was beaten, losing clearance by 12 and giving up big scores from their losses at stoppage. It remains a weakness, as it was on preliminary final night last year.
Tom Barrass, 30, is playing like a defender who has aged four years in four months. He is not inspiring confidence in the air, and is out of the game once the ball hits the deck. He made Tim Membrey look like an Olympic sprinter in one ground-ball contest.
Barrass, who has strained a hamstring this year, is not carrying an injury, Mitchell said, but his coach concedes he is in a trough.
“If you’re full-back, [and] you make a couple of mistakes, they usually cost goals, and he had a couple of those tonight,” Mitchell said.
“He’s not physically carrying anything, but he’s he’s just not been quite as consistent as he’d like to be. I don’t think everyone plays well every week. It’s just the difference is when you’re the full-back, everyone notices because your errors cost goals.”
This was both one of the games of the season, and its most bizarre. In April, scores were locked at 93 apiece. This time it was 92 each.
The final 70 seconds after Roan Steele’s levelling point was full of drama and what ifs. Lloyd Meek had his back to Harry Morrison, who was streaming up the MCC wing, then coughed up a lasso free kick with his handball.
Ed Allan, superb for much of the night, will wonder why he bombed the ball long to several Hawks, instead of handballing to Nick Daicos on the run.
Jack Gunston had the chance to send the ball to the goal square for his teammates to rush a behind when Collingwood’s defence was not organised. Pinpointing Dylan Moore, albeit in a difficult spot, was still a satisfactory result.
Moore was the saviour in April when he kicked a goal after the siren to draw the game for the Hawks. Here, his shot from 45 metres out on the boundary went across the face of goal and was touched on the line.
If he had his time again, he may have erred to miss on the near side, as Gunston had done minutes earlier, the precious metres saved being the difference between a score or a spoil.
Such was the drama, even Mitchell could not compute what was happening.
“Do we want a draw, or do we need to win this game?” Mitchell said. “It was quite an odd moment. When you’ve been in the game a long time, you sort of feel like you’ve seen most things, but [I] certainly haven’t seen that.”
Rarely has a coach celebrated a draw with as much gusto as Craig McRae, who was fist pumping the crowd moments after Swadling’s game-saving heroics.
There was good reason for McRae to respond in such a manner, even if the result officially consigned the Pies to the long route to the premiership cup.
Despite a 23 including nine players who have played fewer than 50 games, the Pies served it up to one of the leading flag contenders.
Missing premiership heroes Brayden Maynard, Jeremy Howe, Steele Sidebottom and skipper Darcy Moore just to name a few, the Pies rescued a game that appeared gone three times in the second half.
The most stunning act was saved for after the final siren when Swadling, in just his seventh game, out-jumped Hawthorn triple towers Mitch Lewis, Mabior Chol and Lloyd Meek to prevent a match-winning point.
This may be one of the youngest sides the Pies have fielded under McRae, but they still have the muscle memory to do the right thing at the right time.
As Moore took his kick with seconds left, Jack Crisp was one of the senior players organising teammates so they would be in position to spoil a short kick.
The attention to detail was so meticulous they made sure players were coming from the correct angle so that any spoil would send the ball away from goal.
“I think everyone got the gist of what we had to do,” Crisp said. “The big boys on their fellas, just making sure were coming from the fence side.
“As you saw, our celebration at the end, our fight to get back in it after we were up, and then we just got Hawthorn back in it. They had some serious momentum. To fight back to get back in front again and give ourselves a chance, it’s good – it’s a great group.”
McRae gave the Magpies’ reserves players a stern talking to in June, warning them time was running out for several to make their mark.
Within two months, youngsters such as Swadling, Allan, Harvey Harrison, Will Hayes and Charlie West have taken big leaps. It’s not quite an overnight rebuild, but the future is looking brighter for the Pies’ list than it appeared mid-season.
The Pies have now won seven of nine since the King’s Birthday long weekend. Winning five knockout finals in a row to win the flag is improbable, but they are a team no rival will want to face in September.
“There’s a spirit in the whole squad right now,” McRae said. “Winning creates an energy.”
With an MCG wildcard final guaranteed, and no prospect of breaking into the top six, the Pies now have the luxury of managing their team in the final home-and-away round when they host Brisbane off a six-day break on Friday night.
McRae said Maynard, Patrick Lipinski, Howe and Harry Perryman are all in contention to return from injury. Veteran Scott Pendlebury is likely to be one who will be rested after playing off six days coming back from Perth.
“I was pretty deliberate with [high-performance boss] Jarrod Wade that we’ll manage them if they need to be managed, not just for the sake of it,” McRae said.
“If they’re really sore, and they can’t perform well, they won’t play next week. But right now, there’s an energy everyone wants to play, so that’ll be interesting how that plays out.”
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