A finals berth is a terrible thing to waste. There’s no excuse in tender age and inexperience or old age and injury. Not good enough is no excuse, it’s a reason. The losers weren’t big enough or strong enough, lacking class, poise and finesse. They didn’t have might, a bucket to a barrel, a mullet to a bull shark, a knife to a gun.
Weakness is exposed. The difference was vast.
Two clubs, St Kilda and Essendon, are out of the finals, the end of an era perhaps, and the end of the season too. On Saturday night Sydney beat the Saints by 25-points. It was a typically tight, unimaginative game between two defensive teams. The margin at half time, was 26-points in favour of Sydney and the match was over.
St Kilda fought back to go in at the last change eight points down but they were never going to kick five goals in the final term. The Saints didn’t have a running game, it was stilted. They couldn’t play attacking football with a game plan that doesn’t allow loose men to run into free space. Instead, those lose men congested the space.
Every goal they kicked, eight of them, were hard-earned. Everything they did looked difficult. Flair and excitement seem outlawed. It wasn’t just an off night for St Kilda, that’s how they normally play.
The Saints can’t turn it on. Post match, coach Ross Lyon announced the retirements of four players, Michael Gardiner, Andrew McQualter, Steven Baker and Robert Eddy. None of them played against the Swans.
‘It sort of feels like the end on an era, to be honest,’ Lyon said. It was a horrible admission to make. Lyon, as he has showed throughout his coaching tenure, is horribly honest. It turns out Baker and Eddy didn’t retire, Lyon just doesn’t want them anymore.
The announcement was brutal and timely, we move forward now, and those men aren’t part of the future. Lyon’s public utterance might be a good indication he intends to seek a contract extension rather than go to Melbourne.
Baker and Eddy used social media to correct Lyon’s version of their departure from AFL football, forcing the Saints to issue a statement clarifying the situation.
Lyon’s proclamation might’ve seemed harsh, Baker was a former captain and had played more than 200 games, but a loss in a final, the despair, often forces coaches to make hasty, tough decisions.
Back in 1979, after North Melbourne lost to Collingwood in the preliminary final, Ron Barassi berated his men, the chance at another grand final squandered. ‘You’ve lost,’ Barassi yelled. ‘And it was Stan’s last game.’
Stan Alves, a 33-year old veteran, had played eighteen games for the season. In the prelim, he’d gathered 13 disposals. When Barassi made the announcement, Stan’s last game, Alves looked around the room, what, then at the coach. Barassi glared at him then went back to anger.
Alves hadn’t decided to retire and remained silent as Barassi spoke to the group. The message couldn’t be missed. It was time to go. His coach knew he couldn’t play anymore. Alves became a former player in the change rooms at Waverley, because his coach wanted him to.
Such is football…
Finals can be disorganised and erratic, lost in match committee meetings, coaches at fault as much as the players. A good coach will recognise his mistakes. Ross Lyon did. He planned for certain players and let others, like Rhyce Shaw, run free.
A loss in a final is worse for an aging list, but Lyon didn’t use age as an excuse, preferring to describe his list as mature. ‘And if you’re a mature list,’ he said, ‘there’s a bigger gap now than there was.’
It was another horrible admission, the list is past it, delivered with blunt honesty, which makes Lyon’s press conferences so entertaining to watch following a game of football. At the weekend, though disappointed and angry during the press conference, Lyon still gave the impression he was moments away from delivering a punch-line, just about ready to smirk.
No one is smirking at Windy Hill.
On Sunday, Essendon went into the match with ten finals debutants and played exactly like that, a 62-point loss to arch-rival Carlton. Aside from a 13-point lead midway through the first term, the Bombers didn’t look like winning. The margin at quarter time was seven points. By half time Carlton had 22 scoring shots to 11 and the margin had blown out to 41 points.
No one really expected Essendon to win, yet 90,161 people crammed into the MCG. By three quarter time the Blues led by 62-points. People, Essendon fans, were starting to leave, with Carlton’s first final victory in ten years a formality. The match went nowhere in the last term, the Blues winning by 62-points. It could’ve been more, 44 scoring shots to 22.
Post match, the media discussed Essendon’s bright future under coach James Hird. In the interview following the game, Hird made similar observations, suggesting the season should be analysed to gauge improvement rather than the loss to Carlton.
‘I think we’ve made drastic improvements and we are only going to continue to get better,’ Hird said. ‘But you don’t come in and make drastic change straight away. We have got some very good young players through the midfield who will develop into a quality midfield.’
Such talk is fraught with danger. The Bombers are in the same place they were two years ago, when they finished eighth and got thumped by Adelaide in the second elimination final, a 96-point loss. Only the margin is different.
Essendon should be praised for making the finals, nine clubs didn’t, and the future could certainly be good but the development will take seasons, not six months.
On Friday night Geelong defeated Hawthorn by 31-points in a spiteful match. The result wasn’t unexpected, given injuries have cruelled the Hawks since their premiership in 2008. Too many good players got hurt during the season. With key defenders out, their defence was too short, too light and too inexperienced.
Josh Gibson and Ryan Shoenmakers conceded three goals each by being outmuscled and making poor decisions.
The Hawks, though, had their moments. They dominated the first term, eight scoring shots to two. Inaccuracy limited the lead to 11-points at quarter time. By the four minute mark of the second term Tom Hawkins had kicked a goal for the Cats. Josh Hunt kicked a goal from a 50 meter penalty and James Podsiadly marked and scored. Geelong had kicked three goals in four minutes.
In those four minutes, Hawthorn had gathered four possessions. Three defenders flew to spoil and tried knocking the ball in three different directions. As the term went on the short game fell to pieces. Geelong gave up space across half forward and the Hawks went sideways.
Jimmy Bartell dropped a mark twenty metres out and the ball fell at his feet. Surrounded by three defenders, Bartell picked up the ball and snapped a goal, amazing he had so much time in limited space.
The lead after ten minutes was thirteen points. At half time it was two goals the difference. At the 24-minute mark of the third term Geelong led by three points, 8:3:51 to 6:12:48. The next goal, given Hawthorn’s inaccuracy, was vital. The Cats kicked four of them in five minutes to lead at the last change by 27-points.
It looked bad for Hawthorn. They’d been gallant but it wasn’t good enough. On the field, when the football is there, decisions are made quickly. Think about the time it takes to blink. That’s how long it took the Hawks to make decisions, hesitation quicker than the eye can see, but long enough for the Cats to get in first and hit them hard.
Hawthorn blinked first and missed the moment. Geelong made the right decisions and executed, their endeavour and pressure, the ability to hit the target almost subtle, but it made the difference between winning and losing.
Steve Johnson and Podsiadly found the goals with kicks off the ground. Travis Varcoe offered a tap in the centre that led to a goal. Hawkins played well enough to keep Cameron Mooney out of the team.
During critical minutes Hawthorn turned the ball over when they had opportunities. Buddy Franklin hurt his knee in a marking contest when the game was over. Trouble will find footballers in finals, they don’t have to search for it.
The Hawks have done nothing, gone nowhere, and they won’t until they can beat Geelong. A season of promise has disintegrated amid the wreckage of injury. That’s how football goes, all chances often for a lost cause.
West Coast fought a lost cause and couldn’t win, their dream fading with the daylight over a windy, cool MCG. Their opponent, Collingwood, had made a thousand promises after midnight, snow on snow, and eked out a troubled win.
For all their money and sport scientists, Collingwood is faltering. High altitude training in Arizona can’t prepare clubs for injuries, suspensions and an arduous season. Arizona was supposed to create the fittest list science could produce.
Sometimes the stars seem closer than they should. At the wrong time of the year, the Magpies have settled and withdrawn. Where once they produced excellence, they’re now grinding, doing enough, drifting to a win.
They drifted on Saturday. The match was tight and defensive, ten goals to six at three quarter time for a 26-point lead to Collingwood. West Coast whittled the lead to seven points midway through the last before a late goal to Luke Ball killed the contest.
Collingwood might not have been lucky to win, but they’ll be feeling lucky.
Football clubs get what they deserve. St Kilda and Essendon deserve to be out, they weren’t good enough. The rest of the finalists, by virtue of wins and ladder position, deserve to go on.
At the weekend, Hawthorn plays Sydney and West Coast plays Carlton. Defeat awaits the unwary.
They won’t be big enough or strong enough. They’ll lack class, poise and finesse. The losers will be exposed, as not good enough.
