Every time Chris Scott is asked to address recent finals capitulations, he bristles. He’s not one for looking in the rear vision mirror. Leigh Matthews, his old coach and mentor, was exactly the same. Next contest. Next challenge. Next question.
But Geelong’s record in big games hangs over Scott. It hangs over this entire finals series. Year after year, their season has ended abruptly, rather meekly and all too predictably. It stretches back to 2012. Despite finishing sixth that year, they were a dangerous floater, having twice knocked off the hot pops Hawthorn.
Their elimination final against Fremantle loomed as a launching pad. But they played like a side that had just shambled out of bed. By quarter-time, Matthew Pavlich had established himself as a future Hall of Famer. The Dockers were finally relevant. Matthew Scarlett, a champion of the club, raised his hand like a driver giving a thank-you wave and disappeared up the race for good.
A year later, the Dockers mugged them on their home turf, before Hawthorn bundled them out in an epic, excruciating preliminary final. It was the end of the Kennett Curse. For many players and fans, it cut as deep as the grand final losses. The Hawks went and became one of the great sides of the modern era. Geelong found itself stuck in an era that’s been neither here nor there.
The following year, North Melbourne slammed on six goals in the first 15 minutes. Geelong later mounted an utterly bonkers and ultimately futile comeback. While everyone else was on the turps, Joel Selwood, who had carried the side all year, fronted up on Footy Classified with steam still coming from his ears.
he 2016 preliminary final was a facsimile, with Sydney racing to a 55-point lead halfway through the second quarter. The Cats were a live chance that year. The visitors were banged up and coming off a six-day break. Patrick Dangerfield won the Brownlow. Jimmy Bartel resembled Captain Thunderbolt. They knocked off the Hawks, who were gunning for four premierships on the trot. They had an imperious record against the eventual premiers. And they pissed away another season in about 15 minutes.
The 2017 qualifying final was one of the more highly anticipated games of recent times. The MCG was heaving and hostile. Richmond hadn’t beaten Geelong there since the turn of the century. But they brought a relentless, almost psychotic pressure that unnerved and gradually wore down the Cats. It was like watching a slow mudslide. A fortnight later, the Crows were at least mercifully quick, cutting Geelong to ribbons and sealing the deal by quarter-time.
Sensing a pattern here? Melbourne knew the blueprint heading into last year’s elimination final – explode from the blocks, hound and harass them and exploit their fringe players. The Cats had a dirty night. Their supporters didn’t turn up. Their champions looked old and angry. They butchered the ball. The Demons had been coming for several years and seemingly had the football world at their feet. It was their night, their crowd. The gentleman who wrote a book about the Dees’ recent woes and titled it The Great Deepression likened the scenes on the MCG concourse afterwards to the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Friday night is not an elimination game. But it will feel like one. There’ll be upwards of 95,000 people at the MCG. The vast majority will be Collingwood supporters. They’ll boo the Cats onto the arena. If Geelong gets rolled, Scott’s finals record will again be the story. The debate around the inherently unfair nature of AFL finals scheduling will get another airing.
Collingwood themselves have had a rotten run of luck in recent years. Wrecked knees, bung eyes, ruptured testicles, positive drug tests, drink driving, irregular wagering, blokes injuring themselves throwing frisbees, presidents insulting amputees, runners encroaching restricted zones in grand finals, every rumour you could conjure up. Just three weeks ago, Wayne Carey said they were merely making up the numbers.
But Nathan Buckley has somehow held them all together. And he and the club finally had a stroke of luck when the Hawks played out of their skins to roll West Coast and completely upend the top four. On Friday, one of their greats runs out for his 300th game. As a player, Scott Pendlebury took over exactly where Buckley left off. He’s an extraordinary footballer. It’s hard to remember him ever making a poor decision with the ball in hand. He seems to see the game about half a second quicker than anyone else. As the captain of a club where every little thing is magnified, he’s somehow forged the most remarkable of careers with a minimum of fuss. If it’s possible for a 300-gamer, a six-time All Australian, a five-time club champion and a Norm Smith medallist to be underrated, Pendlebury is.
The Magpies have the momentum, they have the crowd, they have the home ground advantage and they have an opponent that many believe wilt in the heat of finals. This is probably the Cats’ best side since 2011. They’ve spent five months atop AFL ladder. They have a full list to choose from. Their side is replete with Brownlow medallists, All-Australian captains and premiership heroes. Dangerfield, in particular, is playing like a man possessed. But all the pressure will be on Geelong. All the recent history is against them. They have everything to prove, and a hell of a lot to lose.
