The things we learnt: Collingwood are back to their old ways

Collingwood of old

It has taken them 24 rounds, but finally Collingwood has achieved a season first.

They’ve managed to win a match after trailing at three-quarters time.

They were only down by 10 points to Melbourne, but nonetheless, the Magpies were able to overturn the deficit and close out the game by six points in yet another nail-biting finish between these two sides.

In the previous three seasons under Craig McRae, the ability of the Magpies to come back from three-quarters time has been their ace up their sleeve.

They had found themselves in that position 32 times and managed to win 15 of these games, with the bulk of those coming during McRae’s first two seasons in charge, which saw his men claim their 16th V/AFL Premiership.

This season, however, they had found themselves behind at three-quarter time on five separate occasions, having failed to win any, with those all being against GWS, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Hawthorn and Adelaide, who they’ll play at least one of in September.

For the Magpies, it’s the win they needed to help steady their season after losing five of their last seven matches. Coupled with Gold Coast’s loss to Port, it means that they are assured a top-four spot (barring GWS wins by 100+ points)

And it might just be the spark that reminds them of who they are as they return to finals football after a year’s hiatus.

Nicholas Quinlan

A winning end is fool’s gold for Carlton

Some sections of Carlton fans would be fairly happy with a couple of wins to end a disappointing season.

But there would be other Bluebaggers seething with how 2025 played out.

The Blues entered the campaign as possible premiership contenders but finished it well out of the finals race with just nine wins.

A positive end to the season with comfortable victories over Port Adelaide and then Essendon will have some fans feeling good about themselves.

But is it fool’s gold?

Michael Voss and his coaching staff (whoever that ends up being) have plenty of work to do in the off-season.

The rabid and starving supporter base demands it. Wins in Round 23 and 24 won’t satisfy them.

What went wrong in 2025? And what will 2026 bring? Don’t worry, you’ve only got about seven months to stew on it.

It starts with list management this trade period.

Did we also learn that Tom De Koning is definitely gone? His speech after his 100th game suggests so...

For Essendon, the nightmare season continues into next week with their final fixture against the Suns on the Gold Coast.

They’ve lost 12 in a row and have been forced to debut 15 players - an unprecedented number.

The injury curse has denied the Dons any real chance of winning games in the second half of the season but at least they’ve been able to get some development into the kids.

One more game to get through then it’s tools down, take a breath and reset for next year.

Andrew Slevison