Sidebottom’s Farewell: A Pie Through and Through, Right to the End

Well, I didn’t want to write this one. But here we are, sitting down with a cuppa gone cold, trying to find the words for Steele Sidebottom hanging up the boots at season’s end.

Seventeen years. One club. A premiership medal that half of Victoria reckons should of come earlier, given how long he’s been the beating heart of that midfield brigade at the Holden Centre.

The line that got me

‘I’ll remember the people’ – that’s what Steele said when he made it official. Not the goals. Not the Copeland Trophy. Not even the 2023 flag that finally put a smile on all our dials after decades of near misses and heartbreak.

The people. Typical Steele, isn’t it?

This is a bloke who could of talked about the numbers – and mate, the numbers are ridiculous, we’re talking one of the most durable, silky midfielders this footy club has ever produced – but instead he goes straight to the teammates, the staff, the fans standing behind the fence at training in the freezing Melbourne rain.

That tells you everything about the man. Carn the Pies, but more importantly, carn Steele.

A premiership at last

Can we just sit with this for a second? Steele Sidebottom is a premiership player.

After everything – after 2011, after 2018 when we were an absolute whisker away, after all those years where Collingwood fans like me aged about a decade every September – Steele finally got his hands on the cup in 2023.

Did he deserve it? Is the sky blue? This bloke ran himself into the ground for over a decade and a half chasing that exact moment. When it finally came, there wasn’t a Pies supporter in the country who wasn’t blubbering into their beer.

He didn’t need the flag to prove his class. But my word it was nice to see him get it anyway.

The bloke who never left

You want loyalty in the modern game? Good luck finding it. Players chase deals, chase list movements, chase whatever greener grass some manager reckons is over the fence.

Not Steele. One jumper. One club. Seventeen years of turning up to the Holden Centre and giving it everything, even through the lean years when Collingwood weren’t exactly the glamour side of the competition.

Remember 2017? Remember how far off the pace we were? Steele was still out there, still winning his own footy, still setting the standard even when the team around him wasn’t always up to it.

That’s the definition of a one-club great if you ask me. Doesn’t matter what colour socks are fashionable that year at the club – he was there through the lot of it.

What we’ll actually miss

It’s easy to rattle off stats. Sidebottom’s got the disposal numbers, the goals, the finals appearances that most players would sign away their left arm for.

But what will Collingwood actually miss next year?

• That silky left-foot delivery that made half-forwards look better than they actually were.
• The bloke who’d win the hard ball at half-back and somehow still find time to hit a target 40 metres away.
• The calm head when finals footy gets absolutely frantic and blokes are panicking all over the ground.
• A leader in the rooms who the young Pies will genuinely miss having around.

You can’t replace that overnight. Definately not with one draft pick or one trade period signing. It takes years to build a player like that, and now he’s walking out the door.

Fair play to Prestia too

Look, I’m a Pies man through and through, and this column’s about our bloke. But I’ll give credit where it’s due – Dion Prestia going out the same year is a nice bit of symmetry for the competition.

Two genuine premiership players, two blokes who gave their bodies to the contest for over a decade each, walking away together. Good luck to him in whatever comes next, even if he did wear the wrong jumper his whole career.

It just shows you how quickly a golden generation moves on. Blink and it’s gone.

The send-off he deserves

Now here’s my worry. The back half of this season, every time Collingwood plays, are the umpires going to give Steele the rub of the green on his way out? Doubt it. They never do for us, do they? That’s a story for another column though.

What I want – what every Pies supporter wants – is a proper send-off. A guard of honour. The MCG rocking. Maybe one last vintage Sidebottom performance where he turns back the clock for four quarters and reminds everyone why we loved watching him play.

He’s earned that much. Actually, he’s earned more than that, but footy doesn’t always give you the fairytale ending. Just ask anyone who watched us in the 2018 decider.

Thanks, Steele

You came to this footy club as a kid with a bit of X-factor and you’re leaving it a genuine legend of the jumper. In between you gave us a premiership, hundreds of games of pure class, and about a decade and a half of never once making us question whether you were fully invested.

That’s rare in this day and age. That’s worth celebrating properly.

So here’s to Steele Sidebottom. Not just a premiership player. Not just a Copeland Trophy winner. A genuine one-club Collingwood person, through and through.

Carn the Pies. And carn Steele – enjoy the rest of the ride, big fella. You’ve more than earned it.