Finals Week 3 – Geelong v Brisbane: Lady Luck rides the bumps

 

 

I’m guilty. Emotional after the game. Dreadful loss for Geelong. Dreadful. Some terrible performances by certain players. Mistakes. Poor kicking. We gave up the lead. A good lead. We panicked. Repeated errors. Some players were selfish. Some didn’t try.

 

But my reaction wasn’t an analysis. It was a reaction. Unthinking and also unanalytical. And stupid. I was wrong. The Cats lost it every bit as much as the Lions won it. They are not mutually exclusive.

 

And some of the newspaper analysis after the game was also guilty. But more guilty because objectivity is at the heart of their profession. The tabloid “analysts” who couldn’t analyse an egg and spoon race. I’ll go with the Cats Blew It angle, they conclude. Should be able to get 1,000 words of content out of that. And my face in the paper. I’m an expert, just like people who wake up one day and call themselves social commentators.

 

Give me a spell, tiger.

 

They blew it. Did they? One point up with 2 minutes 40 to go and they blew it?

 

This exhibits a total lack of understanding of footy’s random beauty. The thing that makes 93,000 people go to a football ground to watch. The thing that makes my wife, once an avowed footy agnostic, leap to her feet with a raucous and tortured yell when Stanley hits the post. To witness uncertainty, lady luck, skill, poise, strength, and maybe ecstasy.  The bounce of the ball matters. No one can explain or master momentum. It’s just so beautiful. It almost defies analysis. Fingernails decide games. An ankle injury in round 13 can impact a bloke’s ability to hit that top speed he’s searching for with two minutes to go in a preliminary final. Does that mean he blew it?

 

With two minutes to go there were tussles in the centre of the ground, or thereabouts. The ball bobbles about, flicks here instead of there, misses the finger of a bloke in hoops and goes to a bloke in a Lions jumper. An impossible tackle not stuck, the ball doesn’t quite lift over the head of a defender. If it does it’s genius, but if it doesn’t, according to the peanut gallery, it means Geelong blew it. A young Lion with a shock of blond hair that belongs in Torquay or on the Gold Coast, leaps and pulls in a magnificent grab. Its athletic in the extreme. Crazy brave. Match winning stuff. But if he dropped it, he’s a mug. He would have “blown” it. That would be the analysis. It’s like saying if Dom Sheed’s shot from near the boundary in 2018 to win the Eagles the premiership had missed, he must have “blown” it. Such a shallow concept. Such shallow thinking. So much can go wrong. So much can go right.

 

Old Mitch Duncan’s eyes light up, ball in hand, fifteen metres out, one more step, steady, get ball to boot. Bang! Game saving tackle by the Lions. That Lions player had his moment. As Leigh Matthews said, tackles win premierships. Should Duncan have given it off? Maybe. But maybe he remembered the 2011 grand final, game in the balance, Pies coming hard at the Cats. Mitch is about 19 years old. A kid. He receives a handball at centre half forward, runs through fifty and nails it. Game changer. Who knows, maybe game winner? Maybe he sees that again. The chance. I’m going for it. He MUST go for it and to hell with post-match hindsight from the Dimwit in the newspaper and emotional supporters. Sport is cruel. Centimetres are a canyon.

 

Rayner has it, being cajoled, right foot, left foot, looking for the opening. He’s at centre half forward. The Lions are clinging on but running harder. He decides to go with the left from fifty. He really bombs this one. It’s sweet off the boot. But it doesn’t tell the story of the thousands of hours he’s put into perfecting these kicks. It cruises through. Doesn’t just limp over the line. Halfway up the goal post! From 50!! Rayner is a gun. He may have finally found the mojo that could get him a Brownlow one day. Did Geelong blow that? Or did class simply prevail?

 

I’m weary of all this. Respect the winner. Geelong didn’t blow it, the Lions won it. Respect the loser. They played a magnificently human game, riddled with errors, overflowing with endeavour, bursting with imperfection, splashed with moments of virtuosity. Should have, could have, didn’t.

 

Love the game. Wonder at its beauty. Admit that its mysterious, because it is! Say that it defied logic because it did!

 

Congratulations Lions, you were too good. Too fast. Too calm. And Lady Luck rode your bumps. Every winner needs to seduce the lady.

 

GEELONG                    1.5    8.7    10.8   12.13 (85)
BRISBANE                   3.2    5.6    10.10   14.11 (95)

 

GOALS
Geelong: O.Henry 4, Cameron 2, Miers 2, Mannagh, Dempsey, Dangerfield, Blicavs,
Brisbane: Ah Chee 3, Rayner 2, Cameron 2, Bailey 2, Morris 2, Hipwood, McCluggage, Lohmann

 

BEST
Geelong: Holmes, Dangerfield, Stewart, Miers, O.Henry
Brisbane: Lohmann, Neale, McCluggage, Starcevich, Zorko, Bailey

 

INJURIES
Geelong: Holmes (left hamstring), J.Henry (right ankle)
Brisbane: McInerney (left shoulder)

 

SUBSTITUTES
Geelong: Mitch Duncan (replaced Max Holmes in the last quarter)
Brisbane: Conor McKenna (replaced Oscar McInerney in the third quarter)

 

Crowd: 93,066 at the MCG

 

 

More from Dips O’Donnell can be read HERE.

 

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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