Saints Blew Their Chance

St Kilda had Geelong on the ropes.

At half time in yesterday’s epic Grand Final, the Saints had racked up 37 forward 50 entries to just 15. That’s the kind of statistic normally associated with a thrashing.

Yet they lead by just a goal, thanks to costly misses by Stephen Milne and Andrew McQualter and two from the normally reliable Adam Schneider.

You can’t afford to miss those kinds of chances in a Grand Final.

Geelong learn that lesson in similar fashion 12 months ago – they kicked 11.23 last year.
They weren’t going to make the same mistake twice.

Implored by their coach Mark Thompson – who captain Tom Harley would later reveal “hates losing” – to treat the game as if it was the last they would ever play, the Cats responded.

They won most of the key stats in the second half and you could argue they deserved the win based on what happened after half time.

Ross Lyon was full of praise for his charges, but admitted it might have been one that got away.
“We left the door ajar,” he said. Geelong burst through it.

Saints fans can take some small solace in knowing that they lost to one of the best teams of the last 20 years.

Not that that will erase the pain of the last 40 years for St Kilda. The wait goes on for a second premiership in their 113 year history, although they are better placed to win one now than ever before.

It is often said that you have to lose one before you win one. Geelong discovered that a year ago. If St Kilda can manage that in a year’s time, it will have been well deserved.

They will retain most of their list for next year, minus Max Hudghton who announced his retirement this afternoon. St Kilda’s problems will come in a year or two when one or both of Steven King and Michael Gardiner hang up the boots. Anyone can tell you that you can’t win a premiership without two good ruckmen.

The Saints’ premiership window is wide open. It can shut quicker than you think.

Big Men the Difference for St Kilda

So the Saints have made the first Grand Final in 12 years and remain on track for a first premiership in more than four decades.

And they did it tough.

The Western Bulldogs threw everything they had at St Kilda for 120 minutes and one thing you can’t accuse the Dogs of is giving up. They won the possessions, they won the contested ball and they won the inside 50s by a huge margin of 56 to 40. The only area they lost was where it mattered – on the scoreboard.

Without a key forward to kick to teams simply will not win premierships. Look at every premiership team from the last 20 years. They’ve all had good to great full forwards.

They don’t have to be absolute superstars like Matthew Lloyd, Lance Franklin or Jonathon Brown – the Cats showed that in 2007.

But they have to at least force a contest and give you something to kick to – and for the two sides without a dominant key forward in those years in West Coast and Geelong, they at least had big bodies who could do that.

Ash Hansen, Quinten Lynch and even Andrew Embley could give you a target for West Coast and for the Cats it was Cameron Mooney and Nathan Ablett.

The Dogs have no-one. If they don’t go after Barry Hall it will be one of the more baffling decisions this year.

For the Saints, the biggest week of the footballing lives awaits, and they were certainly made to earn that right.

The tenacity of Lenny Hayes and the unrelenting work rate of Nick Reiwoldt were what saw them over the line.

Reiwoldt is in the top five players in the competition now, there’s no doubt about that. The only question over his game for me is his readiness to go to ground looking for free-kicks. He milked one off Brian Lake just after half time and looked forlornly at the umpires on a number of occasions. He’s too good for that – maybe that’s the most frustrating thing – he doesn’t have to resort to those tactics.

The atmosphere at the final siren was astonishing. There was a perceptive outpouring of emotion from the Saints fans around me. Hundreds stayed for 15 minutes, after the players had left the field, singing the song. They will certainly enjoy the week ahead and why not – they’ve earned it and on the balance of play this season they deserve to be Premiers.
But you don’t always get what you deserve on Grand Final day.

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.