The AFL’s regional powerhouse Geelong has franked a decade of regular season dominance, crowning the careers of their coach and veteran greats by winning the 2022 premiership against a dismal Sydney.
It was a grand final notable for Geelong’s game-killing burst in the first quarter and the underwhelming showing of the Swans. The more seasoned and composed Cats were propelled by super-veterans Patrick Dangerfield, Tom Hawkins, their iron skipper Joel Selwood at the opening and, from start to end, imported ex-Hawk Isaac Smith, who claimed the Norm Smith Medal for best afield.
The victorious Cats lift the premiership cup.Credit:Scott Barbour
The Cats booted 6.5 to 1.0 in a first quarter that, if not a complete knockout, had Sydney so wobbly that a come-from-behind victory was never realistic; if the Swans had the barest pulse at half-time, they were snuffed out in first 12 minutes of the third quarter, as the relentless Cats piled on four goals to turn the match into an utter romp.
Recruit Tyson Stengle – a SANFL player last year and a symbol of this club’s capacity to nurture talent – booted a pair of memorable goals, his third and fourth, to trigger celebrations in the stands. A box-ticking final term ensued, in which sub Brandan Parfit kicked a goal, wunderkind full-back Sam De Koning booted the first of his career and, finally, Selwood had the fitting moment in what might be his last game, with Geelong’s 20th goal, as the blowout ballooned to 81 points.
“It’s coming home, back where it belongs,” said Selwood on the MCG podium, as he accepted the premiership cup, Geelong’s 10th in the VFL/AFL and fourth since 2007. Selwood, as is his wont, left no one behind in his speech – from sponsors to the Swans, former coaches at Geelong and the fans who had flocked back. Selwood had even taken the field holding ex-champ and teammate Gary Ablett’s son, Levi.
This grand final represented a restoration – of Geelong’s position as the pre-eminent team and club and of the grand final at the MCG after two COVID-impaired seasons and forced relocations of the finals. It also was the Cats’ 16th consecutive victory, matching the run of the Brisbane Lions team of 2001, in which Geelong coach Chris Scott played.
For Geelong and Scott, this result was a day of vindication, Scott having been subjected to constant and baffling criticism since 2015 for Geelong’s finals failures, the ire often coming from his own tribe despite the highest winning ratio in history and eight top-four finishes – extraordinary in an equalised competition. He has won flags 11 years apart.
Geelong’s willingness to retain and recruit older players – such as Norm Smith medallist Smith – also stands vindicated, considering this was the oldest premiership team yet, and the contributions of those aged over 30; the Cats had refused to take their lumps and go backwards, as the system demands.
Crucially, in what will be noted most by envious rivals, Geelong have managed to persuade key players to accept fewer dollars, with Dangerfield, Hawkins and Selwood all understood to be playing for well below market rates in their dotage. Ditto for gun defender Tom Stewart and even ex-Giant superstar Jeremy Cameron.
In taking the Norm Smith Medal with his second team, Smith, 33, became a four-time premiership player. He relished the spaces of the ’G to garner 32 disposals, 11 forward entries, 14 score involvements and four goals, two of them in the first quarter when the match was alive; his game – and the result – will prompt mixed feelings in Hawthorn hearts.
Tom Hawkins and Joel Selwood take a victory lap.Credit:Scott Barbour
Skipper Selwood joined Smith in the four-flag club, the first Geelong player to do so, in his record 40th final (beating Hawk Michael Tuck) and was among the catalysts for the opening blitz with a dozen disposals.
If Selwood chooses to retire, as many think likely, he will bow out as he began his career in 2007 – as a premiership player and warrior nonpareil.
Whereas the Melbourne flag of last year prompted dynasty predictions – by the Demons, largely – and prior premiers often carry that expectation, the large body of 30-plus players in Geelong’s team and the age of champions meant that this premiership was more the culmination of a super era than the beginning of one.
That said, Geelong have changed the paradigm of what is possible and who will say they’re too old and slow next when their best pair were fleet-footed 33 (Smith) and 32 year-olds (Dangerfield).
Geelong people aside, many will remember the occasion more for the pre-game performance of Robbie Williams – his singalong version of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice and duet with Delta Goodrem – than for the one-sided match, which did not meet the standard of an exhilarating season. The AFL nailed the entertainment, having botched Friday’s river parade, which punctuated a troublesome few days for the AFL. The lead-in to the grand final was shadowed by the major ramifications of the awful Hawthorn racism scandal since Wednesday.
A less consequential cloud had hung over Sydney key forward Sam Reid, who was played despite an adductor injury that forced him out of the preliminary final. Sydney’s punt reached an embarrassing end when a limping Reid was subbed out just after half-time and replaced by Braeden Campbell.
Reid’s outstanding 203-centimetre, 20-year-old opponent De Koning was among the most influential afield while they were matched, and those with an historical bent would recall that his Collingwood brother Ben was injured in 2011 when opposed to a match-turning Hawkins in Geelong’s last flag. Geelong, conversely, had left out hamstring victim Max Holmes, who was replaced by Mark O’Connor.
“We made a mistake,” Sydney coach John Longmire admitted after the game.
If Smith was an easy choice for the Norm Smith, he had competition from Dangerfield, who claimed his first flag in his 15th season. Like Selwood and Hawkins, he was especially potent early, and went on to gather 19 disputed balls – more than Sydney’s Isaac Heeney, Tom Hickey, Jake Lloyd and Ollie Florent combined. Hawkins had set the boulder rolling when he booted the match’s opening two goals via his patented move of plucking the ball from a throw-in.
For the Swans, this was their third consecutive grand final defeat since the upset of Hawthorn in 2012’s epic, and meant that they have been unable to win a premiership over the nine years of Lance Franklin’s $10 million-plus contract.
“Buddy,” who will play on, was utterly suffocated by Jack Henry, having just five touches and no goals. In fairness, Franklin also had scarce opportunity, as Geelong won the territorial battle so decisively, doubling Sydney’s meagre 32 entries.
Heeney did not touch the footy in the first term, James Rowbottom did little and while the flint-hard Luke Parker gave effort and fellow midfielder Chad Warner ended with semi-respectable numbers, they were mute in terms of impact. Only defender Robbie Fox, opposed to Cameron, can be said to have delivered on the grandest stage.
Sydney failed, but the Swans remain a super club. In 2022, though, Geelong’s longevity – of players, contention and finally flags – makes them the greatest club of all.
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