Jack Ginnivan departed Collingwood with a premiership medal around his neck, leaving behind a club whose finals hopes are in disarray and that is now going through the bleakest period of Craig McRae’s celebrated tenure.

He has come to a club, the one he supported as a child, with every reason to believe he can play finals in his first year.

Ginnivan has had his cake and eaten it too.

Such was Ginnivan’s exuberance, he dropped the F-bomb on live TV (not finals but the one you can’t print in full), as he revelled in a 66-point win against the club that tipped him out days after last year’s grand final success.

Games against your former club rarely come as sweet as this. In front of a crowd of 74,171, who cheered and jeered him in equal measure, Ginnivan rolled out a career-best game of 31 disposals and two goals.

The many faces and moods of Jack Ginnivan.Credit: Darrian Traynor / Getty Images

The anticipatory murmurs of “Ginni” preceding every possession was followed by boos from his former supporters. But the one-time poster boy of the black and white army did not mind. When he capped off his red-letter game with a goal, he rushed to the Hawthorn faithful to celebrate.

At the ensuing centre bounce, he had his arms raised triumphantly at the Punt Road End goal square, absorbing the love of his new football family.

“The sense of theatre of the game was fantastic,” Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said. “All of the 74,000 that came would’ve loved the theatre of the game today.

“But for us it was really........

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