At Subiaco:
West Coast 0.4 5.5 8.9 10.12.72 10.14.74 after extra time
Collingwood 1.5 4.8 7.11 10.12.72 13.15.93 after extra time
The Pies certainly know how to compete. Mick Malthouse knows how to coach too, rotating his midfielders to eke out every drop of endurance in this marathon. The Poise kept up the intensity, kept up the pressure all night to overhaul the Wiggles in extra time, scores being tied on the final siren. A great win. Collywood see themselves as Geelong’s biggest threat and take a decent chance into the game next Friday. It’ll be an HUGE game, for sure. The Weegs join the small, unhappy band of sides to go out in straight sets. The injury excuse is easy to reach for, as expected Chris Judd (groin and ankle injuries) was left out here, joining Ben Cousins (hamstring) and the already absent Dan Kerr. Just this morning, Judd’s announced he’s leaving the Weegles and returning to Vic for “family reasons”. Adds some interest to the trade period. To cap it off, recalled Ashley Hansen twanged his hamstring barely 10 minutes into the first quarter. Worsfold also made a possibly fatal tactical error, benching Darren Glass late in the third term and watching the previously silent Anthony Rocca boot 2 goals in as many minutes. The Weegs are still a very good side when full-strength. Some saw their troubles this season as some sort of karma following the hubris of the off-season. Beau Waters (groin) was another absentee here, Hansen, Chad Fletcher and junior midfielder Jamie McNamara were the trio called up. The Pies were forced into one late change, Josh Fraser (back tightness) replaced by Chris Bryan.
A very tight first quarter, no space to run, no time to place a pass amongst limpet-like, man-on-man pressure. Pie Travis Cloke was the most active forward early, kicking a coupla behinds from difficult shots. Hansen did his hamstring in the opening ten minutes, whether it was unfortunate or he came in half-fit is unknown, but you suspect the latter. Fifteen minutes in Wiggle forward Quinten Lynch took the game’s first mark inside attacking 50m, on a tough angle and he missed. Into time on Weeg ruckman Dean ‘Big’ Cox received a handball deep in defence and wobbled a left-foot kick across goal, straight to Pie Paul ‘Steak Knives’ Medhurst. Medhurst goaled. Anthony Rocca and Dale Thomas scored behinds prior to the first break, the Pies leading by 7 points. More goals in the second term, often coming from pressure-induced opposition mistakes. Pie backman Shane Wakelin handballed directly to young McNamara, he stabbed a short pass for Cox to mark and convert. A bit later the Weegs won the ball at a throw-in, a series of handballs released Andrew Embley who embarked on a long two-bounce run and booted a very good goal. The Weegs led by 5 points. The Poise hit back as a good pass from Thomas found Dane Swan leading into the pocket, Swan majored with a noice shot. Pies by a point. Bryan missed a shot before the Weegs goaled from a throw-in again, Cox flipped the ball behind him and Chad Fletcher ran through to gather and slot a smart sausage roll. Weegs by 4 points. The Maggies won the ball at the restart - they dominated centre-clearances all night, despite Cox and Seaby winning most hit-outs - Nathan Buckley hacked the ball forward, Alan Didak gathered and hooked a shot which bounced through. Back came the Eegs, Brent Staker collided with the ump before marking in the centre, he dished off to Fletcher who passed to leading Mark LeCras, he punted truly from 45m. A bit later Pie Jimmy Clement stabbed a kick-in directly to David Wirrpanda, the Weegle man majored and the Eegs led by 10 points. The Pies hit back as ‘Neon’ Leon Davis finessed smartly to buy time and space, he kicked long to the goal-square where Rocca and Darren Glass wrestled. The spilled ball hit Rocca on the heel and rolled through for full points. He didn’t know much about it. The Poise won the centre-clearance again, Didak had a goal-bound shot which Staker dived full-length to touch through. Eegs by 3 points at the long break.
During the break special comments man Leigh Matthews noted the Eegs had no running game, with rovers Priddis, Fletcher and Stenglein preferring to get ball to boot as quickly as possible rather than handball or go for a run to ‘break the lines’. In contrast, the Pies were running, but winning less of the ball. And getting nothing up forward, with Glass and Adam Hunter smothering Rocca and Cloke respectively, while Daniel Chick did a great job on nervous, fumbling Pie youngster Sean Rusling. Like last week, the Wiggles made a decent break in the third term. Big Lynch booted an early goal, showing great strength to hold a mark while Wakelin held his arm and guernsey. Medhurst leaped for big pack-mark 60m out, but his attempted pass to Rocca was off-target. The Weegs rebounded and after some rugged scrap at half-forward, Rowan Jones forced the ball clear and Matthew Priddis booted a goal. LeCras missed a long shot but a minute later he smothered Clement’s clearing kick, Staker collected the loose ball and lobbed a pass to unattended Wirrpanda who played-on and blasted it through. The Eegs led by 22 points. The Pies won another centre-clearance but Cloke snapped on-the-full, a bit later Tarkyn Lockyer’s shot hit the post. The Weevils carried their 4-goal lead into time-on. Then Worsfold made a tactical mistake by benching Glass. The reason wasn’t obvious at the time. Cox came off for a rest too, at that point. Hunter switched onto Rocca and Brett Jones to Cloke. With 2:30 playing time remaining Didak had a free-kick, his shot from 50m dropped short but Cloke marked on the point-line and hooked it through. Shortly afterwards Poi ruckman Guy Richards had a free at a ball-up, he kicked quickly, Rocca marked over Hunter in the goal-square and stabbed a sausage. Replays showed Rocca’s hands on Hunter’s back, no whistle (although there was no push either, but that’s not the rule, eh?). Lockyer won the ball away from the restart and passed to Cloke , he speared a pass to leading Rocca who hugged the ball to his chest and booted another major. The Pies had cut the Wiggle lead from 22 to 4 points in less than three minutes. Into the final quarter, Glass was back on Rocca again. LeCras and Medhurst kicked early points before Lynch held a good mark at CHF and stabbed a pass towards leading LeCras, he marked and booted a goal to have the Weegs 10 points up. A bit later Cloke lobbed a speculative kick forward for the Poise, Wirrpanda dropped a mark and fumbled badly, allowing Medhurst to gather the ball and have a long shot which bounced through. Embley’s hacked kick from defence was collected by Pie Thomas, he punted the Pies forward and Didak did very well to win the ball and hook a snap at the sticks, it bounced through for a goal. Pies by 2 points. Back came the Weegs as an under-pressure Buckley tumbled a kick from the back-pocket straight to Weeg Matt Rosa, he booted a goal. Weegs by 4. The Pies won the ball at the restart, Scott Pendlebury’s running shot hooked on-the-full. But as Embley tried to run the ball out he was caught by Davis, Medhurst scooped the ball and jabbed a short pass to Thomas, who converted from 30m. Pies by 2 points. The Pies flooded as time ebbed, Glass followed Rocca down and won a free-kick when Rocca tackled him over-the-shoulder. But Glass missed the shot, a bit later Embley’s running behind leveled the scores. The siren sounded following a series of ball-ups in the Poi forward-line. A draw.
That meant extra-time, five minutes each way. Only the second time it’s happened since the rule was introduced in the early 90s. The Weegs tired badly and as mentioned, Malthouse’s smart rotation had left the Pies with more run, which they’d had all night. Rosa kicked a long point early before Shane O’Bree lobbed a kick forward for the Poise, two Weeg defenders spoiled each other and Rocca collected the spilled Sherrin, a handpass to Medhurst and another to running Chris Bryan saw the big ruckman boot a goal. Cloke’s free-kicked point had the Maggies exactly a goal in front at the mini-half-time, O’Bree had a 55m shot after the siren which didn’t make the distance. Early in the second, um, period, Wirrpanda did very well to win the ball and hook a kick goal-wards, Staker back-pedalled to mark on a tight angle but his shot went over the post, a behind. Glass dived to touch a goal-bound Cloke shot. With about 1:30 to go Cloke tapped-on for Marty Clarke to collect the ball, he chipped into space for Pendlebury to run onto, gather and punt an easy goal, the sealer as the Pies led by 12 points now. Thomas embarked on a four-bounce run to relieve pressure and kicked an exhausted point, but the risky Weeg kick-in was snaffled by the Pies and Swan ran right in to boot an easy major on the siren.
The Poise had no stand-out but a great, even contribution. The ability of small forwards Alan Didak (27 disposals, 2 goals) and Leon Davis (18 touches, 10 tackles) kept ‘em alive when the big men struggled, Dane Swan (38 possies, 9 marks, 2 goals) worked industriously in the midfield. Paul ‘Steak Knives’ Medhurst (15 kicks, 6 marks, 2 goals) bobbed up to be very useful at times, as was the run of Dale Thomas (22 disposals, a goal). First-year man Tyson Goldsack (18 touches) played very well in defence again, Travis Cloke (10 marks, 21 disposals, 1.3) started and ended the game well, big flat spot in the middle. Shane O’Bree (29 disposals, 8 marks) improved as the game went on. Sav Rocca finished with 3 goals. The Wiggles had the best two players on the ground in Dean ‘Big’ Cox (27 disposals, 9 marks, 29 hit-outs, a goal) and prolific rover Matthew Priddis (37 touches, a goal). They had plenty of other overall winners too, like Darren Glass (17 disposals) on Rocca, Daniel Chick on Rusling, half-back Brett Jones (25 touches, 8 marks) was good, Mark LeCras (4 marks, 8 kicks, 2 goals) was busy across half-forward. Adam Hunter (23 disposals) and David Wirrpanda (15 possies, 7 marks, 2 goals) were pretty useful too, Hunter mostly down back, Wirrpanda mostly up forward. They just couldn’t convert it into points on the ‘board, a chronic Weegle problem. "[I felt] relief [the game went into extra time], because we were behind until we scored that point," Worsfold said. "[Prior to extra time] I just explained to them what the rules are, so they're clear on what was going to happen. Then hopefully give them the right moves to make and we didn't do that. It was an even roll-of-the-dice, it felt as though it was going to be 50-50 in that last 10 minutes. They were running reasonably well, but maybe I was just more hoping that than really knowing it, I don't know. But I certainly couldn't have asked for them to try any harder." Benching Glass (and Cox) late in the third, Woosha? "Glass had done a power of work and he was obviously going to have a lot of work to do in the second half, so we elected to give him a rest. And Cox the same - Cox doesn't play every minute of every game, he has to come off at some stage, and they did it when Cox was in the middle as well. At different parts of the quarter, they got the ball out and kicked goals, I thought that was a disappointing part of the night. It was probably more so that Rocca kicked two when Glass was off him for that three-minute period and that hurt us . . . We've been going pretty well, and then giving up leads, and then giving up games. It's too hard to measure how some of the sore bodies, or the workload that Tyson Stenglein's had to carry - and [Matt] Priddis - since Judd, Kerr and Cousins haven't been available. It's a massive workload, [I'm] very proud of the way they've gone about it. Maybe it took its toll." Mick Malthouse fuelled the dreams of Pie nuffies, er, supporters, everywhere. "I haven't been part of a game quite like that before," Malthouse said. "I have been part of a drawn final before and we had to go back the next week, so I guess this way is the best way to decide it . . . It was just an amazing effort by both sides . . . Some (Poi) players wouldn't have played as they had dreamt, but still contributed. One of our greatest assets this year has been getting a solid contribution across the board. A couple of players got a bit of a touch up, but they were still there when we needed them and played their part. That's what you need to win games of footy, as sometimes the evenness gets you over the line rather than relying on someone too heavily. A few years ago, it might have been Nathan (Buckley) that we relied heavily on, but he was one of 22 players that we needed to step up and play their role." Mick commented on Glass and Cox being benched. "As it turned out it was highly significant. I'm not surprised by the effort, but those three goals came pretty quickly given we had scored four in 90 minutes. Kicking the goals was good, but the effort to get them was always going to be there . . . My most frustrating point was 30 seconds from full time. It showed something about how fantastic our opposition was, as it was going to be bludgeoned through, kicked through, pushed through, knocked through, rugby tried through, and we couldn't move it. That's full credit to West Coast. We will get home, lick our wounds, ice up, have a good look at our side and watch Willy play on Sunday . . . It was a fantastic result for us. I was continually reminded what sort of traitor I am and that we were a second rate side. I look at our group and think the sky is the limit. I'm not saying that we are going to go out and walk all over Geelong as that won't happen, but we will give a good account of ourselves."
At the MCG:
North Melbourne 3.3 5.5 9.7 14.9.93
Hawthorn 2.1 4.3 6.8 8.12.60
A week is a long time etc. In what was the lesser of the two finals in terms of quality and intensity, the Ruse redeemed themselves with an honest, committed effort to see off the disappointing Hawks. Horforn seemed tired and displayed extremely poor discipline, as they sometimes do. The inconsistency of a young side. An instinct to be ‘tough’ translated into a couple of Hawks reported and a string of frees for the Kangers, not all of them deserved and Hork fans justifiably fumed over the umpiring. But what goes around comes around, Norf didn’t get the breaks last week and the Horks’ attitude didn’t help them with the umps in this one. Nevertheless the Horforn side has improved greatly this year and with their young side spearheaded by Franklin, Roughead and Boyle, they’ll only get better. Events here suggested they could use a decent crumbing forward and maybe another key defender. Skipper Richie Vandenberg won’t be a part of the future, he retired here after 145 games for the Hawks. Eyebrows were raised when Vandenberg was appointed captain at the start of the 2005 season, he wasn’t quite a regular player then, but Vandenberg has been a very good, if often injured, leader. In selection here the Ruse made two changes after the flogging last week, Corey Jones was out with a foot injury and Leigh Brown was dropped. There was a fun moment at a Roo press conference when Norf assistant coach Donald McDonald told the journos Jones was ‘perfectly alright’ as Jones hobbled into view on crutches behind him. Oops. Juniors Ed Lower and Lachlan Hansen were the Roo replacements. No changes for the Hawks.
Much attention was focused on who’d pick up Hawk star Lance Franklin, the Ruse selected the seemingly undersized but mobile Josh Gibson for the task, with Michael Firrito picking up Jarryd Roughead. But them two Roo defenders, plus Archer and Watt, zoned off to help each other out and work very well together. The Hawks started with Brad Sewell on Brent Harvey but the Horks in general ‘targeted’ Harvey, who was bumped, bullied and knocked down at every opportunity. Early goal for the Ruse as Shannon Grant led up to mark on the flank, his centering kick was marked by leading Aaron Edwards who booted truly. Franklin started the game poorly, dropping a mark and then caught throwing the ball while being tackled. The Hawks majored after taking a kick-in end-to-end, Brent Guerra started the move and Shane Crawford was twice involved before kicking towards Roughead, who was clattered by Firrito. Roughead free-kicked a major. Back came the Ruse as Daniel Pratt’s crunching tackle on Jordan Lewis forced the ball loose, Jesse Smith passed to leading Edwards who marked and converted again. Ruckman McIntosh punted the Kangers forward from the restart and Edwards soared for a HUGE grab over Croad and Petrie, a fantastic ride, hover and pluck. Just about mark of the year. But Edwards’s subsequent shot didn’t make the distance. The game went into a lull as the Roos flooded a bit and the Hawks struggled to be direct. Cameras picked up Harvey being knocked down off-the-ball a couple of times, he went off the ground. The mini-drought broke on a rapid Norf rebound, initiated by Glenn Archer who was playing well. Hansen marked on the wing and kicked to Andrew Swallow in plenty of space, Swallow played-on and speared it through. The Roos led by 15 points. Ben Dixon took the Awks’ first mark in their attacking 50, he kicked on-the-full. But a minute later leading Tim Boyle held a diving mark of Sewell’s pass, Boyle majored. Frustrated Franklin gave away a couple of late free-kicks with ragged tackles, the Ruse led by 8 points at the first break. Hawk Lewis appeared to be hurt at the opening bounce of the second term. Roos Smith and Harvey missed early shots before Brady Rawlings punted a long kick in, the ball cleared Petrie and Croad and Edwards managed a toe-poked soccer-kick for his third goal. The TV caught Lewis punching Harvey in the face as the game entered another scoreless period. The Hawk forwards couldn’t take a mark, with credit to Norf’s backmen. After a while the Ruse went further ahead, Drew Petrie won a softish free-kick for manhandling from Croad and booted truly. The Ruse led by 22 points. The Orcs made late inroads, Sewell did well to win possession at a ball-up and handpass to Lewis, his short pass was marked by leading Franklin who steered it through from 55m on the flank. Buddy’s first kick, and a very good one. A minute later strong Hawk pressure saw Roo Gibson caught in possession, Horforn’s Chance Bateman free-kicked a major and the Rue lead was down to 10 points. They flooded to protect the narrow margin, surviving Hawk pressure to lead by 8 points at orange-time.
Early in the third stanza Norf’s Swallow dithered in possession and was caught, Sewell collected the loose ball and handballed for Guerra to boot a long major. The Kangers led by 3 points and it appeared the Hawks were coming. Franklin marked on long lead but his thundering kick drifted wide. Some relief for the Shinboners as the busy Smith punted them forward, Grant roved the pack spillage and handpassed for running McIntosh to dob a goal. A poor Roughead turnover gave the Kangers another chance, Croad climbed ridiculously all over Petrie. Petrie punted his free-kick towards leading Scott McMahon, whose arm was grabbed by Ladson. McMahon free-kicked a goal and the Ruse eased out to a 14-point lead. Tight for a while before the Hawks answered, an Edwards mistake allowed Croad to find Franklin on-the-lead, Buddy booted a long sausage. The Hawks won the following centre-clearance and Roughead was given a weak free-kick but he missed, reducing the Rue lead to 7 points. The Kangers moved Petrie to defence, as an extra man. The Northerners moved ahead again with assistance from the officials. Firrito’s bullocking run from defence ended with his long kick towards leading Edwards, the Kanga spearhead was awarded a free kick for having his arm slapped by Croad, but it was the slightest possible contact. Much booin’ from Orc fans as Edwards booted a goal. Franklin plucked a great third-in-line grab but kicked a behind only. A minute later Brent Harvey marked near the boundary, 80m out and may’ve been nudged slightly, fractionally late by Hawk Joel Smith. Harvey certainly sold it and some umpire sympathy for the treatment ‘Boomer’ had copped might’ve entered into it. In any case the ump didn’t hesitate to award Harvey a 50m penalty and Boomer booted a goal. Late in the term Crawford biffed Roo rover Daniel Harris in the face, for which Crawf was reported. A weak, cheap shot from the Hawk veteran. The Hawks trailed by 17 points at the last change but they went forward from the opening bounce of the final stanza, Roughead roved the pack and tumbled a kick goal-wards, Franklin ran onto it and soccered a major. Norf led by 11 points. They pushed forward and there were some ball-ups. Harvey whacked Michael Osborne in the throat at one, the umps didn’t see that. Osborne pulled Harvey back at the next one, they saw that and Harvey free-kicked a major. A Hawk centre-clearance followed but Ladson missed a running shot. A minute later Harris went for a run and kicked long towards leading Grant , he couldn’t mark but roving Harvey collected the ball, swung onto his right boot and curled a snap home for full points. ‘Boomer’ enjoyed that as his Ruse led by 22 points now. Hawk ruckman Robert Campbell sliced a shot on-the-full as the Hawks began to appear desperately tired. From the resulting free Norf constructed a good running, handballing move, Jess Sinclair passed to leading Grant who marked and converted. Norf led by 27 points and were home. Good battling from Hawks Campbell and Franklin allowed Lewis to have a low dribbly-snap which just crept through for a goal ahead of lazy and/or tired Roo Rawlings, who could’ve easily stopped it. But the Roos iced the cake with the last two goals, Harvey bagged his third of the quarter thanks to Harris’s tap-on and Daniel Wells, who’d been good, tried an audacious end-over-end dribbly kick from 30m which just rolled through ahead of diving Ladson. Kangers by 5 goals.
Great effort from Norf midfielders Jesse Smith (27 disposals; about the best game he’s played) and rover Daniel Harris (24 touches), especially in the first half. Daniel Wells (28 touches, a goal) was increasingly prominent after half-time and Brady Rawlings (27 disposals) shut Luke Hodge out of it. Brent Harvey (15 possies, 4 goals) shook off the bullying of the first half to become very effective and Aaron Edwards (8 marks, 13 disposals, 4 goals) made the most of his chances, the Roo back-line was very good led by Glenn Archer (18 handlings), Josh Gibson on Franklin and Michael Firrito (17 disposals, 7 marks) on Roughead. Hamish McIntosh (23 disposals, 24 hit-outs, a goal) was good too. Horforn’s best was Brad Sewell (29 disposals, 8 marks), a great ruck-roving effort after starting on Harvey initially. Jordan Lewis (31 touches, a goal) was good too and Shane Crawford (21 disposals) started well, but faded. Trent Croad (18 possies, 11 marks) beat Petrie and Brent Guerra (24 touches, a goal) wasn’t bad but other Hawks made fitful contributions. Chance Bateman (13 touches, a goal) did a couple of decent things as did Clinton Young (14 possies). Lance Franklin (4 marks, 12 disposals) finished with 3 goals. Clarkson was unhappy with the performance but looked forward in anticipation. “We didn't bring our A-grade game to the MCG tonight, which was disappointing for us because throughout the course of the year, we've played a lot better than what we put out there tonight. Full credit to the Kangaroos. They bounced back strongly [from the loss to Geelong], we knew they would. We were right in the contest, but we just couldn't take those crucial chances that we needed to, and just a couple of lucky breaks here and there, whether it was the bounce of the ball or taking a clean ball or an umpiring decision here or there - we just needed a couple of lucky breaks. We didn't seem to get them tonight, and the Kangaroos did take advantage of theirs, and that's why they saluted and get the honour of playing in a preliminary final next week against Port Adelaide . . . It tells us a little bit about where we're at as a footy club. When the spotlight was at its hottest, we weren't able to perform in a big game for our footy club. We're disappointed with our effort. The stark realisation is that we're not quite a top-four side as yet, and the Kangaroos are a very proud football club, and they showed us the right way of playing finals footy tonight . . . Our guys will benefit enormously from it, but I hope the disappointment of tonight will fuel a pretty hungry desire to have a strong pre-season and a strong home-and-away series next year so we can give ourselves a chance to play in these types of games again.” Dean Laidley said “It was very pleasing; we were under siege, all of us, all week. We sat down and had a bit of a heart to heart on Monday and planned our week and, to the boys’ credit, gee they were ferocious tonight and I was really pleased with that. We probably all read the papers on Monday, but I think after that, no one read a paper for the week, no one listened to the radio. We went about our business knowing that it was going to be all about our actions this weekend, so within the footy club it was as consistent as it’s been all year and our preparation was pretty much the same. I thought we won the contested footy [tonight] and that was a big key to it and our pressure skills were very good and when you do that in finals footy you’ll always be a chance to win the game . . . We had a dozen or so [players last week] playing in their first final, so we just went through it and what they learned. I just felt at training, particularly yesterday, they just seemed much more relaxed. I think the leaders set the tone early in the week after the coaches had spoken to them and I thought from then on that the message was pretty clear and it was a credit to the whole group . . . If you had of said to us when we started [pre-season] on the 14th of October . . . ‘you’ll play Hawthorn with a chance to play in a preliminary final against Port Adelaide on the 15th of September’, I think all you people would have fallen off your chairs. Maybe we would’ve as well, but we’ve worked really, really hard and it’s a great opportunity, so we’ll be going 100 miles an hour.”
Next week, Preliminary Finals:
Geelong v Collingwood, MCG, Fri. night.
Port Adelaide v North Melbourne, Football Park, Saturday.
Cheers, Tim.
Article last changed on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 4:02 PM EDT
