Geelong – 17.18 (120)
Collingwood – 6.11 (47)
Geelong has advanced to their third consecutive Grand Final after an emphatic 73 point win of the Pies in front of 87,000 at the MCG. The Pies were in the game for the first half trailing by only 11 points at the main change. Geelong however was able to pile on 10 goals to the Pies 1 in the second half to stamp their dominance over the Magpies on the night.
The Cats had too many winners across the ground while the Pies will be left asking what went wrong after such a promising lead up to this match.
Ablett and company set up the victory through the middle of the ground with the Cats dominating possession for the entire match.
Big moment
‘Tough to really put a finger on the Big Moment for the match. The third quarter however was were the Cats really dominated. The Big hairy cat Cameron Mooney was given a 50m penalty after tacking a mark up the ground . Mooney was given a generous 50 and then slammed home the goal to further extend the Cats lead.
Key players for Geelong
Gary Ablett – If Brownlow medal votes were given out for finals Ablett would be hard pressed in not receiving three votes after tonight. Ablett racked up 34 possessions or the night with 11 of these being contested. He had 7 clearances for the game, 4 inside 50s and also 2 assists. He also contributed with 2 goals and 3 behinds.
Paul Chapman – Not to be out done Chapman had a massive night at the MCG. 26 disposals with 19 kicks and 7 handballs. Kicked 5 goals straight for the game, 3 clearances, 3 inside 50s and 2 scoring assists. Was able to show just how important a fit Paul Chapman is for the Cats.
Cameron Ling – Played most of the night on Dane Swan and gave him an absolute bath. Kept Swan to a modest 17 disposals but was able to rack up 27 disposals of his own. This included 7 clearances and 2 inside 50s. Really helped to negate the Collingwood midfield players.
Jimmy Bartel – To round off the midfield domination Jimmy Bartel gets a mention tonight. With 32 disposals and 12 being contested was able to have a very good night. Had 7 inside 50s, 3 scoring assists, 3 clearances and also 5 tackles.
Key players for Collingwood
Shane O’Bree – In possibly his last game, he and a few others were the only players to show some fight in the midfield. Finished with a team high 26 possessions and 8 clearances.
Tyson Goldsack – Dominated Steve Johnson and was quite possibly Collingwoods only winner on the ground.
Leigh Brown – Downtown Brown was the Pies most dangerous forward throughout the night and was one of the few that managed to take a marks inside-50. Finished with 15 possessions and 1 goal.
General musings from the match
• ……..And we finally get to see the Grand Final that all the purists want!
• One Hulk Hogan was in attendance for tonight’s match and was attracting a lot of attention.
• Scott Pendlebury was replaced by Dayne Beams after being ruled out with his recently cracked fibula.
• I’d call the crowd a 50/50 split between those going for the Pies and Geelong.
• The weather looked like it was going to have a major bearing on the game before the bounce with constant rain falling but it stopped about 20 minutes before the bounce to stay that way for the rest of the game.
• A nice little hitout for the Cats before the big dance.
Geelong match musings
• The Cats just had too much of the ball, having 161 more disposals than the Pies for the night.
• Really Geelong dominated every key stat on the ground other than tackles and also free kicks.
• Really good signs for the Cats looking to next week with no injuries to speak of and all the Key players getting through the game. Mainly Chapman, Ottens and also Steve Johnson.
• The Cats second half was just great kicking a total of 71 points to the Pies 9.
• Even Mark Blake was getting involved on the act in the second half. The much criticized big man was even able to pull down a contested mark much to the joy of the supporters.
• Geelong only had 5 players with less than 15 disposals for the night. Even more so, the Cats had 12 players with 20 disposals or above as compared to 3 for the Pies.
Collingwood match musings
• There’s always next year eh?
• Why bomb’ it long with no pack marking forward there?
• Most of the 44 inside-50s were junk ones which went straight to a Geelong player zoning off their player.
• Why does Tom Hawkins decide to kick straight against Collingwood and only Collingwood?
• He beat Presti by a fair bit as well who had a shocker.
• So that pretty much puts the final nail in the coffin into Leon Davis being a dud’ finalist.
• At least Didak has his 03’ finals display to hand his hat on……………
• The Pies looked really up for this at the start of the game, and started really well.
• As soon as Geelong got going, it was curtains.
• You know you are struggling when Mark freakin’ Blake is doing a job around the ground…….
Where to now for both clubs?
Geelong is now in their third Grand Final in 3 years, and will be hell-bent on making it count after last year’s upset. The iron is hot!
The Pies hopefully now know what it takes to be a top-3 side after being out-classed by the Bulldogs, Saints and now Geelong in the space of a month. Time is on their side by looking at their list compared to other prelim’ contestants, but there is no masking that this is another lost opportunity.
Geelong sections by Brent
Collingwood sections by Vish
Tags: Cameron Ling, Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Leigh Brown, Paul Chapman, Shane O'Bree, Tyson Goldsack
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