Goliaths do battle to be the best

GEELONG and Richmond have met in a preliminary and qualifying final in recent years and now coaches Chris Scott and Damien Hardwick say the footy world is getting the AFL Grand Final it had to have.

The Cats and Tigers will meet in their first grand final since 1967 when they clash at the Gabba on Saturday with Richmond closing in on a dynasty and Geelong eyeing a fairytale finish to Gary Ablett’s career.

Scott said Richmond had been the benchmark but clarified his previous comments that the gap between the Tigers and the rest was not as great as other top teams in recent memory.

“The competition is getting more even year on year, by design, the AFL has set it up that way,” he said.

“I’ve said over and over again, they’ve clearly been the best side of the past three or four years . . . but the idea that only three or four teams could win it, which was where the competition used to be, is just crazy and I think that’s good for the game.

“We haven’t been arrogant enough to think we have everyone else covered bar Richmond.

“We have a degree of confidence but the execution piece is so much harder than the planning, working out what to do is pretty easy but being able to execute it against the best in a pressurised situation is much harder.”

Hardwick said he had allowed himself a moment to dream of a third flag in four years but not at the expense of taking his eye off the ball.

“You can sit there and dream as much as you like but the fact of the matter is you have to do a hell of a lot of work to get there. We give ourselves an opportunity and we’re excited,” he said.

“Two pretty good sides that have been playing a great brand of footy for a long period of time, they’ve (Geelong) been a yardstick along with our football club for a number of years and I think it’s about time we played off in a grand final.”

Asked whether Ablett’s swan song was a motivating factor for the Cats, captain Joel Selwood said “very small”.

“And that’s no disrespect to him, but Gaz came out at the start of the year and allowed everyone in the football world to know this is (his last season) and hopefully I speak for everyone that we’ve celebrated him the right way,” Selwood said.

“It would be lovely to see him up there receiving a medal at the end of the day, but I’m sure Trent’s (Cotchin) going to say different.”

Cotchin said: “I like Gaz, but not that much though.”