A seesawing blockbuster

Princes Park saw a heart-in-the-mouth finish, gutsy tackles and smothers, classy evasive manoeuvres, momentum swings with a real edge, and a final margin of just two points.

You quite simply couldn’t script a better contest to start the AFLW’s brave new world of finals.

Not once would either side have felt comfortable, even as North Melbourne pushed early, Collingwood responded in almighty fashion to overtake and stretch a lead of their own.

The Roos were able to come back though, through a more laboured version of their usual exploits to retake the ascendancy and hold on by the skin of their teeth.

There were highlights aplenty too, with names like Bonnici, Gavalas and Membrey doing the spectacular – but none more so than Sophie Abbatangelo’s cold as ice snap for goal from hard up against the behind post late in the game.

Pies anything but cold as they bow out in style

2019 was a year to forget for the famous club, but 2020 will be one to remember for plenty of reasons.

At times the Pies played brilliant football this season and even though they missed out on the chance to extend their time in the competition further, today’s efforts would have lost them no fans.

Love them or love to hate them, Collingwood have a list at their disposal now that can punish oppositions coming out of contests, setup attacks with a solid short passing game and have shown the ability as a group to think their way through difficult situations before executing counters.

As the coach Steve Symonds said post-match:

“We’ve got to a point where we’ve developed enough that we’re actually talking about scenarios in the game, which is really good progress for us... we’ll use that to drive us for next year.”

Skipper Steph Chiocci was similarly proud of the work put in by her charges.

“I think this is one of the first times I’ve had a real confidence and belief in our group. It’s no disrespect to our past, but it’s more so just what we’ve built here – we’re really feeling like a family.”

Roos box away the ghosts of the past

Scott Gowans’ tone said it all.

He was “tired, but feeling sensational” to have come out on top in a big game, a contest that was “one that could’ve gone either way.”

For the North Melbourne side, this was huge. Until this point, all the hype about their ability was unproven on the big stage.

True to his ethos all year, the past was most useful as a driver to strive for better outcomes – the ultimate outcome.

“We also mentioned that disappointment of last year.

“It was real and that today was the tick we were looking for this season... to get that monkey off our back. It’s a really big step forward for this group.”

The monkey looked more like a gorilla at times as North were both pressured harder than they had been before, and made more uncharacteristic errors with and without ball in hand too.

But much of the mythos around this club is borne from the ‘Shinboner Spirit’, that “backs against the wall’ grit and gusto no other side can ever really tap into.

Kearney, Gavalas, Bruton, Riddell, Ashmore and of course Garner – they did it tough and in doing so, produced finals footy worthy of that spirit.