THE COLLINGWOOD-St Kilda match in Opening Round is merely one of 207 in the 2026 AFL home-and-away season.
But it is so much more than that.
The proudly "old" team versus the impatient, big-talking and bigger-spending wannabe. Daicos versus Nas. Fly against Ross. A systems-based gameplan against dare and flair. An aggressive, us-against-the-world mindset supporter group, which believes premierships are a right, versus a collection of barrackers both burdened and bonded by Grand Final heartache and 27 wooden spoons.
It will all come together at the MCG on Sunday night.
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The Nick Daicos and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera storylines are as exciting as any in the AFL. Both were drafted in 2021. Daicos could've won Brownlow Medals in each of the past three seasons, and Wanganeen-Milera finished 2025 as both the game's highest-paid and hottest prospect.
"I don't think Fly (Craig McRae) tags, they're systems-based, a few teams don't tag, but he will get a lot of attention, he will get great players working off him … (Wanganeen-Milera) is as exciting as St Kilda has seen for a while," St Kilda coach Ross Lyon speculated on AFL.com.au recently.
Lyon was right. McRae, as a rule, hasn't opted to use a tagger in his four seasons as Collingwood coach, which has produced a premiership and two preliminary final outcomes.
But sometimes, you need to break rules to win. Lyon has been preparing Wanganeen-Milera for that possibility, which is partially why in last weekend's practice match against Essendon, he used him as a resting key forward where he kicked four goals.
Under McRae, Collingwood has celebrated its older players. In 2025, the Magpies passed Geelong teams of the early 2020s as the VFL/AFL's oldest. On Sunday night against St Kilda, this presents another compelling contrast, with Lyon ad nauseam referencing the youth of his team prior to last year's aggressive recruitment of Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Sam Flanders and Liam Ryan.
As part of that frenetic player exchange period, the Saints even chose to offload their five-season captain, 30-year-old Jack Steele. In contrast, Collingwood was delighted the 38-year-old Scott Pendlebury wanted to enter a 21st season.
"There is going to come a time when there is a statue out there (Collingwood headquarters) of 'Pendles', and I just always live in the moment of how grateful we are to have Pendles in our building," McRae told AFL.com.au.
"Great role modelling for our youth. I am in no hurry to get these guys out of our building for a number of reasons. (It is a) no ceilings, growth mindset. Why put caps on things? We are not aiming for perfection, there are going to be times when we get things wrong.
"Guys will be out of form, and in form. Performance drives all of these discussions. If we were finishing down the ladder and we were making decisions like this, people would be even more critical and more judgmental, but I stand true to the fact these guys make a huge difference."
For Lyon, the 2025 player exchange period was identified as the optimum time to inject the Saints with recruits from other clubs. Having nurtured Wanganeen-Milera, Mattaes Phillipou, Marcus Windhager, Darcy Wilson, Alix Tauru, Max Hall, Mitch Owens, Hugo Garcia, Hugh Boxshall and others in his second stint in charge of the Saints, he ordered the club's recruiters to get busy.
Assisting the brazen player grab was the fact St Kilda was able to use 2025 season accounts to absorb up to $4 million of the 2026 salary cap.
"We had to be aggressive and there was a St Kilda tax and it helped fortify our list," Lyon said. "There is a bit to be excited about it but there is a lot of hard work, and we have to write our own story.
"We brought in quality players and still went to the draft. And I don't think it is a finished product. The strategy is alive and breathing."
McRae, about to enter his fifth season as an AFL coach and Lyon his 17th, are in charge of teams which present among the most fascinating storylines of the 2026 season.
Their worlds collide on Sunday night, and St Kilda requested this "home" game be played on Collingwood's home turf. That has already been established as a brilliant commercial exercise. It remains to be seen whether it is a brilliant football pursuit.
Up to 90,000 people will be watching live, with another million watching on TV. Bring it on.
