AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL: The Grand Final 2010 - St.Kilda v Collingwood

It's that time of year.
The last Saturday in September marks the Grand Final that ends the Aussie Rules Footie season.
So, in the early hours of an UK morning while the rest of the country was busy sleeping I was sat in front of my TV with beef pie and a good supply of coffee.
The MCG stadium in Melborne, Australia was packed to the rafters with over 100,000 spectators.
And there had to be just as many again watching the game out on the streets.
INXS sang a medley of their hits and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra belted out the teams anthems. The atmosphere was electric.

What was about to happen was a repeat of the 1966 final when the Saints took the pennant from Collingwood Magpies by a single point.

Collingwood came out on fire. It took them just 24 seconds from the opening bounce off to score the first goal. They looked as though they had come out with that hunger to win.
In fact, their season form - after an initial defeat by St.Kilda - seemed, not only to mark themselves as finalist contenders, to indicate that this would be their year.
They had last lifted the cup back in 1990 - a feat that they appeared to achieve every twenty years.
By half time it could be reasonably assumed that they were heading towards victory.
St.Kilda, on the other hand, is one team that should not be written off. Just as it looks as though they are going down - they stage a comeback.
If the first half was all one way traffic then the second half was a lively demonstartion of St.Kilda's character.
Final quarter and it looked as though history was going to repeat itself.
St.Kilda 61 - Collingwood 60.
Just the one point in it.
Collingwood wasn't done.
They hit back with a goal and two behinds.
St.Kilda pulled the score back to one point.
Then in the dying seconds absolute drama as St.Kilda's captain kicked towards the open goal. Victory was in their grasp.
Nick Maxwell, Collingwood's capatain, chased the bouncing ball reaching out to just touch it with his fingertips.
Unbelievable - the six point goal had just been reduced to one point.
Final score at the klaxon - St.Kilda 68 Collingwood 68.
The first grand final draw since 1977.

So..........both teams have to do it all again next Saturday.