Given he played almost 100 games for Collingwood, the Magpies’ changerooms should be the most familiar and easy to navigate for Brian Taylor during his “Roaming Brian” segment on Friday night footy.
But the popular broadcaster slipped up again in the wake of the Pies’ thrilling one-point preliminary final win against GWS as he failed to recognise a major Australian sports star.
About five minutes into his journey, Taylor spotted veteran Magpies midfielder Steele Sidebottom standing in a group of people.
“Steele Sidebottom here,” Taylor began. “Is this the brother, Steele? It looks like a brother.
“No? Who is it?”
“Matty Wade,” Sidebottom replied.
“It is too, Matty Wade the cricketer. I thought he looks like you.”
Sidebottom revealed the wicketkeeper-batsman who played more than 200 games of cricket for Australia, including 36 Tests, is the cousin of Magpies defender Jeremy Howe.
Taylor’s off the cuff travels regularly provide hilarious moments, including when he spoke to Richmond player Samson Ryan’s mum earlier this season – or when he discovered Port player Xavier Duursma’s girlfriend was still in school.
The Magpies were ecstatic after qualifying for next Saturday’s grand final, but it was a much different story in the GWS rooms.
Speaking to Channel 7 in the rooms after the loss, Toby Greene – who had earlier been targeted by Nick Daicos in a class act – was emotional.
“Hard to reflect on the season when you get that close,” he said. “Yeah, that one hurts, that one really hurts.”
He agreed there were plenty of positives to take out of the year as the Giants went from 16th on the ladder to a point from the Grand Final, but it was still too raw.
“It’s been an awesome year but once you get this close, you want to go on and win it,” Greene said.
“We felt like we were good enough to.
“Hats off to Collingwood — they were tough tonight. Flip of a coin really in the end. It just hurts.”
