Old Cats are new again
The idea that this new Geelong premiership side is too old to stay in contention was an argument better made when they were younger.
Last year, when they were belted in the preliminary final by Melbourne to the tune of 83 points, they had almost as many grey beards as they do now. Last year was the moment that felt like the lemon had been squeezed on the team, and it was fool’s gold to keep chasing with more 30-year-olds than a kinder trivia night. We have been the ones to be made to look foolish.
Patrick Dangerfield celebrates a premiership with Cats’ skipper Joel Selwood.Credit:Eddie Jim
Actually, to continue this foolishness, on April Fool’s Day next year when Jeremy Cameron has his birthday, both he and Tom Stewart will have ticked over to 30, bringing the number of 30-year-olds in this premiership team to 12. They had 10 on Saturday.
Having more than half of your players on the slow, injury-prone side of 30 is not a normal nor ideal formula for a premiership team. Yet Geelong have long resisted the accepted formulas around list construction and make up.
This is assuming that Joel Selwood plays on. There is a clamour for him to retire – none the least of which coming from the club, which would prefer to ease into the generational change now and see their captain go out on a high. But the way Selwood played in the first term on Saturday when the game was to be won, it is not a footballing choice, for in the biggest game he still delivered.
Tom Hawkins.Credit:Eddie Jim
Tom Hawkins, who is only two months younger than Selwood, is this year’s All-Australian captain and was as influential as any player in that first term, with his two boundary throw-in goals. He is still playing at an elite level, and his feet never leave the ground for marking contests anyway, so a loss of leap is not a concern.
Isaac Smith is the next oldest. He won the Norm Smith Medal. Say no more.
Patty Dangerfield is next, and he has already adjusted to an altered role. It was a toss up between him and Isaac Smith for the Norm Smith. He had as many score assists (seven) as Hawkins had scores on Saturday. He has years left in him.
Then there is: Rhys Stanley, who has carried question marks on him all of his career, but his age is not one of them; Mark Blicavs, another All-Australian this year and among the best on Saturday; Gary Rohan, who played another poor grand final, but they wouldn’t have made the granny but for his qualifying final performance; Mitch Duncan, who was good on Saturday and is holding his own; and Cam Guthrie, who was excellent again on Saturday until he got injured.
Jeremy Cameron.Credit:Getty Images
Then there’s Tom Stewart and Cameron, who are on the cusp of 30 and are the Cats’ two best players now.
So, it is too simple to just count the number of 30-year-old heads and say they are too old and slow. Yes, they are abnormally old, but they are still contributing.
The danger of old players is the end can come quickly. One month you are flying, and the next everything seizes up and you slow down. Hands that were clean start to double-handle, but there is no evidence of that at Geelong yet.
Chris Scott spoke after the match of the list management and how they kept going with this team, and they were right to do so. He was not crowing for he agreed there was debate about the correct path to take with generation and regeneration of the playing squad.
Sam De Koning has become a key young Cat.Credit:Getty Images
Geelong have the young players who are pressing to start to take ownership of the team. Clearly Sam De Koning is one of those. He is a superstar in the making. Then there is Max Holmes, who is 20 but cruelly missed out on this grand final. Brandon Parfitt, who came on as the sub, would be playing regular football at most other clubs right now. At Geelong he was the 24th player after Mark O’Connor was chosen to replace Holmes and Parfitt was next in line after that.
Next year they will bring in Tanner Bruhn from GWS, assuming the trade can be completed. And Ollie Henry has yet to sign a contact at Collingwood, or say if he wants a trade to his brother’s club despite an assumption he might do so. Potentially, if he wants to go and a deal could be done, he is another talented young player who would be available and pressure one of the 30-year-olds in Rohan for a place in the team.
Sydney so sad
Where do you even begin? One side made the hard call on an injured player, and the other did not. There’s a start. Of course, one injured player was a wingman and there are a handful of alternatives, the other was a centre half-forward who was structurally so important.
Sam Reid was outstanding until he got injured the week before, so Sydney had a good look at what it was like with Reid in the side, and not in the side, in the preliminary final. Credit to John Longmire for not sugar-coating the decision he made. It was a mistake, he said.
Sam Reid lasted barely a half in the grand final before being subbed off with an injury.Credit:Getty
Scott’s use of Jeremy Cameron in pushing him high and deep up the field – much higher than he was in the previous games – had Robbie Fox caravaning him around the ground, but also left Paddy McCartin searching for an opponent. At length he found himself on Brad Close and that was an ugly looking match up.
Surely Sydney knew Hawkins would try to take the ball out of the ruck and goal. He’s done it for years. And if they didn’t remember before the first boundary throw-in goal, they had to know before the second. There had to be better plans around that than just letting Tom Hickey get pushed out of the way.
Isaac Heaney plainly also needed to have been moved on to the ball sooner. The touches to half-time – and only getting your first touch 20 minutes into the second quarter – screamed out that he needed to get himself into the game, or be put into it by moving up the field.
There were so many things wrong with Sydney and so many players down it is the sort of game that will bear little post-mortem by the Swans. Bin it.
An ASADA farce
As if Tyson Stengle hadn’t had to be patient enough he was then made to wait even longer. The player whose path to being on the ground at all on grand final day was as difficult as anyone’s, including Patrick McCartin, after being sacked by his second club, resurrected at a third and finally kicking four goals on grand final day, he was dragged away by ASADA drug testers for 20 minutes before the players had even sung the song.
The entire team stood around unwilling to start their celebrations in earnest until they’d sung their song, and unwilling to start their song without their teammate.
ASADA was in more ways than one taking the piss. Sure, drug test him, but that couldn’t wait two more minutes until they sang their song?
Let us entertain you
Robbie Williams was a good choice. From the nod to the Warne kids, to the cover of the Whispering One – he was good. Look, he was no Meatloaf, but he was very good. Delta channelled the late ONJ with her outfit and performance. It all worked.
Robbie Williams with Delta Goodrem during the pre-match show.Credit:Scott Barbour
As opposed to Friday which … didn’t. The floating folly was a bad idea poorly executed. It was ship-house.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese nailed it in his speech before the game when he said he would borrow the line from former prime ministers on the other said of the political aisle and said, “Gill, stop the boats”. Finally, a PM prepared to talk honestly about “on water matters” again.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
