The siren sounds and the Lions players are strewn across the MCG turf. Devastated, their premiership dreams fall one kick short. Then the Magpies fans – 60,70, maybe 80 thousand of them – boom into song. Its lyrics, so cruel in the circumstances.

“…for the premiership’s a cakewalk, for the good old Collingwood.”

This titanic struggle was less cakewalk, and more like an Uber Eats rider delivering a 12-course meal at peak hour. In a war zone. A contest so tight, the margin rarely climbed beyond single figures.

Finally in the fourth quarter the 100,000 fans in the stadium thought the Pies might have levered themselves away from their opponents. The score stood 90 points to 80, with two minutes to play. Surely, inside the minds of the Pies staff, the players – the club’s entire supporter army – it was enough.

But not in this extraordinary duel. Already Collingwood’s fans, and even some neutrals, are daring to say it: one of the great grand finals. And with a fitting climax. Spectators’ nerves frayed by late drama.

So the Lions came back again. First with a Joe Daniher goal. Then with the clock winding down, another forward foray. The ball finally repelled by the Pies, and trapped in midfield until the siren.

The decisive act out of defence, from the hands of who-else-but Nick Daicos. From a contentious advantage call for the Lions, a skied entry came to ground on half-back, landing in Daicos’s hands. Cooly, he delivered an extraordinary outlet to save the day. Another extraordinary outlet – one of his match-high 29 disposals. From a player who, at age 20, has done almost everything.

It was the bow to tie his masterful grand final performance. A gift to the entire AFL community, who cannot deny his generational standing. Highlighted by his starring role in not one by two match-defining moments.

Ten minutes earlier, Collingwood found themselves down two points. Again a ball spilled to Daicos from a contest, this time on half-forward. He launched himself at the Sherrin, claiming it at the peak of his jump, before laying off a hand pass – mid-air – for Jordan de Goey with economical grace. From the ballerina to the bulldog, De Goey slotted home from 50 metres. It was for the lead they would never give up.

These were the two best teams in the AFL season. One and two on the ladder. Separated by just a game in the regular season, and a kick on the last Saturday in September.

Collingwood captain Darcy Moore, never one to waste a speech, said after the game it was their fans that “dragged them over line”. They were loud throughout in this carnival of football, from KISS to the anthems, right through to the victory song.

But at no time was this more obvious than in the final term. When, underneath a stand full of black and white, Steele Sidebottom was taken late by Brisbane’s Jarrod Berry after a mark. The umpires complied with the Pies’ fans calls and a 50-metre penalty was awarded. Sidebottom launched home the sealer.

For the Lions, the dogged class of dual Brownlow-medal winner Lachie Neale. The prominence of Joe Daniher. The electricity of Charlie Cameron. The sparkle of Keidean Coleman. Twice in the final quarter it looked like they could finish over the Pies. Cameron beating Brayden Maynard and Isaac Quaynor to put the Lions in front. And then Daniher’s late goal. But although they were great, the Lions were not quite good enough.

The late flurry of goals came in contrast to the arm-wrestle of a second-half that delivered just seven majors. It was more in keeping with the first – where each of the teams landed blow upon blow. Like two prize fighters, staying off the canvas under an onslaught. Somehow capable of another counter.

In this avalanche of goals, there were moments that threatened to define the game. But each one was soon wiped by another.

It was almost Cameron’s day. He dragged his side back into the contest with a goal and a crucial involvement at the start of the second quarter. Then in the last term his masterful major threatened to be decisive.

Instead it was Bobby Hill at the other end whose sizzling craft won the match, and the Norm Smith. His four goals, a crucial lay-off for a Scott Pendlebury major in the third, and a mark of the year contender were enough to convince the judges. That grab in the second term will adorn thousands of posters on bedroom walls and millions of phone wallpapers, in the decades to come.

As Jeremy Howe launched the ball forward, it pinned Lions’ defender Brandon Starcevich under the ball. He was paralysed by its trajectory and the sun setting over the Ponsford stand. Instead the Lion became the prey, and Hill a mountain, taking the stairs into the AFL’s pantheon.

At the end of a dazzling, memorable day dense with spectacle, Moore’s simple conclusion in his post-match speech was accurate. It was, as he said, “a fitting end to an amazing season”.