O’Bree racked up his 200th game for the Magpies at the Gabba, and the man who started his career at the Lions was relieved to celebrate the milestone with a win.
“In my time at Collingwood I don’t think we’ve won many games up here at all, so it’s a big effort to win up here,” O’Bree said.
“You don’t need to rely on milestones to get yourself up for a game of football. We knew we had a big game this week and if we had have lost we would have been 1-3 and the media would have been right onto us, so it was a good courageous win.”
O’Bree was instrumental in the Magpies' comeback from a 22-point deficit late in the second term to run out 17-point winners.
He had 21 disposals and made seven tackles, but was quick to credit an across-the-board attack on the ball by the players as the main reason for the comeback.
“Whether it was the conditions, the fatigue, whether we played better than them, it could have been a number of things I suppose, but we just stuck to our guns really,” O’Bree said.
“We knew we were in the game before half time and that goal (to Travis Cloke) on the siren kept the momentum going, so it was just a matter of putting a bit of scoreboard pressure on them.”
O’Bree credited Collingwood’s ability to stop easy delivery to Jonathan Brown (2.5) and Daniel Bradshaw (0.1) as the main reason they were able to shut down the Lions' twin towers up forward.
And he paid tribute to Jaxson Barham, who had 28 possessions and nine tackles in his debut game while marking Lions midfield lynchpin Luke Power.
“Fantastic by Jaxson. He’s really worked his butt off in the last year to get into the senior team and his endurance is his key; he’s always been a good runner and he really showed today how good a runner he is.”
O’Bree now has another milestone game to look forward to, next Saturday’s Anzac Day clash with Essendon at the MCG.
“Every game for Collingwood is a big game these days. Teams really come out to play well against us and Anzac Day is always a big game. It’s just great to be a club that’s involved in the Anzac Day clash,” he said.
