Like many others, I sat down on Saturday and witnessed one of the best AFL grand finals ever in the match played between West Coast Eagles and Collingwood.
Reading some of the comments from the respective coaches on Sunday, one lamented the lack of “dare” whilst the other talked about “head, heart and gut.”
A closer look at scoring patterns from both teams seems to support these statements. The pattern shows that Collingwood scored the majority of their goals in the first half of each quarter while the Eagles managed to kick crucial goals within the last five minutes of the first, second and final quarters.
Given that the Eagles were five goals down towards the end of the first quarter, this ability to execute effectively proved to be the ultimate difference.
Our great game is a feat of human endurance both physically and mentally, repeated efforts, end-to-end transitions, collision contact and astute strategic management by the coaching staff make the game what it is and what it means to so many.
There has been many studies completed surrounding physical fatigue and its impact on the mental side of the game as well as studies demonstrating that mental fatigue impacts on a sportsman ability to execute.
I’m sure this is not news to anyone who follows sport.
Now, I know that there could be other factors that people who watched the game could refer to as a point of difference such as: was it a block on Brayden Maynard by Willi Rioli that led to Dom Sheed’s goal?
Leigh Mathews stated that the umpires seized up in the final quarter by not paying free kicks that should have been paid.
At the end of the day, the calls were not made so the score line stands, irrespective of whether these decisions were right or wrong.
The cold hard facts show that West Coast simply executed better that Collingwood. By facts, I refer to West Coast kicking five of their eleven goals in the last five minutes of three out of the four quarters.
Did the Collingwood players drop their guard towards the end of each quarter? Was it mental, physical or both?
Coach Nathan Buckley is not the only coach this year I have heard use the term ‘dare’. I think we can say that dare, in sporting terms, means to have the ability to mentally apply yourself to execute the physical side of the game for maximum results.
My definition not anyone else’s.
Winning is as much about the mental side of the game as it is the physical. What we saw on Saturday demonstrates just how important being mentally prepared is.
You cannot play with dare if you are not mentally prepared to take a risk.
Think Jeremy McGovern leaving Jordan De Goey for the intercept mark that led to Sheed’s mark and subsequent goal.
With teams jostling for an advantage each season, sports psychology has come banging on the door in a big big way.
Both teams were magnificent on Saturday but the Eagles executed better when it counted and that was the difference.
Were they mentally better prepared than Collingwood? I think so.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
They held the mortgage on narrow GF losses and draws long before Buckers happened along.
Lroy
Guest
Eagles played in 9 games in 2017 where the result was decided by less than a goal. They lost 6 of them and in most cases, were in front at the 20 minute mark of the last quarter. They must have had a good long hard look at how about they went things in the off season and came up with some ideas as to how to get over the line. They beat Port Adelaide, a very good side twice with goals after the siren in less than 12 months.... 3 times if you consider pre season. Eagles learnt how to win the close ones in 2018...and now they are premiers.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Moore will be re-signed Chris, Langdon too once he gets over his offer being held over in case Lynch changed his mind. Elliott has been given a one year extension to give his body a chance, Greenwood should get 2 years. Fasolo is off to the Blues. Blair and Oxley should try their luck elsewhere. Reid and Wells have one year left. Wells might finish his career with a flag. The other rumour is the infamous runner Alex Woodward will be rookie listed to the Pies senior list. As you know he played only like 8 VFL games and finished third in the VFL B and F. What a story that would be after 4 ACL's. The runner comes back and nabs the 2019 flag with the Pies.
Chris
Guest
The most telling mistake was not rushing the behind with two minutes remaining in the first quarter. Langdon's tentativeness resulted in a goal that was followed by another. I knew from that point on that we were going to lose. Going in 5 goals to 0 is a much more favourable position than 5 goals to 2. As for next year, a few hard decisions have to be made. Daniel Wells, Alex Fasolo, Ben Reid, Jarryd Blair,Adam Oxley and Jamie Elliott would be best offloaded. I would give Darcy Moore another chance because of his youth. Priority for Collingwood is to get Brody Grundy's brother as a key defender or Justin Kochitzke's cousin. Apart from signing up some academy players. All in all, six players need to be brought in without delay otherwise this year could turn out to be a just a flash in the pan.
The Brazilian
Roar Rookie
Yes. The Buckley Curse. All he has to do is apologise to Brisbane for the manner in which he left them. Also apologise for all those letters telling clubs other than Collingwood not to draft him. Not cool, Nathan.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
How do you account for the Eagles missing easy set shots to go ahead in the last quarter. Unfortunately the trend towards poor ability to kick relatively simple set shots continues . It’s getting realistic to say that kickers in Nrl are now more accurate then this current afl era . What can be adreesed about these skill errors.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
You have to question the capacity of people arguing the semantics of anything missing from a psych of physical point of view when the game was one kick the difference. It's quite ludicrous.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
It was neither. It was Magic. Black Magic. They are cursed.
Boomer
Roar Rookie
Ok Pope Paul - physical, mental or both? I'm interested what people think about this.
Boomer
Roar Rookie
What do you think Anon - physical or mental lapse?
Boomer
Roar Rookie
I'm also assuming by your comment they the Eagles were fresher, that you believe it was a physical thing not a mental one?
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
Just typical Colliewobble Grand final behaviour. Could have won but didn't.
Boomer
Roar Rookie
Agree 100%, they overperformed. They also play a great brand of football, there were stages during the GF where they really exposed West Coast through their speedy ball movement.
Boomer
Roar Rookie
Definitely homeground advantage a big issue. Travelling to the West has to be the biggest challenge when playing interstate - Five and half hours travel just to start.
Boomer
Roar Rookie
It is true Collingwood had a favourable draw this year and their finish as the second best team in the comp will impact on their draw for next year. It think it is harsh to suggest that Collingwood underperformed I think the opposite. A great year for them, the challenge will be to back it up.
anon
Roar Pro
Underperform when the chips are down. Shades of 2012 about it.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Underperform? Lol what?
john
Roar Rookie
you don't know what you are talking about only beating one side in the 8 that was at the end of the year but on the way also put 3 sides out adelaide north and port beat every side bar geelong and west coast as for the easy draw it will be the same next year like not playing adelaide at home or fremantle but playing port and west coast at home
Aransan
Roar Rookie
The fact that West Coast had two home games and only played three finals was an important factor in their victory, they were also a more hardened side. I disagree with you about Cox, apparently he received significant unfair treatment early and with experience will be a dominant player in the future. He is still new to our game. I wrote last year that Collingwood were better than people think and so was Buckley, their performances this year confirm my statement. They lost a match that could have gone either way after playing four finals with the first in WA.
anon
Roar Pro
West Coast were fresher. They had an extra week off. Two finals at home. Their prelim was done and dusted by half time. West Coast are also simply a better team. Collingwood made the top 4 on the back of a soft draw. Only beat one top 8 team in the home and away season. Got an injury ravaged GWS in the second week, then had a tremendous against the odds win against Richmond. The Richmond win was great, but it was an outlier. Cox will never repeat that first half in his career. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for Richmond. West Coast had big scalps through the year, Richmond had big scalps, Sydney had some big scalps, Collingwood had none. They beat a flaky Melbourne back in June. That's it. Collingwood did what Collingwood have always done under Bucks -- underperform. Be worse than the sum of their parts.