September 20, 2009
The last time Geelong and St Kilda clashed it was dubbed the 'Grand Final in July' and, leaving aside club allegiances, this was the premiership play-off the purists had long craved.
It's an intriguing mix of the relentless pressure of the Saints with the quest for redemption from the Cats; the regimentation of Ross Lyon as opposed to the risk-taking espoused by counterpart Mark Thompson.
The recent intense rivalry between these two clubs dates to the middle of this decade when both were touted as the teams most likely to end the drought.
Geelong got their spoils in 2007 in record-breaking style after a 44-year wait, even though last year the Cats inexplicably froze on football's biggest stage after being mugged by a strategically sound and desperate Hawthorn.
St Kilda are still waiting to add to their sole premiership from 1966. It's 43 years on Thursday since Barry Breen kicked the most famous point in Australian football, and Darrel Baldock claimed the cup, albeit wearing a Collingwood jumper.
This will be only the fourth time in history this pairing has met in a final, and the first time in a grand final. Geelong have emerged victorious in all, including a 58-point flogging in the 2008 qualifying final.
But so much has changed about the Saints, and even the Cats, since then.
St Kilda have produced a rare season of excellence. Yet the Saints almost coughed up a grand final berth when Western Bulldogs took the contest up to them on Friday night before Nick Riewoldt rescued their season.
Geelong are into their third straight grand final with renewed momentum and a healthier list than for much of the year.

At certain stages, mainly due to injury issues, the Cats have appeared more gummy shark than white pointer, in so far as they have not been able to feed on sides in the remorseless way they once did.
Yet they feasted on Collingwood like the Geelong of old on Saturday night, to the tune of 73 points.
Both the Cats and the Saints were undefeated after 13 rounds, the only time in history this has happened. Their meeting in round 14 produced one of the most remarkable games in one of the most remarkable seasons.
In many ways, it posed more questions than it answered.
Less than two minutes before the end, the teams were locked together before Michael Gardiner soared over a pack to mark and kick the match-winning goal.
Consider the match-ups from that day. In the midfield, Gary Ablett had Clint Jones as his shadow. Cameron Ling was running with Nick Dal Santo. Wrecking balls Lenny Hayes and Joel Selwood were crunching into each other. And add Joel Corey and Jimmy Bartel as well as Leigh Montagna and Brendon Goddard into the mix.
The contests at either end were as intriguing.
Harry Taylor had his hands full with Nick Riewoldt, while Zac Dawson also had his issues with Cameron Mooney.
As they have all season, the Saints will try to strangle the life out of the Cats' offensive machine with frontal pressure. The Cats will be even more daring, and try to bash through it with run and carry.
It is the ultimate risk-reward strategy that has served Thompson's men well in those three years of domination that comes with a "but". And that is, that they have only one premiership to show for it.
The shadow that hangs over Geelong is that great sides win multiple premierships.
Come 2.30pm on Saturday, the Cats will be only a few hours from possibly achieving that greatness, and the Saints will the same distance from their shot at glory.
- Sunday Herald Sun

Hot Adelaide Crows signal title ambitions

Courtney Walsh | September 05, 2009
Article from: The Australian

Adelaide 25.10 (166) Essendon10.10 (70)
ADELAIDE affirmed its premiership aspirations with an emphatic 96-point thrashing and ended Essendon's season in an elimination final that proved a contest for little more than a quarter at AAMI Stadium last night.

After an even opening, the Crows broke the back of their undermanned opponent with an eight-goal-to-two second term and continued to run rampant after half-time.
Adelaide, the only side to claim a premiership from outside the top-four since the introduction of the eight - albeit under a different format - have an eight-day break to prepare for next Saturday night's semi-final against the loser of tomorrow's clash between St Kilda and Collingwood.
It means the Victorian side will be forced to play a fresh Crows side off a six-day break, despite finishing with the double-chance.
Even a potential concern for the Crows surrounding second ruckman James Sellar, who left the field dazed and bleeding in the third term with a head injury after sliding into Mark McVeigh's knee, was allayed when he managed to return later that quarter.
The Crows will monitor prolific midfielder Scott Thompson after he appeared to strain a hamstring in the last term.
This was an outstanding performance from the Crows, with the architects of the victory ranging from the inexperienced in Andy Otten and Patrick Dangerfield, to those who have stood atop the premiership dais before in Andrew McLeod and captain Simon Goodwin.
The Bombers, rank outsiders given the stars absent from its side through injury and suspension, were competitive early in the contest and reached quarter-time only a goal in arrears.
Their ability to isolate forwards within their 50m arc - with their leg speed and the execution of occasionally risky handballs to free a teammate not allowing the Crows time to construct their vaunted defensive zone - will be something next week's rival will have noted, with Irishman Michael Quinn twice left alone in attack for easy opportunities.
Perhaps Craig's only real worry for the night was the conduct of his runner Kris Hinck, whose bizarre brain-fade to run through the mark when Angus Monfries was having a set-shot led to the Bombers first goal and a reversal of the norm - a runner dragged to the bench to answer an abusive phone call from the coach.
Yet it was evident by quarter-time that the Bombers, coming off successive six-day breaks including a trip to Perth, had spent a high portion of their energy reserves trying to keep pace with the Crows, who were yet to hit top-gear.
Critically, while the Bombers may have ended the premiership defence of their despised rivals Hawthorn, it was the fall-out from their inability to curb their tempers in that match that proved costly.
Skipper Matthew Lloyd may have been banned for four weeks for his hit on Brad Sewell but it was Paddy Ryder's love-tap on Luke Hodge that effectively signed Essendon's exit papers for 2009, for it left the Bombers without a ruckman capable of being competitive last night.
Tom Bellchambers, the long-term proposition in the infancy of his development, was a late withdrawal, leaving key defender Cale Hooker and Nathan Lovett-Murray, usually a floating flanker, as the lambs to what proved a slaughter.
This was football's version of a David and Goliath battle, given Lovett-Murray was conceding his main rival, Ivan Maric, height and 17kg.
The disparity was apparent by quarter-time - the Crows led the hitouts 22 to 2 at that stage and extended the dominance to to 45-17 by game's end - with evidence it would prove a hindrance throughout the night.
While some experts have questioned whether ruckman have a place in the game - former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas the most prominent - last night was a chief exhibit countering that argument.
Kurt Tippett, who helped himself to nine tapouts in the forward line in the term, kicked his first goal after Maric swotted aside makeshift rival Lovett-Murray at a boundary throw-in to palm to the outstanding Bernie Vince, who pumped the ball into the danger area.
The second term example occurred in the blink of an eye, with Maric again palming to Vince out of the centre, who drove long to Dangerfield, who extended the Crows lead beyond 20 points for the third time in the quarter.
That was one of the 24 clearances Adelaide claimed in the first half, a tally double the rate of the undermanned Bombers, who were unable to identify a solution that would allow them first use of the football.
Not that the Crows needed assistance - after an even first quarter, their dominance stretched from the rucking contest the breadth of AAMI Stadium - but Essendon's lack of poise in defence further hindered its slim prospects, with the errant Jarrod Atkinson a leading cause of friendly fire.
When Jason Porplyzia snapped his second goal for the night within 23 seconds of the second half beginning - assisted by the slip of a Bomber rival - any faint hopes of an Essendon revival were all but snuffed out.

Rocca's career at crossroads

Greg Denham | September 07, 2009
Article from: The Australian

COLLINGWOOD has been all the rage for some weeks to win the premiership, but it now has everything against it in its bid to progress to a preliminary final.
Not that coach Mick Malthouse acknowledged that last night after being beaten by St Kilda for the second time this season.
The Magpies face a rampaging Adelaide at the MCG on Saturday night after the Crows have an extra two days to prepare for the game following their 96-point thrashing of Essendon at AAMI Stadium on Friday night.
Collingwood's momentum has been snapped, and as well, injuries are likely to force Scott Pendlebury and Anthony Rocca out for the remainder of the season.
Certainly 2009 appears all over for Pendlebury who sustained a suspected fractured leg early in the match.
And Rocca damaged the same ankle that has previously required surgery and prevented him from playing for the majority of the season.
In his first game since round seven, and after booting two goals from limited opportunities, Rocca limped off in the final minute of the game and his career appears at the crossroads.
After the Pies won 12 of 13 games coming into the final home-and-away round of the season, they have now lost consecutive games and key players.
But Malthouse declared his club would come out fighting against Adelaide in the weekend's knockout final.
"We have got, and earned, the right, because we finished in the top four, to play another game and that's incentive enough," Malthouse said.
"We have got a very good record of close tight duels against Adelaide.
"Are we down in the mouth? I think that anyone who's lost a qualifying final is going to be disappointed. But the art is showing some courage and getting back.
"We remain six days away from doing something about it."
One of Collingwood's strengths in the second half of the season was its prolific midfield, which was well and truly thrashed yesterday by the Saints runners, led brilliantly by Lenny Hayes, particularly in the first half when it was still hot in the kitchen.
"We just didn't get the footy," was Malthouse's simplistic explanation of the negative 28-point result, which actually flattered the Magpies.
St Kilda won all the key indicator areas and finished with 160 possessions more than Collingwood and 15 more entries into its forward 50m arc.
Malthouse did not believe Dane Swan or Shane O'Bree had enough influence on the match, but they were no orphans.
Leon Davis and Alan Didak were also poor.
"I thought defensively we were reasonably sound," Malthouse said. "I said to the match committee during the week that I thought 13 (goals) would win it.
"So 12 goals is not a massive score, but in today's football when you are playing sides that defend the ground and defend the ball pretty well, that's a pretty good score.
"So the only way you can have an influence on that is to win the football and I think we had 275 possessions of which our midfield just didn't get the footy."
Malthouse believes Simon Pestigiacomo could not possibly play as poorly as yesterday in consecutive weeks.
The coach singled out the defender for criticism after his opponent, Nick Riewoldt, constantly beat him for pace and eventually booted five goals.
"It's probably Simon's worst game I reckon he's played," Malthouse said. "Simon knows that and he acknowledged that in our brief after the game, so I wouldn't expect him to play as poorly again."
In response to questioning about next week's schedule, in which Adelaide receives a clear advantage despite winning a game less than the Pies during the home-and-away season, Malthouse said: "Tell me what's fair in life. Sometimes it's better to get straight back on the horse, three or four days later than worry about seven or eight days."
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said he would not have been happy with the fixturing in the second week of the finals had positions been reversed.
"Any team is really capable of a one-off six-day break," he said. "But I think it's a little unfair that you can finish top four and come off a losing first final, and play a team that finishes fifth to eighth and get an eight-day to six break. We wouldn't have been thrilled if that had been the situation."
Collingwood defeated Adelaide by 21 points at AAMI Stadium in round 19 but lost to the Crows by four points at the MCG in the opening round of the season.