Over here, guys: Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy and Geelong’s Tom Hawkins play blind man’s bluff. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Chris Scott almost blew a gasket in the final seconds of his first game as Geelong coach back in 2011, eight years and nearly 200 games ago.

The final few minutes of the Cats’ thrilling seven-point win over Collingwood on Friday night weren’t a lot different, but with just as good reason.

While Scott knows the drill all too well by now, he also knows how important was the result given the nightmarish start to the season the Cats are facing, last night’s clash with a grand finalist to be followed by games against Melbourne, Adelaide (away), GWS, Hawthorn, West Coast, Essendon and North Melbourne.

It wasn’t pretty, it certainly wasn’t efficient, but like they have so many times over the years, the Cats dragged themselves over the line.

This was a game which smacked of early-season lack of touch, fumbles misses and poor decision-making the order of the evening for long periods. No side could capitalise on their brief bursts of ascendancy, the biggest margin of the evening just 11 points.

But it was Geelong which just hung in there a tiny bit better, even when it trailed by a goal with only six minutes left on the clock, having conceded two in a row to Collingwood, the second of those from a potentially morale-sapping error. As had been the case several times already on the night.

Geelong had made the early running, the first goal of the game to Mitch Duncan from a tight angle after he’d been set up by Cat first-gamer Tom Atkins, one of four debutants fielded by Geelong on the evening.

Jamie Elliott, the man whose presence last September might well have seen Collingwood now on 16 premierships, announced his return in the best possible manner, running around the goal line to slot the Pies’ first.

Then began a solid 15 minutes of missed opportunities from either side, Sam Menegola and Gary Ablett for the Cats, Jordan de Goey missing a gettable chance for Collingwood. Some typical Ablett class finally broke the ice, the little master banging through his first goal for the evening on the run.

Mason Cox quickly squared that up, though. And Collingwood’s superiority at the stoppages paid obvious dividends when, from the next centre bounce, a Brodie Grundy tap and a quickly clearance from Tom Phillips saw Brody Mihocek pop a handball over the top for Elliott’s second.

The second term certainly won’t be featuring on too many end-of-season highlight reels, just two goals in total scored, and the second of those coming only three seconds before the half-time siren.

Tom Hawkins brought Geelong back within a point 10 minutes into the quarter, launching a catalogue of missed chances, Jaidyn Stephenson, Cox and Grundy all missing very gettable goals for the Pies, Gary Rohan soaring for a big grab then making a meal of an attempted round-the-corner set shot for the Cats.

An 11-point half-time lead should have been plenty more for Collingwood given its territorial dominance. The Magpies had 18 inside 50 entries for the quarter to Geelong’s meagre seven.

They’d got right on top in the clinches, too, winning the contested possession for the term by eight. And Grundy was starting to monster his ruck opponent Rhys Stanley. But as we’ve seen them do so many times, Geelong’s biggest names stood up when they had to.

The Cats booted the first three goals of the second half to turn that deficit into an eight-point lead, two to Joel Selwood and Gary Ablett, the third to recruit Luke Dahlhaus. True to the nature of this game, Collingwood promptly return the favour with a three-goal barrage of its own.

Adam Treloar, as per usual, prolific and effective with ball in hand, snapped a beauty. Enter Jordan de Goey, subdued until now, but bursting into life with two quick goals, making hard work of the first after a fumble, but charging on to a Travis Varcoe handball minutes later to put the Pies seven points up.

Patrick Dangerfield’s reply right on the buzzer left scores level at the last break, which seemed about right.

First-gamer Charlie Constable gave Geelong breathing space. Returned favourite Dayne Beams levelled things up again when the seas parted for him to slam one through from close range.

And what might have been the killer blow was landed by the Pies after normally-reliable Cat defender Mark Blicavs, tried to spot up a teammate, but off-balance and off just one step, kicked out on-the-full instead, Callum Brown curling a lovely snap just inside the goal post in the subsequent Collingwood attack.

The next centre bounce would be crucial. Geelong won it, pumped the ball long, and Brandon Parfitt surged on to the crumbs to level scores again for a third time in the quarter.

And now the Cats would put the game to rest, Mitch Duncan picking up cleanly, handballing to Tim Kelly, a clear best on the ground on the night with 31 disposals, nearly half of them contested, who handed off in turn to Hawkins.

A new father, “Tomahawk” has had plenty of better games than this one, but his right foot snap was the perfect touch, things finally, definitively out of reach for Collingwood when Jeremy Howe’s attempted clearing kick found Dangerfield instead of a teammate, and the Brownlow medallist’s behind pushed the gap out to two scoring shots with only just over a minute remaining.

It was a win the Cats probably deserved in the finish. They’d had more clearances, more contested possession, twice as many marks inside 50 and, in the finish, 10 more forward entries.

None of which is sometimes enough to also deliver the four match points. This time it was, and Scott knew better than anyone just how much they could mean a couple of months down the track by which time his side will have taken on the bulk of last year’s top eight.

COLLINGWOOD 3.5 4.9 7.10 9.11 (65)
GEELONG 2.2 3.4 7.10 10.12 (72)
GOALS – Collingwood: Elliott 3, De Goey 2, Cox, Treloar, Beams, Brown. Geelong: Ablett 2, Hawkins 2, Duncan, Selwood, Dahlhaus, Dangerfield, Constable, Parfitt.
BEST – Collingwood: Treloar, Moore, Pendlebury, Phillips, Elliott, Sidebottom. Geelong: Kelly, Stewart, Dangerfield, Dahlhaus, Ablett, Selwood.
Umpires: Stevic, Harris, Haussen
Crowd: 78,017 at the MCG