Football can be a cruel master, but it can also provide the sweetest taste of redemption there is.
In big games or moments players are human and falter, sometimes costing their side a premiership. But the players that respond the best are the ones whose stories shine the brightest.
Some players' mistakes happen off the field, besmirching their name. But again, football gives them light at the end of the tunnel and a path back for them to show their true character.
So which stories in recent memory have the best redemption arc?
8Steele Sidebottom
On paper, Sidebottom's 2018 season is the best of his glittering 18-year career. His only All-Australian jacket, the Gary Ayres Medal for best player in that year's finals series, came second in the Brownlow Medal and won his second best-and-fairest award at Collingwood.
But while Sidebottom shone for 25 out of his 26 games that season, he all too well remembers how he was shut down in the nail-biting 2018 grand final loss against West Coast.
After registering 41 disposals in the preliminary final against powerhouse Richmond the week prior, Sidebottom was held to just 14 touches as he and his Pies were felled by five points thanks to the famous Dom Sheed kick.
Eagles tagger Mark Hutchings was sent to Sidebottom and wore him like a glove, leaving the latter with a burning desire to make amends.
Five years later and Collingwood was back in a thrilling grand final, this time against Brisbane.
With the match tight, Sidebottom was handed a 50m penalty to the edge of the arc, he let fly on the biggest kick of his career and it sailed through to extend the margin to 10 points before the Pies won by four. Meaning, the veteran midfielder kicked the winning goal in arguably the best grand final of the century.
Thoroughly rectifying his performance five years prior.
