Shane O’Bree described the stunning extra-time semi-final victory over West Coast on Friday night as “very similar” to the 2002 qualifying final triumph.

Speaking to collingwoodfc.com.au after the game, which places Collingwood in a preliminary final against Geelong, O’Bree hopes the morale gained from beating the reigning premiers on their home turf will carry into next Friday night’s clash at the MCG.

“That’s one of the better wins,” O’Bree exclaimed. “When we beat Port Adelaide in 2002, that was a very good win over there, and last night was very similar.

“You get a lot of confidence from those sort of games, so hopefully we can take that into next week.”

It was a truly breathtaking finish at a packed Subiaco Oval, with the ball deep in Collingwood’s forward line for most of the final minute of the fourth quarter, with scores locked at 10.12 (72) apiece.

As desperate as they were, and with nearly every player on the ground inside Collingwood’s forward 50, the Magpies couldn’t scrounge together the score needed to break the deadlock and the game went into extra time.

But when the troops came together for the final time, with two five-minute periods to decide the outcome, O’Bree felt like the visitors had it in them to record the club’s first victory over West Coast at Subiaco since 1992.

And so it turned out that the Magpies booted three goals to none in extra time to seal a famous 19-point victory.

“I didn’t really know what was going on with the change of ends or whether we could have our chat to the coach and all that sort of stuff.

“I knew as a team we were running pretty well, we just couldn’t put the score on the board. It showed in the end, and in the last five minutes we kicked a few goals and ran over the top of them.”

Even when the Magpies fell behind by 23-points deep into the third term, O’Bree said he and others maintained the faith, and three goals in the final two minutes of the third quarter from Collingwood set the scene for a dramatic finale.

“I thought we were controlling the game pretty well, we just weren’t putting the score on the board, we probably had more entries inside 50’s, we just weren’t scoring enough.

“To their credit, they played pretty well getting back and filling the holes and they made it hard for us to score.”

As for the Magpie midfield, it was yet another outstanding display from a group that isn’t flashy and doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but when needed most gets the job done.

Coming off a six-day break and travelling west, the Magpie players were up against it, but kept running, pressuring and tackling, and were instrumental in Collingwood booting nine of the last 11 goals of the game.

O’Bree was excellent all night with 15 kicks and 14 handballs, and was particularly active in a number of forwards thrusts late in the game, while his midfield mates Dane Swan (38 touches, two goals), Alan Didak (27 possessions, two goals), Scott Pendlebury (26 disposals, one goal), Tarkyn Lockyer (24 touches) and skipper Nathan Buckley (21 disposals) gave their all for the black and white guernsey.

“We’ve got a fair amount of blokes who can go through the middle now, and we’ve got confidence in players being able to run and play in those positions, so it’s just a matter of using our strengths, because we’re all different types of players, so using our strengths and not wasting it when we do get the ball.

“A few of us got a fair bit of the ball last night so it’s about using it and scoring goals.”

So now, a place in the last four, and even with the league’s best-performed side during the home-and-away season awaiting, the Magpies will stick to what they know, and that is believing in each other.

“All those young blokes have come on really well this year, and everyone’s stood up, and it’s just the belief, I suppose.

“We all believe in what we can do, and we play really well as a team.”