DESPITE sporting a cut on his face from friendly fire, Collingwood defender Nick Maxwell was over the moon following his side's win over West Coast in one of the all-time best finals matches, and now can't wait to face the side from his stomping ground in the preliminary final.

Few gave Collingwood any hope of getting this far in 2007 and it took one of the most fascinating games ever played in order for the Pies to book a spot against Geelong this Friday night. With Ashley Hansen off injured and other Eagles either out on their feet or hurting, Collingwood were far too strong in extra-time, scoring 3.3 to two behinds from the Eagles.

"Without a doubt, it's the most amazing game I've been part of," Maxwell said as the side prepared to fly a chartered jet home to Melbourne from Perth.

"We knew a lot of their players had missed training during the week, Hansen re-injured himself and we knew they had a lot of guys going into the game sore. We were fresh and confident if we stuck with them in the first half-half that we would be able to fight it out, and that's what happened."

While it is only the second ever final that has gone into extra-time, the other being between the Kangaroos and Hawthorn in 1994, it was not the first time Maxwell has had the experience. Not that it was any help, whatsoever.

"We drew with St Kilda in the pre-season cup last year and had to do those same rules, but I can't say it held us in good stead or anything," he said.

"We knew what was going on and it was just unbelievable to get over the line."

Maxwell had a good battle with Brent Staker all night, while his veteran teammate James Clement had a terrible start, but finished one of the Pies best performers with the game on the line. Maxwell was also on the end of a boot from his leader in the defensive end.

"He just got slung around in a tackle in the last quarter and caught me in the face," he said.

"Thank god for my mouth guard or I would have been missing some front teeth."

Maxwell was rookie-listed in 2003 by the Pies after playing with the Geelong Falcons then North Ballarat in the VFL and was overlooked by the Cats. This week, he gets to take on the almost unbackable premiership favourites and there's no question Collingwood with give it their all.

The Pies went through the season receiving little fanfare, but they probably play the best team football in the AFL.  Don't suggest they are just alive either, they certainly feel they deserve to be where they are, and rightly so.

"They will probably get 100,000, and they've clearly been the best all year. It's a big challenge for us, but we've met all our challenges so far. We've been the two grand finalists from last year the last two weeks, so we can't wait for it," he said.

"I wouldn't say we are alive, we have deserved every second of this. We have fought, worked our butts off and deserve to be in this preliminary final. We will give it the biggest shake that we can."