It was one of those Melbourne days.
When, in Melbourne, it feels like the whole world has fixed its gaze on the MCG and what might unfold. Two magnificent local clubs, Geelong Cats and Hawthorn, and all they stand for, going head-to-head for a spot in a preliminary final. The two clubs of the past decade (with a nod to Sydney Swans as well).
One club standing for excellence. Hawk excellence. The other club standing for excellence. Cats excellence. Both clubs celebrating their own people – especially their players, and each year regenerating. Building their culture. In tune with the alchemy of skill and chance, of management and good fortune, of hope and belief, which bestow on footy such intrigue.
In 2016, both sides have won an opportunity to show what they can do in September.
So the day is given to football – the whole day. Theo, aged eight, is off to school with his two younger sisters. Waiting for the hours to pass.
I am off to lunch with their mum - a Footy Almanac lunch at the North Fitzroy Arms where I am MC and Percy Jones, a four-time premiership player with Carlton, is the host. I know it’s a special day because Perc has trimmed his moustache and he is bright-eyed. No hint of a world-weary slouch. It’s like the runner’s come popped in from Brunswick St and waved the smelling salts under his schnozz.
These days the dining room is filled with Carlton memorabilia. Perc with Alex (as Perc calls Jezza), Perc with Gough (as Perc calls Gough), Perc with The Rhodes Scholar (as Perc calls Mike Fitpatrick when he’s not reminding us that Mike played second ruck); décor which represents Perc’s best effort to re-define geography and place this Fitzroy pub a couple of blocks west over Nicholson Street. But the front bar remains all Fitzroy with portraits of Butch Gale and Kevin Murray and Billy Stephen and its Roys’ Team of the Century jumper.
Our special guests are Hawks 1971 premiership player Ray Wilson whose childhood was spent just up St George’s Road in Preston. He tells us he went to Northcote High and then to uni and Newman College and played in a premiership at Uni Blacks, a team which he has led out of the wilderness over the past couple of decades. He is playfully ribbed by his old mate Gareth Andrews, a stalwart as player and vice-president (for many years) of the Geelong Football Club, and 1974 Richmond premiership player. And Ray gives plenty back as well. They have had the smelling salts as well: they have Perc’s sparkle and are looking forward to the match just as much as the rest of us.
Their old mate A.P. Sheahan, former MCC president, is among the lunch group (wearing his finest Geelong socks). There is a consensus that anything could happen tonight.
I also interview two youngsters who are in Melbourne with their dads. Harry Lennon is 10 and he’s down from Brisbane where he plays for The Gap Dragons and Harry Hoskings who’s down from Sydney where he plays for the Maroubra Saints.
It’s a lazy afternoon as the rain mizzles and eventually lunch makes its way to the MCG. I pick up Theo and we take the packed train. Then down through Yarra Park where a massive crowd is milling, waiting for security checks, making our way into the ground.
Theo is the first of the Harms lineage to apply to become a member of the MCC. He was nominated shortly after his birth in 2007 – a Geelong premiership year. We’re all still on the waiting list so tonight we are high up in the Great Southern Stand. Theo is partly excited, partly engaged, partly distracted by the Footy Record.
I am totally engaged and trying to make sense of the game’s direction. Bodies everywhere. No time. No space. Few opportunities for clean possession, let alone a goal.
Fuses have been lit. The Selwood brothers share a fuse. A short one. It seems the Luke Hodge fuse is even shorter as he gives away 50 for niggling Joel Selwood. The Geelong skipper converts. The Cats skip a couple clear but no side really has the upper hand. The contest is intense. Physical. There’s mistakes. Kicks into the man on the mark. At half-time it’s anyone’s game.
During the third, Hawthorn get on top. Shaun Burgoyne wins the applause of everyone at various stages throughout the game, while Hodge and Sam Mitchell don’t. Half the ground loves them, half loathes them. But they don’t care a jot. The reigning premiers skip three goals clear and Theo and I are worried.
But the concern is wiped from our brows as three quick goals – unexpected – give us the lead by three quarter time. How did that happen?
Theo may not appreciate it yet but during his life-time the rivalry that existed between these two clubs has been sung into the world’s biggest amplifier and reverberated around the sporting world. Geelong: champions early. Hawthorn surprised in 2008, then have defied the odds – even logic – to win three in a row. Both are great teams, but that doesn’t stop us all from asking the question: which is the greater?
Does this question permeate every contest, player on player? Does it underpin every Catter’s and Hawker’s observation? Around the world? Are we better than the other mob? Forget the rest of the competition for a moment. This is the main game for now. The only game.
And it’s up for grabs.
The Hawks lead. The Cats, led by Joel Selwood, strike back. Then the Hawks. With 10 minutes to play we’re yearning a goal. After dominating territory for what seems like forever, Jimmy Bartel squirts a handball to the skipper who bangs the footy forward. It falls to Caddy who runs at goal and bangs one through.
“We’ve hit the front!”
Theo, who has looked a little tired at times, is alive now.
“C’mon Cats!”
We go forward again, and somehow control the game. Both teams are exhausted but will themselves to get to the footy, to get to their opponent, to turn and chase, to hold the footy in, to do all those desperate things which keep the game yours. The Cats play on their terms with Enright and Lonergan and Taylor sweeping as the Cats forwards lock the game down.
But not everyone has the inclination to do that. Steven Motlop, who has been in and out all night, soccers a loose ball. It skids through for a point. The Hawks have the footy. More desperation. Theo is up and down in his seat –actually, on his seat, as we are in the very back row. We win the footy back. Again it falls to Motlop, who sneaks along the boundary line and dribbles to goal. Another point!
We’ve given the ball back to them again.
“Get back! Get back! Run! Run!” we yell, and gesture.
Lewis marks the kick in and turns and goes the torp. It’s a mongrel. Worse than a mongrel. It goes nowhere.
“No!”
It’s fallen to Burgoyne. There’s space everywhere and loose Hawks players running into. It’s an old-fashioned military debacle. Burgoyne chips to Breust who marks right on the limit of his distance, so he’s worried. He goes to pass but Boris Enright who has pumped his ancient legs to get back to defend finds the last drop of effort and smothers. It goes straight back to Breust but Boris, the Einstein of all footballers, has read the fall and is about to shut Breust down. Cheers for Boris and his football genius are halfway from the throat when Boris slips. “Oh no!”
Breust, relieved, chips over the top and finds Isaac Smith on his own about 40 metres out. “Oh no! Oh no!”
Theo is joining in the oh-no chorus when the siren goes. We can just hear it.
Theo cheers. “We’ve won! We’ve won!”
“No, Theo,” I say. “He gets to have his kick!”
Theo’s jubilation turns to a mournful groan from deep within. “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! ”he moans.
I am resigned to Fate.
He misses. We hug.
The music plays. We sing the song.
I spare a thought for Isaac Smith.
Theo is soaking it all in.
How did we win that?
We’re in the preliminary final.
And as we waited on the platform at Jolimont Station I thought that this game, football, delivered on its morning promise. As it so often does. Even if some of us were happier than others.
John Harms is editor of Balcony Banter. His memoir of following Geelong Loose Men Everywhere is part of the omnibus Play On which is available at www.footyalmanac.com.au where he is contributing editor.
Match Summary
GEELONG 2.3 5.5 10.9 12.13 (85)
HAWTHORN 1.2 6.6 10.7 12.11 (83)
GOALS
Geelong: Caddy 2, McCarthy 2, Motlop 2, Hawkins 2, J.Selwood, Menzel, Guthrie, Blicavs
Hawthorn: Breust 3, Rioli 2, Schoenmakers 2, Gunston 2, Burgoyne 2, Hill
BEST
Geelong: J.Selwood, Dangerfield, Guthrie, Hawkins, McCarthy, Blicavs, Menegola
Hawthorn: Lewis, Birchall, Gunston, Rioli, Breust, Hodge, Mitchell
INJURIES
Geelong: Menegola (right ankle)
Hawthorn: Sicily (illness) replaced in selected side by Howe, Burton (calf)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Margetts, Stevic, Meredith
Official crowd: 87,533 at the MCG