Staging or acting is will be ignored says the AFL. And if players do it like Alan Didak did in the picture above (which I made myself 
) will face the tribunal. And that’s a good thing to. People like Didak, Fevola, Harvey and Matthew Lloyd and Stephen Milne are all guilty of it, so I like this new rule. If your wondering why Joel Selwood isn’t on the black list, I think he earns most of the free kicks given to him!
1. Matthew Stokes charged with possesing drugs today. (3/1/10) That’s big news and bad for little Stoksey who now most likely will have an annoying little moustache for company in Jail (if he gets there that is).
2. Fev to the Lions. Wasn’t expecting him to go there but after his Brownlow antics, I wasn’t sure if he would be picked up at all!
3. Andrew Lovett signed by the Saints then banned not long after. After being in trouble with police AGAIN, the ex-Essendon little man finds himself without a club for 2010.
4. Is Gary going? Well, if you get offered a $6million dollar contract I wouldn’t be suprised. Some say he is to loyal, others say he is certain to go because of the money and his brother. What does Gary say? Well, not much. But now after breaking up with his long-time girlfriend, was that a message saying, “I’m going North”? I hope not but I have grave fears…………. :O
5. But for me, football season doesn’t start for me untill someone gets puntched then kickedin an intra-club match, so any time soon!
The Observer
Well, where do you start. The weather? The game? The pre-game entertainment? Well actually, none of those. I’m going to start on a negative note. I’m going to kick things off with the National Anthem.
Now, in the Grand Final or any final for that matter, the National anthem gives everyone goosebumps, especially when it finishes and the crowd roars and the siren goes. But, in this year’s Grand Final, the person who chose the people to sing the national anthem must have chosen them late at night……………. While sleeping on the sofa with half finished nachos on the coffee table. That person chose the cast of the Jersey Boys. I have nothing….. Well, I don’t have much against them, which I well get to later but honestley, 4 men who have high pitched voices, no music to back them up, singing the national anthem on the biggest sporting day in Australia of 2009 infront of 100,000 people and about to watch a game which Americans think that we are stupid not to wear protection when we play, it just isn’t right. I resist myself from using the term, “It’s un-Australian” becuase it isn’t really, it just doesn’t add up to me. When they finished, after my sigh of relief that finally I could take my earplugs out the goosebumps wern’t there. And it wasn’t becuase I couldn’t hear anyhting, trust me. I would have been fine with them replacing Jimmy Barnes in the pre game entertainment and have someone else do the national anthem, but please AFL, don’t make the same mistake again. Now, onto the game.
It was wet, muddy, raining. No, it isn’t the scene from a 1970’s Grand Final, but 2009! And it was a beauty. It had everything. It was hard, ferocious, yet skilfull in the same way. It was a great game all round. All the big game players stood up. Chapman was brilliant, 26 touches and 3 goals and a strained hammy, Ablett 25 touches and a goal and a couple of runs through packs tht were majestic. Hayes and Bartel were brilliant along with Corey.
In the end, Geelong ound thier way to the front when it matterd most. Right at the death. As I was wating this from my dungeon, I really thought the Cats were about to blow two Grand Final chances. Thankgodness they didn’t! The Cats scored 3 goals in the final term to St Kilda nil to in the flag. You little ripper! It is just the reward for thier consistency over 3 great years. I think Geelong peaked in the middle of 2008, when they had an average winning margin of 64 points. Becuase they peaked early though, come finals the Hawks especially had run over the top of them. Geelong have truly become a GREAT outfit. Watch out Lions!
As we know only one team can come out as winners. We knew that who evr lost this one, it would be hard to take. And was it ever. It was deavestating for the Saints, made even worse by the fact that if they had taken all thier chances at goal they would have won.
The only good to come out of this game was Ross Lyon’s hard stance on his players after the game, which was good to see. Max Hudghton wont be back, neither will Matt Maguire. But i’m sure the Saints will be. But can the Cats? I doubt they would have won this year’s Grand Final without loosing the 2008 Grand Final, but becuase of that burning desire to win a second flag they did. As the cliches go, “A great team is not a team of champions, but a champion team”. The amazing thing is with Geelong though, they are a team of champions, with the Ablett’s, Bartel’s, Scarlett’s, Milburn’s, Chapman’s etc, but now, are also a champion team. Well done Cats!
The Fanatic
In his post Grand Final speech, Bomber said dirrectly to the Saints players and said, “Footy suck’s sometimes”.
Translation:
“Ha ha, take that Roo, Grammy, Rossy Lyon, have a cry. Hey Steven King! Does this look familiar? (points to the Geelong players celabrating) You were here in 07′. How does it feel now hey? By the way, I forgot to tell you something before you left. You were hopeless. Tough luck boys. He, he, he.”
1. Geelong are good aren’t they?
2. On Steven Baker’s list of noses to break, Brendon Goddard wasn’t one of them.
3. Raph Clarke should never play again for St Kilda. Sorry, but he is slow, can’t kick, doesn’t know what to do and he looked like a rabit in headlights on the biggest day of them all. Gee, i’m really mean aren’t I?
The Observer
22:33- Boundary thrown-in 55m out from Geelong goal. St Kilda clearence……..
22:44- Gary Ablett’s man Clinton Jones runs and boots the ball down field with his left boot. Ablett is now where to be seen……..
22:48- Jones’ kick went a fair way but Taylor arked 55m from St Kilda’s goal.
22:55- After holding onto the ball for a few more seconds, Taylor stabs a short pass to Enright just inside the boundary.
23:01- Enright surveyed his options saw Johnson just off the centre square. Johnson marked. He moved immediatley………
23:05- Johnson spot’s a bald head. He didn’t know if it was Chapman, Harley or Ablett, but he just kicked it. The man he kicked to was the latter. He had run about 60m to find space after Jones had kicked. He was in the centre circle, already thinking about turning around and running when Zac Dawson came in and punched it away……….. But not far enough. Scarlett intinctivley toe-poked the ball forward and to Ablett who ran and booted it 70m to the top of the square………..
23:15- A huge pack of players for that consistes of Mooney, Fisher, Rooke, Clarke and a host of others waiting for the crumbs……….
23:17- One of those crumbers was Varcoe who got into the fallen pack and fished it out. He dished out a handpass to Chapman……….
23:18- Chapman recives the handpass, he is about 7m out. He snaps on his left. It went high………. But through. Chapman was later quoted as saying, “I never had any doubt that it was going in”. As they say, the rest is history.
The 2009 Grand Final will go down as one of the best in history, and I hope Geelong go down as one of the best in history. Becuase they deserved this. As Bomber said at the start of the year when asked about their chances this year; “Well two out of three ain’t bad”. He said it with a grin. And may grin to, becuase he was right. It isn’t bad, it’s fantastic!
In this year’s Grand Final, which may I tell you that GEELONG WON, these were what I thought were the top 6 moments to come out of each of the four thrilling quarters, 3 of which St Kilda won. Geelong won the last……….. and won the match.
1st Quarter: St Kilda 3.2.20 (G: Goddard, Hayes, Schneider) lead Geelong 3.0.18 (G: Rooke, Mooney, Selwood)
Moment 1:
In pouring rain, Raph Clarke recives a ball from Hayes at half back. He goes for a trot only 3 minets into the game, meanadering along untill Maxy Rooke crunches him and earns a free kick. Nails the ball 51m and Geelong have thier first goal.
Moment 2:
Stevie Baker goes forward and kicks into the forward 50, Goddard is there with Gary Ablett as his man. Ablett doesn’t leap, Goddard does. He takes the mark uncontested. Ablett thought Mackie, who was behind Goddard but was protecting Demptser, would jump. He didn’t and Goddard kicked the goal.
Moment 3:
All fans thought “Is it the knee?” when they saw Nick Riewoldt crash to the ground after trying to take a big mark. It wasn’t, he got up winded, but ok. Did this affect his performance against Big H? (Harry Taylor)
Moment 4:
Joel Selwood kicks one of the goals of the Granny when he put his heead over the ball about 45m out, got caught high, kept his feet still head down and drilled one home.
Moment 5:
Lenny Hayes caps off a brilliant 1st quarter with a goal. He had over 10 disposals for the term, and converted after a nice pass from Nick Dal Santo.
Moment 6:
After nice work from Dempster who managed to get his hands free gave off to Schneider who ran in, and decided it would be a good idea to boot it 100 rows back. In trying to do that and hook it round uis body he shanked it acros the face from directley in front, 10m (i’m being nice there) out.
2nd Quarter: St Kilda 7.7.49 (G: Schneider, Dempster, Jones, Koschitzke) lead Geelong 7.1.43 (G: Ablett, Byrnes, Chapman, Hawkins)
Moment 1:
Right up with Schneider’s miss in the 1st term, Milne had his own. Running in under no pressure, 40 out kicks but hardly ever leaves the ground and roles to Scarlett in the goal square. Then Milne misses a set shot 35m out and then McQualter misses a snap to finish a horror sequence.
Moment 2:
The moment my mouth dropped was when I saw Paul Chapman clutching his hamstring. I could only think of one thing to say. “Oh no”. It was after he had kicked a ball from midfield, he limped off. It didn’t look good.
Moment 3:
Gary Ablett is moved to full-forward and works straight away when he gets a free kick after he was to strong for Sam Gilbert on a lead, and Gilbert reverted to taking Ablett’s arms away. Gazza slotted the goal through.
Moment 4:
Tom Hawkins smothers a Zac Dawson kick from the goal square. Hawkins picked up the ball and booted it home. Replays showed the ball hit the post. Thankgod Max Rooke kicked that goal at the end!
Moment 5:
Darren Milburn thinks he touched a loose ball that Justin Koschitzke had soccerd through the goal, and he approached the umprie decalaring that he had touhed it. He was saying, “Twice, that’s twice!” Milburn was reffering to another decision which he believed he had touched the ball but was not signalled. The umpire took the guesture of two fingers (meaning he’d done it twice) the wrong way, so the umpire as well as giving Koschitzke the goal, payed a free kick from the goal square for ‘demonstrative abuse’. Schneider kciked the resulting goal.
Moment 6:
Becuase of those two stupid goals, Geelong are behind at half time.
3rd Quarter: St Kilda 9.11.65 (G: Riewoldt, Montagna) lead Geelong 9.4.58 (G: Mooney, Chapman)
Moment 1:
Stevie Baker and Brendon Goddard both go for the ball. Baker crashes into Goddard hard. Goddard ends up with a broken nose. Goddard I thought would have been in the top 3 for Norm Smith voting at half time. It was abig moment.
Moment 2:
Nick Riewoldt kicks his first goal of the match after a beautiful pass from Dal Santo. Riewoldt just had to much strength for Taylor in the marking contest.
Moment 3:
The St Kilda skipper looks as if he’s n his way to a second goal but a desperate lunge from Taylor smothers the ball out of bounds. Riewodlt was only about 5 meters out.
Moment 4:
Against the run of play, Paul Chapman collected a ball from Rooke in the pocket. He duelly snapped it round his body bringing the Cats within a point.
Moment 5:
Sam Fisher turns the ball over at full back. Sam Gilbert who recieved the sloppy pass fumbles and Varcoe is their to pounce along with Ottens. They all scramble for the ball. It looks as if Varcoe is about to soccer it free but Gilbert luckily shoves him in the side and a ball up is the final result. They didn’t make the Saints pay.
Moment 6:
With scores tied and only 1:32 left in the quarter Leight Montagna swoops on a loose ball on a tough angle and somehow the ball sails through. The goal gives the Saints the lead at the final change.
4th Quarter: Geelong 12.8.80 (G: Hawkins, Chapman, Rooke) defeated St Kilda 9.14.68 (G: Nil)
Moment 1:
At the start of the 4th quarter, Chapman found Hawkins with a beautiful bullet pass. Hawkins 47m out from goal converted to give the Cats the start they needed.
Moment 2:
When Adam Schneider recieved a ball 55m out from goal in space, my heart sank. Somehow I thought he couldn’t miss. Harley did his best put Schneider twice sidestepped the Skipper but just pushed the shot wide.
Moment 3:
Steven Baker launches himself at the ball and manages to rush the ball through after Max Rooke snatched the ball away and snapped with his left foot. The ball seemed to hang in the air for so long. And the little number 10 crashed into the goal post for his efforts. Great stuff.
Moment 4:
This moment sums up Max Rooke’s game. Tough, hard, persistence and great. It all started with a ball from Mooney towards a pack. Rooke went up but couldn’t hold the mark. He kept his feet though. Then Byrens fished the ball out to Rooke who’s left foot tried to find Hawkins on a lead, but didn’t. No matter becuase Rooke kept running towards the contest, and through a leg out and soccerd the ball another 10 meters forward. Then after some great pressure from the Cats forward line Rooke pounces and toe-pokes the ball through for a point, to give the Cats the real buffer they needed.
Moment 5:
After Scarlett had rushed a behind, Darren Milburn had kick in duties. Imagine the pressurem and the self talk; “Don’t stuff it up, don’t stuff it up!” Milburn didn’t, he booted it long down the line where Harry Taylor jumped high above everyone else and took his own ‘Leo Barry Mark’. That was when I truely knew we had won.
Moment 6:
This was the moment. The moment that ended the chapter and closed the book so to speak. While all other Geelong players jumped on each other a celabrated Max Rooke just stood there, and held the ball up to the sky. He dribled the ball through the goals as he had taken a mark and Geelong had won the Grand Final by 12 points.
(First wrote this post on the week of the Granny, haven’t posted it untill now. To busy partying the Cars victory!!- Josh) It was the best game of the year (unless the GF tops it, which it well could) and one of the best home and away games ever. So, what did both teams take out of the game, and put into context for the Grand Final?
WE MISSED YOU
Steve Johnson, Brad Ottens and Steven King were all out for either Geelong or St Kilda. Johnson was a late withdrawal from the match, while Ottens was still a while away and King had been suspended for the Saints. Geelong’s forward line look 1 demensial, with only Mooney firing up in the 2nd half, and Hawkins hardly got a kick. At King’s age, having those weeks off will have frehend him up for September, and will want a go at his old club.
TACKLE HAPPY
It was such a high tempo game, as is the case with a lot of games under the roof at Etihad Stadium. St Kilda shocked Geelong out of the first quarter with emence tackling and pressure around the ball carrier, forcing mistakes and fumbles. But the question is, can St Kilda maintain that pressure for all 4 quarters. The answer was no in that game becuasen Geelong really opened the game up in the 3rd quarter, Geelong had 18 more hardball gets than the Saints, but showing how good their tackling was, it’s was the 3rd highest St Kilda tackle it had had count since champion data started recording in 1999, with the most against Hawthorn down at Tassie this year, 115. In round 14, the Saints had 84.
TEMPO
St Kilda like to xontrole games of footy, control the ‘tempo’. They hold onto the ball more than any other team in the comp, and make the other team play at thier pace. The Saints avergage 27.7 disposals a goal, Geelong 27.4. But i’m just thinking, will the Saints be able to do this on the big day against Geelong? I’m not so sure. Seeing only the Saints have played 3 games at the G’ this year (against Melbourne and the two finals against Collingwood and the Bulldogs). Becuase the Saints (unfairly) played bassicaly every game at Etihad Stadium this season, they wont be as used to the big spaces of thw G’. I know that sounds a bit weak but I have proof. In round 14, when the roof was closed, the tempo was very high, as like a lot of St Kilda games with the roof on. The ground is also smaller than the G’, and the wide open spaces suit Geelong, and the rain will also play a factor. In r14, St Kilda droped men behind the ball in the 3rd term, forcing Geelong to find a target in pakcs, and if it rains, the ball will be wet and harder to mark. So it will be interesting to see if St Kilda can do what ‘they do’.
GONE FISHING
Sam Fisher is vital to the Saints winning. In round 14 his rebound and running attacks were vital in the first half, and he kicked a goal pushing forward. Closing down Fisher (12 touches in the first quarter, eight in the next three) was a big effect on halting St Kilda’s run. Jason Gram, another key rebounder, had a poor game and the effect was obvious. Once the Cats had stoped Fisher, the Sainrs didn’t look as threatning. But then yhou have Sam Gilbert, another half back flanker who attacks. He doesn’t have the same impact as Fisher, but still effective. He took over from Fisher in round 14, and did a great job, shutting down his man and providing run. Geelong will be aware of these guys, and mabye MaxRooke will play on Fisher as defensive forward, like he did on Heath Shaw last week, curbing his impact. Fisher was also intrumental in the Saints relim final win running out of defense.
BACK UP
Darren Milburn is a great player. A legend. But like a lot of his Geelong mates, he likes to zone off, but your strength can also be your weakness. He likes to sit away from his man, then attack. But, in the Prelim of 08′ Shaun Higgins of the Bulldogs, Higgins played ‘through’ Milburn and made sure that when Milburn zoned off, he would get away. Higgins had two goals and a assist for the night. So, Milburn who I assume will play on someone like Dempster or Schnider, he will need to play close attention to them.
Finally, after 2 years of already prepared Brownlow aceptance speaches being thrown in the bin, it was 3rd time lucky for Gary Ablett, whoI guess we can now call the best player in the AFL! If that doesn’t cut it, i’m sure veryone will agree that ‘lil Gaz’ was a more deserving winner than Shane Woewodin (who?). Ablett polled super well after 5 rounds, ahead of next best Nick Dal Santo. But Ablett got injured against Melbourne, and Dal Santo gotsome votes when he was out, so much so tht he drew level, 16 votes each soon after.
Ablett returned in round nine with a bang, polling three votes against the Western Bulldogs. But when Lenny Hayes, the suprise packet picked up six compared to his four in rounds 10 and 11, the challenge was thrown down. Ablett held a 3 vote lead going into round 12, and Dal Santo faded after that. But another 3 to Ablett for his 40 possesion game against Port gave him a 6 vote lead. Ablett missed round 15, after round 14 where none of them polled, then Gaz got 1 vote for his 40 possesions against Melbourne. As Hayes and Nicky Dal faded, Jonathan Brown polled extrmley well, and was outright 2nd for a while. But he only polled onece in the final 4 rounds. In round 20, Ablett polled 3 votes for his gajme against Sydney, where he had 44 disposals which was enough to give him the medal, as he couldn’t be beaten. A 3 vote game against the Bulldogs then a 1 vote game in the last round against Freo got Ablett to 30 votes, 8 votes ahead of 2nd place Chris Judd.
Ablett broke a number of long-standing records during the count. He became the first player since Paul Meldrum in 1987 to poll 12 votes in the opening five rounds and the first since Robert Harvey in 1998 to register 22 after 14 rounds. And there was another first. He was the first Ablett to win the Brownlow. As Gary said after the count in the press confrence: ”As I said on the stage, at least I can say there’s something I’ve done that he hasn’t done…….” Well done Gaz, your a supertar!
LEADERBOARD:
30 GARY ABLETT- GEEL
22 Chris Judd- Carl
20 Lenny Hayes STK
19 Simon Black- BL
19 Jonathan Brown-BL
17 Nick Dal Santo- STK
17 Adam Goodes- Syd
16 Joel Selwood- Geel
15 Bryce Gibbs- Carl
15 Marc Murphy- Carl
15 Nick Riewoldt- STK
14 Matthew Boyd- WB
14 Brendon Goddard- STK
Here are some pictures of Geelong’s final open training session before the GF that I took:
The two scone heads Paul Chapman and THE BROWNLOW MEDALIST GARY ABLETT can be seen
Joel Corey is muscley too and quite a good player (Norm Smith anyone?), when they all ran past they suprised me how big/muscley they all were!
