COLLINGWOOD'S loss to West Coast in this year's Grand Final was one of the most agonising defeats in the club's long history of finals heartache – and here's a statistic that will further torment Magpie souls.

AFL historians Col Hutchinson and Stephen Rodgers have trawled through the archives and discovered that the Pies were just the second team in history to lose a Grand Final after scoring the first five goals.

The only other time a team had surrendered a five-goals-to-nil lead was in the 1979 Grand Final, when Collingwood was also the culprit, defeated by arch enemy Carlton.

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The parallels between these two Magpie mishaps are staggering.

Not only did the Pies rattle on the opening five goals in both instances, but they were beaten by the same narrow margin (five points) and were ultimately pipped in controversial circumstances.

Pies fans are still bleeding over the 1979 decider and in particular Wayne Harmes' famous knock-back from the boundary – they reckon the ball was out of bounds – that set up what would prove the flag-sealing goal for Blues teammate Ken Sheldon.

Now the Magpie Army is stewing on the contentious decision to allow a mark to Eagles midfielder Dom Sheed rather than penalise his teammate Willie Rioli for blocking Pies defender Brayden Maynard out of the contest.

With less than two minutes on the clock and Collingwood clinging to a two-point lead, an ice-cool Sheed then nailed a superb set shot from the boundary that gave the Eagles the flag, leaving the Pies to lament another gut-wrenching loss.

In the two Grand Finals, which were both played on September 29, each team scored 11 goals. In 1979 Carlton tallied 11.16 (82) to Collingwood's 11.11 (77), while this year West Coast's 11.13 (79) edged out Collingwood’s 11.8 (74).

In both instances, the Magpies had finished the minor rounds in third place, and boasted three players with fewer than 30 games' experience (in 1979 it was Derek Shaw 24, Leigh Carlson 16 and Denis Banks 14, and this year Jaidyn Stephenson 26, Brody Mihocek 16 and Brayden Sier 12) and just one with 200 career goals (Ross Brewer's 214 then and Chris Mayne’s 203 now).

LOST GRAND FINAL AFTER SCORING FIRST FIVE GOALS

LOST GRAND FINAL AFTER SCORING FIRST FOUR GOALS