I was rooting for the Magpies!!
I wasn't... Collingwood are the the equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys as America's team. You either support them, or you support any other team to beat them...
That said, I do respect (almost) all of the players and the coach for being a class act, and they were clearly best team this year. The way they seem to do the exact right things to win in tight situations consistently reflects a well coached team... and it showed both last year and this year. They also play a very good style of attacking football which emphasizes skill, and I always salute a team that does that versus a dour, dull, defensive style of dragging another team down to a level worse than yours.
Their Coaches and (most) of the players are also extremely likeable and down to earth, which is something you could say for about 99% of any team playing AFL now - I think it is something the AFL has managed to do very well; there are very little FIGJAMs in the league compared a decade or two ago.