WEST Coast already owes plenty to Will Schofield for his near-faultless Grand Final performance, but Dom Sheed's match-winning goal might never have happened if the veteran defender hadn't tried to be a hero.
In a side note to a famous finish, Schofield has revealed he surged forward in the dying stages believing he could kick the go-ahead goal and left Collingwood danger man Jordan De Goey alone inside 50.
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After a scrimmage in the Pies' forward line, Liam Duggan's hurried kick landed in Jamie Cripps' arms, and Schofield took off.
"I hadn't left the back 50 for the whole game, and I was like 'you know what, I'm going to be a hero'," Schofield told the Eagles' BACKchat podcast.
"I have started sprinting down the middle of the ground, no one around me. The ball gets kicked to a two-on-two, Jack Darling and 'Flyin' Ryan' (Liam Ryan) versus (Jack) Crisp, maybe (Brayden) Maynard.
"I was 30-40m in front of any Collingwood player, and Willie (Rioli) and his opponent were inside 50.
"If we had have won that, I would've been kicked the ball in the middle of the ground, and either Willie's opponent would have pressed (up to) me and I would've kicked it over the top, or I would've had to run and have a shot for goal."
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But Cripps hooked his kick 10m behind Darling, allowing the Pies to mop up and Schofield was caught out of position, leaving McGovern to pick up De Goey on the last line of defence.
"I've looked up and gone 'oh no, De Goey is in the goalsquare by himself'," Schofield said.
"The only reason 'Gov' was on De Goey – this hasn't been touched on in the public – I had De Goey deep, that was my role.
"Gov, because he's so bloody lazy and doesn't press, he hadn't moved. He's standing in the goalsquare, ended up on De Goey, and you know what happened."
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McGovern, who was only 50-50 to play due to internal bleeding, wrote himself into Grand Final folklore with a towering intercept mark and launched the match-deciding attack.
The three-time All Australian hit Nathan Vardy, who sent the ball in Ryan's direction, who took a soaring contested mark and, in turn, found Sheed in the pocket.
In another revelation from the podcast, both Ryan and Sheed were both supposed to be off the ground at the time, but were stuck on the far side from the interchange bench.
Once Sheed lined up a drop punt, Schofield backed the 23-year-old to thread the eye of the needle.
"I actually thought he was going to kick it. Left-footer, he's just a pretty accurate, straight kick," Schofield said.
"When I saw he was kicking a drop punt, I was like 'he's going to go close here'.
"It wasn't a one-in-a-million shot, and he drilled it."
