[xtypo_dropcap]M[/xtypo_dropcap]ELBOURNE, Australia—A simple form guide is impossible to imagine. With endless talking points to the tribal rivalry between this year’s AFL Grand Finalists, Collingwood Magpies and St Kilda Saints, where so much can go either way, sometimes a match can come down to luck. Anything can go wrong on the day.
Leading into the match, every piece of numerology, for those inclined, will be considered as to who the gods will favour.
Every turnover. Every mistake. Every umpire’s, player’s and coaches’ choice. Every player carrying a niggle or under an injury cloud coming into the match. Every heroic act as 36 players physically pit their bodies, while following rules that are sometimes greyer than a winter’s day in Melbourne. Every piece of luck. Everything will be scrutinised from around the world. Meanwhile, as the action on the Melbourne Cricket Ground will be under the microscope, so is Melbourne. It’s not new. It happens every year at this time.
St Kilda made it to this stage last year. That time it was to narrowly lose in the dying time-on phase of the match against the Geelong Cats. The battle was epic.
That’s the way the Saints play in any match against the power teams these days.
This time they will be facing a raging red-hot Pies team who clearly finished on top of the ladder and finished the lopsided season with 16-teams in a 22 Round home-and-away season. St Kilda was third.
Leading into the match, every piece of numerology, for those inclined, will be considered as to who the gods will favour.
Every turnover. Every mistake. Every umpire’s, player’s and coaches’ choice. Every player carrying a niggle or under an injury cloud coming into the match. Every heroic act as 36 players physically pit their bodies, while following rules that are sometimes greyer than a winter’s day in Melbourne. Every piece of luck. Everything will be scrutinised from around the world. Meanwhile, as the action on the Melbourne Cricket Ground will be under the microscope, so is Melbourne. It’s not new. It happens every year at this time.
St Kilda made it to this stage last year. That time it was to narrowly lose in the dying time-on phase of the match against the Geelong Cats. The battle was epic.
That’s the way the Saints play in any match against the power teams these days.
This time they will be facing a raging red-hot Pies team who clearly finished on top of the ladder and finished the lopsided season with 16-teams in a 22 Round home-and-away season. St Kilda was third.
Collingwood
WWLWW
The sport’s power-house club with 14 premierships are deserving of their No. 1 ranking.
A star team, not a team of super stars and good-players. Last match, they strolled past the reigning premiers and former-benchmark team, Geelong.
The pathway to the finals for Collingwood was remarkably smooth, clinical and devastating to any teams that they met. First they swept aside the limping fourth placed Dogs by 10 goals 2 behinds (62 points), had a week’s break and proved that they had gone past the Cats. They lost just 5 games on their way to September’s finals.
Counter to the way they forced themselves to be the top team of the top four, they eased their way by playing down the line—the flanks of the oval just inside the boundary line. They are a very evenly skilled team, wily experienced coach Mick Malthouse—a two-time winning premiership coach with the West Coast Eagles in Perth, Western Australia, during their time of league dominance in the 1990s.
Last year’s Premiership winning team was the benchmark for the previous three years and was expected to push the Magpies, maybe even win it. They comprehensively defeated the Cats by a very comfortable 41 points: 18.12 (120) to 11.13 (79).
It wasn’t yet half-way through Friday night’s second quarter when the Collingwood chant rolled around a sold-out 95,000 seat Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Having kicked 9.3 (57) to that stage, against the Cats’ meagre 2.2 (14), the match was all but over. By half-time, the Magpies led by 62 points, 13.7 (85) to 3.5 (23).
In Australian football, there is no coming back from that—a 10-goal turn around in the second half of a Preliminary Final had never happened in the leagues’ 114 AFL-VFL history. Watching the Pies was like watching the old Geelong team ease through a final series in recent years. The mantle had been snatched away from Geelong as their granny (Grand Final) appearance era may have come to an end.
A star team, not a team of super stars and good-players. Last match, they strolled past the reigning premiers and former-benchmark team, Geelong.
The pathway to the finals for Collingwood was remarkably smooth, clinical and devastating to any teams that they met. First they swept aside the limping fourth placed Dogs by 10 goals 2 behinds (62 points), had a week’s break and proved that they had gone past the Cats. They lost just 5 games on their way to September’s finals.
Counter to the way they forced themselves to be the top team of the top four, they eased their way by playing down the line—the flanks of the oval just inside the boundary line. They are a very evenly skilled team, wily experienced coach Mick Malthouse—a two-time winning premiership coach with the West Coast Eagles in Perth, Western Australia, during their time of league dominance in the 1990s.
Last year’s Premiership winning team was the benchmark for the previous three years and was expected to push the Magpies, maybe even win it. They comprehensively defeated the Cats by a very comfortable 41 points: 18.12 (120) to 11.13 (79).
It wasn’t yet half-way through Friday night’s second quarter when the Collingwood chant rolled around a sold-out 95,000 seat Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Having kicked 9.3 (57) to that stage, against the Cats’ meagre 2.2 (14), the match was all but over. By half-time, the Magpies led by 62 points, 13.7 (85) to 3.5 (23).
In Australian football, there is no coming back from that—a 10-goal turn around in the second half of a Preliminary Final had never happened in the leagues’ 114 AFL-VFL history. Watching the Pies was like watching the old Geelong team ease through a final series in recent years. The mantle had been snatched away from Geelong as their granny (Grand Final) appearance era may have come to an end.
St Kilda
WWLWW
No less deserving to be in the granny. In their second consecutive Grand Final.
The tribal rivalry against the Pies, the hopes and dreams to win that elusive flag has driven them for 12 months. They have transformed themselves yet again. Adding a potency in attack. For a once down-and-out club that has faced extinction, relocation, takeover and merger, to a powerhouse club on and off the field.
St Kilda’s pathway reflects their style of play. The most defensive team in the last two years plays through the mid-field. Their defensive press and style of attack through the middle of the spine of a 170m oval playing-field means that matches are usually lower-scoring and close. While it’s not always a convincing way to win, where a kick near the dying moments could decide victory, it works for The Sainters. They couldn’t be more of a threat to topple Collingwood.
They’re a team with one of the game’s biggest superstars. They have a variety of game-plans within the one solid framework based on stifling defence and devastating attack through their match-winning captain Nick Riewoldt.
Narrowly defeating Geelong by under a goal in the first week of the final’s series and then, like Collingwood, they had a week’s rest. Last weekend, they defeated the Western Bulldogs convincingly. Coming from behind by a goal at half-time, they lead by 40 points by the end of the third quarter to win 13.10 (88) to 8.16 (64).
St Kilda, its fans and over 40,000 paid members are starved of success. They lost by a kick last year to Geelong in the granny. In a season mired by extreme off-field controversies and season-ending threatening injuries to their match-breaker Riewoldt, they look more likely to win their second-ever elusive flag in 114 years—their last was in 1996 by 1 point against … you guessed it … Collingwood.
The tribal rivalry against the Pies, the hopes and dreams to win that elusive flag has driven them for 12 months. They have transformed themselves yet again. Adding a potency in attack. For a once down-and-out club that has faced extinction, relocation, takeover and merger, to a powerhouse club on and off the field.
St Kilda’s pathway reflects their style of play. The most defensive team in the last two years plays through the mid-field. Their defensive press and style of attack through the middle of the spine of a 170m oval playing-field means that matches are usually lower-scoring and close. While it’s not always a convincing way to win, where a kick near the dying moments could decide victory, it works for The Sainters. They couldn’t be more of a threat to topple Collingwood.
They’re a team with one of the game’s biggest superstars. They have a variety of game-plans within the one solid framework based on stifling defence and devastating attack through their match-winning captain Nick Riewoldt.
Narrowly defeating Geelong by under a goal in the first week of the final’s series and then, like Collingwood, they had a week’s rest. Last weekend, they defeated the Western Bulldogs convincingly. Coming from behind by a goal at half-time, they lead by 40 points by the end of the third quarter to win 13.10 (88) to 8.16 (64).
St Kilda, its fans and over 40,000 paid members are starved of success. They lost by a kick last year to Geelong in the granny. In a season mired by extreme off-field controversies and season-ending threatening injuries to their match-breaker Riewoldt, they look more likely to win their second-ever elusive flag in 114 years—their last was in 1996 by 1 point against … you guessed it … Collingwood.
