A brilliant six-minute burst from Dale Thomas lit the spark as Collingwood climbed into an AFL preliminary final with a comeback 10.13 (73) to 9.6 (60) win over West Coast at the MCG on Saturday night.
The Magpies will fight Sydney for a grand final berth at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
While the Swans will have the advantage of a 13-day break compared to six for the Magpies, Collingwood will take huge confidence from having beaten Sydney in their past 11 meetings, seven of those at the preliminary final venue.
They looked unlikely to get the chance when the Eagles kicked four unanswered goals in the opening 16 minutes of Saturday night’s semi-final.
While the Magpies then tightened up their defence considerably, they struggled to find the goals to claw their way back, particularly with Travis Cloke superbly held by Eric Mackenzie.
Despite West Coast adding just two more goals for the first half, Collingwood could manage just four themselves and trailed by 11 points at the long break.
But Thomas made up for a quiet first half with three goals in six minutes early in the third term to turn the game.
The first came from a mark in space, the second from some slick work pouncing on a loose ball and snapping at pace, with the third courtesy of a goalsquare free kick.
That put the Magpies eight points clear.
Their lead stretched to 17 points when Jarryd Blair threaded through a tight-angled free kick later in the term, although a Jack Darling major reduced the margin to 10 after the three-quarter time siren.
The Eagles fought their way in front within the first five minutes of the last quarter, Nic Naitanui goaling from a free kick then Josh Kennedy from a huge pack mark.
But veteran Eagle Andrew Embley gave it back in horror fashion, stubbing a kick from defence straight to Collingwood’s Dayne Beams, who set up teammate Tyson Goldsack for a simple mark and goal.
An accurate Dane Swan snap two minutes later proved the sealer.
Midfielder Scott Pendlebury was outstanding all night for the winners, while Ben Reid excelled in defence.
Midfielders Andrew Gaff and Daniel Kerr battled hard for the Eagles, while ruckman Dean Cox had a strong night.
The Magpies’ win means the clubs that finished the home and away season in the top four all made the preliminary finals, the 11th time that has occurred in the 13 seasons of the current finals system.
The Eagles have still not won a final outside of Perth since the 2006 grand final and extended their MCG losing streak to seven.
Magpie forward Chris Dawes limped off injured early in the last quarter.
The victory ended an emotional week for the Magpies, after former Collingwood and Port Adelaide player John McCarthy died in Las Vegas.