Immediately after the final siren, Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell was livid at the prospect of an AFL grand final replay.
“It’s probably going to take this for the AFL to change the rules – it’s an absolute joke,” he said.
But the two coaches and other players were generally philosophical about Saturday’s draw meaning another match next Saturday.
The AFL have already decided that if next week’s replay is drawn, it will go to extra time.
The premiership decider is the one AFL finals match where tied scores mean another game.
Replays for all finals were in place until 1990, when eventual premiers Collingwood drew the qualifying final with West Coast.
That forced a review of the rules and the league decided that only a drawn grand final should warrant a replay.
“Instinctively? Yeah, extra time … but I’m not sure it’s the right thing,” St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said.
“As I sit here now, it all depends whether you have momentum or not and you’re healthy.
“Everyone will have an opinion, I think the financiers are happy we’re coming back.”
Magpies coach Mick Malthouse said everyone knew before the game what would happen if scores were level.
“It’s happened before in grand finals, we’ve always said the grand final’s the one where if it’s a draw you play again, so well all know that,” he said.
“How often has it happened in AFL history? It hasn’t at all. VFL history, but AFL history no, so it’s unique and we’ve got to treat it as such.”
Saints defenders Sam Fisher and Sam Gilbert said they were cramping at the end of the game.
“I’d probably prefer to come back next week actually and do it all again,” Fisher said.
Collingwood team-mates Dale Thomas and Alan Toovey were in two minds about whether the replay or extra time would have been preferable.
“It’s pretty hard having a draw. I think it would be better if we had extra time but I suppose we get another crack at it next week which is the good part about it,” Toovey said.
League chief executive Andrew Demetriou said post-match it was too early to say whether the AFL would change the rules in the wake of the draw.
“We have to sit back in the cold light of day and have a look at that,” he said.
“Everyone knew going to this game that there’s no time on (extra time) in a grand final.
“We certainly didn’t expect a draw but it was an unbelievable game.”
Meanwhile, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has called for next week’s replayed AFL decider to become the people’s grand final, with club members given first bite at tickets rather than corporate hangers-on.
Amid the disbelief of the first drawn AFL/VFL grand final in 33 years and just the third in history, McGuire said the rare opportunity for a second grand final experience in a week should be shared with those at the game’s grass roots.
“That would be sensational if the members got first crack,” McGuire said as the Magpies and St Kilda prepare to return to the MCG next Saturday for the replay.
“Corporates have all had their day. I would love to have 60,000 Collingwood members and I think the Saints have got 40,000. There’s your 100,000 – that’ll do us.”
The AFL looks likely to heed McGuire’s call and give existing club members far more access to tickets.
An AFL spokesman said the league expected far less of the corporate ticket allocation to be taken up, making more available to Collingwood and St Kilda members.
“We expect all of those (not taken up) to revert to club members,” he said.
The shock of the result left players from both sides stunned and lying on the ground for several minutes following the final siren, not to mention the 100,016 fans at the MCG who had spent almost as much nervous energy watching something unique in Australian sport unfold.
Adding to the unusual atmosphere following the grand final was that both teams had to decamp from their normal dressing rooms when they were flooded after a water main burst.
They first were asked to wait on the ground, then sent to spare rooms at the opposite side of the MCG following the match.
Bizarrely, where they should detour to for their post-match showers was the first subject broached with the Collingwood players as they dusted themselves off following the draw.
“The discussion was actually which rooms to go – that’s why we were out there so long,” Collingwood’s Dale Thomas said.
The draw also threw Collingwood’s plans for the week into turmoil, with the club’s best and fairest scheduled for Friday hastily postponed, as well as the Magpies family day planned for this Sunday.
But McGuire, who watched the last drawn grand final between Collingwood and North Melbourne in 1977 as an 11-year-old fan, said a second decider provided a fascinating opportunity and should be embraced by all.
“Two draws in a lifetime – how about that?” McGuire said.
“It’s a game of attrition – stand up. Those who survive, survive. Let’s not get all nancy boy about it. Let’s get out and play, and last man standing wins the flag.”
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