After years ofbattling, these Dees are real deal
MELBOURNE supporters would have felt uneasy when the Demons decided to double-dip at the 2014, 2015 and 2019 national drafts.
A decade of draft disasters had burned their belief, a pain desensitised only by more than 50 years of failure.
Hot selections squandered on Cale Morton (No. 4 in 2007), Jack Grimes (No. 14), Jack Watts (No. 1 in 2008), Sam Blease (No. 17), James Strauss (No. 19), Lucas Cook (No. 12 in 2010) and Jimmy Toumpas (No. 4 in 2012) headlined the wipe-out, not to mention overlooking Dustin Martin twice in 2009.
They haven’t wasted a hand since. From bluff and bust to a straight flush, going bullseye on Luke Jackson (No. 3 in 2019), Kysaiah Pickett (No. 12), Clayton Oliver (No. 4 in 2015), Sam Weideman (No. 9), Christian Petracca (No. 2 in 2014), Angus Brayshaw No. 3), Christian Salem (No. 9 in 2012) and Jack Viney (father-son).
No longer is there room for a flighty footballer. They are bulls, these midfielders. Big, strong, powerful and contested bulls, and they ripped the Cats to shreds.
They are so ferocious that warrior Nathan Jones has been tipped to the side. For Jones, one fairytale ends and another begins.
The heart-and-soul champion will fly home on Sunday morning to reunite with wife Jerri, who is in hospital preparing to give birth to twins.
Jones was desperate to bow out a premiership star, but a place in the grand final 23 is simply not to be. He shouldn’t reflect the hellish “Old Melbourne”, rather the bridge that helped connect the dark with the light.
Geelong entered the preliminary final with 323 games’ experience to Melbourne’s 69.
But history means bugger all. Petracca, Oliver and Brayshaw are making their own history.
It is a Grand New Flag for these boys who spoil, smother, poke, prod and deflect without the Sherrin. How often do the Dees scrape in a fingernail to affect the footy? They make it deviate.
They force a routine 10m handball to fall short, which invites them all to dial up the pressure. Then, they become devastating, and they are ignited by lightning hands.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge rates Oliver’s hands as the cleanest, or close to, in the AFL.
But Petracca has him for speed and Salem has them for poise and vision.
Ten years after Geelong smoked Melbourne by 186 points, the Demons seized their weapons.
It was their best performance this century.
The Demons scored 101 points from stoppages, the fourth-most since statistics were taken in 1999.
The record was 108 points, set by the Cats at Kardinia Park that day.
Thank goodness chief executive Gary Pert stuck fat with Goodwin after last year’s review.
Steve May’s delicate hamstring was the only sour note.
Will 15 days of hyperbaric chambers and blood injections save May, who stayed on as goalkeeper after the early tweak?
It seems unlikely, which could see Weideman sneak in should Tom McDonald cover May, given Joel Smith (hamstring) is also unlikely to be ready.
The analysis will declare the Cats are over the cliff. That was the storyline after Geelong ran into Melbourne in 2018 and a roaring Richmond in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
The three-headed monster of Esava Ratugolea, Jeremy Cameron and Hawkins is Chris Scott’s favourite recipe and Mark O’Connor, Jack Henry, Gryan Miers and Bradley
Close are on the up.
After five preliminary finals in six seasons it is unlikely Scott’s side will step steeply south.
The critics will come for Scott, too, given the Cats are like Alf Stewart – home-and-away stars. Instead the question should be this – how does Geelong actually take that next step?
Has any club ever set up camp so close to the summit and then actually not climbed it?
Perhaps Port Adelaide was the last in 2004, when coach Mark Williams shed the choker’s tag.
Fast forward 17 years and Williams is back in the big one, this time as Melbourne’s development coach.
Perhaps there would be one slice of history worth bringing back from the past.
No, not a Power premiership, but a Pickett Norm Smith, because “Kozzie” plays with a blast.