1. The turning point of this Grand Final came in the dying moments of the third quarter. Both teams had slugged it out in a memorable term that saw the lead change five times but as the clock ticked past 30 minutes, Josh Hunt got a kick out of defence and it sailed towards the southern wing where Cats' small man Allen Christensen was outnumbered two-to-one, and danger loomed. But Christensen somehow jumped above his two bigger Magpie opponents and pulled in a miraculous chest mark. He immediately spotted Jimmy Bartel on his own on the flank; Bartel handballed to Mitch Duncan running past and Duncan's kick into the hot spot found Brad Ottens, who outmuscled Chris Tarrant, shovelled the ball out to Hawkins who measured his kick off the ground and goalled. A passage of play that was likely to result in the ball being roosted deep into the Collingwood forward line suddenly became a Geelong goal. That put the Cats seven points up at three-quarter-time - and effectively killed off the Collingwood challenge. Geelong kicked five goals to nil in the final term to romp home. This was the ''Heath Shaw smother'' moment of 2011 - the turning point. (Perhaps the other critical moment, if there was a Turning Point Mk II, was the non-payment of the mark to Dane Swan late in the second quarter, the resulting ball-up in the pocket and then the dodgy free paid to Jimmy Bartel which resulted in a vital Geelong goal.)

2. The tone was set for a truly cracking match in the opening 11 seconds. Brad Ottens, on hands and knees after the opening bounce, fired a handball to Joel Selwood who, showing great poise under pressure, chose not to slam the ball aimlessly on to his foot but wait a second, size up his options, and then thread another handball to Travis Varcoe. Varcoe found himself in the clear, ran to the 50-metre arc and slotted through the goal. It was a work of art, and took not much longer than the time Usain Bolt takes to run 100 metres. And if there was a quicker goal in any of the past 117 Grand Finals, we'd like to hear about it.

3. Varcoe then followed up with the Cats' second goal as well, consigning Leon Davis to more Grand Final misery. The little back pocket and 2011 All-Australian, whose record in the big game is poor, had little impact for the rest of the match and was given a run up forward in the second half to try and get him into the game.

4. Mercifully, the match wasn't won by Collingwood by less than a kick. Because in the see-sawing third quarter, Sharrod Wellingham's set shot at goal to the City end was sighnalled a goal but Geelong players protested furiously. Sure enough, television replays indicated the ball had hit the post. (Hawkins himself was mistakenly awarded a goal in the 2009 GF, of course, when his shot also skimmed the post.) Sorry, AFL, but in 2011 that's just not good enough. The code would be the laughing stock of world sport if its premier event was marred by such a simple umpiring error - and the wrong team ended up winning. There was an aerial camera suspended by wires that hovered over the action and could zoom down either end, and across to each wing. That technology wan't used; neither was the camera behind the goals. Time this was sorted.

5. The Norm Smith Medal voting threw up its share of oddities. I think there was a strong argument for Tom Hawkins to get the gong because, after Podsiadly went down in the second quarter, he was Geelong's only marking target on the forward line. And he rose to the challenge manfully, taking four contested marks early in the third quarter and seven contested marks in all - when the next best figure was two. Sure, his kicking was wonky, but without him I don't think Geelong could have won. It doesn't matter how much contested ball your team is winning in the midfield if it doesn't get past the half-forward line, and keeps being rebounded. So I agreed with Matt Granland from SEN who had Hawkins as his best followed by Selwood and Bartel. Matthew Richardson, from 3AW, gave Hawkins two votes, but Bruce Matthews, Garry Lyon and Rodney Eade didn't give the big No.26 a mention at all. Can't work that out at all.

6. There were some fantastic stories from the Geelong camp, but none better than Tom Lonergan who lost a kidney five years ago and missed the premierships in 2007 and 2009. He was thrown on to the dangerman Travis Cloke, after the big Magpie centre half-forward tore Harry Taylor to shreds in the opening half, and completely nullified Cloke's influence. No-one will be feeling more satisfied at this premiership than the unheralded defender. Honourable mentions to the coach Chris Scott, who became the first coach since Hawthorn's Alan Joyce in 1988 to win a premiership in his first season in charge; Steve Johnson who kicked four goals on a dicky knee and made a hugely influential contribution; captain Cameron Ling who started slowly - literally - but finished all over the top of his 'tag', Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan and, finally, Bartel himself - the coolest cat of all - who now has a Norm Smith Medal to go with his Brownlow and three premiership medallions. History might well judge him as one of the club greats.

7. There was a time midway through the second quarter that Collingwood looked to have it all over Geelong, and seemed to be steaming towards back-to-back titles. Joel Corey was turning the ball over, James Kelly was fumbling and Andrew Mackie slipping over - and Geelong looked rattled. The Pies were winning the ball in close and surging forward in waves and when Ben Johnson goalled at the eight-minute mark from a free kick to take their lead out to 18 points, they seemed to have all the momentum. But goals late in the quarter from Joel Selwood and Bartel after a fortunate free kick in the pocket (see Point 1) halted the avalanche and gave the Cats renewed hope ahead of half time.

8. So gallant, and brilliant, for the past 18 months, during which time they lost three of about 40 matches, Collingwood inexplicably slowed to a walk in the final quarter, being outscored 0.3 (3) to 5.4 (34). The two main injury concerns, Ben Reid and Darren Jolly, had no impact on the match at all, Jarryd Blair and Alan Didak were unsighted and Chris Dawes could barely get up a canter in the final term and his set shot from 45 metres did not even reach the goalline. And this from a team which has compiled such an awesome final-quarter record this season, in which they've been outscored maybe twice in 25 matches. Yet, of all days, they chose this one to completely run out of steam. Maybe cancel that bulk order of tickets to Flagstaff, Arizona, after all.

9. On the plus side, Travis Cloke started magnificently, potting three goals in the first half and giving Harry Taylor the complete run-around. Andrew Krakouer was similarly eye-catching in the first half, also kicking three. Scott Pendlebury was brilliant in close and at the stoppages while Luke Ball gave his all, as always. But the winners were few and far between - and with the exception of the round-24 dead rubber against Geelong - this was probably their worst team performance since early last year when they were roundly beaten by St Kilda in round three - in the "Stephen Milne game".

10. And, finally, farewell to Mick Malthouse. He's probably never been our all-time favourite coach, and that's not being uncharitable just an honest assessment after 20 years of dealing with him, but credit where credit's due - he's turned this Collingwood team around into a very very formidable unit, and they won't be far off the mark again in 2012. But after his year's sabbatical in the media, we think Mick will find it very hard to resist the lure to coach again in 2013. It's in his blood. The question is: at which club? Interesting to note that his captain Nick Maxwell did not mention Malthouse in his comments on the podium after the game - and it was also strange to see just how long mick lingered on the periphery of the Geelong huddle after the game, waiting to congratulate Scott. Clearly, there is a story to be told here about Eddie McGuire's best-laid plans going awry - and the divisions within the club caused by the Malthouse-Buckley succession plan. The finality of Malthouse's departure from Collingwood was stunning, and the details of that mess and the in-fighting will surely come to light over the coming days.