Kozzie Pickett Seals 83-75 Win in Sam Mac Big Freeze Slide
sam mac big freeze slide ended with Kozzie Pickett deciding it. Melbourne beat Collingwood 12.11 to 11.9 at the MCG on Monday, and Pickett’s late goal sealed the result after two earlier misses.
More than 88,000 people watched the Big Freeze match, which was played at full pace because both coaches eschewed tags, spares and floods and pushed their teams to attack. Pickett’s finish also earned him the Neale Daniher trophy, the award voted on by the two coaches and members of the Daniher family.
Pickett’s late response
Pickett had already wasted two chances before the decisive kick, so the final goal carried extra weight in a game that stayed tight until the end. He was the Melbourne player who closed it out and walked away with the trophy tied to Neale Daniher’s values.
The trophy is awarded to the player who best demonstrates bravery, resilience, unity, care, conviction and selflessness, along with Daniher’s enduring mantra, “Play On”. Those are the qualities the match was designed to celebrate, and Pickett’s finish gave Melbourne both the win and the individual honor.
MCG crowd and Big Freeze
The scale of the occasion matched the result. More than 88,000 people filled the MCG, with celebrities and comedians sliding for laughs and donations as supporters in blue beanies packed the stands.
This year’s event also carried a different feel from the one before it. Neale Daniher was wheeled around the MCG boundary line this time last year, and his daughter was then heavily pregnant and publicly fronting Fight MND, while Monday’s crowd helped carry the fundraising effort forward without him in that role.
Round pressure at the MCG
The 83-75 finish fit a tight round across the league, with six of the eight games decided by eight points or less for the first time in VFL/AFL history. The Big Freeze match sat inside that pattern, and Melbourne’s edge over Collingwood was decided by one cleaner moment after a night of open play.
Jai Arrow, the 30-year-old former NRL player recently diagnosed with MND, tossed the coin before the match. Doctors and researchers also spoke with optimism not heard in previous years, pointing to progress in prognoses, quality of life and gene therapy as the cause drew attention on the same day Melbourne finished the job.
