Dejected Pies, jubilant Swans. Scenes from the SCG as the sirens heralds Sydney’s one-point win. Photo: AFL MEDIA

SYDNEY 14.11 (95) defeated COLLINGWOOD 14.10 (94)

The comeback kings. The cardiac kids. The fairytale Flagpies. It just looked meant to be … until it didn’t.

Collingwood gave up a 26-0 head start, fell as much as six goals behind and still trailed by 23 points at the final change. Yet it still wasn’t quite gone. At that point, you would have been surprised if the Magpies had won, but not really. It’s been that sort of season for the AFL’s most polarising club.

When Steele Sidebottom kicked the last goal with more than two minutes left to play, cutting the margin to less than a kick, Sydney fans were more than nervous. Even at a boundary throw-in at half-back with 51 seconds left, the Pies had belief as they hurried the ball forward.

It’s the sort of belief that comes with winning a record 11 games by margins of less than two goals this season.

Sydney has produced arguably the most entertaining brand of football in a season that a growing number of experts – all-time great Leigh Matthews among them – are hailing as the best in many years.

However, at the end of Saturday’s gripping contest at a heaving SCG, it was a bit of grit and desperation that got the Swans over the line.

A scrambled rushed behind from a stoppage on the final play of the game eerily gave Sydney a one-point victory in the first preliminary final on its traditional home ground since Tony Lockett’s famous after-the-siren point sailed through in 1996.

The Swans controlled the game for all but about five minutes and almost got beaten, but Collingwood’s mesmerising run is over.

Perhaps it was too good to be true. The first side to reach the final four from 17th position the previous year went oh-so-close to the grand final.

Callum Mills, Chad Warner, Luke Parker and Errol Gulden were all superb for Sydney as it led on the scoreboard from start to finish. Tom Papley kicked three goals, including a crucial and controversial one in the final term, and let the Magpies know about every one of them.

Lance Franklin, who now has the chance to complete his mega-contract at Sydney with a premiership, booted two majors in a welcome return to form after a quiet qualifying final.

The only blow for the Swans was an adductor injury to Sam Reid, which saw him substituted out of the game.

Jack Crisp, Scott Pendlebury and Darcy Moore were huge for Collingwood as Beau McCreery, Jamie Elliott and Will Hoskin Elliott kicked two goals each.

There was a feeling an ambush was on the cards as the “Collingwood” chant from visiting supporters – strong in number – rang out around the SCG early.

Brayden Maynard got stuck into Franklin as they tangled over the boundary line and Jack Ginnivan riled a portion of the home fans when he received a free kick for a high tackle.

But it was the Swans who settled first, kicking the opening four goals to inspire a red-and-white retort in the stands to the Magpie Army’s initial chant.

Sydney’s pressure was through the roof, but the Pies hung around as they always do. Pendlebury helped drag them back into it before quarter-time and Elliott kicked a couple of goals before the main break.

But the Swans steadied led by 30 points at half-time, with their forward line firing on all cylinders.

Rising star Nick Daicos benefitted from a harsh 50-metre penalty on the wing and displayed his maturity with a cool goal to lift Collingwood early in the third term. He had been limited by Ryan Clarke to that point.

The Pies’ chances looked just about snuffed out when Darcy Moore’s dangerous switch to Jeremy Howe across the middle of the ground was perfectly read by Justin McInerney, who gleefully claimed the intercept mark and sprinted into an open goal.
But again goals to Josh Daicos and Ginnivan gave Collingwood a chance. At three-quarter time, they were hanging on.

Sydney’s only goal of the final quarter came when Tom Papley was paid a controversial mark in a contest with Darcy Moore. It put the Swans 20 points up before goals to Brody Mihocek, Hoskin-Elliott and Sidebottom set up a grandstand finish befitting of what has been a terrific finals series overall.

Ultimately, Sydney is into its first grand final since 2016, aiming for a first flag since 2012. It will be the Swans’ fourth season decider in John Longmire’s dozen years at the helm.

His counterpart Craig McRae might take time to come around while the pain of preliminary final defeat is still raw, but this year has been a resounding success for Collingwood. Nevertheless, it will be a very long drive home for hordes of Magpies fans who hit the road from Melbourne to avoid the jacked-up airfares being charged during the week.

It will give them plenty of time to start dreaming about what might be next year.

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GEELONG 18.12 (120) defeated BRISBANE 7.7 (49)

If Geelong went into its latest preliminary final with a chip on its shoulder – a result of the external focus on its September failures over the last decade – then Patrick Dangerfield embodied the response Chris Scott’s men desperately wanted to produce.

Dangerfield, much like the Cats as a whole, has long been a brilliant home-and-away performer without really dominating a finals series in the way he could, and perhaps should.

But within a minute of the first bounce it was clear the champion midfielder was in the mood to tear up the script of recent years and write a new one.

His mark going back with the flight and sublime finish from long-range to register the first goal in the opening minute set the tone. He’d booted two goals by quarter-time and had no shortage of teammates willing to play their roles.

But it was Dangerfield who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck when it was there to be won and finished with game-high tallies of 28 disposals, 16 contested possessions and eight clearances.

Brisbane forward Eric Hipwood suffered a footballer’s nightmare early in the second term when he dropped a chest mark from Keidean Coleman’s exit kick, allowing Zach Guthrie to sprint away and find Gary Rohan for the Cats’ fifth goal.

It gave the home side a 15-point lead, and when Gryan Miers and Tom Hawkins added another couple of majors in quick succession, the Cats were well on their way to a resounding triumph.

It would be wrong to place too much emphasis on Hipwood’s error, but that little patch was crucial in Geelong taking complete control before half-time.

The Cats, of course, have had many critics point to the competition’s oldest list as a reason they can’t win it all this year. But they fielded the oldest starting 22 in AFL/VFL history on Friday night – with 10 players over 30 years of age – and looked anything but past it.

There was cruel irony in the fact Geelong’s youngest player on the night was the one to suffer a soft tissue injury. Max Holmes, lauded for his impact in his second season, cut a frustrated figure as he hobbled off during the third quarter with a hamstring issue.

On the sideline, he buried his head in the turf and slapped the ground Rohan Smith-style with both hands, seemingly resigned to missing the grand final. But there appears a glimmer of hope for the 20-year-old, with coach Chris Scott “optimistic” the injury isn’t as bad as it looked.

Brisbane was the competition’s second-highest scoring team in the home-and-away season behind Richmond and had scored 198 points in its finals wins over the Tigers and Melbourne.

But the scoring dried up against Geelong, with the Lions posting their lowest tally of the entire season on the biggest stage they graced.

It wasn’t just that the likes of Joe Daniher, Charlie Cameron, Dan McStay, Lincoln McCarthy and Zac Bailey failed to fire, or that Cam Rayner went down injured soon after half-time.

The Lions were belted around the midfield – where Brownlow Medal favourite Lachie Neale was held to 20 disposals – and couldn’t generate enough clean entries to give their forwards a good enough chance to impose themselves.

It was the opposite at the other end, where Tom Hawkins, Tyson Stengle, Jeremy Cameron and Rohan dined out on silver service at times. Hawkins kicked 1.3 in a wayward first half – including a simple set shot missed from 20 metres out – but recovered to finish with 4.3 in an influential display.

So Geelong marches on to a second grand final in three years, third in a dozen seasons under Scott, and sixth in the last 16 campaigns overall.

Brisbane, meanwhile, is left to ponder what might have been in the first finals campaign under Fagan in which it had managed back-to-back victories.

The Lions are resigned to losing Dan McStay and restricted free agent Darcy Gardiner is yet to make a call on his future, while Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley could be on his way to the Gabba. That will all play out in the coming weeks.

There was an unusual postscript to the Lions’ disappointing exit, when Mitch Robinson posted what looked like a retirement announcement on social media.

He gave coach Chris Fagan a clip in the body of the Instagram post, sharing: “Devastated that ‘Fages’ wouldn’t allow me to announce this in person to the supporters and my teammates, but I guess that’s footy.”

But Robinson had already announced he had played his final home game for the Lions in a television interview after the elimination final win over Richmond.

There’s got to be more to that little story.