2002, a season to remember

[Clemo]

A great article from Age reporter, Martin Flanagan.

Title ... "Thanks for the unexpected memories"
December 07 2002

The Magpies had a vintage finish to the season, one that belongs in the memory bank, writes Martin Flanagan.
Sport is never better than when you think something cannot possibly happen and it does. This year's prime example was Collingwood's victory over Port Adelaide in the first week of the finals.
No team in 2002 seemed more grimly determined - or more pre-programmed - than Port. It had run into the finals like a big powerful car finding a few extra revs each time it hit the track for a test run.
The previous week, it had also played the match of the year - in Adelaide, against Brisbane. Not only had it played it, it had won it.
Collingwood, meantime, had limped into the finals like a dog with three legs. It was also without Nathan Buckley, one of the great players of the past decade, for whom the match would have been only his second final appearance.
Like most of Melbourne, I gave the Pies no chance. Instead of staying home and watching the game, I met some friends at the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood to listen to some Greek music. As luck would have it, there was a television above our table.
There is a certain ingredient the best matches have, a sustained tension and excitement. This one had it - somehow, Collingwood, the rank underdog, knew how to win and Port, the raging favourite, did not. We bolted for the bar, abandoning the music.
A late Leon Davis goal, celebrated with a twiddling of the fingers, secured the game for the Magpies and the Port players left the field like men being escorted from the dock to the divvy van.
Among our number in the bar of the Bendigo Hotel that night was an avant-garde composer from New York. I would love to know what he made of the evening, particularly the toothless bloke in the Collingwood guernsey who led the bar in a rendition of Good Old Collingwood Forever that was thunderous.
We were only a street or so away from where John Wren, Collingwood's godfather from the early 1900s, had his illegal tote. Who knows? We probably woke the dead.
It was the second significant rendition I had heard of the song in the course of the year. The other was at Milikapiti on the Tiwi islands.
It was Collingwood's first visit to what a huge sign outside the local primary school declared was "The Home of the Magpies". A group of four Collingwood players stood with the local schoolkids and the whole community sang the Collingwood theme song. "Side by side we'll stick together."
The Collingwood contingent was led by Buckley, whose mother had worked as a health care trainer with some of the local women. I met one of them. Ever so softly, she said: "We glad Nathan could come."
Leaving the school, a kid passed him a footy. He grinned, recognising the game, lent back, did a reverse banana, hitting the nearest of the two coconut trees. It was as much a signal as the sounding of a gun and suddenly the air was thick with flying footballs. Late in the day, after a fishing trip, the players were invited to see the community cultural centre.
Buckley accepted on their behalf. In the back of the four-wheel drive, he said to his teammates: "Let's do the right thing, boys." And they did.
Buckley is one of the most interesting footballers I have met. He is candid, intelligent and, largely by reason of his upbringing when he attended umpteen different schools, something of a loner.
He is also a rare case of enormous natural talent being wed to an ambition of similar magnitude.
If you miss the element of rigid application, of determined self-improvement, in Buckley's game, you miss a lot of his story.
The 2002 grand final was probably the best since 1989. It was similar to that game in that the Magpies nearly went all the way against a champion team because it had a great champion on the day.
Buckley's duel with Michael Voss launched an argument that cannot be won as to who deserved the Norm Smith Medal.
Coming down from the dais, Buckley took the medal from his neck, an act for which he was later criticised, but afterwards, in an aside in a press report, he said the result had been cruel and I think I know what he meant.
As determinedly as he had done anything else, he had transformed himself into a team man, a captain, one who thought group, not self.
His team had reached the pinnacle of his sport, had almost won, but instead of holding aloft the premiership cup, he was receiving yet another individual honor and who knew if he would ever get back there again.
The 2002 grand final left me with a sense of a larger drama touching on notions such as fate and only the great sporting moments do that.
Collingwood Football Club is to be congratulated for making 2002 a season to remember for the right reasons.

_____________________
Collingwood Forever !
clemo@magpies.net
http://members.dodo.net.au/~clemo

[MargOZ]

Thanks for posting that Clemo - what a great read.

GO PIES!
Marg

[couragous cloke]

Absolutely fantastic read ! thank for posting that!

footy ROX!

[Miss_Lisey_Molloy]

That is a fantastic read! thanks Clemo!
Love always, Alyssa xoxo

__________________________________________________
*~Jarrod Molloy's #1 Fan~* *~Jarrod 4 Copeland 2003!~*

"I used to love seeing past players. Seeing them now and saying hello gives you a huge buzz. The passion and tradition around the club is fantastic and I love the way Collingwood supporters go about it- it certainly helps the way I play."- Jarrod Molloy

[molloymagic]

great season,now i need a break from AFL hee hee. Don;t they start pre season training soon?. Great read.

Jarrod Molloy RULES!!!!
*2003:The injury free season for Molloy!!*
*2002 Joint V.C*

[Joel]

Fantastic article. Well written.

JDF

"We've never quit, and we won't."

[MagpieMad]

thnx for that, great read, great year, great football club, great bloody captain!!!

COLLINGWOOD FOR EVER!

http://magpiemad.magpies.net/

[Special Delivery]

Dammit I nearly cried reading that.

It's amazing you know-every time I see the words 'Side by side we stick together', a lump immediately forms in my throat and I almost burst with pride and tears.

That's Collingwood.

Walk with me through my valleys and you will sing with me on my mountain.