It was a study in the magic and the madness of football and one of the most gripping September weekends in decades
Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey and Geelong’s Tyson Stengle go for the ball during Saturday’s elimination final at the MCG.Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey and Geelong’s Tyson Stengle go for the ball during Saturday’s elimination final at the MCG.t was one of the most compelling finals weekends in decades. It began, naturally, with a leaked video from 2015. “It was a poor look,” the league boss said. It was released, Caroline Wilson wrote, by “some twisted whistle blower.
It saw finals football back at the MCG for the first time in 1,070 days. It was a very different game to the previous night’s, and arguably an even better one. It saw a masterclass in defending from Steven May. It was Sydney’s 22nd finals appearance in 27 years. It highlighted the value of Tom Papley, and his unique blend of antagonism and opportunism. It rendered Lance Franklin goalless for just the sixth time in his career. It reinforced Sydney’s dominance over Melbourne.
It left Saturday’s games with a lot to live up to. It threw up one of those Melbourne spring days when you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It was 15 months since Collingwood and Geelong had played, to empty stands, one of the worst games in the history of football. It was, in every facet, the complete opposite of that. It was, in the first term, Groundhog Day for Geelong. It felt like a facsimile of their four previous qualifying final losses.
It was a last quarter with everything. It felt, when Jordan De Goey kicked his second, as though the stadium actually shifted. It was, according to my partner at home three postcodes away, the only time the MCG roar has penetrated our living room. It saw Taylor Adams tear his groin off the bone – which is excruciating to even type. It delivered redemption for Gary Rohan, one of the most maligned footballers of his generation. It had him launching at a pack like he was leaping off a pier.
It was an extraordinary round of finals football. It was a study in the magic and the madness of football, in what John Updike called “the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill”. It will be one hell of a tough act to follow.
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