AFL round 22 match review: Hawthorn v. Geelong at Melbourne

The battle for second place on this season’s AFL ladder was played out on Saturday night in front of a crowd of seventy-two thousand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The result, at least from the perspective of your humble correspondent, was disappointing; the match, however, was another exhibition of the high standard of football which has been played this season, and set the scene for the likely second leg of this encounter in the first week of the finals.

It all started so well for the Cats. After a three-goal first quarter, they led by six points at the first break. Hawthorn equalised in the fifth minute of the second term and kept having numbers at the back, but what followed was a purple patch for Geelong. First Tom Hawkins outran Brian Lake, then Jimmy Bartel converted a free kick, then Hawkins again won a duel with Lake and executed a Gaelic-style set-shot snap. Two more goals followed and Geelong led by thirty-one at the half. When the boy from Finley marked in the goal square early in the third quarter, the Pivotonians went thirty-three up.

To this point, the match had been played at a staccato rhythm. Geelong’s early lead was countered by Hawthorn, and Geelong’s second break from the pack was chased down by the brown and gold peloton. A turnover led to a length-of-the-field play resulting in David Hale’s first goal of the night; three more followed in quick succession to narrow the margin to nine points. Sam Mitchell thought he’d taken it down to three when he converted a set shot from the fifty metre arc, but an indecisive score review ensured that the goal umpire’s original ruling that the kick had been touched on the line would stand.

Hawthorn made amends straight away through Hale, and Will Langford’s post-siren goal put the Mayblooms ahead at lemon time, 9.7.61 to 9.3.57. When the teams returned for the final quarter, it really started to All Go Pete Tong for i biancoblu. Four Hawthorn goals were answered only by a Geelong behind, and the margin ballooned out to twenty-eight points. The way Geelong were being outclassed tactically brought back memories of the 110-point loss to the Swans, as they struggled to get the ball out of defence and punted it skyward to no-one in particular on the occasions that they did.

Midway through the final term, the pendulum began to swing back. Geelong kept winning the ball out of the centre, and two late goals sparked hopes of a comeback. But it was never really on, and Brad Sewell made sure of it by booting the final goal. Hawthorn triumphed by twenty-three points in the end, but what did they win? Four premiership points, another nail into the coffin of the so-called ‘Kennett Curse’, and the right to wear their oh-so-haute couture brown shorts by dint of being the ‘home’ team in the qualifying final. See you again in a fortnight, Hawks.

Hawthorn 14.10.94 – Geelong 11.5.71

Goals: Hale 3, Roughead 3, Langford 2, Breust, Cegler, Gunston, Lewis, Sewell, Shiels (Haw.); Hawkins 3, Murdoch 2, Bartel, Duncan, Motlop, Selwood, Taylor, Thurlow (Geel.)

Best: Mitchell, Langford, Gibson (Haw.); Duncan, Caddy, Stokes (Geel.)