Grand Final: Richmond v Geelong at the Gabba Q3

For a regular night game, half time is a bit of toast, maybe bring in a couple of logs for the fire, and possibly switch from beer to coffee. We did the kick-to-kick in the early evening pre-game, so instead we had the saveloys that we didn’t really want, because dinner was only an hour ago. The TV tells us that Danger’s gone to full forward and Dusty to half forward. We resume down 20-35, having been “flogged with a warm lettuce” in the 2nd quarter by a dominant but inaccurate Geelong.

The first minutes after the restart were all down our end. It was a perfect start, with the same move-it-on attitude we showed at the beginning of the game. Prestia just swinging a boot at a loose ball a couple of times, it came to O’Connor who is ragdolled in massive tackle from Pickett who can’t believe its play on. Sheds stood in a tackle and got it to Cotch who was 97% gone when he got a knuckle on it to Graham; Graham swept it out wide to Dusty and his first kick of the half was perfection. Jack had position, Henderson got over his shoulder and conceded a free that Jack iced with no fuss. 26-35.

Next Dusty placed another kick into 50 perfectly and this time Graham was caught high by Blicavs. His shot at goal is utter pants, but that’s 11 inside 50s in a row to the reigning premiers and hope is starting to put in an appearance. Immediately Kolodjashnij clearing out of defence kicks it straight to Lambert, who squares it to Jason “0.5” Castagna.

Even before his shot there was a real sense of Richmond now being in the driver’s seat of the ute and Geelong just running alongside in cheap thongs trying to get close enough to jump into the tray. Castagna’s kick is very strange and the three Geelong players on the line all fail to stop it. 32-35.

Miers gets on the end of a very sharp handball chain orchestrated by the man @AFLItalia (probably) calls Il Piccolo Maestro. He goals to recover a tiny bit of personal respect and stop the rampant Tiger roll. 32 – 41.

Geelong now slowed the game right down. After a few minutes of this Brian said “Geelong… taking a little bit of milk out of… the Tigers”. Halfway through he wanted to back out of it, but couldn’t work out how.

An insane series of events led to a Lambert goal. A beautiful Short kick was fumbled by Sheds as he was 15m out right in front. George chased the loose ball and was held without it, no free. Bews tried to “play out from the back” Manchester City-style and his short kick was thrillingly marked on the boundary by Shai Bolton who came from nowhere over Menegola. Shai bounced up and kicked dangerously to Lambert on a better angle, but it came off. After taking the slips catch, Kane converted nervelessly. 39-42

Tuohy kicking out of defence was pushed off-balance by Dusty, and the ball landed amongst Tigers. It came back via a long Short kick and Dusty beat Tuohy to the high loose ball, then just turned and paffed it through on the bounce off the outside of his right boot from 30 metres out. 2 goals to Dusty, Tigers in front in the 2020 Grand Final, and Dusty loves it. 45-42.

This was a great moment; a surgically precise intervention by Jack’s toes between Selwood’s hand and boot.

Lynch finally gets a clean touch – to be fair on watching the replay he has been using his body, scrabbling defensively, he’s been working hard. Guthrie took a screamer over Nank. Il Piccolo Maestro hits Hawkins with a great kick; but Hawkins rushes his shot and misses. Geelong are still trying to clamber onto the ute but they’ve just lost one thong. In one minute Pickett outplayed Danger, and Grimes outplayed Ablett, who by now was carrying on like the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

A Dusty Martin blast kick into acres of space bounced awkwardly and Blicavs approached it like a bomb disposal novice.

Together Blicavs and Henry cocked it up under pressure exerted by Rioli and Graham.

Geelong were playing scared. The ball came via Lambert to Sheds, who ran towards an open goal and kicked a point – unmarked Jack Riewoldt took it pretty well considering. 46-44.

The last action of the term saw Geelong streaming in numbers towards goal as last man Grimes made a crucial save.

SO crucial. A Geelong goal following Sheds’ miss could have flipped the momentum back the other way. As it was, we came to the huddle leading 46-44, having kicked four goals to one in the quarter, and with many familiar signs of the brittle Geelong we’ve come to know and love.