THE GULF between Grand Final success and failure is huge. Sheer elation greets the victors, despair the vanquished.

Both states of mind linger for some time. Our newspapers should probably take some responsibility for this. Delirious Cats fans would have devoured Monday's offerings, with front pages, back pages, main news sections and sports pages all filled with pictures and stories recalling their club's triumph.

At the other end of the emotional scale, we presume all but the most hardened Collingwood fans would have given their local newsagency a wide birth. Why would they want to endure looking at front pages adorned by Cats skipper Cameron Ling with the Cats' 2007, 2009 and 2011 premierships cup (Herald Sun), Ling and coach Chris Scott with this year's cup and a sea of Cats fans behind them (The Age) and Scott high-fiving some of those fans (The Australian).  

Perhaps even harder to take for Magpies fans would be the post-mortems of their 2011 campaign - the how and why it went wrong.

Media Watch is about to tackle these issues now. So if you're a Collingwood fan and just want to wipe the Grand Final from your memory, don't read on.

Where do the Cats sit in history?
Three flags in five seasons is a remarkable achievement. Especially when you couple that with an overall win-loss record of 105-20 over that period.

So just how does the Geelong 2007-11 vintage stack up against the great eras of the past?

The most recent measuring stick is the Brisbane Lions' 2001-04 dynasty, which captured three consecutive premierships from four consecutive Grand Final appearances. 

With a midfield of Michael Voss, Simon Black, Nigel Lappin and Jason Akermanis, key forwards Jonathan Brown and Alastair Lynch and key defenders Justin Leppitsch and Mal Michael, the Lions were a formidable outfit.

But The Age's Rohan Connolly ranks the Cats ahead of them. Geelong's superior overall record over its era - an 86 per cent winning rate to the Lions' 75 per cent strike-rate over 2001-04 - and its two minor premierships (2007 and 2008) to the Lions' none swayed Connolly's assessment.

Connolly wrote that the Cats' era was the best since Hawthorn netted five premierships from 1983-91.

The Herald Sun's Jon Ralph asked Voss, Brisbane's inspirational captain over its reign as the competition's powerhouse team, to compare the 2001-04 Lions with 2007-11 Cats.

Voss never conceded an inch on the field, so it was no surprise he was not about to off the field. The Lions coach told Ralph winning three consecutive flags was "harder" to achieve than three in five seasons. 

However, Voss gave the Cats their due, admitting it was tough to separate them and the early 2000s Lions.

"What they have done has been special. Their motto has been 'good to great'. Well, I think they can truly say they have been great," Voss said.

Can the Cats keep going?
As ready as Voss was to laud the Cats' achievements, he was just as adamant their era was over. 

"I would have thought the window is well and truly now gone, but that is just me," Voss said.

Little doubt, Voss' own experiences shaped his view. After their four consecutive Grand Final appearances, the Lions tumbled down the ladder and have played just one finals series, in 2009, since.

Not surprisingly, the Cats are not about to concede their days as a premiership production line are over. Matthew Scarlett, Paul Chapman, Joel Selwood and Andrew Mackie were among the players who bristled when it was suggested the Cats' jig might be up.  

The Herald Sun's Jon Anderson is another who thinks the Cats still have something left in the premiership tank.

Anderson, a passionate Cats fan, takes heart from the performances of Geelong youngsters like Allen Christensen, Mitch Duncan and Daniel Menzel this season - and the prospect of up to 12 more youngsters joining them in the Cats' senior team next season. Anderson named players including Mitch Brown, Josh Cowan, Tom Gillies, Cameron Guthrie, Taylor Hunt, Billie Smedts and Nathan Vardy.

Anderson praised Cats recruiting manager Stephen Wells for helping the club to avoid bottoming out. If Anderson is right, the bunch of largely untried youngsters Wells has assembled could provide the new blood Geelong will need to avoid tumbling down the ladder like the Lions did.

Cats too big, too good, too fresh
So why did the Cats win?

Magpie midfielder Scott Pendlebury gave a simple explanation in his Herald Sun column: "Geelong's bigger bodies got us." Pendlebury wrote that in the last quarter the Cats' "physicality and strength was a decisive factor", highlighting their ability to break tackles.

Although Pendlebury stressed the Magpies would not "copy" the Cats as they seek redemption in 2012, he wrote that they would focus on getting bigger and stronger in the coming pre-season.

The Age's Jake Niall also pin-pointed the Cats' edge in strength and body size as a key factor in their win, noting the club's ability to manage the veterans who provided this 'grunt' like "porcelain plates" in 2011 had helped it win 31 more contested possessions than the Magpies.

Connolly paid tribute to the Cats' senior players such as Ling, Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson, Scarlett, James Kelly, Mackie, Brad Ottens, Corey Enright and Joel Corey.

"It's hard to think of an on-field leadership group in the modern era that has had as profound an influence on its club's values, culture and performance," Connolly wrote. "And hard to think of one as instinctively competitive."

Likewise, coach Chris Scott deferred most of the credit for Saturday's triumph to his senior players. But Geelong CEO Brian Cook was adamant the rookie coach had played a key role in the Cats' ninth premiership.

The Australian ran with Cook's comments on the front page of its sports section under the headline: "Bomber's defection saved Geelong". Cook said he doubted the Cats would have won this year's flag if Mark 'Bomber' Thompson had not walked out on the club with a year to go on his coaching contract.

"I don't think he would have played all the kids or had the same energy (as Scott) to regenerate our squad," Cook said. 

As you'd expect, some of the Cats' heroes on Saturday were also feted. The Herald Sun's Scott Gullan and The Age's Matt Murnane retraced Steve Johnson's pre-match race to overcome his left knee injury, while Gullan's colleague Mark Stevens celebrated Tom Hawkins' outstanding game, highlighting the fact his seven contested marks against the Magpies were a Grand Final record.

Magpies look forward
So what about the Grand Final losers? Where to now for Collingwood? 

It's easy to overreact in the wake of a Grand Final loss. But, little doubt, the Pies will be mindful that their list is still a relatively young one and their 2012 campaign is unlikely to be derailed to the same extent as this year's was by injury and suspension.

However, captain Nick Maxwell will move to ensure the club's youngsters do not take it for granted they will get a chance to redeem themselves next September.

Maxwell told Channel Seven's AFL Game Day younger Magpies such as Scott Pendlebury had played in the finals every year of their careers.

But Maxwell's first two seasons, 2004 and 2005, ended in 13th and 15th-place finishes, and the captain will remind his players not to assume their success of recent seasons will automatically continue.

"That's the responsibility of us older players and the senior leaders of the club, to make sure that we drive guys through the pre-season," Maxwell said. 

The Age's Michael Gleeson saw a positive for the Magpies out of Saturday's loss - it will make take the pressure off Nathan Buckley as he takes the coaching reins from Mick Malthouse.

It's hard to argue that inheriting a team that had just delivered back-to-back premierships would not have heaped the pressure on Buckley. At best, he could have sustained that level.

The Buckley-Malthouse relationship has been analysed enough this season to induce chronic fatigue syndrome. On Monday, the Herald Sun's Mark Robinson had - hopefully - one last crack at it, pondering just how much of a distraction it had been for the Pies.

Collingwood and Brisbane Lions premiership coach Leigh Matthews was in no doubt the succession plan had not helped his former club, telling Robinson "it wasn't a healthy situation … [and was] a distraction that clearly they could have done without".

But Collingwood fans would be heartened that the club is already focused on 2012. On field, the Herald Sun reports the Pies are trying to entice Irishman Martin Clarke back to the club. Off the field, it's being widely reported that former Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade will take on the director of coaching role Malthouse has opted out of.

Mistaken twin identities
On Saturday, Chris Scott was part of his first AFL premiership without twin brother Brad by his side. The pair played in the 2001 and 2002 premierships at the Brisbane Lions, but have since forged their own coaching careers, with Brad taking the reins at North Melbourne a year before Chris joined the Cats.

The fact we've got a set of twins coaching AFL clubs has not gone unnoticed this year, with the Scotts' first clash in round seven generating worldwide interest. Bemused would be the best way of describing the twins' response.

But if Chris was hoping the premiership would help him enjoy his own individual moment in the sun, we hope he stayed clear of the Fairfax paper websites on Monday morning.

The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and WAtoday websites all ran a story entitled "Scott contract under review". The accompanying teaser was good news: "Rookie premiership coach likely to pocket a major pay increase and contract extension". One problem, though. The adjacent photo was of Brad in a North Melbourne cap and royal blue club hoodie.   

The bond between the Scott twins is unbreakable it seems.

In short
There are strong whispers Barry Hall will play with Greater Western Sydney, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The paper wrote the Giants were doing all they could to convince the former St Kilda, Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs spearhead to be part of their inaugural squad, and noted Hall had told a Grand Final day breakfast that he'd "never say never" about an AFL return.
 
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.