The Collingwood Football Club must be celebrated and congratulated, says Melbourne great Garry Lyon.
Craig McRae’s reigning premiers defeated the Demons by 38 points at the MCG on Monday to move to sixth on the ladder, fighting back strongly after their 0-3 beginning to the season.
The Magpies were without the likes of Jordan De Goey, Scott Pendlebury, Brody Mihocek, Jamie Elliott, Tom Mitchell, Mason Cox and more, but still dominated the Dees on the big stage.
It left Lyon in awe of the club as a whole and McRae’s team specifically who continue to step up even when key personnel are missing.
“The Collingwood Football Club is an outstanding football club,” Lyon proclaimed on SEN Breakfast.
“I know over the journey it’s either been Collingwood or you hate them. That perception, for me, I never hated them or bought into that, but I understand why others did because they could have been a polarising team with the way they went about it in a different time.
“Right now, they are a team to be celebrated and congratulated with the way they’ve been able to gather themselves after that start. They looked, for all intents and purposes, like a premiership team that were really sluggish and slow out of the blocks.
“Since that time they’ve had five wins, two draws and a loss.”
Lyon highlighted the Collingwood absentees and wondered how Melbourne would cope if a similar group was missing for them.
“Reading about that team heading into that game on Monday, no Jordan De Goey, no Scott Pendlebury, no Brody Mihocek, no Jamie Elliott. Then you’ve got Tom Mitchell, Dan McStay and Mason Cox, who are not quite as important but they’re still so important,” he added.
“If you flip that around - and this is why I’ve got so much admiration for them - you take that quality of player out of Melbourne and have all those players in for Collingwood, there’s no chance right now that Melbourne beats Collingwood.
“Yet Collingwood put them to the sword. They play with heart and spirit and pressure. They go the same way about it irrespective of who is in the team.
“They just look to me to be a very, very good football club. Coming off a premiership, had some issues early in the year, gathered themselves. They’ve got massive personnel issues and they just keep turning up.
“Hats off. We can talk about the Demons who were really disappointing again, but to me, it was more about what Collingwood bought.
“They were outstanding.”
The Pies will look to improve on their 7-2-4 record when they take on North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
