Premiership star Cameron Mooney says Hayden Ballantyne may never recover after misses

CAMERON Mooney says Hayden Ballantyne might never mentally recover from his four missed shots in last year’s Grand Final.

TRIPLE premiership player Cameron Mooney says Hayden Ballantyne might never mentally recover from his four missed shots in last year’s Grand Final.

Ballantyne was one of the worst offenders for a Dockers side which had five more scoring shots than Hawthorn last year, including the game’s last eight shots at goal.

Mooney famously missed easy shots in the 2008 Grand Final loss, and despite winning another premiership the next year says he is still scarred.

All of Ballantyne, Nathan Fyfe (three missed shots), Ryan Crowley (0.2), and Matthew Pavlich missed critical shots at goal in a 15-point loss.

“To be honest I reckon they would be feeling pretty ordinary over the summer,” said Mooney.

“If they were anything like me, I blamed the loss on myself, and when you do that, it sits with you for a long, long time.

“In all honesty, I didn’t really get over it in my playing days, and I don’t know if it’s something I will ever get over.

Cameron Mooney missed several shots in the 2008 Grand Final.

“The flag we won in 2009 kind of healed me a bit, but even to this day it still goes through my mind.

“It is going to be a big test. Fyfe is going to be an out and out champion, but I am going to be interested to see how Ballantyne reacts to it.”

Ballantyne’s set shot from 25 metres out in the final quarter went out of bounds on the full, one of eight consecutive Docker shots that included 2.4 and two shots that missed altogether.

“Fyfe had one of the great games in a Grand Final but it wasn’t topped off by his goalkicking. Ballantyne is going to be the one,” Mooney said.

Hayden Ballantyne missed four shots in the Grand Final. Picture: George Salpigtidis

“You don’t want to be the guy who doesn’t play well in big games. (Steven) Milne never had a big final, and now people are going to start asking about Ballantyne. It’s not something you want over your head.

“He is not a well-liked figure, so when he had a bad game it was a great chance for everyone to have a whack. Personally, I love the way he plays and would love him as a teammate, but as an opposition player you wanted to kill him. He is the one where there is going to be a big question mark.”

Ballantyne said in December last year he had to simply move on from his Grand Final performance.

“My performance was average at best. I can’t control that now. What is done is done. If we dwell on it now we can’t do anything about the future, so we’re working towards 2014 and that’s what we have our sights set on.”

Mooney saw a sports psychologist to work on his goalkicking, but realised he had to solve the problem himself with hard work.

“At that stage (in 2008) I thought it might have been our last shot, and I stuffed up our back-to-back (hopes). It is such a big achievement, and I was a big reason why it was blown, and it sat with me for a long time. I stewed on it. Every single day I stewed on it over the summer and early in the season.”