AFL Weekly Review Preliminary Finals 2007

by Tim Murphy

Geelong and Port, first and second on the ladder. It rarely lies. The Cats are deserved favourites, but it should be good.

Your 2007 All-Geelong, er, All-Australian side:

B: Matthew Scarlett (Geel), Darren Glass (WC), Darren Milburn (Geel)
HB: Andrew McLeod (Adel, c), Matthew Egan (Geel), Campbell Brown (Haw)
C: Kane Cornes (PA), Jimmy Bartel (Geel), Chad Cornes (PA)
HF: Steve Johnson (Geel), Jonathan Brown (Bris, v-c), Brent Harvey (NM)
F: Brad Johnson (Foot), Matthew Pavlich (Frem), Cameron Mooney (Geel)
Foll: Dean Cox (WC), Daniel Kerr (WC), Gary Ablett (Geel).
Inter: Brendon Lade (PA), Dustin Fletcher (Ess), Joel Corey (Geel), Cameron Ling (Geel).

Chris Judd’s future was the other main news as Juddy toured Melbourne to listen to sales pitches from clubs. Before flying out Judd gave a press conference in Perth to explain the ties of family and friends were drawing him home to Melbourne and the decision had nothing to do with the Wiggles being drug-and-alcohol-fuelled maniacs. Some people believed that. Judd wants to join a young side with finals potential who play most of their home games at the MCG. Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Melbourne are the four clubs in contention apparently. You might wonder how the last three satisfy the criteria; the Blues and Bommers have the draft picks and/or players necessary to make a deal; Judd supported the Dees before being drafted.

Elsewhere a formal challenge to Sainter president Rod Butterss and his board was launched by a group calling itself ‘St. Kilda Footy First’, featuring former players Nathan Burke and just-retired Andrew Thompson. It’s got ugly, quickly. Freo formally appointed Mark Harvey as their coach, but there’s no role for Sheeds. Essadun still don’t have a coach, they’re supposedly waiting to see if there’s interest from former Bommers and Grand Final coaches Mark Thompson and Mark Williams. Unlikely, you’d think. Other Don alumni in contention include Neale Daniher and Damien Hardwick. Some more retirements last week, Hawk Ben Dixon after 203 games and 282 goals, an old-fashioned 4-kick, 2-goal half-forward. Sainter Brett Voss also hung ‘em up, 170 games for Brisbane and the Saints for him. Ol’ Matty Richardson won the Tigers’ best-and-fairest for the first time, after being a four-time runner-up. Cat Gary Ablett is a warm $2.10 favourite for tonight’s Brownlow Medal, ahead of Chad Cornes ($5.50), Brent Harvey ($6.00), Hawk Sam Mitchell ($6.50) and Lyin’ Jonathan Brown ($8.50). Cat Jimmy Bartel is excellent value at $10.00.

At the MCG:

Geelong      4.4   7.6   9.13   13.14.92
Collingwood  2.5   6.7   9.8     13.9.87

As expected, a tough, tight and terrific game. The Cats took the second-last step on the road of destiny, seeing off the battling Pies. Jeelong always appeared the likely winners, even when the Pies were in front. The Catters had 20 more inside-50s and moved the ball more slickly than the Poise, who made too many errors. But Collywood tried tremendously hard, as they do in the big games and through force of will and some class in attack, kept at it. But the skill- and possession-gap told for the Cats in the end. This young Poi side has a bright future and the ABC’s Barrie Cassidy was typical of yer Pie fan in assaulting the ears with the list of the Maggies’ 19 and 20-y-o first and second-year  kids; Clarke, Goldsack, Thomas, Pendlebury, Cloke, Shaw, Rusling. Um, don’t Geelong have the Abletts, Selwood, Hawkins, Varcoe, Stokes, Bartel, Egan in the same category? If the Poise can get hold of Judd, even better. That may be unlikely but the Maggies do need a bit more class midfield and despite Malthouse’s contempt for ruckmen, they need a decent big man to support Josh Fraser. Chris Bryan and Guy Richards were thrashed by Ottens here. Fraser didn’t play despite being named, more back trouble, so Bryan remained in a Magpoi line-up unaltered from last week. The game was given added meaning for Pies by the death of their 1972 Brownlow Medalist Len Thompson the night before the game. Great ruckman and a great bloke, Len. The Cats weren’t changed from a fortnight ago, injured All-Australian defender Matthew Egan the only regular absent. There’d been speculation Steven King would replace junior ruckman Mark Blake, but he didn’t.

The game sold out by Wednesday and right on 98,000 turned up, the biggest crowd at the ‘G for any event since 1998. They saw the Pies start quite well, with backman James Clement busy. Anthony Rocca had an early shot, a soft free-kick against opponent Matty Scarlett. Rocca was on the boundary-line and missed, he had one more kick for the night. A minute later Pie Scott Burns roved a throw-in and snapped it through, the Poise had an early 7-point lead. The Cats got moving. Nathan Ablett and Corey Enright combined smartly to send the ball towards Cam Mooney, Pie full-back Shane Wakelin spoiled but roving Cat Mathew Stokes snaggled a goal. Mooney missed after marking on the lead but the Cats recovered the kick-in, Paul Chapman passed for Brad Ottens to hold a diving grab and boot a major. Stokes missed a sitter and at the other end Pie Travis Cloke sliced a shot on-the-full. Gary Ablett spun cleverly out of a tackle and punted the Cats forward, Mooney’s hurried snap was smothered but the ball rebounded to Stokes, his snap just crept over for a goal. Jahlong led by 13 points. The Poise replied, Clement backed himself to run the ball out and pass to Shane O’Bree on the wing. Cat junior Joel Selwood was fractionally late with a spoil and a weak 50m penalty was added, O’Bree kicked a goal. A bit later Wakelin thumped a ball-up directly to Gary Ablett, he handballed to Selwood who kicked for Stokes to mark strongly in front of battling opponent Tyson Goldsack. Stokes booted his third goal of the quarter and the Katz led by 13 again. Late in the term Poi Leon Davis failed to cap his own good play with a goal and Scott Pendlebury missed a shot too. Cats by 11 points at the first break. For the second term Goldsack was replaced by Marty Clarke as Stokes’s man, a move which worked well for the Pies. The Cats were also forced to make a change as their All-Australian stopper Cameron Ling had been carved up by Dane Swan. Pie junior Sean Rusling, who’d spent the first term on the bench, went to full-forward. Swan and Clarke combined to give Rusling an early chance, he marked strongly on the flank and steered a good goal. Harry O’Brien punted the Scraggies forward from the restart, Paul ‘Steak Knives’ Medhurst galloped out to take a mark and boot a 55m goal. The Pies were in front, by 2 points. Dale Thomas postered from the boundary during a good spell for them. Cat Scarlett ventured forward but missed a running shot, as Poi Alan Didak brought the ball out his poor kick went straight to Gablett. A handpass to Jimmy Bartel and a foot pass to Steve Johnson followed, Johnson converted. A minute later Nathan Ablett fisted a throw-in into Johnson’s path, he gathered and slotted another major. And soon Ottens won the ball at a bounce, it went to Selwood, Ling and then unattended Max Rooke, who booted another Cat sausage. Just like that, the Cats led by 16 points. But the Pies dug in. No scoring for a bit before Burns punted the Poise forward, the ball cleared Rocca and Scarlett and bounced up in the goal-square. Didak arrived, leaped and touched the ball onto his right-boot, karate-kicking a spectacular goal. Might be a pea-brain, but he can play. Good work from Didak soon led to another Poi major, Rusling out-marked Josh Hunt and converted. The Pies had cut the margin back to 5 points by the long break.

The third term started with two terrible misses from the Cats, Ottens failed with a set-shot from 30m, right in front. Ottens marked the kick-in and the ball was fed wide to James Kelly, he missed poorly too. Sequences like this made you think the Cats would romp away at some point. But they didn’t. The Eddies had a break when Cat and All-Australian backman Darren Milburn limped off with a sore leg, he’d done a good job on Cloke to this point. Almost immediately Cloke marked on the flank, his centering kick was a shocker but Ling fumbled awfully, Leon Davis pounced and speared a low kick for a goal. The Geelong lead was 2 points. A scoring lull followed before Chapman passed to the prominent Ottens at CHF, he dished a handpass for Kelly to boot a running goal. Cats by 8 points but the Pies responded, Goldsack’s very good smother won him the ball, he passed to Medhurst on the flank. Medhurst jabbed a short kick for Cloke to collect, Clokey played-on and punted it home from 30m. The Pies were getting some run going and the Poi fans sensed some momentum, especially when Cats Blake and Selwood left a mark for each other and Burns swiped the ball. Cloke passed for leading Rocca to take his first mark but Anfernee’s mis-kick dropped short. Milburn returned with a bandaged lower leg. Pendlebury roved a ball-up and kicked towards leading Medhurst, Steak Knives couldn’t mark under pressure but he swiveled smartly, recovered the ball and booted a very good sausage. The Pies led again, by 3 points. But they couldn’t press the advantage, a superb smother from Joel Corey preventing a Bryan shot. Deep into time-on the Pies led by a point, Gary Ablett and Chapman combined to send the ball forward for the Cats. An under-pressure Clement slapped the ball out-of-bounds, the most deliberate ‘deliberate’ you could see. Either he was disoriented, thinking the boundary was the point-line, or maybe Cat Mooney got a hand in there. In any case Mooney hooked the resulting free-kick for a goal, so Geelagong led by 5 points at the last change.

Early in the final term the Poise reclaimed the lead, Medhurst, O’Bree and Nathan Buckley combined to set up a running shot for Cloke, he drilled it. Pies by a point. The Catter response was emphatic. Ottens won the following centre-clearance, Steve Johnson intercepted a Pie handball and passed for leading Mooney to mark and convert. At the next centre-bounce Medhurst ploughed Gary Ablett into the turf, Gablett’s long free-kick was pack-marked too easily by Johnson. He booted a major. The Cats pressed hard as you thought the effects of two big finals and an interstate trip must weigh the Pies down now. A Nathan Ablett drop, a Johnson shot which fell short and some frees allowed the Poise to hang in. But eventually the pressure told, Ottens marked a clearing Poi kick and the ball went to Joel Corey, his pass was marked by a diving Chapman. Chappy majored and the Cats led by 17 points. “Geelong’ll win by six goals,” said a guy standing next to me in the pub. The Magpiss kept on, though. Tarkyn Lockyer lobbed a free-kick towards Cloke, who marked strongly under pressure and booted a long major. The Maggies won the subsequent centre-clearance, Swan found Cloke marking alone just 25m out, bit of an angle but the big goose missed, and Cat fans sighed in relief. Pie Swan soon provided another attack, Burn’s pass missed leading Bryan but Didak lurked onto the loose ball to stab a point-blank sausage. The Pies were only 5 points down again. The Cats’ two best players on the night came to the rescue, Ottens tapped a throw-in to Gary Ablett, young Gablett raced clear and hooked a classy snap for full points. Katz 11 points ahead. It got a bit tough now and Cat Johnson appeared to hurt his shoulder in a tackle. Time ticked by and the Cats started to run the clock down. With a minute remaining Pie Clarke kicked long towards Rocca, who was clattered head-on by Cat skipper Tom Harley. A free-kick but Rocca’d been hurt in the contest, he limped off and Medhurst took the kick. Steak Knives converted, the Cat lead was down to 5 points again. But the Poise couldn’t manage another shot in the remaining minute.

Brad Ottens (23 disposals, 24 hit-outs, 9 marks, a goal) was dominant in the ruck for Geelong and Gary Ablett (31 disposals, a goal) terrific, especially in the last quarter. Jimmy Bartel (30 touches) was great again in midfield with support from Joel Corey (31 possies) and James Kelly (18 disposals with 14 handballs, a goal). In attack Steve Johnson (19 touches, 8 marks, 3 goals) did the most damage, the Cats were very solid in defence with Matty Scarlett (14 touches) thrashing Rocca (although Harley and Rooke often helped out), Darren Milburn (18 handlings, 9 marks) did well on Cloke for near-three quarters but the young Clokey got away from him towards the end. Josh Hunt (15 possies) had the better of Didak, too. Mathew Stokes bagged 3 first-quarter goals but was shut down by Clarke thereon, Cam Mooney kicked 2 goals. Typically, the Pies didn’t have a standout. As mentioned, first-year (Irish)man Marty Clarke (21 disposals) did a great job to shut down Stokes and win plenty of the ball himself, Heath Shaw (25 touches, 7 marks) was very good off his back-flank and James Clement (20 kicks, 6 marks) prominent. In a bit of a shock, Clement announced his retirement last night. Dane Swan (25 possies, 8 marks) saw off Ling and was a solid contributor, Nathan Buckley (19 touches, 10 marks) was busy and probably should play on next year, Shane O’Bree (16 touches, a goal) plugged away as usual. Harry O’Brien (15 possies) had the better of Chapman and the longer the game went, the more dangerous Travis Cloke (13 marks, 14 kicks, 3 goals) appeared. Made fun of Paul Medhurst (4 disposals, 2 goals) all year but ‘Steak Knives’ was good value here. Sean Rusling and Alan Didak kicked 2 goals each. Malthouse waxed lyrical about the future. "I think there are regrets right through the late nights, when they're laying in bed thinking, ‘Could I have done that, should I have done that?’ Sometimes I think preliminary finals are about regrets, and you punish yourself, and I don't think any of our boys need to punish themselves. But they will, because they've got a lot of pride, and they're proud young men who believe in themselves, and that belief is that they should have been playing next week. We've come up short . . . You go onto Punt Road, and you see a row of cottages, and the initial thing is, you wonder who lived there and who lives there (respectively, Richmond supporters and yuppies, Mick). The Collingwood football club has been in existence probably as long as those . . . cottages. The Collingwood structure is still there, and there is a new generation, probably not the blue-collar people who would have been living in those structures. The club is based on a blue-collar worker, and out of that, a new generation emerges (of millionaires like Eddie - too much editorializing?). Right now, [the players are] making their own dynasty. Unfortunately, it didn't go one game further." Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson reckoned he knew the Cats’d win. “I felt all night, I think the coaches felt inside, that we were going to win it. We never lost confidence or faith in our group and we knew that eventually we could get there and that inner belief is amongst the players too - and we scored some easy goals in the last quarter. The fact that it was [in front of] 98,000 people and playing Collingwood, who’ve got the biggest following in the competition; it’s a great experience. Knowing where the two teams have come from, us resting up and getting over all our little niggles and them having to play an extra 10 minutes of extra time, you’d have to say Collingwood was absolutely fantastic . . . I’m expecting us to be a lot better next week with our approach to the game. We’re not having to sit around for 13 days waiting to play; everything’s just going to be a rush. We’ve met a lot of challenges all year and I think the players have got an inner confidence, I think they really believe in themselves and each other . . . We'll embrace it. I think we’ve enjoyed it all the way. People keeping talking about the lid, but the lid hasn’t really been on. I’ve asked the players to enjoy every victory and to live it. It’s been a great year, so let’s just enjoy this week, but be professional as well and get the work in. I think we’ve handled our year quite well up until now and we just wouldn’t want to just be unprofessional and cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s. Enjoy the week, accept that we’re in the Grand Final, but just get things done. There’s a lot that happens in Grand Final week.”

At Football Park:

Port Adelaide    6.0   9.3   17.10   20.13.133
North Melbourne  3.2   3.7    4.10    5.16.46

Big contrast to the other prelim. There’s no doubt Port are a good side but their narrow win over the depleted Weegles and this massacre of the poor old Kangas is hard to line up against Geelong’s form. A home prelim against Norf or the Hawks always appeared a ‘gimme’ and as Choco Williams admitted again afterwards, the Flowers’ve had some luck this season. But you’ve gotta use good fortune when it comes, enough bad luck is about. And Port were the last side to beat the Cats so perhaps it’s fair enough they get the ultimate crack at ‘em for the big prize. Port’ll be without the luckless veteran Michael Wilson, who snapped an achilles tendon in this one. The Ruse surprisingly great season came to an unfortunate end, of the four finals Laidley’s been in charge in his tenure, three have resulted in (the wrong end of) absolute hidings. Not his fault really, just a gulf in class between his side and the true contenders. The Roos are honest, just not good enough. Laidley is yet to sign on for next year, holding out for a three-year contract where the Roo board has offered two. This was the final game for Rue icon Glenn Archer, his club record 311th. The ‘Shinboner of the Century’ was once described in a newspaper profile as a ‘cement truck in footy shorts’, a pretty apt description. Archer’s extreme competitiveness and toughness were his distinguishing characteristics as a footballer, the sort of straight-ahead, one-hundred miles-per-hour player every fan, coach and team-mate loves. I remember him giving young Richo a hard time in the Tiger’s early career, Archer lacked height but his strength and aggression worried Richo out of it. Archer’s also a great bloke by all accounts, certainly in interviews he comes across as a modest, generous guy with no bullsh*t about him. I doubt you’ll see him in the meedya. Anyway, the Port side here was unchanged from a fortnight back, there were doubts over Brett Ebert but he played. The Kangers gave much thought to selecting Nathan Thompson, their key forward who did a knee in the pre-season. Thompson is in full training but hadn’t played a game and in the end Laidley decided against it. But he did recall tagger Kasey Green following suspension, at the expense of junior Lachlan Hansen.

Much preview energy had gone into potential match-ups, Port coach Williams said Norf’s Brady Rawlings “will do plenty of holding-on and I’m sure the umpires will look out for that.” Rawlings picked up Shaun Burgoyne rather than the expected Chad Cornes, Green got the job on Chadley. Port placed Dom Cassisi on Brent Harvey and Kane Cornes against Daniel Wells. But the biggest early factor was a steady breeze, Port kicked with it first. Rawlings didn’t do any guernsey-tugging, he was rarely anywhere near Shaun Burgoyne from the start. Burgoyne’s pass set up the opening goal, leading Daniel Motlop marked it and fell as if shot following a gentle, late bump from Archer. A weak 50m penalty gave Motlop an unmissable shot. Archer clattered Kane Cornes at the restart (not one of Arch’s better games, this) but Cornes played-on from the free and was caught in possession. Brent Harvey punted the Ruse forward and Drew Petrie tapped-on for Shannon Grant to slot a noice tight-angle goal. Port won the following centre-clearance, David ‘D-Rod’ Rodan twice involved before lobbing a pass for Kane Cornes to hold a with-the-flight mark, he converted. A centre-clearance to North followed but Jesse Smith missed a shot - that was North’s big problem, they were competitive in the first half but didn’t kick their goals. Port did. A downfield free-kick gave Chad Cornes a chance, his awful punt was marked in the goal-square by Brendon Lade who dished off for Rodan to poke it through. Port led by 11 points. Norf replied after Port ruckman Dean Brogan dropped a mark, Roo Ed Sansbury handballed for Grant to curl a superb snap through from a very tight angle. A minute later Wells drove a low kick in and Aaron Edwards marked over Michael Pettigrew, Edwards played-on and stabbed a sausage, Norf led by a point. Shaun Burgoyne won the following centre-clearance for the Powder and kicked long, Roo full-back Michael Firrito effected a good spoil but then threw the ball to Pratt, Port’s Motlop free-kicked a goal. Roos Grant and Edwards made a complete mess of what should’ve been an easy soccer-goal, a bit later Edwards clangered a kick straight to Power backman Troy Chaplin. A quick rebound and Justin Westhoff found leading Danyle Pearce for a mark and goal. Brett Ebert’s cool gather and handpass set up a running major for Port junior Travis Boak and Port had jumped to a 16-point lead. The Ruse flooded and the Powder chipped-about to quarter-time.

For the second stanza beaten Rawlings switched onto Pearce and Jess Sinclair picked up the very busy Shaun Burgoyne. With the breeze now, the Kangers started well but Edwards missed very poorly following a good Roo move, then Wells tried a dribbly-kick shot which rolled into the post. Port CHB Chaplin was playing well, good play from him got the ball to Shaun Burgoyne, a long kick was met with Shannon Watt’s big spoil but the ball dropped to Ebert, he conjured a terrific left-foot snap for a major. Port led by 20 points. Norf won the following centre-clearance, Wells raced clear but his spearing punt drifted wide for a behind. A minute later the Kangers produced a great running move but again, Edwards missed what appeared an easy shot. “That’s very demoralizing for the side”, said Mal Blight. You’re not kidding. Port’s Wilson limped off in this period, snapping his left achilles in a seemingly gentle contest. He wasn’t happy. The Flowers punished the wayward Ruse, Rodan sped clear of a throw-in and stabbed a goal, Brogan won the following centre-clearance for Port and the ball went to Motlop on a wide lead. Motlop sold a dummy to get ‘round Josh Gibson and banana-snapped, sorry, checkside-snapped a great goal. Port led by 30 points now and the Ruse were in trouble. Confidence drained quickly as they began to fumble and commit poor turnovers. Port pressed but couldn’t capitalize, Chad Cornes missed a shot following big grab and Tom Logan snapped accurately but marginally after the siren sounded for half-time.

One-way traffic in the second half. North were pathetic, awful. Laidley made one move, replacing beaten ruckman Hamish McIntosh with beaten forward Drew Petrie, but it made no difference. Port men Logan and Motlop missed shots before Logan marked in an extraordinary amount of space, played on and handballed to Steven Salopek for a very easy goal. Motlop won a soft free for holding against Gibson, he passed for leading Ebert to mark and convert. At the restart Chad Cornes was coat-hangered by Petrie, Cornes passed the free to Boak, another pass to leading Ebert, mark and goal. Pearce drove the Powder forward again, Warren Tredrea juggled a grab and booted a sausage roll. Logan was awarded a lucky free-kick which displeased Roo Smith, who mouthed off at the ump about it. The resulting 50m penalty allowed Logan an easy six-pointer. Chad Cornes won the following centre-clearance, Shaun Burgoyne gathered his kick and handballed for Tredrea to snap a terrific goal. Tredders bowed to the rabid Port crowd as Port led by 71 points now, them 6 goals coming in the first 10 minutes of the third quarter. Commentators Walls and Blight didn’t like Tredrea’s arrogant bow. The Ruse Ed Lower kicked a point, their first score of the quarter, before the pace of the game slowed dramatically. Edwards missed awfully for the Roos again, he had a shocker but so did most Roos. Sansbury kicked a long point and Smith sliced a shot on-the-full before Tredrea bagged his third goal of the term, collecting Westhoff’s handpass to stab it through on-the-run. Norf responded with a goal, Brogan pinged for a throw 30m from his own sticks. Roo rover Daniel Harris converted the free. But Lade had a free at the restart, he passed to Rodan, on to Shaun Burgoyne who handballed for Chad Cornes to blast it through. Cornes celebrated excessively as Port led by 78 points at the final change. It was difficult to stay interested in the final term. Archer started at full-forward but missed an early chance. A bit later Brent Harvey, with his first kick of the second half, found Lower with a pass and Lower converted. He wasn’t too bad, considering. There were a few more points amongst some fairly uninteresting footy, Port men Ebert and Motlop were benched for preservation. Port managed a late burst of goals, Shaun Burgoyne’s centering kick found the busy Logan for a mark and major, then came another which I missed. A goal for roving Salopek completed the scoring, the TV folk spent the closing minutes paying tribute to Archer. He departed through an honour guard of all the players.

Port’s CHB Troy Chaplin (32 disposals, 8 marks) was a very good player with little opposition, David Hale supposedly. Shaun Burgoyne (18 disposals) got them going and former Lyin’ Tom Logan (23 possies, 11 marks, 2 goals) played very well, especially after half-time. Chad Cornes (27 disposals, a goal) made himself busy as did Danyle Pearce (28 possies, 10 marks, a goal), plenty of the ball from his forward-flank. David Rodan (22 touches, 2 goals) confirmed his status as ‘bargain of the season’ and Kane Cornes (24 handlings, a goal) did the job on Wells. Plenty of activity in attack with Brett Ebert (5 marks, 10 kicks, 3 goals), Daniel Motlop (3 marks, 13 disposals, 3 goals) and Warren Tredrea (7 marks, 13 touches, 3 goals) all contributing, Steven Salopek bagged 2 goals. The Shinboners’ best was probably skipper Adam Simpson (24 disposals). Daniel Harris (25 touches, a goal) won a bit of the ball in the first half and Ed Lower (21 disposals, a goal) did a good job on Peter Burgoyne. Brent Harvey (22 touches) did a little bit and Jess Sinclair (23 possies) managed to slow Shaun Burgoyne. Glenn Archer (15 possies, 5 marks) tried hard, if little else. Shannon Grant kicked 2 first-quarter goals. Dean Laidley was asked about his young players. “Oh look, I was most disappointed with them tonight. [David] Hale and [Hamish] McIntosh, [Andrew] Swallow, guys who have had pretty good years. But they’re our future and we’re not going to sweep it under the carpet - I’ll be after them during the pre-season . . . When the floodgates opened, it was 20 possessions to I think 60 very, very quickly in the third quarter and we just couldn’t get our hands on the football. It was just disappointing that . . . to go out this way with our younger guys who have been so good all year. You know I thought they probably didn’t perform tonight to what they should have. We had our opportunities. We kicked all those points, consecutive points . . . you’ve got to be able to nail those. We’d kick two or three points and have the run of the play and the ball would go up the other end and they’d kick a goal. [Then] go back, same thing. It happened probably three or four times where we, you know, sort of evened up the ledger during the game but they just kept the scoreboard ticking over . . . I think we’ve taken some extraordinary steps (this year) and I suppose in a way maybe everyone’s got their way to say ‘well, we told you so’, but it took us to a preliminary final. And the last probably month particularly . . . it’s going to stand us in really good stead [in the long run].” Mark Williams taunted the Cats, of course. “With a minute to go in that game (at Kardinia Park, Port won) there were a few people ready to knock down the walls at Geelong, so they know how close that game was. I’m not here to scare them. They know what’s coming up. Without doubt that win was important; not only for us, but for Geelong, they know . . . they know.” What about the game just finished, Choco? “For us, I’d say almost everything went right. North missed so many goals early in the second quarter and again in the third quarter that the game was blown apart. Our guys took their chances and we’re really glad they did. It was a lot closer than you might think. I know you’ll say it was a walkover, but it was hot, it was hard and it’s easily dismissed, but they just missed shocking shots on goal. More than anything that was the cause of the discrepancy between the scores. In Glenn Archer’s last game that result doesn’t leave a nice taste in his mouth, or in mine, for that fact. He’s such a legend of AFL, he plays life and death footy and it’s not a great way for him to finish.” But back to his favourite topic. “Geelong have got a lot of expectation on them and we go in there looking forward to the opportunity. Last time [in 2004], we took on a team that had won three premierships in a row [Brisbane Lions] so I’m not sure if there’s any greater task than that. We know we go to Melbourne with the odds stacked against us, but we do have 10 or 11 premiership players in our side and it’s not too long ago they were there. There’s a great freshness and youth about the rest of the group. They’re excited with a lot of them having sat on the sidelines and watched the boys win the 2004 premiership. They got a little taste of it from a distance and they would like to be able to achieve that for themselves.”

Next week, Grand Final:

Geelong v Port Adelaide, MCG, Saturday.

Curtain-raiser, TAC Cup GF:

Calder Cannons v Murray Bushrangers.

Cheers, Tim