If there’s something that your boss, your barista and your mother will all have a say on this week, it will likely include the words “Mason Cox” and a ham-fisted reference to American Pie.
Before the first half of Friday night’s preliminary final was in the books, confidence was flowing from the 211-centimetre frame of Mason Cox, the former college basketballer from Flower Mound in Texas. As that energy flowed out he required also that it pour in, and when he took his third contested mark of the second quarter and kicked his third goal, that energy came back from 50,000 Collingwood supporters chanting “USA, USA!” It was evident this was no ordinary preliminary final (if there is such a thing).
The underdog wasn’t simply outpointing the premiership favourites, they were pantsing them. Even when Richmond kicked the first two goals of the final term to bring the margin to 21 points, you sensed Collingwood’s feverish pressure would allow the Pies regain control. And so they did when the hitherto ersatz key forward took another contested mark on the All-Australian full-back to set up a forward foray that ultimately led to an Adam Treloar’s goal. The Tigers’ night was done.
Cox’s performance – only Wayne Carey now tops him for most contested marks in a final – could be a curio of what has already been a peculiar season, or he might end up taking over the game on its biggest stage.
There was nothing peculiar, however, about the performance of Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom. This year Sidebottom has put together an impressive body of work that earned him his first All-Australian blazer, but the past three weeks have been something else. On Friday night he set a new mark for possessions in a preliminary final (41, at an efficiency of more than 85%), alongside 13 marks, five clearances and 545-metres gained. Not that it requires contrast, but Dustin Martin’s night ended with 19 possessions for just 175-metres gained and not a single clearance. Yes, Martin entered the game under a cloud, but preliminary finals are not for excuses. Where Martin was reluctant (he kicked the ball only half a dozen times), Sidebottom was composed. The 27-year-old’s ability to control the tempo of the contest to create for himself the time and space to play intelligent football is more pronounced amid the hectic pace and pressure of a football’s penultimate week.
“[They are] games where he has impacted, not just with his weight of possessions but with his decision making; with his capacity to make the smart decision at the right time,” said Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley. “It’s not just with ball in hand either; structurally he plays mid, he plays forward, he plays wing... He is smart enough to get into dangerous spots defensively for us or when we’ve got the ball in our hands.
“He is in rare form.”
And so are Collingwood.
“They were just far too good and unfortunately to deliver that performance when we needed a better one was uncharacteristic of our side,” said Richmond coach Damian Hardwick like someone wary after a horrible accident. “We’ll learn from it, we’ll grow from it, but it’s really hard at this stage to see that light unfortunately.”
The following afternoon, it took little more than a quarter for the lights to go out on Melbourne.
It was just more than a month ago that Melbourne set up their first finals appearance in 12 years by beating the Eagles by 17 points in Perth. That momentum soon rolled into talk that a drought-breaking flag was there for the taking. But whom the football gods will destroy they first call promising.
“The build-up has been probably a little bit less than Melbourne’s, so we had a pretty mature group that handled that week off really well. In particular, the first half we played pretty good footy,” said Eagles coach Adam Simpson.
Melbourne’s goalless opening half was a first for any team in a preliminary final, and the first by any team in a final since Heisenberg formulated his uncertainty principle in 1927, which in a way can be applied to these Dees – the more precisely you believe in this list, the less precise they will be. On Saturday, there were times when you wished Melbourne had more speed, more torque. But then you watched as handballs bounced at feet, sprayed a good foot wide or floated high deep in defence, you understood there was a reason the Dees played tepid football.
This is to take nothing away from the Eagles who were hot. Their Gaff-less midfield of Jack Redden, Dom Sheed, Luke Shuey and Elliot Yeo curbed the enthusiasm of Melbourne’s younger and more credentialed midfield and helped West Coast forward Josh Kennedy find his finals feet after a lacklustre return since missing two months of football with a hairline fracture in his shin.
Kennedy’s four goal first half is what sportswriters refer to as a statement game. It was a performance that, like a war wound, will itch Demon defender Sam Frost throughout the pre-season and keep his opponent of two weeks ago, Tyson Goldsack, up at night. The Eagles are now 12-0 this year when both Kennedy and Jack Darling play, including the Round 17 game when they combined for six goals to beat Collingwood by 35 points at the MCG.
It’s all set up for a grand final we’ll be talking about for some time.
