In todays ageHawthorn versus Geelong UNTOLD
Peter Hanlon | May 12, 2008
FIRST QUARTER
Football prayers are answered as Matthew Scarlett goes to Lance Franklin, but all eyes are soon on the other end of the ground where a brawl erupts as the players move into position. Initial suspicions that the Hawks have smuggled retired former captain Richie Vandenberg into the line-up prove unfounded, but the line in the sand is well and truly crossed nonetheless, with enough punches thrown to wear out the match review panel's DVD player. Campbell Brown and Cameron Mooney are in the thick of the action, while only Scarlett and Franklin stay out of the fracas, conserving their energy with a game of rock, paper, scissors in the goal square.
When the ball is finally bounced, Joel Selwood charges in off the wing with eyes only for the footy, which falls to Sam Mitchell after neither Simon Taylor nor Mark Blake can effect a knockout. Mitchell, who has Cameron Ling for company, sees a blue and white blur approaching and sidesteps at the last millisecond.
After briefly becoming lost in Ling's hair, Selwood emerges from the other side of the pack and keeps going, stopping only when he hits the fence on the outer wing. He bounces up and returns to the fray.
The Hawks — who have won the least contested possession in the competition this season but used the ball more efficiently than any team — get off to a flyer. Luke Hodge spears a pass to Franklin, who outdoes Scarlett on the lead and goals from 55 for the game's opener. Hodge finds Franklin again, then again, and then again for good measure, and the Hawks are four goals to the good.
The Cats hit back through Steve Johnson, who wins a free kick from a still-frothing Brown, and from 30 metres out directly in front kicks probably the least freakish goal of his career. Paul Chapman breaks from discussing hair transfusion with Brent Guerra for long enough to add their second, Ryan Gamble takes a good mark for a bloke of his size and converts, and the premiers are back in it.
But not for long. With Hodge dominant in the middle, Mitchell racking up handballs and Brad Sewell and Jordan Lewis lending support, the Hawks pound the Cats' much vaunted on-ball pack. Jarryd Roughead outmarks Harry Taylor for his first, then Franklin adds four more, one over his head from the boundary, another through Scarlett's legs while laughing, and one with a drop-kick from outside 50, because he can.
At quarter-time, Buddy has eight.
SECOND QUARTER
Gary Ablett, watching proceedings from the coaches' box after withdrawing with a calf injury, implores Mark Thompson to stick with Scarlett on Franklin, and is rewarded. Sort of. Franklin takes mark after mark on the lead as the silver service from up the ground continues, but his radar goes awry and suddenly he couldn't hit Farmer Richo's barn door. Scarlett, keen to eliminate any breaks in play — and increase his opponent's blood pressure — takes to waiting in the goal square with a spare ball, in preparation for the kick-out, as Franklin takes each fraught shot at goal.
Meanwhile, the Cats break down Hawthorn's "Clarko cluster" courtesy of several searing runs out of defence by David Wojcinski, one of which is later thought to have set a new world 100 metre record and results in what is widely tipped to be the goal of the year.
Geelong radio station K-Rock appears set for a record of its own — an entire quarter without mentioning a single Hawthorn player — until Cyril Rioli answers Wojcinski's effort with what is universally regarded as the best goal ever, spiriting the ball from the half-back flank to the forward pocket with one hand, without ever actually taking possession, before scoring from just inside the boundary line with a back-heel that bounces under Ben McGlynn, over Stephen Gilham and around Trent Croad.
It only briefly distracts the Cats, who turn things around in the middle with Joel Corey, Jimmy Bartel and Mathew Stokes in everything. Tom Hawkins goals after hitting a pack hard enough to break rock, Mooney breaks momentarily from fighting with Brown to mark and goal, and Darren Milburn and Andrew Mackie make damaging forward forays.
When Johnson nails a left-foot banana deep in time-on, the margin is less than a kick.
THIRD QUARTER
Hodge pings his hamstring in the opening minute and the game goes out in sympathy, instantly becoming a dour struggle where the ball ping-pongs from half-back to half-forward as if trapped in a forcefield. Ling gets the better of Mitchell and has 15 kicks for the term, but all of them go straight to the various members of Hawthorn's unsung and anonymous defence that we hear so much about they can hardly be unsung or anonymous.
At the other end Tom Harley, who ranks No. 1 in marks from opposition kicks in 2008, is seemingly on the end of every second Hawthorn attack, with the balance cut off by Scarlett, who at last has the measure of a by now distressed Franklin, whom he outmarks at will before haring off through traffic.
With the scoreboard seemingly frozen, Mooney and Brown engage in a bizarre bout of one-upmanship; Mooney allegedly hits Grant Birchall, Brown counters by allegedly striking Chapman. Mooney allegedly lamps Shane Crawford, Brown responds by allegedly thumping James Kelly. And so on.
The game becomes a series of rolling mauls with almost every player crowded around the stoppages. In commentary boxes, the word "rugby" is used 79 times for the quarter, believed to be another record.
The prospect of minimal time-on ends with a pitch invasion by a man who is at first thought to be Melbourne defender Nathan Carroll, but on closer inspection is identified as serial pest Peter Hoare, who attempts to steal the ball. Mooney and Brown catch him and allegedly beat the $#@! out of him.
The intrusion seems to have flicked a switch in the contest, which careers to the final break with five goals in the last four minutes, Hawthorn's three to a rejuvenated Franklin, who now has 11, and Geelong's brace to Mooney, who by now is facing 11 charges.
FOURTH QUARTER
Two quick and classy goals to Stokes give the Cats their first taste of the lead, but Hawthorn responds with a goal to Brown, who has drifted forward looking for new people to allegedly punch. With players going one-on-one around the ground, a shootout ensues and the lead changes 23 times for the quarter, which apoplectic statisticians claim as a record. Selwood, virtually unsighted since his opening-minute clash with the fence, has 27 touches for the term, the last of which causes a stats man to pass out and miss the game's climax.
And what a climax it is.
Franklin, who has kicked six more for the term to have 17 for the game and Fred Fanning's 18 within reach, adds a new dimension to his game — the hanger — after Crawford bombs it to the hot spot as the clock ticks over to 39 minutes. As he picks himself up, the siren sounds.
The Hawks are two points down, their man just 30 metres out and shooting for the goal that would give his team victory and him a share of Fanning's record.
With Scarlett doing a handstand on the mark and every one of his teammates arranged behind him in an expanded nine-pin formation, Franklin calmly moves in and drills the ball into the top of the post.
So ends the greatest game ever.
WARNING: To all football fans living in anticipation of Friday, July 25, Hawthorn v Geelong at the MCG — sport has a habit of disappointing, especially when you talk it up.
GEELONG 3.4 11.5 13.9 26.11 (167)
HAWTHORN 9.1 10.13 13.17 24.22 (166):
GOALS Geelong Mooney 6, Hawkins 5, Johnson 5, Chapman 3, Stokes 2, Bartel, Gamble, Wojcinski, Mackie, Milburn. Hawthorn: Franklin 17, Roughead 3, Hodge 2, Rioli, Brown.
GOALS Geelong
BEST Geelong: Bartel, Corey, Mooney, Hawkins, Harley, Johnson, Selwood. Hawthorn: Franklin, Mitchell, Franklin, Brown, Franklin, Taylor, Franklin.
REPORTS Mooney (Geelong) for allegedly striking Hawthorn (everyone). Brown (Hawthorn) for allegedly striking Geelong (same).
INJURIES Hawthorn: Hodge (hamstring), Brown (hand). Geelong: Mooney (hand).
UMPIRES Goldspink, Deller, Robinson.
CROWD 100,001 at the MCG.
THE UPSHOT Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has called for an AFL investigation, claiming 1.2 seconds were lost when the clock kept ticking after serial pest Peter Hoare ran on to the ground and grabbed the ball late in the third quarter. "This sort of thing has been happening too often lately, and in this day and age it's just not good enough," Clarkson said. "We're in a fully professional, big-money, national competition with plenty at stake. To have timekeepers with jittery stop-watch fingers in charge of the clock is a joke." Asked whether the missing 1.2 seconds could have stopped Franklin kicking 18 behinds to go with his 17 goals, Clarkson was adamant. "Absolutely."
TALKING POINT Having beaten Hawthorn — a young, developing team with designs on its first premiership in 17 years — by a single point, a salivating football world is now asking: is Geelong the greatest team of all-time? Cats coach Mark Thompson wasn't buying into the debate: "There's a lot to work on out of today. Scarlett tilted a bit beyond vertical with his handstand at the end, Mooney's technique throwing his left wasn't as tight as it could have been. There's a long way to go."
