CATS' COURAGE IS CHAMPION HALLMARK

If there’s been a more courageous win this season than Geelong’s effort against Hawthorn last weekend, I haven’t seen it.

When Brent Guerra kicked the first goal of the last term, the Cats were 28 points down and gone.
The Hawks had their swagger back.
Lance Franklin, who epitomises so much of what Hawthorn is about, had kicked five, and Sam Mitchell and Brad Sewell were dominating in the middle.
With Matthew Scarlett out with a groin strain and Harry Taylor also off the field injured, it looked a lost cause.
The Hawks, had they won, would have been in the eight today.

Instead, the Cats, perhaps driven by the heartache of that last Saturday in September last year, continued to attack.
Perhaps it is this which is most commendable about the win.
Down on personnel, down on the scoreboard, they played the only way they knew how – flat out.
Joel Selwood – the oldest, wisest and toughest 20 year old in the competition – along with the imperious Gary Ablett, hauled their team over the line thanks to Jimmy Bartel’s last gasp point.

It was a victory for the ages, and no wonder Cats coach Mark Thompson was glowing in his praise for his team after the match.

"When a coach sits there and says that anything can happen in a game of footy, I think now you'll believe them, because to be 22 points down and to have two of your key defenders out, to get up and win is an extraordinary effort,” he told the post-match media conference.
"They'll know exactly what that means for the rest of their lives, I think."

High praise from a man who is known for not saying a great deal.

The Cats play with that burning desire to right the wrongs of last year.
They have injury problems, but it’s only great sides who can overcome the losses they’ve suffered this year.
Leigh Matthews has likened Geelong to Essendon in 2001 - injured, stumbling, on the ropes even, ripe for the picking by a young team hell-bent on reaching the summit.
It’s hard to argue the point, and Geelong’s win is eerily similar in nature to that famous comeback by Essendon against North Melbourne in 2001.

But the Cats will most likely get their big names back before the finals come around.
And it is that which will hold them in good stead come September.
Make no mistake, the Cats will be there on the last day of the season.
Only problem is, there’s a small matter of the unbeaten Saints waiting for them in September.
They are mostly injury free, in red hot form and beat the Cats a month ago.

The finals will be epic.