All year, Craig McRae has spoken about “taking the stairs”. He was in London over summer and saw a man at a Tube station eschew the escalator and bound up the steps. McRae photographed it, sent it to his players and has used it as a hook all year. It’s a variation on Allan Jeans’ “pay the price” speech at half-time in the 1989 grand final. McRae even had the entire playing list and staff running the stairs at the MCG prior to the Boxing Day Test. He took them to the top of the Shane Warne Stand. “If we don’t take the stairs this year, we’ll be sitting here on grand final day,” he told them.
They certainly took the stairs last night. They did it the hard way. It was the most nerve-shredding of finishes. They were in all sorts of trouble in the second quarter. The visitors had set up a giant wall across half back and the Pies just couldn’t circumvent it. Toby Greene was in menacing touch, bringing dead balls to life, and even sharking Mason Cox’s tap for his second goal.
