Like many others who have drunk the Collingwood Kool-Aid since the AFL powerhouse joined Super Netball in 2017, I have more than once been left looking like a goal keeper gone hunting out of the circle, only to watch the ball sail over their head to the smug, unguarded shooter under the post. Like a patsy, as Liz Ellis would say.
Collingwood have repeatedly and spectacularly failed to live up to their own and external hype since bursting onto the elite netball scene in a blaze of publicity. Despite a well-funded program, unrivalled training facilities and a roster of world-class talent, the Pies have made an art form of under-delivering – a netball version of the Colliwobbles.
So it is only natural that when the 2019 Pies look like they might produce something special, caution comes to the fore. Or, just maybe, that cup of Kool-Aid looks tempting once again. In beating the Melbourne Vixens by 11 goals in the last home-and-away round on Sunday, the Pies – who for all money looked out of finals contention a few weeks ago – snatched fourth spot from the Giants and locked in an improbable finals berth.
The win – led by a rampaging Ash Brazill, who won her third MVP in a row– was convincing. Against all odds, the Pies are now playing finals and they’re not just making up the numbers. After winning their last three on the trot by an average of eight goals, Collingwood are arguably in the best form of any side in the finals.
On Sunday, they will face the Vixens again, but this time in a minor semi-final in Melbourne. The winner advances to a preliminary, against either the Lightning or Swifts on Saturday. Could the Pies once more beat the Vixens, as they have the last three times they’ve met – twice in the regular season and once at the pre-season #TeamGirls Cup? Or is there one more wobble to come?
The seeds of doubt about the Pies’ ability to deliver were sown years ago. Before the start of the 2017 season, they were dubbed netball’s “galácticos”: a band of stars, each so individually talented that collectively, they should have been unbeatable, similar to Real Madrid in the early 2000s. The foundation team, coached by Kristy Keppich-Birrell, was bursting at the seams with then-Diamonds. It featured defensive pair Sharni Layton and April Brandley, midcourt dynamos Kim Ravaillion, Madi Browne and Brazill, and shooter Caitlin Thwaites.
With that line-up, the Pies were unbackable favourites for the first Super Netball flag. But they didn’t even come close. They had nine wins that year and just scraped into finals but lost to eventual runners-up, the Giants, in the first week. By the lofty expectations inside and outside the club, season one was an abject failure and left many pundits wishing they had not had taken such a large gulp of said tempting drink when the Lightning lifted the trophy.
In season two, Keppich-Birrell added veteran shooter Erin Bell and young defender Matilda Garrett and again, most analysts tipped the Pies to go deep into the finals. Wrong again. The 2018 Pies lost four of their first five matches, beating only the lowly Thunderbirds, before a flash of brilliance with a five-goal win over the Firebirds in round six suggested the galácticos were finally starting to speak the same language. But the Colliwobbles returned and the Pies won just one more game for the season.
Last year ended with three wins, a draw, 10 losses and certainly no finals, after finishing second last. For the Pies, failure was becoming a habit – as was success for the Lightning, who went back-to-back. So when the Pies ditched Keppich-Birrell in favour of coach Rob Wright and added back-to-back Lightning premiership pair Geva Mentor and Browne, as well as Nat Medhurst and young Jamaican goaler Shimona Nelson for season 2019, the wary were perhaps understandably widespread. The line-up looked great, unbeatable even. But hadn’t we seen it all before?
They won the pre-season #TeamGirls tournament, held in Brisbane in March. After beating the Fever and Swifts and losing to the Giants, they topped their pool and went on to beat the Vixens 39-36 in the grand final, with Nelson starring. Suddenly, the Pies were a force to be reckoned with in 2019.
So, after another sip of the Kool-Aid, the Pies were installed as favourites ... again. But when the season proper arrived, they lost to the Giants, Fever, Swifts and Lightning before the World Cup break.It was the same old Collingwood: just not good enough.
Yet post World Cup, the Pies have only lost to the Giants and now they’re there, in the finals and have a one-in-four shot at the title. They’ve stuck it out, stuck together and got themselves into a position to finally deliver for the first time in their short existence.
