Australian Football

Match Report

It's always tempting to write off a team after a disappointing loss in the first week of finals. Such was the case for Geelong who, despite having lost its Qualifying Final to Collingwood by only ten points, looked quite impotent for much of the game. And in Friday night's Semi-Final, they were taking on reigning premiers West Coast, who had come off a big win over Essendon in their Elimination Final. 

But those who did write off the Cats did so at their own peril, and in the face of a solid body of historical evidence that suggests teams with a double chance stand a good chance of bouncing back after a first-week finals loss. Geelong did just that, ending the Eagles' bid to go back-to-back, and keeping alive their chances of winning their first flag in eight years. The Eagles did go into this match with a degree of upheaval, though. The day before the match it was revealed that small forward Willie Rioli had been provisionally suspended by ASADA on a charge of substituting a urine sample.

Geelong has had a recent history of slow starts in finals, providing evidence further evidence for those who doubted the Cats. On Friday night, Geelong made a fast start their focus, and it worked. Tom Hawkins, who had gone three matches without kicking a goal, got his team rolling with a mark and goal at the three-minute mark, and the Cats dominated proceedings for much of the next twenty minutes.

By the time Nic Naitanui registered West Coast's first score, a behind at the eighteen-minute mark, Geelong had kicked 3.2 and set up a comfortable lead. Although Jack Darling followed up Naitanui's behind with a goal, the Cats closed out the quarter with two more majors, courtesy of a brace of strong marks from Esava Ratigolea, and they took a 25-point lead into the first break.

Hawkins struck another early blow early in the second term with his second goal and, although Jack Petrucelle pulled one back for the Eagles almost immediately, Tim Kelly kicked his first for the Cats at the eight-minute mark and when Gryan Miers clipped the post two minutes later, Geelong was 32 points clear and cruising. Perhaps the Cats then allowed things to get a little too 'cruisy', because from that moment, the tide of general play turned back in West Coast's favour. The Eagles stemmed Geelong's scoring to the point where the Cats didn't hit the board again for the quarter. Meanwhile, majors to Liam Ryan, Darling and Chris Masten reduced the margin to just 10 points at the long break. The Eagles were coming, and the Cats were nervous.

The Cats would have been hoping that the long break would halt the Eagles' momentum, and when Ratugolea marked and kicked his third after just one minute, that appeared to be the case. But West Coast responded almost immediately through Darling, and when Andrew Gaff added two goals and ruckman Tom Hickey followed up with another, the Eagles had turned a sixteen-point deficit into a seven-point lead in the blink of an eye.

With the match slipping away, captain Joel Selwood stood up for the Cats with a mark and goal at the twelve-minute mark, but the Eagles responded through Josh Kennedy, whose goal from close range was the 600th of his AFL career. The remainder of the quarter was a slug-fest. Both sides had chances to land important blows but could manage only minor scores when their moments came. At the last change, it was the Eagles by four points.

With so much at stake, expectations of the match going down to the wire were high. For the fourth time in the match, Geelong opened with the first goal of the term. For the third time, that goal was kicked by Tom Hawkins. His third major restored Geelong's lead and when Jed Bews swooped on a loose ball and added another goal, the Cats led by eight points. At the 13-minute mark, Hawkins did it again. He followed a strong mark with his fourth and Geelong's lead was 14 points and the momentum with them.

The scene was set for the defending premiers to raise one last challenge, but it never came. Geelong set up a strong defensive structure, and the Eagles breached it only once, produvcing a minor score for Elliot Yep midway through the term. A minute later Luke Dahlhaus soccered through the Cats thirteenth goal, extending the margin to 19 points, and the was almost theirs. They held firm in for the next 15 minutes, the only score in that period a rushed behind that took the final margin to twenty, a final score of 13.10.88 to 10.8.68 putting Geelong into a Preliminary Final.

Skipper Selwood produced one of his archetypal warrior-like performances, his face seemingly bloodied more often than not throughout the match. He finished with 28 touches and 11 timely marks. Cam Guthrie was also a standout with 33 possessions, as was Hawkins with his four goals. But there was a sting in the tale for Hawkins. An ill-disciplined act in which his arm swung into Will Schofiled's head, briefly stunning the Eagle defender, resulted in a one-match suspension, which will see him miss the Cats' Preliminary Final against Richmond. Hawkins has a history of such acts, and coach Chris Scott is no doubt livid that his key forward will be missing next weekend.

It's difficult to know how much the Rioli news affected the Eagles, and whether it had any bearing on Friday night's result. Looking back on the season in its entirety, though, there were signs that West Coast weren't quite the force of 2018. Five of their seven home-and-away losses were by hefty margins of six goals or more. The last of those, an insipid performance at home against also-rans Hawthorn, cost them the double chance. Perhaps the motivation wasn't quite there this year. Winning back-to-back flags have proven a huge challenge. Only Brisbane and Hawthorn have managed to do so in the last twenty years.

While the Eagles lick their wounds, Geelong live to fight another day. The Cats will go in as underdogs against the Tigers, who have won ten games in a row now, but Geelong did finish atop the ladder. If they bring their best on Friday night, Richmond will need to do the same if they are to win.

GOALS
Geelong: Hawkins 4; Ratugolea 3; Kelly 2; Atkins, Selwood, Bews, Dahlhaus
West Coast: Darling 3; Gaff 2; Petruccelle, Ryan, Hickey, Masten, Kennedy

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Geelong: Selwood, Guthrie, Ratugolea, Hawkins, Tuohy, Menegola
West Coast: Gaff, Hurn, Darling, Naitanui, Yeo, Jetta

BEST - THE AGE
Geelong: Selwood, Hawkins, Ratugolea, Guthrie, Kelly, Stewart, Atkins, Taylor
West Coast: Gaff, Hurn, Redden, Nelson, Naitanui, Darling

INJURIES
Geelong: Nil
West Coast: Nil

UMPIRES: Stephens, Nicholls, Meredith

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Seven Network

COMMENTATORS: Bruce McAvaney, Brian Taylor, Wayne Carey, Cameron Ling, Daisy Pearce