OTTENS RECALLS GREAT RELIEF
THE pressure that had built up around Geelong leading into the 2007 finals series was enormous.
Having played in five losing grand finals since the 1963 premiership, the city, the club and its supporters were desperate for success.
Brad Ottens, who had been recruited to the Cats as the final piece of the puzzle at the end of 2004, can vividly recall the wait between the crushing qualifying final victory over North Melbourne and the preliminary final against Collingwood two weeks later.
But the intensity went to a new level after the win against the Pies, and Ottens says it wasn’t until the team had left Melbourne after the grand final that the achievement began to sink in.
“I remember feeling a huge amount of pressure as a club going into that finals series,” Ottens said.
“There was a lot of expectation on us externally and we expected a lot on ourselves as well. We played North
Melbourne in the qualifying final and won that quite easily (106 points) and over the following two weeks going into the preliminary final that pressure just built.
“I think there was about 98,000 people there for match against Collingwood and we were inexperienced as far as finals were concerned, so that was a huge hurdle for us. To fall over the line in that game was a huge relief.
“We took a lot of confidence from the performance against Collingwood, but that pressure just built again because there was another huge step to take.
“The town was buzzing and every car you drove past had a blue-and-white scarf hanging out the window.
“It was pretty hard to keep level-headed about it all because the hype had built to a point where we had such a dominant year that it would have felt like a tragedy if we didn’t win.
“One of the emotions I remember most about the post-grand final was when we were sitting at Truffleduck after we had finished up in Melbourne.
“It must have been about one in the morning and it was really subdued and quiet, and obviously I was really happy, but also just so relieved that we had achieved what we had set out to.
“To be able to sit back and enjoy it for those first few hours, that relief was the biggest emotion.”
Geelong’s winning margin of 119 points against Port Adelaide remains the biggest in VFL/AFL grand final history.
Ottens also provided one of many highlights from the match after chasing down Port Adelaide’s Michael Pettigrew in a stirring tackle on the forward flank late in the first quarter.