Who’s Got Ice in Their Veins When the Siren Looms?

There is nothing — and I mean absolutely nothing — in this great game that separates the pretenders from the contenders quite like a one-goal margin with two minutes left on the clock. The footy is flying, the crowd is delirious, and some teams find a way. Others fall apart like a flat-pack wardrobe in the rain.

This season has been a beauty for tight finishes. Week after week, we’ve had games decided by a kick or less, last-gasp goals, and the kind of heart-in-the-mouth moments that remind you why you bother enduring a cold Tuesday night at training just to watch your club the following Saturday. So let’s get into it — who’s been holding their nerve best when the siren looms, and why?

The Pies: Built for the Pressure Cooker

Look, I’m not going to pretend I’m unbiased here. Carn the Pies. But honestly, even if I barracked for someone else, I’d have to admit that Collingwood have become one of the premier clutch teams of this era.

Craig McRae has instilled something in this group that goes beyond structure and fitness. It’s belief. It’s that almost annoying certainty that they can find a way. We’ve seen it in finals, we’ve seen it in the regular season — when the contest tightens, the Magpies don’t flinch. They lean into the chaos. The ability to execute under pressure — a clean handball, a composed set shot, a contest-winning clearance — these aren’t accidents. That’s culture, and teh Pies have buckets of it.

Nick Daicos in particular has shown a maturity well beyond his years when the stakes are highest. When the game is on the line and someone needs to win a clearance or land a crucial kick, you want him with the ball. Simple as that.

Brisbane: The Lions Who Don’t Blink

Chris Fagan’s Brisbane Lions deserve enormous credit here. For years people wrote them off as a team that would go missing at the pointy end — and look, the 2023 grand final loss still stings for their fans — but the way they’ve bounced back and continued to perform in close games in 2024 says a lot about their character.

Joe Daniher in his prime was always a matchwinning threat, but it’s the engine room of Lachie Neale and Zac Bailey that tends to power the Lions home in tight contests. They don’t panic. They use the footy well under pressure and they back themselves to hit the scoreboard when it matters. Brisbane in a one-quarter shoot-out is not a comfortable opponent for anyone.

Sydney: Quietly Doing the Business

People sleep on Sydney in this conversation, and I reckon that suits them just fine. The Swans are one of the most disciplined clubs in the competition when it comes to executing a game plan late in a tight match.

John Longmire’s mob rarely beat themselves. They don’t go for the heroic option when the percentage play is there. Chad Warner can look like he’s playing street footy for three quarters and then conjure something extraordinary in the fourth. Isaac Heeney brings genuine X-factor energy. And their defensive structure — anchored by that back six that communicates relentlessly — makes life extremely difficult for any side trying to run over the top of them late.

The Swans have been involved in more close finishes than almost anyone this season and they’ve come out the right side of most of them. That’s not luck — that’s a program that has been built for pressure.

Carlton: Learning, Growing, but Not Quite There Yet

I say this with genuine respect for what Michael Voss is building at Carlton — the Blues are a genuine finals contender and Patrick Cripps is one of the great modern-day leaders of the competition. But if there’s one area Carlton haven’t fully cracked yet, it’s that final-minute composure.

Too often this season the Blues have been in winning positions late and made a questionable decision — whether that’s a rushed kick inside 50 at the wrong moment, or a failure to slow the game down when they’re ahead. You can see them working on it, and definately there are signs of improvement. But in the biggest moments, they’ve dropped a few they should of held.

That’s not a sledge — it’s the kind of thing that comes with experience and cohesion, and the Blues are building. Watch this space by September.

GWS: The Dark Horse Clutch Team

If you’ve been watching GWS this season and not been impressed by their composure in tight finishes, I’d check your pulse. Adam Kingsley has this group playing a brand of football that absolutely thrives in contested, tight-margin situations.

Toby Greene is the obvious name — a player who seems to grow about two sizes when the game is on the line — but it’s the less-heralded names in the Giants’ midfield brigade that have been quietly extraordinary. They compete hard, they use the ball cleanly at key moments, and they have the tactical flexibility to adapt their gameplan in real time. GWS are a serious threat in close games and I think they’re underrated in this conversation.

The Teams on the Other Side of the Coin

Not every team has been thriving under pressure, of course. A few clubs have been consistently letting games slip through their fingers when it matters most.

• North Melbourne are still growing and their late-game decision-making reflects a young group finding its feet. No shame in that.
• West Coast have had heartbreaking moments where a win looked possible but the experience and depth just wasn’t there to hold on.
• Essendon — and I take no joy in saying this — have shown worrying signs of mental fragility in tight situations. The talent is there, but something in the execution under pressure keeps going askew.

These aren’t teams without hope. But right now, if you need a result in a one-possession game, you don’t want to be backing any of those three.

What Actually Makes a Team Clutch?

It’s the question worth asking, isn’t it? Is it just talent? Barely. Is it coaching? Partly. Is it the captain standing up and roaring at the group in the huddle? Maybe. But I reckon the real answer is something harder to define.

Clutch teams are made in the preseason. They’re made in the moments of adversity that nobody sees — the contested training sessions in the cold, the video review sessions where habits get drilled in until they’re automatic, the conversations between experienced players and young ones about what it feels like when the crowd is at 80,000 and the game is right there to be won or lost.

The teams holding their nerve in 2024 aren’t doing it by accident. They’ve built environments where pressure is welcomed, not feared. They’ve processed enough tight finishes — wins and losses — to have a collective memory of what to do.

Brisbane, Sydney, GWS and my beloved Magpies all fit that description. Carlton are getting there. And the rest of the competition? They’ve got some catching up to do if they want to be dancing in September.

Because come finals time, the margin for error disappears entirely. The team that flinches goes home. And the team with ice in their veins? They’re the ones cutting the cake in late September.

Carn the Pies.