In the end, I felt a draw was a get-out-of-jail card for Collingwood. For most of the second half - and certainly with five minutes to go - St Kilda looked likely to run all over the Magpies.

Collingwood was probably lucky with a couple of its first-quarter goals - Alan Didak does that sort of ludicrous needle-eye-threading too often for it to be a fluke, but when Daisy Thomas wobbled a mongrel that defied the laws of physics to float through from outside 50, it looked like Collingwood's ascendancy on the day had been set in stone.

Later, the Pies were fortunate to get their last goal from a handball to Travis Cloke in the goal square from a seated Chris Dawes which put them ahead 68-67, and then lucky with Steven Milne failing to gather the Lenny Hayes snap that bounced through for a behind for the game's final levelling score.

But the fact that Collingwood started much better than the Saints and led by 24 points at one stage, and kicked 1-10 in a sequence, will make for rueful reading at the Westpac Centre this week. Still, their under-siege back-six in the frenetic final few minutes was heroic, killing the ball multiple times.

Conversely St Kilda rallied from a poor start, beginning from about the 10-minute mark of the second quarter to get firstly as many numbers to the contest as the Pies, and then, slowly, get more. From a rabbit-in-headlights start the Saints had toiled diligently to be back in it at the half, led superbly by their big three, Brendon Goddard, Lenny Hayes and Nick Riewoldt.

In particular, Goddard and Hayes were outstanding for the Saints, seemingly everywhere, pouring into every breach, bullocking forward at ground level and in Goddard's case, soaring over a pack in one of the great Grand Final moments. It almost seemed strange that the Norm Smith Medal panel could go past Goddard, but if so, it could only have been Hayes (but for mine, it should have been jointly awarded, because Goddard is sold short without one).

For the Pies, Thomas was excellent, Nick Maxwell led from the front, Luke Ball was positively valiant, Heath Shaw was good all day, as was Harry O'Brien (whose only blemish was to be outmarked by Milne, for a telling goal) and Steele Sidebottom and Brent Macaffer all acquitted themselves well of the newer brigade.

Pies' president Eddie McGuire was up in arms over a possible free kick that was not paid against Leon Davis in the last quarter, but he ought to watch a replay of the first-quarter incident in which Justin Koschitzke was climbed all over in a marking contest inside the St Kilda 50. Then again Kosi got a soft, strange free kick on the boundary line in the last quarter.

The only other small controversy over the umpiring - which means it was a pretty good performance from the umps - was when commentator Dennis Cometti wanted a 50-metre penalty for Jarryd Blair after he marked inside 50 late in the third quarter: even after the replay showed Blair milked what incidental contact there was, Cometti still wanted it. Thankfully Leigh Matthews put him straight, which was more than could be said for Blair, who hit the post anyway.

A few players on both sides can count their blessings that their season did not end today, because they did not do the business when it counted. Dane Swan would lead this pack: although he enjoyed some early freedom, Swan did not feature very often and 2010 Grand Final Mark I was probably one of his worst efforts for the year.

Travis Cloke will be hoping that his goalkicking yips have not arguably cost Collingwood its 15th flag. Michael Gardiner also will be looking for redemption if he can come up next week: he must have been injured early, because he was ineffectual when on the ground, and did not return after halftime.

Leon Davis, too, did not justify his inclusion: he did have one moment of magic - when Jason Gram missed a tackle he should have laid - did put Collingwood up by 14 points early in the last quarter, but is one such moment enough in a Grand Final? No, it's not.

Leigh Montagna lacked both intensity and awareness too many times, Andrew McQualter missed critical tackles and Farren Ray gave away that critical 50-metre penalty after kicking the ball away subsequent to Robert Eddy being caught with the ball. In a drawn Grand Final, that will be one of the more troubling memories that a player will take away.

The extra-time debate will rage all week. It would unarguably have been better if the players had had to gird themselves to wring yet-more titanic efforts from their spent carcases in extra-time: better for them, to have the result known on the day, better for the crowd and better for the game's followers. The only people suited by the replay are the AFL, the bookmakers, the caterers and the airlines: it was admirable of Andrew Demetriou to have the poise not to punch the air and shout "Yess!!!" when interviewed after the siren. If one of these teams is flat next week it will be a travesty.