The football-viewing public of the
Commonwealth were on Friday night treated to another classic edition of the
modern antipodean equivalent of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry. For the second time
in a fortnight, Hawthorn galloped home in the second half, and booked
themselves a home preliminary final.
The first quarter was the archetypal ‘game
of two halves’. As the Melbourne Cricket Ground recovered from the murdering of
the national anthem by some X-Factor contestant or other, it was all Geelong
for the first ten to fifteen minutes. Joel Selwood bagged the first of the
night after a Luke Hodge kick from defence was intercepted, and after a few
minutes of back-and-forth, Jimmy Bartel put the Cats two goals up. Geelong
defended solidly to neutralise Luke Breust (who failed to goal until early in
the final stanza), but Hawthorn applied such forward pressure as to back the
Pivotonians into a corner in their backline on two occasions. The Hawks hit
back with three goals by the end of the quarter and led by nine at the first
change.
Geelong quickly regained the lead after
scoring the first two goals of the second quarter: the first a set shot
resulting from a soaring Jimmy Bartel mark, the second the product of Tom
Hawkins combining with Selwood in front of an open goal. But in true Hegelian
fashion, thesis was followed by antithesis, and Hawthorn scored the next three
to lead by fourteen points. Two behinds later, Jordan Murdoch goaled to put
Geelong six behind with forty-one seconds left on the clock. A well-executed
centre clearance allowed Josh Walker to convert a set shot to leave the teams
tied at 6.5.41 apiece at the long break.
David Hale and Joel Selwood traded goals to
open the third term, signalling that the second half would be as tight as the
first. Minutes later, Geelong hit the front through Tom Hawkins, whose first
goal of the match came via a free kick arising from his much-anticipated
physical duel with Brian Lake. Geelong native Hodge reclaimed the lead when he
marked and executed an exquisite checkside. Jack Gunston hit the next two,
leading Bruce McAveney to treat the viewers to a dose of The Bleeding Obvious
with his observation that “they need a goal, Geelong.”
They would get two thereafter, the only problem
being that the Mustard Pots snagged five. Jarryd Roughead sealed the win with a
set-shot snap eight minutes from time, and it was time to flick over to the
Scottish lesbians on SBS2.
Geelong must now win three matches for the
title, including a preliminary final at either Homebush or Subiaco Oval. They
played like a third-on-the-ladder team – frustrating to watch for fans who know
that this Golden Generation is capable of so much more. They played with too
little aggression – Hawkins’ tussles with Lake and Steve Johnson’s cheek wound
notwithstanding – and were poor when trying to clear the Sherrin away from
those swarms of bodies around the ball which characterise il football moderno. The winner of the North Melbourne-Essendon
elimination final awaits.
Hawthorn 15.14.104 – Geelong
10.8.68
Goals: Gunston 3, Lewis 3, Puopolo 2,
Roughead 2, Breust, Hale, Hodge, Langford, Smith (Haw.); Selwood 3, Bartel 2,
Blicavs, Hawkins, Johnson, Murdoch, Walker (Geel.)
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