Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has embraced Magpies runner Alex Woodward after his moment of madness in the AFL grand final.
Woodward was given the role after moving to Collingwood last year only to suffer a season-ending ACL injury.
He found himself in a sticky situation in the third quarter of Saturday's AFL grand final.
With the match on a knife-edge, Woodward collided with Jaidyn Stephenson and denied the Magpie a chance to spoil Elliott Yeo's mark in front of goal.
Yeo converted the set shot to put West Coast in front for the first time.
Woodward cast a forlorn figure in the rooms after the match, leading Buckley to hug the 25-year-old and lift his spirits.
"He's shattered. He is blaming himself," Buckley said.
"We had a player that ran into him and Yeo takes the mark and goes back and kicks the goal - it's marginal situations and scenarios that happen in the game and that is one of them.
"The reason I grabbed him was he can't be blaming himself, things happen in life, things happen in football.
"He was just trying to get out of the way and it didn't work."
The unfortunate incident has seen Woodward become an object of derision online.
Parody news site The Betoota Advocate awarded Woodward the Norm Smith Medal.
Woodward's Wikipedia site was briefly amended to show he was a member of West Coast's premiership team.
The luckless Woodward, who was drafted by Hawthorn but only managed two matches due to four serious knee injuries, won the VFL best and fairest medal in 2014.
