Round 22, 2021
Geelong Cats 2.0, 6.2, 10.5, 13.7 (85)
St Kilda 5.1, 7.2, 10.3, 11.5 (71)
Crowd: Zero at Kardinia Park, Saturday, August 14th at 4.35pm
St Kilda’s 2021 season appeared to expire multiple times via all sorts of causes since a shoddy outing in Round 2 against the Demons, but the last rites were given by a one-two Kardinia Park punch.
When Mason Wood barrelled through our fifth goal against the Tigers in the Friday night rain at the MCG, I immediately turned to Matt and said “it’s a story if we lose”. It was our first game off the bye and after a 36-0 lead was given up to the Crows in Cairns, prompting all sorts of soul-searching inside the club and a rightful freak-out among the supporter base.
Somehow*, we went on with it at the MCG (*we didn’t know Richmond was plateauing at the time). We’ve made a habit of pissing away big leads – North (31 points) and Freo (37 points) last year, and a narrow escape against the Dogs after leading by 22 nearly 15 minutes into the last quarter of an Elimination Final. This year, that Richmond win was sandwiched between the Adelaide calamity in Cairns and a nearly more horrific calamity at the MCG against Collingwood.
Somehow, the five-goal-to-nothing start given up on Saturday evening is not the story coming out of the game. There was a lot more inevitability in this. Unlike those losses in previous seasons this was to a much more highly-fancied opponent who we knew weren’t going to just roll over with a whole lot more the line than ourselves.
The guy who’d dominated the last time we played the Cats but kicked 1.5 and looked broken for weeks was now dominating again, and in a way that was much more dangerous. He’d kicked 2.1 by the time we kicked 5.1 to 0.0, with a hand in every goal chain. Max was on the move. He wasn’t getting caught under it (it must be said, Jack Henry was doing a great job body-on-body considering he was giving away 12 centimetres) but who’s gonna stop Max once he gets some space or a run-up? Everything was sticking. This was the best footy we’d played. Pressure was good. All five goals were from turnovers and the ball movement was measured and fluid. Steele had seven touches in seven minutes and ten seconds of play. Sharman slotted the set shot from a tight angle.
Just as the camera cut to Max King moving awkwardly on the boundary, D-Mac was paid a free-kick against at half-back, in which the only alternative was for him to disappear completely, and then ex-Saint/one-time-Messiah-to-be Rhys glided across the pack from the resulting entry and kicked their first. The St Kilda fix was in. I harped on about the Cats last time. There’s a lot of grievance flying around at Red, White and Black’s Brunswick West HQ. Our best team ever got their best team ever, and we still can’t even have our best player out there on a day in which our season is supposed to die in an awkward time slot via a Kayo feed and HDMI cord.
***
Perhaps we were in for another strange week for contenders after the previous Round, as we could see Carlton skip out to an early lead over the Power on the bottom-right scorebug? Nah. Jason Dunstall uttered the famous words, “He’s on fire. He is on fire, Callum Wilkie”, but he was busy for a reason and the Cats were already shifting things. To a man, their physical presence in every contest is remarkable. Their list, recruiting and player development has suited their game style incredibly well; just like 361 days ago, when we sat second on the ladder and met them in fifth, there was not much chance we were able to go with them.
Bringing back memories of Hawkins’ poster in the 2009 Grand Final (grievance, but understandable) and the 2010 Qualifying Final (grievance; although we won, and there was a video uploaded to YouTube – since taken down – that detailed several minutes of favourable decisions to the Cats), after the D-Mac decision there were multiple occasions that would have had anyone reasonably shitty about the umpiring and St Kilda history generally. Dangerfield threw the ball just so, so blatantly. Ratugolea ran off with the footy out of the middle after a free was paid our way with no 50-metre penalty given, Menegola was given a touch-and-go decision on the goal line. Max King took a mark in the third quarter in the forward pocket and Blicavs turfed the ball in frustration, and as it trickled away and as Saints players protested, the umpire paused briefly and offered “I didn’t see it”, which is what coaches say in the post-match presser when they can’t be fucked commenting on something shitty one of their players did.
Like I do every time I bring up umpiring in a game (thank you for grounding me in the moment, St Julio), it is also worth noting the comprehensive way the ball lived in their half from the time of their first goal. Our midfielders just weren’t getting the ball, and when we did, we either got Sinclair setting up Higgins with a perfectly weighted forward 50 entry, or Sinclair setting Membrey with a perfectly weighted forward 50 entry, only for the Vice Captain, on his own and in space, to drop it. Hill gave up two shots at goal, including turning over Jack Steele’s mark going back with the flight. At the end of the day, 32 inside 50s will win you close to zero games.
Hawkins was angry and contest by contest was more of a presence from borderline fresh airing it, and by the end was giving off goals and concussing Darragh Joyce (of course he didn’t get suspended) Cameron was taking marks in the forward line and up on the wing. Jack Steele had 20 touches with 11 minutes and 20 seconds left in the second quarter. This whole result was 0% his fault by the way, but more as a reflection go the Cats flexing their top four muscle, he had only (“only”) 21 at half-time, and 30 by game’s end. In the automated app push notification that comes with the Dare Sainter of the Round result, he was referred to as “Captain Commendable”.
Dangerfield might not have necessarily wanted it more than Steele or anyone else, but he did a better job at showing it. This became a rare game in an era defined by systems that had its trajectory changed by repeated individual efforts of a single player who willed themselves across different parts of field. He could do it all on the ground and in the air, and he came up with match-sealing move.
***
By the end, decent moments were few and far between. We had them for 26 minutes, they had us for a bit more than three quarters. This is what the team is. It’s not just the side that was smashed several times over early in the season (depriving us of a slightly more interesting last week of the year), nor the side that kicked itself out of games against flag fancies, nor the side that pulled out wins against flag fancies. It’s the side that did all of those things, whiplashing between them week to week, quarter to quarter, minute to minute.
Remembering that Cooper on a couple of occasions presented with the second effort sprint high up on the wing for the run-past, reflects the mindset of a supporter whose team is done for the year and is looking to the future. Cooper is somewhere between Ryan Gamble and Spencer White for hype, physical build and an oversized St Kilda jumper. In the best and most exciting possible way, of course. Yet, the slightly too excited yelp when he casually bobbed up near goal and nailed the set shot to keep our season going reminded me that the forever competitive part of my supporter’s heart still wanted something from this.
With just over six minutes left, Fox Footy cut to the boundary level camera as St Kilda worked its way forward and Dan Butler got caught up in a tackle. At that moment, there was just a faint tweak that something actually was on the line. That yes, I do want something to come of this year after almost four months of being indifferent about our chances at scraping into the eight, and that if only a few moments had turned out differently-