Picture this.
It’s the last Saturday in September and your team is in the Grand Final.
It’s been a season where your side has completely defied the odds. Making the finals in itself for some was completely out of the picture.
Let’s also throw in that your side is five goals up in the Grand Final.
And they lose.
Yep, with two minutes to go, they are ahead and they cough it up in the final minutes.
These are a few of the many sentiments Collingwood supporters have harboured and ran tirelessly through their mind since that fateful day.
2018 was a pretty cool this season though.
We hadn’t made finals in four seasons, we were bludgeoned by injuries, we were slammed from pillar to post by the media in the off-season for giving Nathan Buckley a contract extension.
But some of the results, with the team we had made it completely unforgettable.
Beating Adelaide on the road for the first time. The incredible Queen’s Birthday win over the Dees. And who could forget the Prelim, oh the god forsaken Prelim was the best day of my life.
No kidding. The best.
However, as much as 2018 was full of its ups and downs, the overruling feeling is what could have been. The Pies were so close to what could have been a sixteenth premiership.
Two minutes, from ending the constant fallback line of every suffering Carlton and Essendon fan saying they’ve won more premierships.
Two minutes, from slamming the door shut on any Richmond talk of winning the flag the year prior.
Two minutes, from the ultimate success and boy, this team bloody deserved it.
A team which had a bunch of players with stories that had the overriding motto of – defying the odds.
Jaidyn Stephenson overcoming the doubts of recruiting managers after being diagnosed with a heart condition.
Jordan De Goey turned the perception of bad boy on the verge of termination to one of the superstars of the game.
Tyson Goldsack returned six months after tearing his ACL to play a key role in their finals campaign.
Adam Treloar overcame a fluke double hamstring tear to kick the goal which sent the Magpies to the big dance.
Chris Mayne was on the verge of being labelled the worst recruit in AFL history before turning into a key cog in the Magpies setup.
Josh Thomas turned two years on the sidelines into a season-best 38 goals.
Brayden Sier was weeks away from a career without a single AFL game.
And Mason Cox was told he had no future, but months later he took the best defender in the game to school.
All the while combating the losses of key individuals in Lynden Dunn, Ben Reid, Jamie Elliott and Darcy Moore for the majority of 2018.
It was a season where ‘Nothing Else Matters’ became more than a song, but a moniker for a proud football club who needed a spark.
A spark to give their fans something to look forward to.
A spark which even in the darkest moments of a heartbreaking Grand Final loss were able to bring our fanbase closer together than it ever has been.
This Grand Final loss is different to every other in the fact that the journey of 2018 was one where Collingwood fans were able to learn to love their team once again.
'Side by side' is more than just a catchy lyric in a historical theme song – it is the bond which brings the Magpie Army back together and makes them stronger than ever.
New recruits, returning sons and for the first time in a while, the feeling that football could actually come home.
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