Opening Round – Gold Coast v Geelong: Concrete Slabs

 

 

This long weekend in Victoria has been one of corners and bends. Being driven around the bend whilst watching Geelong last Friday night and traversing an important corner on the Benalla-Yarrawonga Road.

 

More on Geelong later. Or maybe the less said the better. Ill-prepared, sluggish, and I even heard the word “timid” used. It’s hard to argue against. Gold Coast were gold plated.

 

There is a bend in the bitumen, about three quarters of the way along the Benalla-Yarrawonga Road, heading into Yarrawonga from the Hume Highway, that I know very well. This bend has nothing particularly marvellous in its design, it arcs gently to the right and, curving like a rainbow might across an afternoon sky, causes no grief to the tyres, they shed no rubber, and it only requires a gentle shift of the steering wheel to navigate its length. But I greet it every time we make this journey. And we make the journey at least three times a year.

 

When I was a kid, this very same section of road changed in character at this inauspicious corner. From a rough bitumen surface that threw a harsh gravel-rough sound up into the cabin of our white HD Kingswood station wagon, the road surface suddenly changed to a collection of large, square concrete slabs and the noise in the cabin altered to a “click-click, click-click” rhythm as the tyres skipped over the slight gap between each of these giant slabs. I celebrated when this music reached my ears.

 

Generally speaking, I was in the back-back of the station wagon, peering out through the large side windows, letting the heat torture me so I forgot the tedium, because, by the time we reached the concrete slab road, we’d been travelling for north of four and a quarter hours, and this piece of road informed me that we were only about fifteen minutes out from our destination. The tiny, country town of Yarrawonga.

 

The “click-click, click-click” was a sign that boredom was about to be banished.

 

Back in the 1970s the trip up the Hume Highway required negotiating several towns (by-passes hadn’t been invented yet), caravans motoring along at forty miles an hour (flat chat), trucks that either sat in your back seat or spluttered up every rise in the road, depending on how many no-doz the driver had consumed, and some heart stopping overtaking as Dad got the Kingswood wound up, moved into the outside lane, and commentated through the whole thing.

“This bastard wants to race me!”.

Then he’d tuck the Kingswood back into the left lane and our entertainment for the next twenty minutes was over.

 

I can still remember the way the trip went. Across through Greensborough, down Settlement Road in Bundoora, Mahoney’s Road in the Badlands, right-hand turn onto the Hume at Campbellfield, through Somerton, Kalkallo, Beveridge, Seymour, Euroa, Benalla, left turn onto the Benalla-Yarrawonga Road. Three and a bit hours to that point, then there was only an hour to go. The horror.

 

Last Thursday night when we motored through the concrete corner, as I used to call it, I wondered how many times I’ve negotiated its lovely bend, both as passenger and driver. The total would be well over a hundred. I should raise my bat. These days the trip is a relatively breezy three hours.

 

The concrete slabs were removed years ago, and the “click-click, click-click” of the tyres ceased but I know the corner and it knows me and we give each other a little nod as I pass through.

 

Geelong? Drove me right around the twist. I watched it with an increasing feeling of unease. Not just for the game, shockers happen, but for the season. They played like a deflating balloon, energy and nous gradually seeping away. And Gold Coast played this new kid called Petracca. Not sure where he comes from. He taught the Cats a new one. Brute strength but sublime skill too. And he wasn’t alone. Bailey Humphrey obviously isn’t related to the bear. He moves with beautiful intent. Long, Miller and Anderson weren’t bad either.

 

As the margin crept out to eighty points (seventy-nine but who’s counting), the Cats were a beaten combination; possibly beaten for the next month. Kane Cornes reckons they could finish bottom four. Big call Kane. We’ll see. But there was definitely a disturbing timidity in their play. A weariness. If my theory is right that Chris Scott will coach Tasmania and Buckley will be offered Geelong, then old mate Nathan has some thinking to do. Maybe a cushy media gig is a better option. The Cats might be a heavy weight.

 

One bright spark for Geelong was Tanner Bruhn, Great to see him back.

 

I won’t be heading up to Yarrawonga again until November, most likely, so by then the 2026 season will be run and done. Based upon round zero (what an absolute absurdity) the coming months will be drudgery. Tired legs, tired minds, confused mentality. Unless they can find a way to breathe new life into an old, and proud, story. Unless they can change the road ahead from rough bitumen to smooth concrete slabs. Here’s hoping.

 

As my old mate says – on we go.

 

GOLD COAST             7.1       11.5     18.8     19.11 (125)
GEELONG                   2.2       4.5       5.7      10.9 (69)

GOALS
Gold Coast: Humphrey 4, King 4, Petracca 3, Long 2, Noble 2, Lombard 2, Miller, Anderson
Geelong: Dempsey 4, Henry 2, Neale, Mannagh, Knevitt, Clark

BEST
Gold Coast: Petracca, Noble, Miller, Humphrey, Rioli, Anderson
Geelong: Bruhn, Dempsey, O’Sullivan, Worpel

INJURIES
Gold Coast: Nil
Geelong: Nil

Crowd: 19,859 at People First Stadium

 

Read more from Dips O’Donnell HERE

 

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