Bold, brave Hawks upset shabby Cats

Rohan Connolly | September 28, 2008

IT WASN'T supposed to happen. Not yet, anyway. Not when Hawthorn was up against a team that had lost only two of its past 44 games of football. Not when the opponent was as strong and as experienced as Geelong. And especially not once it lost two critical players for effectively a half of football.

But Hawthorn has made a habit of thumbing its nose at convention these past couple of years. Young and precocious, bold, feisty, the Hawks have challenged football maxims and stared down intimidating odds. And never with more spectacular success than in yesterday's grand final.

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Video: Hawks swoop on premiership
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All week in the lead-up, the talk had been about to what lengths the Hawks would go to make sure they weren't put squarely back in their box by a Geelong team headed for seemingly inevitable destiny. There were concerns Alastair Clarkson's young team would overdo the physical stuff. But it didn't need to.

The Hawks were physical all right. But it was physicality properly directed. An intense pressure and presence that had as much impact on Geelong minds as bodies, the Cats forced repeatedly into hurried, ill-thought disposal, more fumbly than usual, and certainly, to their ultimately fatal cost, very, very inaccurate.

But braveness and boldness were the keys to Hawthorn's 10th premiership. The former was everywhere. Luke Hodge shrugging off those rib queries and some "special" treatment from the Cats early to play an outstanding Norm Smith Medal-winning game off half-back, 26 disposals worth of command and control.

There was Trent Croad, his already wonky foot packing it in, forcing him out of the game by the 11-minute mark of the second quarter. But not before, virtually on one leg on his way to the bench, he laid a fair old bump on Geelong's Joel Selwood.

Chance Bateman, who just moments later, came off with his arm dangling limply by his side, looking unlikely to return, but who did so with his usual impact.

And the latter? Well, that was there pretty much from the opening salvos, when Bateman speared through his side's first goal, a dashing effort on the run in response to Tom Lonergan's opener.

Two more quickly followed, one to Xavier Ellis, perhaps the most peripheral selection in the Hawk line-up, but who ended up one of Hawthorn's best handful of players yesterday with the best game of his short AFL career, a cool 28-disposal effort in midfield. Another to Jarryd Roughead to make it three goals to one, from which point this was never going to be anything but the titanic struggle we'd prayed for.

There can't have been too many better opening quarters of a grand final than yesterday's. Certainly few as high-scoring, the five goals each the most in any opening quarter of a premiership decider since, you guessed it, 1989. But there was a sense the longer it went that Geelong was beginning to flex its muscle, two superb goals to Cam Mooney giving the Cats the lead again.

And the knowing winks about how this game was going to pan out became more obvious by the minute. Croad went down, Bateman off. Geelong began to dominate the inside 50s and clearances. Cameron Ling was performing a masterful tagging job on Hawk skipper Sam Mitchell, the prolific possession-winner and master of stoppages held to only three handballs and not a single clearance at half-time.

Matthew Scarlett had the shutters up on Lance Franklin, Roughead couldn't get warm, while Cats Gary Ablett, Steve Johnson, Jimmy Bartel and Selwood racked up the touches.

But that typical Geelong silkiness wasn't there, and in perhaps the most costly half-hour of football the Cats have ever played, clearly not the accuracy, a teeth-gnashing 1.9 the return. Geelong went inside its 50 15 times in the second term for that one six-pointer. Hawthorn went in only eight times for 3.1. That doesn't win you games.

Paul Chapman missed, then a shocker from Brad Ottens, who should have given off a handball to Lonergan, then, still metres in the clear, somehow contrived to miss what was still a sitter from 25 metres.

Yet even that was outdone by Mooney's miss from 10 metres on the slightest of angles after the half-time siren. By the time he'd hit the post only one minute into the third term and Lonergan did likewise, Geelong had kicked 1.11 since quarter-time before Ablett mercifully restored some sanity to the scoreboard, and that feeling of inevitability had turned more to a question of "Had they blown it?"

Hawthorn could see the Cats thinking that, too. And the Hawks duly pounced. Franklin kicked his first. The masterful Hodge crept forward for another. That put Hawthorn six points up. Then came the pivotal, and highly symbolic moment that will live long in Hawk memories.

Cyril Rioli looked hopelessly out of position, stuck in a losing two-on-one duel against Corey Enright and Max Rooke after slipping over, both Cats on their feet. Somehow, Rioli got a touch in, got back to his feet and threw himself at Rooke, drawing a free kick for holding the ball. If Hawthorn hadn't already sensed this day and this flag was its for the taking, it did now.

Four goals in six minutes, or four knockout blows, were the result. Rioli kicked the first off some Franklin crumbs. Then Stuart Dew chipped in with the most important five minutes of his career, kicking two goals from brilliant snaps and creating a third for Mark Williams after the outnumbered pair simply refused to let the Cats clear the lines. Now, incredibly, it was five goals the difference.

Late Geelong goals to Darren Milburn and Johnson kept the suspense high. But there would be no dramatic final-quarter denouement. The resilient Hawk defence rushed a string of behinds. Ablett missed another opportunity for the Cats. And when Franklin nailed the first goal of the quarter from 50 metres, wheeling on to his left foot after a mark, Mitchell dobbed another on his wrong foot and Rick Ladson another after a frustrated Cat skipper Tom Harley gave away 50, it was officially over.

Geelong had lost its third game of 45, its first for 16 weeks, the most painful of grand final defeats. The Hawks had won a first flag for 17 years, a couple of years ahead of schedule. It wasn't supposed to happen yet. But Hawthorn made sure it did.

Slideshow: Shane Crawford's Grand Final

Slideshow: Luke Hodge's Norm Smith Medal

Video: Hawthorn wins 2008 AFL Flag

The key match-ups:

LUKE HODGE v MATHEW STOKES/MAX ROOKE
Hawthorn's spiritual leader ended up the Norm Smith medallist after a superb general-like game off half-back, sticking at it as first Stokes tried to work him over with run around the forward line, then Rooke applied a more physical presence. The two Cats split their time evenly on the Hawk champion, but couldn't quell his stoicism nor creative influence. A brilliant running goal in the third term was a highlight, and his 12-possession final term exactly the steadying influence needed.

CYRIL RIOLI v COREY ENRIGHT
The brilliant youngster lined up on the steady Cat midfield defender stayed there pretty much all game. The final numbers read Enright 25 disposals, Rioli only 10, seemingly a clear win to the Geelong man. But Rioli's influence was enormous, with two goals, every single touch causing damage to the opposition, and his amazing heroics when he lost his footing but somehow won a one-to-two contest against Enright and Max Rooke. Pinning Rooke for holding the ball was the turning point of the match.

CAMERON LING v SAM MITCHELL
Geelong might have lost, but it was no fault of Ling's, the master tagger superb on key midfielder Sam Mitchell, who he kept to just a paltry three handballs by half-time. While Mitchell was much better in the second half, he still finished with only a far-below-par 13 disposals, and only one stoppage win. Ling with 20 touches and three clearances was among the Cats' best couple.

SCARLETT v FRANKLIN
The best full-back in the business only enhanced his reputation yesterday, holding the potentially most explosive individual in the game to a dozen touches, four marks and two goals. The Hawks weren't overly Buddy conscious, and the Cats dropped numbers back to help, but what leads Franklin made were inevitably sweated upon by the brilliant key defender, who roped him in in a superb third-quarter tackle. But Buddy had the last laugh, with the critical first goal of the final term that all but killed the Cats.

FAST FOOTY

HAWTHORN 5.2 8.3 14.5 18.7 (115)
GEELONG 5.3 6.12 9.18 11.23 (89)
GOALS: Hawthorn: Williams 3, Dew 2, Franklin 2, Roughead 2, Rioli 2, Hodge, Ellis, Bateman, Young, Brown, Ladson, Mitchell. Geelong: Mooney 2, Rooke 2, Ablett 2, Lonergan 2, Johnson, Milburn, Chapman.
BEST: Hawthorn: Hodge, Sewell, Ellis, Osborne, Dew, Crawford. Geelong: Ablett, Ling, Scarlett, Johnson, Selwood, Corey.
INJURIES: Hawthorn: Croad (foot). Geelong: Harley (concussion), Young (ankle).