By Peter Ryan
Almost 10 years have passed since the final quarter of the 2013 preliminary final.
Hawthorn were 20 points behind Geelong, having lost to the Cats 11 consecutive times since upsetting them in the 2008 grand final.
The final margin between the two teams in each of the 11 matches had only passed 10 points twice.
Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell had polled 13 Brownlow votes in the 10 home and away encounters that became part of the epic rivalry, despite being on the losing team each time.
Shane Crawford and Sam Mitchell after Hawthorn’s famous 2008 premiership win.Credit: Vince Caligiuri
Mitchell, a premiership skipper who had been in the losing team in the 2011 preliminary final and the 2012 grand final, lined up, unusually, outside the square for the bounce.
Geelong’s Jimmy Bartel, already a Brownlow and Norm Smith medallist and triple premiership player at that point, stood next to Mitchell.
Another champion in that era, Corey Enright, sat, injured, in the grandstand, watching on. His absence would never be felt so keenly because half an hour later the Hawks had won, storming home to just win another thriller by five points.
Sam Mitchell’s hall of fame speech.Credit: AFL Photos
It was Mitchell who led the Hawks there, changing the course of Hawthorn history as the club went on to win three consecutive premierships.
In his autobiography Mitchell admitted it was “perhaps the best individual game of my career”, having told Channel 7 on the ground post-game the win was “the end of one chapter and the start of something new.”
How right he was as key players of the Cats golden era; Bartel and Enright, watched the Hawks set sail on their own golden era that would yield the next three flags. Bartel and Enright were already triple premiership players.
All three – Mitchell, Bartel and Enright – are now in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
That game wasn’t the only time he changed the course of Hawthorn’s history. Mitchell also laid a tackle on Richmond’s Shane Tuck in round 8, 2010 when pressure was building on the club and coach after six straight losses. It enabled Hawthorn to win the match with it being described as “the tackle that saved coach Alastair Clarkson”.
In 2005, before he had become a household name, Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse compared a 22-year-old Mitchell to one of the greatest players of the previous era, Greg Williams.
The master coach had just watched Mitchell win 18 clearances in a best-on-ground performance in a losing Hawthorn team, and he could not resist the comparison.
The comparison was justified. Mitchell had become the greatest extractor of his generation.
A brilliant ball winner, he was proficient on both feet and each of his hands farmed out handballs like lightning. Athletics coach Bohdan Babijczuk once theorised that the short gap between Mitchell’s elbows and hands gave him levers perfectly suited to giving off quick handballs.
He was not known to have pace but he was quick off the mark and his mind was sharp. He became the smartest footballer of his time. In an increasingly complicated game he was the best decision maker in the business, able to read three steps ahead of everyone else what was about to happen and what he could influence next.
Initially the doubters outnumbered the supporters, with Mitchell overlooked in the draft before Hawks recruiter John Turnbull used pick No.31 in the 2001 “super draft” to add the Box Hill battler to Hawthorn’s list.
But Mitchell did not lack belief, attaching himself to Hawthorn Brownlow medallist and noted hard trainer Shane Crawford and working harder on his game than anyone around him to become the best player he could become.
Jimmy Bartel and Corey Enright - inseparable as Cats teammates, and members of the Australian Football Hall of Fame.Credit: Getty Images
He would ride his bike to family holidays on Christmas day to get an edge on his opponent and his thirst for learning kept him a step ahead of his peers.
Bartel, similarly headstrong and from the same super draft as Mitchell, gained his resilience and ability through the tough love he received in his early years at Geelong. He had talent but he was not gifted anything, as he found himself in and out of the team in his early years before winning respect as a tough midfielder who could play anywhere.
A great mark for his size, Bartel could play anywhere but his inside play was unmatched, a famous image of him almost kneeling as he shot out a handball ingrained in the mind. Bartel was tough but always played the ball and his ability in wet weather made him football’s Van Der Hum.
He won the Brownlow Medal in 2007 but it was his performance in the next two grand finals that revealed him as a champion.
At quarter time in the 2009 grand final St Kilda’s Lenny Hayes was dominating. Bartel’s coach Mark Thompson moved him to Hayes and told him to stop him. He did the job without even contemplating whether anyone else should take on the important, yet less than glamorous, role.
In 2011, he kicked three goals, including one from the boundary line just before half-time to keep the Cats in touch with Collingwood. He finished with the Norm Smith Medal hanging around his neck and a different coach, Chris Scott alongside him.
Tough and uncompromising, he set the foundations for what Geelong built.
Enright won the Cats best and fairest that season as he had done in 2009, both premiership years. The quiet man from Kimba, a country town in South Australia with a population similar in total to the No.44 he wore on his back.
Enright played like a Cat, rarely losing his feet, intercepting the ball and doing the basics well every time. As a defender he put forwards to sleep and then repelled without any fanfare. He also kept the game in perspective, as the joke teller when the Cats decided to make footy fun inside the club as the scrutiny and pressure grew outside.
Bruce McAvaney at Australian football’s night of nights.Credit: AFL Photos
On the eve of his 300th game in 2015, Enright outlined the philosophy that made him so revered at the Cats: “Be consistent in the way I play and the way I treat people.”
It’s obvious why his injury was a big factor in the Cats not being able to beat Hawthorn in that famous preliminary final, which was decided by a goal to Hawks champion Shaun Burgoyne.
The man calling that goal on Channel 7 was the best broadcaster of his time, Bruce McAvaney.
Michael Aish was a star of South Australian football.
“Burgoyne, to put them in front, he doesn’t miss, he’s kicked three, Hawthorn back in front,” he said.
It was vintage McAvaney – accurate, economical, slightly predictive, informative all conveyed with a sense of wonder at what was occurring in front of him.
There was nowhere else in the world McAvaney wanted to be at that moment as he found the perfect pitch to reveal the gravity of the moment.
His enthusiasm was infectious and his respect for the players’ abilities a reminder of the thrill sport can provide. He combined his generosity of spirit with a ruthless preparation to become a caller and media performer everyone aspired to emulate.
Enthusiastic is the word that comes to mind when describing Mark Williams. Talk about a presence. He arrived from South Australia where he was a big name at Port Adelaide to lead Collingwood into the 1981 grand final with a brilliant debut season in the AFL. Socks down, he was tenacious and relentless at Collingwood, taking those hallmarks to Brisbane at the end of his playing career. He then returned to Port Adelaide where he became a premiership coach.
Mark Williams’ most iconic scene as Port Adelaide coach.Credit: Getty Images
Williams was an outstanding, albeit eccentric, teacher after being a muddied, inspiring footballer. He knew about life and never wanted to stop learning about it and passing it on through his teaching. Williams’ spot in the Australian Football Hall of Fame is both hard-earned and well deserved.
He had joined Collingwood when Michael Aish began to emerge with the Redlegs for Norwood at the Parade. Quietly spoken and built like former Hawks great Michael Tuck, he could run all day and explode from congestion. He never played in the VFL but everyone in Victoria knew him through his silky, balanced performances with South Australia.
On accepting the 1981 Magarey Medal – South Australia’s Brownlow Medal – Aish kept his ambition simple: “To play at Norwood as long as I can and to win a premiership out there,” he said.
He delivered in 307 games for Norwood from 1979-1993 and two premierships in 1982 and 1984.
Aish was a smooth moving, skinny ruck rover who had few peers in his time in the SANFL.
Tom Leahy completed the set of seven inductees, the South Australian ruckman playing for West Adelaide and North Adelaide from 1905 to 1921. He won a Magarey Medal and represented his state 31 times, taking on the mighty Roy Cazaly in an interstate game using his brawn and brilliance to win the day. If there had been a Hall of Fame in 1935, Leahy, who died in 1964, would have been inducted.
He is now, in 2023, along with six other champions of the game on, and in McAvaney’s case, off the field.
The 2023 Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Sam Mitchell
Age: 40
Games played: 329 (Hawthorn/West Coast)
Honours: Brownlow Medal, four premierships, three-time All-Australian, five best and fairests
Michael Aish
Age: 62
Games played: 307 (Norwood)
Honours: Magarey Medal, two premierships, three-time All-Australian, 15 games with South Australia, former SA captain
Jimmy Bartel
Age: 39
Games played: 305 (Geelong)
Honours: Brownlow Medal, Norm Smith Medal, three premierships, two-time All-Australian
Corey Enright
Age: 41
Games played: 332 (Geelong)
Honours: Two best and fairests, six-time All-Australian, three premierships
Tom Leahy
1888-1964
Games played: 169 (West Adelaide 58, North Adelaide 111)
Honours: Magarey Medal, three best and fairests, 31 games with South Australia
Mark Williams
Age: 64
Games played: 377 (Collingwood 135, Brisbane Bears 66, West Adelaide 65, Port Adelaide 111) for 377 goals
Honours: Dual Collingwood best and fairest, four premierships with Port Adelaide, ex-Collingwood captain, 2004 Port Adelaide AFL premiership coach
Bruce McAvaney
Age: 70
Television commentator, called more than 1000 AFL games, including 20 grand finals
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