Tim Blair

Id offer condolences, but since you either love or hate Collingwood (myself being the latter) its good to see they didn't win. Mind you, if Eddie wasn't at the helm, maybe id be a bit more sympathetic.

It was a damned good game though. I'm from Brisbane so now it's time to look forward to next year & number 4.

Timbo,

The writing was on the wall when serial loser Simon Crean predicicted a Collingwood victory.

No team could overcome that.

Go the Lions. Bit of a pity that Collingwood had the words "Wipe Off" on their backs. More like Wipe Out!

Onya Tim! I'm a Brisbane supporter. If it's any consolation, you (in fact, we both) can at least be greatful that it wasn't the Swans who won. I'd hate to think what would happen if the NRL and AFL flags both went to Sydney teams. If anything could get them to disappear even further up their own butts, then dual premersips would be it...

COLLIWOOBLES RETURN!!

THEY ARE LEARNING FROM OUR BRUDDAS WAR EFFORTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST!!

MAYBE THE PIES NEED ALLAH ON THEIR SOYDE!

SORRY MY SPELLINK IS AS GOOD AS YOUR ARABIC!!

ALLAH IS GREAT!!

COLLIWOBBLES RETURN!!!

SUFFER IN YOUR JOCKS !!! EDDIE MAGUIRE MAY GET HERPES AND TIM BLAIR CAN HAVE HOMOSEXUAL SEX INFIDEL!!

ALLAH NUMBER 1 !!!

COLLINGWOOD = LOSERS!!!

SUFFER! ALLAH IS GREAT!! 69 VIGINS!!

Pity that Sydney didn't get up after being written off all year. Still I'll always cheer for an out-of-towner over a Victorian side. If the VLF heavies think that it takes 20 years of WA, SA,QLD and NSW clubs beating VIC clubs to fufil some dream of a National League then more power to them. Maybe they should invite a NZ club as well to join in; really go for broke.

After reading all the rubbish about Collingwood, still don't understand why everyone hates them. Still I guess it's tied up in this irrational love of VFL that the Mexicans have.

It was a truly great game ... Collingwood were never in it ;)

Yeh! Up yours, Eddie. If Rocca wasn't such a dirty player the result just may have been a little different.

Rocca and ANY dirty player from any side - including "my" Bombers - should get rubbed out for good.

For the usual suspects who will run with the usual Collywobbles comments, I'd like to quote Teddy Roosevelt.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

Brisbane- good one year, brilliant the next.

As for the Arabic spastic just above me...wtf??
And for the Lions, congratulations. Q4 was just brilliant, the Pies got a couple of (or 3) consolations, but too little, too late. The look on Eddie's face in the stands was priceless. I hope Ch 10 and 7 play that bit alone on the news over and over and over...
Bad Luck Tim, next year huh?

Rugby World Cup 2003

That will possibly be the last we'll see of any Victorians in the Grand Final for a while. Maybe they can all take up lawn bowls or something.

Carlton finishes at the end of the table, Collingwood loses the Grand Final.

Two years in a row.

Thus nature balances herself.

I haven't the heart to poke fun at such a time of loss, but what the fuck;
A team coached by a man called Malthouse,
Who Viccos thought were quite grouse,
Ran out on the oval wild,
Were beaten like a step-child,
And have gone from shit-hot to shit-house.

Knowing how much you wanted a Magpie win Tim you are being gracious in defeat. The true nature of any sport. Better luck next year mate....

The fact that Collingwood is hated, wears black, and had some freaky looking fans in the stands reminds me of the Oakland Raiders. Are there any dual American football/Aussie football fans who can confirm the parallel?

Thanks to Rupert for broadcasting it in the States. There's multiculturalism for you!

Now I'll use the power of the Internet to see if I can score a Collingwood or Brisbane hat or jersey.

Another parallel: they lost. I didn't really take sides in the last Superbowl, but I took a lot of pleasure in needling the Raiders fans who before the game had been so confident of their victory, and subsequently received a severe whupping at the hands of the underdog Tampa Bay.

Hey BigDoug! The best part about just shit-canning the "doers of deeds" from the sidelines is that you get to keep all that dust, blood and sweat *off* your face.

And while we can all appreciate the amusing spectacle of a bonehead "who errs and comes short again and again", the ones who err and come short again and again and again and again ... (you get the drift) soon become painfully embarrassing. Simon Crean is a case in point.

If it wasn't for the fact that he lived at the beginning of the 20th century, I would say that Teddy had watched one two many sword and sandal epics.

As for yesterday, if that wasn't a classic case of the collywobbles, what was it? Ah, my cold and timid soul needs another cold tinnie - this sure beats all that sweating, bleeding and dust production going on in the arena down there!

Having been a Cubs fan all my life, Tim, I understand what you're going through.

Oh. Wait. The Cubs are in the Playoffs!

Tim,
I did try to warn you. Besides , if the blues finish last, Collingwood CANNOT win,. God is a bluebag as well.

I see some bitter winners here.

Hey Tim:
remember that 'great' Oz article you wrote that went along the lines of 'The US and Collingwood are hated for the same reason; because they always win'?
What has Collingwood won recently? They have won one flag in the last 45 years. Is that 'always' winning?
My theory is that the Aboriginal curse placed on your club after McConnell's racist diatribe in 1993 is still in place.
But then that wouldn't explain the 30 odd years of failure before that. So why is it that Collingwood are so hated? It's because they are perpetual losers living in a state of weird, mis-placed, arrogant, spit on the opponents and throw full beer cans at them, denial. Like you Tim.

Jack,

I guess Tim was only half-right in his analogy. He was wrong to say that people hate Collingwood because they're winners. People hate Collingwood because they act like winners when they're not and their captain and owner have a perpetual 'we woz robbed' type attitude to explain away their failures. Also their captain is one of those strange types you hope never to have on our team who blows smoke up the arse of teammates who fail to pass the ball to him enough.

He was right, however, to state that people hate the US because the US is successful. It is successful because it regularly and easily disposes of many, many foul enemies. Throughout the last century the US has made many enemies by defeating Fascism, Nazism, Japanese Fascist Imperialism and most significantly, Communism. The millions of people in the West, who saw their Worker's Paradise in the Soviet Union consigned to the waste bin of history are still looking to get their revenge. The sour oppositionism employed by the misnamed anti-war movement is a case in point - as if the Che Guevara shirt wearing wankers on the Left, who turned a blind eye to the millions of violent atrocities committed last century in the name of their beloved ideology, don't see violence as a legitimate means of struggle. They don't hate war - they hate the USA and the USA will beat them in war so they want war to be removed as an option in the struggle against the USA.

The US has also made many enemies in those countries it has protected - simply because the protection makes them feel inferior and inadequate. M. Chirac, Jorg Haider and moron Tories like Kenneth Clarke are typical of this type.

The hate will continue too. They'll defeat Islamic fascism and people like you will have to find some other equally foul ally to fight your proxy war of revenge against the great Satan.

Isn't Jack nice?

There are degrees of failure, Jack. Failure in a Grand Final first requires many wins to reach it. And Collingwood wins a great deal more often than it loses; in fact, according to this table, no team wins a greater percentage of its matches.

Also, the team has only twice finished last, in 106 years. Losers? Well, you may say so, but that would require you to live in denial.

Dave S...
I'm not sure I draw any parallel between the Oakland Raiders and Collingwood other than the colors. The Raiders have several Super Bowl wins to their credit. The one parallel I might consider is arrogance.

Don't credit Rupert. Just because he and his family own a chunk of FOX doesn't mean he is responsible for Aussie rules being on television in the US.

Troy happy.

Rob de Santos:

I think there's a couple of parallels. True, the Raiders have won 3 Super Bowls. They've also lost twice, both times badly. Also, their fans, players and coaches whined (sorry, whinged) about losing to the Patriots in the snow two years ago, they're now the Oakland Whiners/Whingers to me.

Dave S.