“We worked on our method this week, as we do every week, and reinforced a couple of things that really, we needed to do late in that game,” McRae said.

“It’s hard to hold leads in the AFL right now. We’ve experienced that for the last couple of weeks, and you never feel safe in front at the moment. As a team, you know, we’re working through what that looks like for us. We chased today and we chased well.

“As I said to the players just then, I’m not into the ladder predictor. We can’t get voodoo dolls out for other teams. We can’t do anything.

“We’re in this position because it’s 23 rounds of us getting in this position, all the lessons learned, all the bumps and bruises, all the players out and players in and here or there. Umpire’s decisions, or not umpire decisions. We’ve all had that journey, every team has, and here we are.”

Magpie veteran Steele Sidebottom, who helped curtail dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, said it had been essential for Collingwood to seize back momentum after conceding the first four goals of the game and trailing by 31 points late in the first quarter.

Incredibly, Collingwood spent just five minutes and fifty-two seconds of the match in front.

“We were able to wrestle it back and just be close enough throughout probably the whole night – just to be in front when it mattered right at the end,” Sidebottom said.

“It’s nice to hear the crowd just go mad like that again, because we’ve missed it a little bit in the second half of the year, and it’s nice to know it’s still there.”

The crowd went ballistic when defender Isaac Quaynor chased down Zac Bailey streaming into an open goal late in the last quarter. They went crazy when the maligned Lachie Schultz kicked two late-term goals, and they shook the MCG to its foundations when Beau McCreery put them in front.

But while the crowd lifted Collingwood, it was the irrepressible Nick Daicos who helped keep them alive. In a match-saving second term, he had 14 disposals, three marks and two goals. He finished the game with 25 possessions.

“I think I will tell my grandkids that I coached Nick Daicos,” McRae said. “That’s going to be one of the great stories when I’m older. What a player.

“It is just nice to see someone just impose himself on the game we’re all on the bench just, not laughing, but just going, wow. We were all like in awe.”

The spoils could have so easily gone to big Brisbane forward Joe Daniher. He kicked four for the match and then sprayed a set shot in the final term that could have shut the door. Instead, the Lions find themselves outside the top four in fifth place. They play Essendon at home next week.

“Margins of three goals aren’t big margins in footy any more, they can be cut back pretty quickly and to Collingwood’s credit they kept going, and we just faulted right at the end,” Lions coach Chris Fagan said.

“We’ll take some learnings from the game, obviously. The main one will be, take your opportunities in front of goal which has been a thing I’ve had to talk about too often this year I reckon and a lot of our losses it’s had something to do with it.”

Fagan said Eric Hipwood had been fit to play, but Jarrod Berry was subbed out during the match with a hamstring complaint.

It was all spoils to Collingwood. As he left the room, still with a beaming smile, McRae again made mention of the crowd.

“It’s just really pleasing that regardless of what happens, that we play with that fighting spirit, and I’m sure our supporters tonight will go home really proud to be a Collingwood supporter,” he said.