Several Hawks are chasing Grand Final redemption after poor showings in 2012

IT can haunt a player for the rest of his life. The feeling of not delivering when it ­matters most is every footballer’s nightmare.

Lance Franklin

IT can haunt a player for the rest of his life. The feeling of not delivering on the day when it ­matters most is every footballer's nightmare.

Reputations are made and crushed on the last Saturday in September. If he fires, he’s a legend. If he doesn’t, his career is smeared.

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Something in retired Geelong full-forward Cameron Mooney’s mind still reacts when he sees a Hawthorn jumper. He is instantly taken back to the 2008 Grand Final.

For West Coast Eagle Ashley Hansen, the sight of Swans players celebrating on the ­Sydney Harbour Bridge after their 2005 victory still lives with him.

Luckily for both they had a chance at redemption and turned it around 12 months ­later.

Today, Hawthorn players such as Cyril Rioli and Jarryd Roughead will be hoping to follow that same script.

While both have premiership medallions from 2008, their below-par performances in last year’s Grand Final burns deep in their memories.

Wild weather tipped for Grand Final decider

They had loomed as matchwinners but, when the Hawthorn machine failed to click against a determined Sydney outfit, they were nowhere to be seen.

Rioli, who was instrumental in ’08 with two goals from 10 touches, had only four kicks for the afternoon, while Roughead kicked three behinds from just 14 disposals.

A lot is on the line for both today. Mooney, who missed a number of important shots in the Cats’ shock ’08 loss, knows exactly what they will be ­experiencing.

“It still hangs with me ­today,” Mooney said. “When I see Hawthorn club jumpers it just reminds me of it.

“I still have a sour taste in my mouth today.”

Cyril Rioli

Twelve months later after Geelong had defeated St Kilda to win the 2009 flag, Mooney stood in front of his teammates and thanked them for giving him the chance for redemption.

“I got up and told them that I’d blown it the year before, that I took a lot of blame on myself from what had happened the year before and that I never thought I would get to hold the cup again,” he said.

“I just thanked the group for making sure that I did.”

Hansen was just 22 and playing his 26th game in the 2005 Grand Final when he had a shocker. His opponent, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, finished the day as a Norm Smith Medal candidate.

“I remember my father coming into the rooms after ’05; he’s a great optimist Dad, he always looks at the positive side of things,” Hansen recalled this week.

“He came in and he wasn’t smiling, but I suppose he was just trying, in my irreconcilable state, to say it was such a great achievement to make the Grand Final and you have to look at what you’ve achieved.

“I quickly snapped back that we might not get another opportunity. He always remembers that story as he has never seen me quite talk to him like that, because I have got a lot of respect for him.”

The four-point loss drove Hansen. The next season West Coast again squared off with Sydney in the Grand Final.

Hansen was a lot more ­relaxed and mature about it the second time around and set the tone for the Eagles by kicking two important first-quarter goals.

“I had a bit to prove as I played on Lewis Roberts-Thomson again,” Hansen said.

“I just had to make sure I worked as hard as I could ­because there was no tomorrow and I managed to get some touches early.”

His teammate, Adam Selwood, experienced something very similar.

In 2005 he’d started on Sydney star Adam Goodes and was torched, finishing a disappointing day on the wing with just seven possessions.

He says he was simply “overawed” by the occasion.

“I was 21 and had 25 games’ experience and I hadn’t really come across 100,000 people before, so when I ran out I heard the crowd and it was just full-on and the nerves built,” Selwood said.

“I couldn’t get rid of them. I was sort of running around still in the third quarter completely nervous and I wasn’t really myself. Afterwards I remember sitting there thinking, ‘Gee, my chance at glory might have just passed’.”

He learnt from his mistakes and came into the 2006 GF a lot more confident in himself and the team.

The result was a 26-possession game and a place among the Eagles’ best in the one-point victory.

Selwood knows what will be going through the minds of ­Rioli, Roughead and other Hawks who stunk last year, such as Grant Birchall and Paul Puopolo.

“For them it’s definitely fresh in the mind,” he said.

“You fight your own battles throughout the next six weeks post Grand Final knowing that you probably didn’t contribute as well as you know you could.

“So for them, they obviously will remember and know what happened last year.

“It doesn’t mean you’re going to go out and have a better game this year, but at least you can plan to a certain extent.

“For me I was able to get a few touches early in the game which allowed me to settle.

“(It’s important) just getting a couple of touches or even ­involvements, a tackle or for the ball to come your way ­instead of you just running around trying to figure out how the game is going and ­getting caught out by the ­intensity of it all.”