The semi-finals were almost the mirror image of the other. They were low scoring. The favourites were down early and came back to win. Both games were tight, ferocious contests. It was compelling football, defence suffocating attack. It was end to end football. It was on your feet, arms in the air stuff.
Four clubs served up tough, hard football in the semi-finals. When that great limiter, the final siren rang out, the victors were exhausted, expending everything to make it through to the preliminary finals.
It was gut running, desperation and mistakes. The goal umpire got it wrong and the decision was correctly overturned. Will Schofield ran into an open goal and missed. Andrew Embley stubbed his toe and kicked a dribbler that led to a crucial Collingwood goal.
The semi-finals were glorious. Taylor Walker kicked five goals for Adelaide. Dale Thomas kicked three consecutive Collingwood goals. Fremantle and West Coast led comfortably and blew it.
Adelaide trailed by 29-points midway through the second quarter. Collingwood conceded the first four goals. Fremantle kicked four second half goals and gave up eight. West Coast kicked three goals to Collingwood’s six in the second half.
Collingwood led by ten points at three quarter time. Adelaide led by five. Fremantle and West Coast wrested back the lead with consecutive goals in the last quarter but the comeback couldn’t last. Adelaide won by ten points, 12:9:81 to 11:5:71. Collingwood won by thirteen points, 10:13:73 to 9:6:60.
Almost mirror images…
The semi-finals were what we craved. Pressure rendered possession difficult. The ball was hard to get and harder to deliver, each side repeatedly finding the opposition or passing to a teammate under pressure. Contested marks were scant, there was too much attack at the contest.
Dane Swan hooked a goal to put Collingwood ten points up at the ten minute mark of the last quarter. It was the last goal of the match. The rest of the game, twenty frantic minutes, was back and forth.
No one could take a mark inside 50…
The semi-finals were defensive, 23 goals at Football Park and 19 at the MCG. The semi-finals were no better proof that the only way to beat the all-ground press is to take marks inside 50.
Taking a mark inside 50 is precious. It is one of the great moments in the game. Forwards are limited to thirty seconds when they’re shooting for goal. Those thirty seconds are intense. The game stops as the footballer walks backwards. He’s taking deep breaths, staring fixedly at the goals.
The umpire lines him up and blows time off. The clock starts, thirty seconds to line up and kick straight.
As the man walks in, the ground descends into hush, the silence deafening. Power forwards walk in slowly and build gently at the end. Small forwards hustle in to muster all the power they can. When the man kicks the football, it’s a dull, clumping sound that can be heard around the ground.
The sound of the crowd increases as they ride the kick. If the kick is accurate, the crowd roars. It’s one of the best sounds in football. It’s a release, either pleasure or pain.
Converting from a mark inside fifty is one of the toughest kicks in football, and that’s not to denigrate snaps. Goals on the run are good too, goals manufactured from nothing are better but when a power forward hauls down a great mark he has stopped the game. All eyes are on him when he restarts the game, and each kick is riddled with pressure.
Taylor Walker dealt with the pressure. Adelaide dealt with the pressure, as did Collingwood. It was fitting that the top four sides had progressed to the preliminary finals.
Birds of a feather
The preliminary finals featured clubs that represent birds. It is a quirk of 2012 that the Crows played the Hawks and the Swans took on the Magpies. Birds of a feather flocked together, and the preliminary finals almost matched the semi-finals.
Hawthorn was short favourites at $1.16. They were going to beat Adelaide, no question. There was too much height up forward with Lance Franklin, Jarrad Roughhead and David Hale. Those men can take marks inside fifty. Around the ground, the Hawks play precise, direct football and move the ball swiftly.
They’re hard to defend against and score against.
Adelaide was supposed to be teenagers playing against men. The margin was expected to be big. Instead, Taylor Walker took seven marks and kicked four pressure goals. Eight other Adelaide players took seven or more marks, so Walker’s haul wasn’t excessive. The difference was where Walker took those marks. He kicked four goals from eight kicks. Five of his marks were inside fifty.
Somehow Kirk Tippet played his best game in two years. He took eleven marks and kicked four goals to finally impose himself on a game of football. He delivered a great performance under pressure and his stock has risen, as has the desperation for his signature.
At the other end, Franklin only took four marks and kicked inaccurately, three goals five. Had he kicked straighter, the margin wouldn’t have been five points and Hawthorn wouldn’t have been reduced to a mad scramble of a football team.
Hale and Roughead were down, 11 and 15 possessions respectively. Roughead was a liability in attack – he couldn’t take a mark and along with Hale didn’t make an impact up forward or in the ruck. Combined they managed 28 hit outs. Adelaide’s Sam Jacobs had 38 hit outs.
Adelaide almost intruded on the contest. They had more possessions but that was because they defended more. The Hawks went inside fifty 64 times to Adelaide’s 38, a staggering difference. Hawthorn had 10 more scoring shots but panic and indecision hurt them on the scoreboard.
Inaccuracy almost cost Hawthorn the game. They didn’t take advantage of their chances whereas Adelaide did. Around the ground, the Hawks didn’t dominate as was expected. The Crows had more possessions. They held the ball up when necessary. There were times in the second half they seriously slowed the game down, even when they were well behind.
Coach Brenton Sanderson put two men back when Hawthorn almost broke the game open in the third quarter. The lead was 22-points. Two men back seemed a concession, you’re too good, but the tactic worked. Trailing by 16-points at three quarter time, the Crows maintained focus and control and regained the lead with five minutes left in the last quarter.
Simply, Hawthorn was lucky. What should’ve been simple was made difficult.
At Homebush, Sydney should’ve won by more too. The margin could’ve been eight or nine goals but the Swans kept missing set shots. Unfortunately, save for a ten minute burst either side of three quarter time, Collingwood barely gave a yelp.
The Magpies were expected to be competitive despite the ramifications of John McCarthy’s death and funeral. It was tough times, but Collingwood had racked up eleven straight wins over the Swans.
The margin, though, blew out to 42-points late in the third quarter before Collingwood clawed it back to 20-points in the final term. It hardly mattered. Sydney had dominated.
There always seems to be something that affects Collingwood’s chances in the finals. Last year it was the Mick Malthouse contract saga. This year McCarthy’s funeral was held the day before the preliminary final and Travis Cloke remains unsigned for next year. They’re not excuses but they’re a distraction.
A lot of luck is needed for a successful finals campaign. Sydney had it. Collingwood couldn’t find it.
The preliminary finals, from a certain point of view, mirrored each other. The favourites won. Hawthorn had 32 shots on goal. Sydney had 31. For the vanquished, Collingwood had 20 shots at goal and Adelaide had 22. Hawthorn’s score of 13:19:91 was almost identical to Sydney’s 13:18:96.
The past two weeks of finals football has been magnificent. That old cliché, September is the time to be playing football, not watching it, is true. Hawthorn and Sydney play off for the 2012 premiership on Saturday.
For all the toil, sweat, elation and disappointment across a season, making a grand final is a neat reward. The toughest game remains to be played. From here on, football gets harder.
