The Cats delivered the best 15 minutes of AFL football any team has played so far this year to blow away the Hawks
O n the Richter scale of embarrassing losses, Chris Scott was staring down his own Krakatoa at half-time on Monday. The 2014 thrashing at the hands of a crack Sydney side was bad. The Miracle on Grass was infuriating. And last week was an abomination. But this loomed as next level. This was Hawthorn. This was a bunch of kids. This was their most bitter rival, supposedly at its lowest ebb.
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The bookmakers, fresh from their mauling from Peta Murphy at the Senate inquiry, had earlier installed the Cats as $1.20 favourites. Anyone who had watched Geelong closely in the last fortnight would have balked at those odds. The Hawks, after all, were one of the few teams to work Geelong’s locks last year. And in a season where they’d copped every dud time slot imaginable, this was one of their few marquee fixtures. For Hawthorn people, the prospect of leaving their bitter rival 0-4 and stone motherless last was as tantalising as winning a final.
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Just as they did in last year’s Easter Monday game, the Hawks jumped the gates. The Cats were ghastly early. They were second to the ball, disorganised, undisciplined and leaden legged. God knows where they would have been without Jeremy Cameron. A few weeks ago, he detailed his off-season, which appeared to consist of drinking two-handed and subsisting on service station sausage rolls. For any other footballer, such a preparation would have led to premature retirement. Cameron, somehow, is in career-best form. When the Hawks threatened to blow the game away in the first term, he was one of the few Cats to stand up.
But few saw that third quarter coming. On radio, Joel Selwood was flogging hair replacement products. On TV, Cameron was spruiking for Cash Converters. On Twitter, the faithful were lamenting the end of an era. We can only guess at what Scott was saying. He’s not the hot gospelling type. He’s not the sort of coach to regularly put a rocket up his players. He assumes a baseline level of effort and focuses instead on method and system.
But then the rain cleared, the Little Leaguers toddled off and the game and Geelong’s season completely flipped. It happened so quickly that it’s best explained by the stats: 57 more disposals, 23 more contested possessions, 21 more inside-50s and 10 more clearances. The onballers, who had barely got warm all year, were in murderous touch. Patrick Dangerfield, who’d looked sluggish all season to that point, was suddenly seizing on dead balls, cannoning away and mowing down Hawthorn’s prime movers.
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At three-quarter-time, the host broadcaster threw to an ad break with The Who’s Who Are You? Who, indeed, was this Geelong side? Last week, they managed seven goals on the Gold Coast. This week, they slammed that on in 15 minutes. It was the best quarter of any team this year.
On the Hawthorn bench, Sam Mitchell was entitled to be a little shellshocked. Such are the travails of the rebuild coach. When you’re starting again from scratch, you need patience. You need nerve. You need a club that’s totally aligned, that’s unequivocally got your back, that won’t jump at shadows, that won’t implode. You need a supporter base that’s on board with what you’re doing, that can see the future, that’s prepared to come along for the ride, that won’t boo you and call for your head on radio.
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It helps, in Mitchell’s case, that they saw him play for more than a decade. They know his quirks, his smarts, his stubbornness, his ambition, his brilliance. There are going to be periods when nothing’s working – when your arch-rivals are racking up premierships, having adopted a completely different strategy. That hurts. It especially hurts when it’s Geelong, the club you went toe-to-toe with for almost 20 years, and who have gone down a completely different and more fruitful path. That third quarter will burn a long time for Mitchell and for Hawthorn.
And it will kickstart Geelong. The doubters were out in full force at half-time on Monday. And whoosh, they unleashed. Up until last year, they only really had two modes – slow and steady, or slow and steady followed by a last-ditch release of the handbrake. These days, they’re capable of winning any which way – slow strangulations, knife fights, jolly romps and avalanches. Their only second-half blemish came as Cameron celebrated his seventh and barrelled into the umpire. A new father, the superstar seemed for a split second to have denied the official a chance to follow suit. It was Cameron’s only tackle. It was a near miss. But it was his day.Geelong is set to open its 2023 campaign with a number of Melbourne blockbusters following the release of the 2023 AFL Premiership Season fixture.
An epic clash against Collingwood in the opening round on Friday 17 March, will be followed by a Thursday night away game against Carlton at the MCG, before the Cats host the traditional Easter Monday match against the Hawks during school holidays in Round 4.
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The Cats will play eight games in Melbourne in total, consisting of six at the MCG, including away matches against Richmond, Essendon, and Collingwood, and two at Marvel Stadium as away games against Western Bulldogs and St Kilda.
The Cats will unfurl the 2022 Premiership flag in Round 6 against Grand Final opponent the Swans, in the first match at GMHBA Stadium for the season.
Geelong will play nine home games at GMHBA Stadium, including matches against Sydney, Melbourne, Essendon and Western Bulldogs. The game against Melbourne shapes as a huge match between the last two premiers on a Thursday night in Round 15, which will be the Club’s Retro Round game.
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With the Stage Five redevelopment at GMHBA Stadium due for completion mid year, the Club’s Geelong’s games have been back-ended to provide for as many games as possible to be played in front of the new capacity of 40, 000.
The Club’s Round 9 Friday night away against Richmond at the MCG, will start at the earlier time of 7.20pm to cater for Cats fans travelling from Geelong with a second game also scheduled that night.
Of the timeslots that have been confirmed by the AFL so far (being those up to and including Round 15), there is a strong mix of slots including primetime Thursday, Friday and Saturday night matches as well as afternoon and twilight games, providing something for all Geelong members and fans.
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The Club will be on the road six times, with two trips to Adelaide for Gather Round in Round 5 and against Port Adelaide in Round 14, as well as trips to play the Gold Coast in Round 3, Fremantle in Round 10, Sydney in Round 16 and Brisbane in Round 19.
· 9 home games at GMHBA Stadium, starting with a blockbuster match against Grand Final opponents Sydney in Round 6 on a Saturday night when the Club will unfurl the 2022 Premiership flag
· 6 games at MCG, with home games against Collingwood and Hawthorn in Rounds 1 and 4 and further matches against Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and Collingwood
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· 7 prime time timeslots in the first 15 rounds; 3 Thursday nights, 2 Friday nights, 2 Saturday nights plus the traditional Easter Monday blockbuster – all being matches broadcast on the Seven Network (as well as Foxtel and Kayo)
· School holiday games; Rounds 4-6 against Hawthorn, West Coast in Adelaide for Gather Round and Sydney at GMHBA Stadium, and Rounds 15-17 against Melbourne at GMHBA Stadium, the Swans in Sydney and North Melbourne at GMHBA Stadium.
· Gather Round for A Festival of Footy match up against West Coast during April School holidays in Round 5, the first of a double header at Adelaide Oval on Sunday with St Kilda vs Collingwood to follow. Geelong Cats members to have free entry to the double header event.
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“We are thrilled to start the season with a bang, our home fixture starts in a big way with two games the MCG in Round 1 and Round 4 before we take on the Swans, our Grand Final opponents, in a Round 6 Saturday night blockbuster where we will unfurl the Premiership flag in what will be the first of nine home games at GMHBA Stadium.
“The start of the season is a great result for our Melbourne-based members and fans in particular, with five big MCG clashes in the first nine rounds and eight matches in Melbourne in total.
“We can’t wait to get back to GMHBA Stadium in Round 6 against the Swans and are excited about the overall
