Malthouse: Geelong needs to forget about inequity of finals fixturing and just beat Collingwood
The AFL’s decision to deny Geelong a home final is unfair, but complaining about it won’t achieve anything. Mick Malthouse, who faced the same issue as Eagles coach, reveals how he turned it into a positive.
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I fought the same issue for 10 years in the West.
There was little sympathy from the AFL when I first complained to them in 1990 about West Coast having to travel to Waverley Park for a semi-final against the lower-placed Melbourne.
It fell on deaf ears then, just as it is now.
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But I’ll tell you one thing we gained from it as a club — unity.
After travelling for the last two home-and-away games of the season (Brisbane via Melbourne, and Geelong) we were compelled to play the next four finals at Waverley Park, including a draw in the first week. That’s more than 36,000km by air in six weeks.
While it eventually took its toll on the team physically, that adversity and shared sense of injustice galvanised not only the players, but the club as a whole.
It was the turning point in developing a culture of discipline, hunger and “us against them”.
Travel never became an excuse.
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I can understand Chris Scott and Colin Carter’s frustrations. Geelong has fought all year — as have all clubs — to finish on top of the ladder. That should be rewarded.
In every other elite competition in the world, ladder leaders earn a home final until the penultimate final.
This is not about Collingwood, and nor should it be, it battled hard enough to finish in the top four for a second chance.
We know this is purely a money issue because finals football is run and owned by the AFL.
GMHBA Stadium has a capacity of 36,000 compared to the 100,000 seats at the MCG. Having a final at Kardinia Park would potentially deny 60,000 fans from seeing the game live, and I am sympathetic to that, but where is Geelong’s advantage in finishing on top?
Surely that’s an issue Geelong and the AFL can address together. I remember makeshift stands being erected at the WACA Ground to accommodate a bigger crowd throughout the early ’90s when the Eagles were lucky enough to host a final.
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Brisbane Lions versus Richmond at the MCG would potentially create another crowd record, but the Lions finished second and earned the right to host the qualifying final at the Gabba where crowd capacity is 42,000.
Fifth-placed West Coast is playing eighth-placed Essendon at Perth Stadium, capacity 60,000. Greater Western Sydney is hosting the lower-placed Bulldogs at Giants Stadium, capacity 23,500. There’s rather a big discrepancy between crowd capacity at all of these stadiums and what the MCG can hold.
But it’s only an hour-long train trip from Geelong to Melbourne instead of a two or four-hour flight, so perhaps that’s the AFL’s justification for saying no to the Cats’ requests to have a genuine home final?
Because based on integrity and a fair cause, it really is a staggering decision to deny any advantage Geelong earned for winning the minor premiership.
The Cats win most of their games at GMHBA Stadium for two obvious reasons — they are a good team and the ground is a unique shape. It is 167m long by 112m wide, compared to the MCG that is 162m by 139m. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is a lot easier to defend on a narrower ground.
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An opposition that doesn’t play regularly on these dimensions often can get trapped and lose its lateral ball movement and therefore speed of entry into the forward line on their own terms.
When you get trapped your forwards are so removed from the next play you almost need binoculars to find them.
It takes an extraordinarily good team to find a way through the Cats’ defence at home and kick a winning score. The most notable victory this year was by the Giants who used speed and skill to break down Geelong’s resistance.
So, as beneficial as this ground can be for the Cats in the home-and-away season, it almost becomes a burden for them when they have to play finals at the ’G with its greater width.
Since its 2011 premiership, Geelong has played 12 finals and won just three. One was at Kardinia Park that resulted in a loss, and one was played in Adelaide. Ten finals were at the MCG. So it hasn’t exactly been a happy hunting ground in September.
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But if Geelong wants to win the Grand Final it has to win at the MCG, regardless of how it gets there, so it must focus on the job at hand and embrace the challenge, collectively.
It beat Collingwood in Round 1 at the MCG by seven points, but September footy is different.
The Cats haven’t been successful on this ground in recent finals because a lack of leg speed doesn’t marry well with high intensity finals football.
The addition of speedsters Luke Dahlhaus, Gary Rohan and Gryan Miers may atone for that problem this year.
Collingwood’s forward line is something totally different to what Geelong has experienced for a while.
The Magpies won’t play three talls in attack. They’ll have different players coming out of the goalsquare throughout the game. So the Cats will have to be different and adaptable, too.
They won’t be able to go in with their best 22, but instead pick a horses-for-courses team.
A team that can defend on a narrow ground and win at GMHBA Stadium isn’t the same team that can win at the MCG against one of the league’s best ruck and midfield combinations.
Geelong will need a plan A, B and C to counter a returned-to-form Collingwood.
The Pies will make several changes but their biggest issue will be the underdone factor, so they too will need a contingency plan.
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Steele Sidebottom, the Collingwood barometer, can return from injury. Jordan De Goey is coming off a hamstring (he hasn’t played since Round 19 on July 26), so too Darcy Moore. And Jaidyn Stephenson is available after serving his 10-match ban.
Collingwood has overcome a mini-slump and its form reversal has been powerful. It will only get better with the addition of Sidebottom sublime skills and the destructive forward line power of De Goey and Stephenson. Whether they can produce for four quarters is the Magpies’ biggest question.
Geelong also defied a slump to finish on top. The most noticeable drop off was Tom Hawkins, which is a major concern. Joel Selwood’s output, statistically, has also fallen off. And the uncertainty of who should ruck has been a constant thorn in Scott’s side. Whoever rucks next Friday (most likely Rhys Stanley) will have a massive battle on his hands against potential Brownlow medallist Brodie Grundy.
Geelong and Collingwood each has the potential to go all the way to the flag.
I wait with interest to see the final 22 of both teams, because plan B may well in fact produce the win.
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