WHEN 'Buddy' kicked THAT goal on Friday night, I slumped back into my seat in despair. My face contorted and I dared not look at anyone, least of all the Hawthorn supporters dancing next to me with the fervour normally displayed by Tattslotto winners. The roar was the loudest noise I have ever heard at a sporting event.

On the ground the ever gallant, near exhausted Dale Thomas thought what any decent Collingwood supporter was thinking: "I did throw my head back and go 'really…' because Taz (Chris Tarrant) was fantastic and he was a half a step behind him and…'Buddy' did it and it was one of those ones where you go, 'Oh, surely it can't go in' and it does," said Thomas.

But I wasn't feeling so magnanimous in that moment. My eight-year-old daughter Indi, who bravely barracks for Hawthorn, was jumping up and waving her scarf with the fearlessness of youth in the vicinity of my tortured face, piercing my soul. I gathered myself, drawing on every positive value I possessed and gave her the limpest high-five known to mankind. Then I retreated back into a dark space reserved for people who watch their sport with passion.

But on the ground the players live by a different motto: Never give up.

While pondering that moment again on Monday afternoon when waiting to interview a group of Collingwood players I stumbled across Jock McHale's commandments, written in 1925 and sitting in a framed display inside the foyer of the Westpac Centre. Hint number 14 read: Remember the game is never won until the final bell is rung. That is a football commandment I should have recalled when 'Buddy' kicked THAT goal on Friday night and my seven-year-old Collingwood supporting son, Jude, was looking for words of wisdom. I could not, stung, caught up in my own pain, offer him anything.

Moments later, inside the Westpac Centre gymnasium, the never say die Collingwood skipper Nick Maxwell was echoing McHale's thoughts. "You're always still a chance until the siren goes," said Maxwell.

Not everyone can put such thoughts into action. Maxwell has shown he is one player who can. Against St Kilda in the previous year's drawn Grand Final he had kept running and coming even after Brendon Goddard's mark and goal had sealed the deal in the minds of many supporters.

He flung himself into the centre late in the 2009 first semi final when Adelaide's Kurt Tippett had kicked what appeared to be the winning goal for the Crows. Maxwell won a clearance on memory alone that night to get the ball to where Jack Anthony could earn a free and kick the winning goal.

For goodness sake, Maxwell even wanted to play extra time after the draw. "I think that is the belief we have in the whole group," said Maxwell. "They all believe we are never out of the game so it's a good attribute to have."

If there is a lesson to be drawn from sport that is it. Keep trying.

But everyone responds differently, a team with a multitude of personalities and emotional responses, even when they are willing themselves to keep going.

"I thought it was all over, absolutely," said the indefatigable Dane Swan. "When he's (Franklin) kicking goals like that you seem to think it's not our night, but to the boy's credit we found a way."

They found a way. It was a favourite saying of former Collingwood assistant coach and now Melbourne coach, Mark Neeld: find a way. When all seems lost, it is the only answer: find a way.

One can only imagine how Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse found a way when 'Buddy' kicked THAT goal on Friday night. Forty years in the game was about to end with a goal that Malthouse admitted later only one man on the planet - Buddy - could have managed to kick. Remember for a moment that a 37-year-old Malthouse had been in the coach's box 21 years earlier at the helm of the West Coast Eagles when a Peter Daicos' dribble goal retrieved the 1990 qualifying final for the Magpies. But 'Buddy's' effort to tap the ball with his right hand, trap it with his left and kick it with the outside of his foot at full pace was something else again. It was unstoppable.

Regardless of what Malthouse was thinking I can imagine how he responded. He screamed down the line into the earpiece of Geoff Walsh, who was relaying the coach's instructions on the boundary line, to reorganise so the Magpies had a chance of regaining the lead. The Collingwood coach knew Hawthorn would try to drop numbers behind the ball and protect a lead. With three minutes and 49 seconds left on the clock, he knew, and more importantly believed, there was still time to win from there.

The coach never stops trying to find a way. It is a characteristic that has clearly rubbed off on his players. Because when 'Buddy' kicked THAT goal on Friday night, Harry O'Brien could see the following day's headlines straight away: 'Buddy Magic'. "It looked like it was the script there, Franklin the hero, injured a couple of weeks ago, pretty much the difference the week before and wins the game off his own boot again," said O'Brien.

That must have been part of the thoughts running through most of the crowd's minds but few have played football under Malthouse. "If you look at Mick Malthouse's career and the way he has coached his teams it is to stay in the fight," said O'Brien. "That is what we were able to do. It is a cliché but you have to be able to be in it to win it and we gave ourselves the best chance even though we weren't playing the best to just win those contests we needed to win and we were fortunate it did fall our way."

But the players weren't to know that at the time. They - unlike everyone watching footy on the television on a Friday night - were not sure how much time remained. That's why Chris Dawes' first thought when 'Buddy' kicked THAT goal on Friday night was "gees, how long is left?"

Maxwell was showing why he is the leader he has become. He had walked over to Chris Tarrant and told him he had done everything possible to stop the goal. " I just said there was nothing more you could do mate. We'll get the next one. Head up, head up," said Maxwell.   

Dawes is a fierce competitor but even he was pushing the doubts away and steeling himself for the battle that remained. "For a goal like that to come off … you know it is not a fluke because 'Buddy' Franklin kicked it and he is a freak player, but it just seemed like it was their night. I just thought 'oh gees, I hope there is enough time for us to do something about this'."

Hope. It has driven people through adversity for aeons.

Luke Ball clearly does not give up hope. His career is testament to that aspect of his character. He won the ball and space at a stoppage and, as he told television reporter Matthew Richardson after the siren, threw it on the boot and curled it through. As O'Brien would say it was fortunate it fell Collingwood's way. Dawes shepherded the ball through on the goal line.

Suddenly I was the one roaring. Dancing in the aisles like a lunatic. I looked down to see my daughter close to tears, bravely holding her emotions in. She was made of tougher stuff than her father.

Dawes went through a wave of emotions as soon as Ball's goal was kicked too but he had to manage his. "Your immediate reaction is 'yes, he has kicked it, we're up, we've got to protect this', but you don't want to go into your shell too much," said Dawes.

The professional does not protect in such moments. He asks himself to perform the most unnatural of sporting acts: to keep charging when hanging on might be enough. "I was mindful of that because we have been in a couple of tight situations over the last couple of years where you think 'righto let's protect this but let's not tighten up too much," said Dawes.

Dawes has the perfect phrase to describe his aim at that moment: "Let's protect this proactively."

Little did Dawes know but there was two minutes, 49 seconds of proactive protection remaining.

Those moments were tough on everyone. My 77-year-old dad, Ian, who has barracked for Collingwood all his life, admitted the next day that from his vantage point in the AFL members he wondered where the nearest defibrillator might be located. His wife, Joan, a Hawthorn supporter all her life, was sitting behind the goals, away from her husband, staunch in her hope the Hawks could kick one more. Worrying how her husband might be feeling.

The players kept willing themselves, while the supporters kept hoping. 

Then the siren came and emotions spilled over, for the Collingwood coach, for the Hawks coach, for everyone supporting either club. The players showed great class in congratulating and commiserating each other: they understood the depth and intensity of the battle that had been waged.

This was a night at the football to remember.

I sheepishly made my way to the car. My wife, Anita, non-aligned on the night, would later tell friends I was "embarrassingly angry and embarrassingly happy". She was right of course. All on display in five long minutes.

Although Alastair Clarkson declared his players weren't hard enough for long enough, only he could say that. From the stands they were brave and brilliant. When asked whether she had had a good night, Indi spoke for many of the Hawk persuasion: "Sort of, sort of not."

The Collingwood players had come again, once again, when, to most, all seemed lost. That is the lesson of the game, the wonder of this era, particularly for Collingwood's long-suffering fans.

"I'm assuming that we will have a great deal of confidence going into this week no matter what the score is at half-time or anything like that we can find a way to win," said Swan.

This has been another successful season. For the Magpie players there is one game left to determine how it is remembered.

For those at the MCG however some things will never be forgotten, like when 'Buddy' kicked THAT goal on Friday night. As colleague Callum Twomey said first thing on Monday morning: "I was sitting right where 'Buddy' kicked that goal. Unbelievable."

Peter Ryan is an objective reporter for afl.com.au unless Collingwood is in dire straits in a preliminary final