In the last few years we have been lucky to be blessed by good close Grand Finals and this year we got another cracker of a game with Geelong ending up coming from behind to win with St Kilda only able to kick 3 behinds in the last quarter.
Geelong can now claim to be a great side with 2 premierships from 3 years.
It is just as well that the game was decided by more than a goal with the umpires making a few real blunders including the poster called a goal for Geelong and an even worse decision to give a free kick to Schneider for abusive language against umpires. Yes you cannot swear and tell off an umpire but surely you cannot allow them to dictate the score in a game let alone a Grand Final.
While the score was only 12 points, the two differences was that Geelong had less passengers on the day and that they kicked straighter at goals unlike last year. Geelong really only had Varcoe & Stevie Johnson as players who struggled yet St Kilda had up to 7 passengers in R Clarke, Gilbert, McQualter, Dempster, Milne, Kosi and Ray.
St Kilda had more inside 50m’s and more shots at goals yet never got more than 2 goals ahead. St Kilda only have four main scorers in Milne, Kosi, Schneider and Riewoldt. Kosi managed to kick one but he and Milne failed to make any real impression and both have struggled to make any impression this final series.
In our Grand Final preview, we talked that if Riewoldt could fire and play like he has this final series and get over 10 marks and 3+ goals it would be a Saints premiership. However Talyor in his second year managed to keep him below the 8 marks he average and imo he was the best along with Chapman who got the Norm Smith.
Talking Points of the Grand Final Match
Please give us your thoughts in the comments section below or add your own talking points. The questions will be asked in bold and my response will be un-bold under them. Your input and comments help us make Kick2Kick a better website, so please express your opinions.
- Did Geelong deserve the premiership?
- Think its safe to say they did deserve the premiership as they where the best team for the last 3 years. 2 premierships in 3 years now makes this Geelong side a great team.
- Did Geelong win or did St Kilda loose?
- In close games there are always a few things that hurts your team. R Clarke’s countless blunders did hurt along with St Klda’s second quarter score off 4.5 behinds where besides the last 2 mins where they kicked 3 goals, they could not kick a goal with several easy shots going wide.
- Who did you think was the best player? Chapman, Gram or Taylor?
- Chapman was the best with 3 goals and 26+ possessions but Taylor’s match on Riewoldt was imo the most important player on the day.
- Was the difference between the teams the 17-22 players of the two teams?
- Yes, St Kilda had a lot of passengers and they need another goal scorer, maybe Nathan Brown..
- What was the turning point of the match for you?
- When Dawson spoilt a Gary Ablett mark in the center of the ground, a quick soccer of the ground by Mathew Scartlett set up Ablett to run through the middle which allowed Chapman to kick his third and put Geelong 6 points up.
- How & where did you watch the game? Do you have a story from the game?
- Watched the game with mates and my wife who got messages all day from everyone else but she had the last laugh.
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September 26th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
My thoughts, from a dogs’ fan
1. Not really, they were really poor in the first half. St K’s ordinary finishing kept them in it.
2. See 1.
3.Taylor. As seen also in Prelim. Final StK will struggle for goal if Riewaldt is held.
4 Yep, this is always true in a team sport.
5. Definitely the Scarlett kick off the ground to Ablett- the game was a toss up until then.
6.At home in Auckland- would have ben at the MCG if last week had turned out differently.
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September 27th, 2009 at 5:20 am
i’m starting to really believe in the footy gods and karma. Geelong got their karma in ’07 for taking the game to a new level and playing with a directness unlike we have seen before, last year they also got their karma when signs of arrogance crept in (Scarlett’s comments, thompson snacking throughout a game etc,) during the ’08 season. Hawthorn got their karma for celebrating their premiership win too hard and not respecting the game and duly missed the finals whilst St.Kilda and their skipper got their karma for diving(which happened in the GF too) and finally Geelong got another sweet slice of karma this year for sticking tight, managing injuries well and completing another brilliant season. well done to thompson and his boys thoroughly deserved…
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September 28th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Thanks guys for your views, Bob it was amazing to think that at one stage St Kilda had more than double the inside 50ms than Geelong yet still where behind by a point. Almost similar as last year when Geelong dominated but could not put the Hawks away…
@Deano – I may have to agree that the Footy Gods ended up having the last laugh. Geelong was a much more humble team than last year and deserve the win.
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September 28th, 2009 at 11:39 am
well well well….Congratulations to geelong on another premiership.
first i shall address the questions…
1. i think geelong deserved the flag just as much as st kilda. they both had good years, and geelong were the better team on the day.
2. i think it was definately both. geelong in the end were just too good, but st kilda did make a lot of mistakes which cost them.
3. Taylor. i think it was a bit of a mistake to give chapman the norm smith. but he still did deserve it i suppose.
4. st kilda definately did have more passengers.
5. same as mentioned in the questions.
6. nah no story
now now now…here comes my interesting few points.
up until the grand final the saints top 5 goal kickers kicked around 249 between them, the rest of the list only kicked around 119 between them. reiwoldt kicked 77 and then a huge 30 or so difference down to kosi.
shut down reiwoldt and you shut down the saints. the problem with st kilda is they depend too heavily on 3 or so players to kick goals. all this talk about a KPP, they are handy but unless you have 6-10 other players who can kick goals you probably wont win a premiership, remember you cant have a team of champions, you need a champion team.
2nd of all. and this to me is very interesting. (i dont believe in karma, however something does seem to be strange)
lets start with 2007 AFL. Geelong were one of the best teams, and were quite humble, never underestimated an opponenet. roll in port adelaide and mark chocko williams (the chocko is because he is full of it). they were good but they were extremely arogant. correct me if i am wrong but they didnt seem to be the cleanest team around either.
(ie prelim final v bulldogs)
they lost the grand final.
2008 geelong got bitten by the arrogant bug and received alot of help from the maggots in yellow
guess who crumbled in the grand final? geelong.
2008 NRL, Melbourne storm…Dirty team and extremely arrogant. got flogged in grand final.
2009 Reigning premiers hawthorn knew they were going to have a tough year but they still were very confident they would back it up this year, failed to make the 8
2009 NRL, Reigning premiers manly also became world champions. undoubtedly arrogant and not a clean side. they got knocked out if the finals
2009 St Kilda. easily THE most arrogant team this year. prelim final they received a lot of help from the umpires and reiwoldt was the main reason for that.
guess who lost the grand final?
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September 28th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
@mike – i agree that you need to have many string to your bow and that the saints forward line did look lifeless after it was clear that riewoldt would be of no influence but dude you have to take into account the conditions, When the guy who is the best mark in the comp drops more then a couple then you know that conditions aren’t the best. what concerns me is that kosi was useless for the second week in a row and their smalls of mcqualter, milne and schneider had 8 shots at goal for only 2 majors. Again these blokes were all quiet in the prelim too so ross lyon definetely has some hard questions over summer.
Personally i thought joel corey was the best on the ground, both sides have star studded midfields with players who flashed in and out and played good footy for half a quarter and then went missing. this bloke kept pushing all day and his contested ball was insane, whenever the game was slipping away he was the one that stood strong and kept the ball going forward, brilliant player.
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September 29th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Joel Corey is indeed a great player, not flashy like Chapman, Ablett etc but his year especially when they where struggling got them over the line..
I think St Kilda may pick up Nathan Brown and think he could add another goal option down forward, I have talked more about it on the St Kilda Season report.
In the subject of best players, Taylor had the record for spoils (15, equaled Merrett) and no one else has got over 13 in a game. Just think 15+ time Riewoldt would have taken the mark and all those marks would at least have equaled 3+ goals. Taylor was the reason they were even with a chance to win the game. I’m surprised Worsfold (who voted on the Norm Smith) did not give him 3 votes as he was a defender…
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