Craig O’Donoghue: For most Brisbane Lions and Collingwood Magpies players this will be their only grand final

Billy Frampton’s remarkable rise into Collingwood’s team is a reminder of the luck that’s needed to be a premiership player and that grand finals are all or nothing for the combatants. Plenty of opportunities arise for clubs and fans., but most players never get a second chance to win a flag. For them, grand final day is elation or devastation. Immortality or normality. It’s high pressure and high stakes. Compare Frampton to Taylor Adams. The midfielder was runner-up in the Norm Smith Medal behind Luke Shuey in 2018 as Collingwood lost by five points. Now 30 and sidelined with a hamstring injury, he may never get a second opportunity to win a flag. Look at Dan McStay. He played in two losing preliminary finals for Brisbane and was then injured in last week’s prelim for Collingwood. He’ll watch on with an iron clad guarantee of heartbreak no matter who wins. The reality is 23 players will walk off the field with a medal around their neck and a guarantee of wild celebrations, reunions and a lifetime of satisfaction. Those who miss out will be told they are part of it, but those guys won’t get medals or reunion photos. Their lives more resemble the 23 men from the losing team who never wanting to talk about the day again. It’s brutal. There used to be a theory that you have to lose a grand final to win one. That’s a fallacy. The last 10 seasons have produced 147 premiership players while another 132 have lost a grand final and not won a flag. Losing one is more likely to result in heartbreak than another opportunity. Frampton would be pinching himself. He played just three games across five seasons for Port Adelaide after being selected at pick 84. That was the last live pick in the draft given GWS picked Jeremy Finlayson as an Academy player at 85 and then Brisbane used pick 86 on father-son selection Josh Clayton. He then joined Adelaide for a future fourth round pick which the Power didn’t use. Frampton played 21 matches over three seasons for the Crows. Collingwood then gave Adelaide their future third round pick – currently number 57 – for Frampton at the end of last season. Being a depth player and survivor in the AFL is tough but now he’s on the verge of the ultimate reward. It’s Collingwood’s second grand final in six years but they have a new coach, a different captain, a different president, a new CEO and the squad is barely recognisable. James Aish, Levi Greenwood, Brodie Grundy, Tom Langdon, Chris Mayne, Tom Phillips, Brayden Sier, Jaidyn Stephenson, Josh Thomas, Adam Treloar, Travis Varcoe and Tyson Goldsack are all gone. Sier was one goal away from being a Collingwood hero for the rest of his life. His career ended just 16 games later. Grundy is getting paid an obscene amount of money to play in the VFL and will join a third club in a few weeks. Consider the sliding doors moment of Dom Sheed’s premiership-winning goal for West Coast. If he missed that shot, Collingwood would have won the premiership and Nathan Buckley would almost certainly still be the coach. That single-figure grand final defeat bought him no extra time when things went bad. He was out the door. That same goal made Adam Simpson a premiership coach and it became the key to ensuring he survived two horrible seasons at the foot of the ladder. Premierships change lives. It’s the same every year. Look at Geelong. Sam Menegola finished sixth in the Cats’ best and fairest in 2020 and kicked two goals in the losing grand final against Richmond at the Gabba. Two years later, Menegola missed the premiership win over Sydney. He retired from Geelong with four losing preliminary finals and one losing grand final. So close, yet to far. Ben McGlynn was at Hawthorn in 2008 but wasn’t picked for the grand final. He moved to Sydney and missed the 2012 flag with a hamstring injury, then played in losing grand finals in 2014 and 2016. Marlion Pickett won a flag in his first AFL game. Richard Hadley was in his fourth. Mitch Morton played for three clubs then won a premiership at Sydney in his fifth game as a Swan, but his career was over seven games later. There’s no rhyme or reason. Sydney has played in three grand finals since and lost them all. Nic Naitanui, Brad Sheppard and Andrew Gaff all played in 2015 but missed out in 2018. Fremantle won a minor premierships after making the 2013 grand final. They didn’t get another shot at redemption but Lachie Neale will get his chance as a Lion. Geelong’s Max Holmes may have thought he’d get another opportunity this season after being a late withdrawal on grand final day last year. The Cats didn’t even make the eight. GWS were one point away from a grand final. Collingwood was in the same position last year but four players from the 2022 prelim final won’t play in the grand final. Their chance was last year. It’s now or never because tomorrow never comes. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Craig O’Donoghue: For most Brisbane Lions and Collingwood Magpies players this will be their only grand final

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