With just four seconds left of the pulsating preliminary final between the GIANTS and Collingwood, young defender Sam Taylor nervously stood beneath a high ball.

He was only 15 metres out from an unguarded Collingwood goalsquare, with the GIANTS clinging to a four-point lead.

In a moment that will go down in the fledgling club's history, the 20-year-old punched the ball clear, falling into the path of teammate Daniel Lloyd, with Shane Mumford laying a typically bulldozing shepherd to create space.

And that was that. The GIANTS had qualified for its first Grand Final in its eighth year in the AFL.

Earlier, Taylor had known he had to make a stand in just his 29th game of AFL football.

Inspirational skipper Phil Davis had gone through a nightmare of a match, dislocating his finger before the opening bounce, suffering a right calf issue in the first quarter that saw him sent to full-forward, and wrenching his right shoulder in a tackle.

He returned to his customary defensive position in the jumpy final few minutes, but initially his move to the opposite end of the ground left Taylor exposed against the experienced Ben Reid.

"I probably should I have marked it, but I spoiled it," Taylor told afl.com.au through a mouthful of stitches and blood-stained teeth, wide-eyed and hands on his cheeks in shock.

"That last 10 minutes was just crazy. The ball was coming in that often, and I don't know how we did it, but we did, and it's the best feeling in the world. That final siren, the joy was unreal.

"When Davis went down, I was thinking 'Oh no, he's the leader back here, and I have to step up here. I have to do something for the team.'

"I tried to play my role to the best of my ability and win the game. I'm speechless."

Taylor finished the game with three stitches in his upper lip, but such was the frenetic nature of the match, he's not quite sure how it happened.

"I was being a bit of a psycho in the second quarter and jumped in front of a pack. I think I got elbowed in the mouth, but I don't know, and it just wouldn't stop bleeding," he said.

Taylor wasn't alone in final quarter heroics. 

As mentioned earlier, Davis shook off several flesh wounds to take his place as the general of the backline when the Pies kicked an astonishing four goals after managing just three to three-quarter time.

Everything was going the home team's way. 

The "GIANTS" cheer, complete with drum and a "Justice 4 Toby" sign, had rung out proudly in the third term as the team from the west skipped away, but it was dwarfed by the hypnotic drone of the "Colllll-ing-woood" chant.

A contentious Josh Thomas snap was paid a goal, Aidan Corr was penalised for deliberately handballing out of bounds, and the Pies just kept surging.

No one expected Shane Mumford, the veteran who could earn a dollar as a real-life GIANTS mascot when he gives the game away, to be influential at the death.

"Thumped" doesn't come close to the damage All Australian ruck Brodie Grundy had done to Mumford throughout the game, nor even "blown off the park".

Grundy amassed an outrageous 73 hitouts, 25 disposals and 10 clearances in a performance that required several checks of the stats sheet to make sure there wasn't a typo, but big Mummy had the final say.

As the seconds ticked down at a seemingly slower than average rate, Mumford won a crucial hitout inside Collingwood's goalsquare, winding back 10 years and 20 kilos to dance around the master of the sidestep Scott Pendlebury, of all players.

Thirty seconds later, at yet another stoppage inside 50, he threw his terrifying frame around to lock the ball up. Once Mumford's sitting on the ball, no one, not even the sublime Grundy, is getting it out.

There were four stoppages inside Collingwood's forward 50 in that last minute.

Players threw themselves in with abandon – Jacob Hopper with exceptional fervour – the promise of a Grand Final meaning all safety went out the window.

They would lie on the ground, exhausted, before being dragged up by teammates to do it all again.

But the GIANTS never surrendered. And now, Richmond awaits on the last Saturday in September.