Membrey’s Miss Leaves Pies Faithful Shattered But Proud
My heart is still somewhere down near my boots. The Bulldogs got out of the G with a wildcard win, 14.12 (96) to 14.9 (93), and Tim Membrey’s snap after the siren sliced through like it had a mind of its own.
Eighty thousand-odd people at the MCG and I reckon every single one of them stopped breathing for that split second. What a game. What an absolute gut-punch.
An instant classic, no matter what colour you bleed
Let’s get this out the way first. Whatever happened at the death, that was footy at its brutal, brilliant best.
People said wildcard round would reward mediocrity. Well come and have a look at Bontempelli and Daicos going at it and tell me that’s mediocre. Go on, I dare ya.
Two of the best players in the comp, on the biggest stage outside September itself, dragging their sides through the mud by the scruff of the neck. Daicos was everywhere again, cool as you like, breaking lines like he’s got all day. Bont was Bont – contested ball, class by the bucketload, captain’s game when it mattered most.
Membrey’s moment – agony in real time
Right, the moment everyone’s talking about. Membrey gets the ball deep, siren’s gone, whole stadium on their feet, and he goes for it.
And it just… slides. Wide right. Cruel doesn’t even cover it.
I’ve watched it back about ten times already and every time some tiny part of me thinks it might curl in. It never does. That’s footy for you – the most beautiful, heartless game on earth.
Do I think he should of gone for goal instead of playing it safer? Easy to say from the couch mate. In the moment, under that pressure, with that many eyeballs on him? Give the bloke a break. He’s not the reason we lost this one anyway – that game was decided across four quarters, not four seconds.
Where it actually went wrong for the Pies
Because let’s be honest with ourselves for a tick. We had our chances to put this one away well before it came down to a set shot after the siren.
Our front half looked scattered for large stretches. Too many turnovers gifting the Dogs easy transition footy, and against a team with that much run through the middle, that’s how you end up in a shootout instead of cruising home.
The clearance battle was even enough, but it’s what we did with it that hurt us. Forward 50 entries that went nowhere. Kicks to a contest of one when we had numbers up the corridor. Definately some soft moments in there that better sides get away with and we, on this occasion, didn’t.
The umpires, and yeah I’m going there
I’m not one to carry on about the whistle every single week, but there were a couple of free kicks in that last quarter that had me shaking my head at the telly.
Was it deliberate? No, course not, I’m not saying that. But it does feel like decisions like that always seem to fall the other way when we’re the ones under the pump late in a close one. Maybe it’s confirmation bias. Maybe it’s just the way finals footy goes when everyone’s exhausted and split-second calls get harder to make.
Either way, plenty of Pies fans in the outer last night reckon a couple of those calls cost us position we shouldn’t have lost. I’ll leave it there before I get myself in trouble.
What this actually means for our season
Now, before anyone starts writing the obituary – hang on a sec. This was wildcard round. One game, one point of difference, and we’re still very much alive in this competition depending how the rest of this weekend shakes out.
The performance had genuine positives buried in the disappointment. Daicos confirmed again he’s the best player going around bar none. Our midfield brigade matched it with a genuinely elite Dogs engine room for large chunks. Our forward line, when it clicked, looked dangerous.
What we need is more composure in that back half of matches. More discipline at the coalface. Less generosity in transition. Fix those up and we’re a genuine contender, not just a top eight makeweight everyone forgets about come finals time.
Carn the Pies – onward we go
Look, I won’t sugarcoat it. This one stings. It’ll sting for a few days yet, and I reckon Membrey will be replaying that kick in his head for a good while too, poor bloke.
But this club has been through worse and come out the other side plenty of times. We’ve had our share of heartbreakers over the journey and we’ve had our share of famous wins too. That’s the deal you sign up for when you follow the Magpies.
The Bulldogs deserve credit – they hung tough all night and got the job done when it counted, and fair play to them for that. Bontempelli led from the front like he always does.
But this Collingwood side has shown enough across the season to suggest this isn’t the last we’ve seen of them in the big moments. We dust ourselves off, we front up next week, and we go again.
Carn the Pies. Always.
