AFL Finals: The Jeremy Cameron goal that set the scene for Geelong’s remarkable victory over Port Adelaide
Jeremy Cameron didn’t get much space. But the greats never do. What the Geelong star produced in the opening minutes at Adelaide Oval will go down in history. This is how it unfolded – and what it set in motion.
Jeremy Cameron did not hesitate.
After calling for and receiving a handball with his back to goal from Ollie Henry, the Geelong superstar had only one thing in mind.
He started turning as the footy came to him, then took six steps, swung onto his lethal left boot and, just as Aliir Aliir bumped him over the boundary in Adelaide Oval’s northwestern pocket, he let sail.
His snap around the body curled from outside the nearest point post, away from goals, but perfectly pierced the big sticks.
The brilliant kick drew a laugh from Chris Scott in Geelong’s coaches box.
Gryan Miers, standing directly behind Cameron as he kicked it, was in disbelief with his hands on his head.
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Cameron’s immediate reaction was to face the parochial Power crowd with a blank stare and his arms out, as if to say ‘how good was that’.
Aliir did not give Cameron much space, but he did not need it.
The greats never do.
It was, as Alister Nicholson said in Channel 7 commentary, a finish Eddie Betts would have been proud of.
Geelong legend Joel Selwood said it was no fluke because he had seen him do it on so many occasions.
A quarter later, Cameron turned to the crowd again – this time in the southwestern pocket and this time to yell.
He had just slotted another delightful left-foot goal, a dribbler from about 25m.
After uncharacteristically fumbling Patrick Dangerfield’s handball, Cameron did not panic, paddling the ball to himself as if it was a basketball, not a footy, to gather it and kick truly.
When a standing Power fan yelled in the Geelong forward’s face, Cameron seemed to shout “yeah” and pointed back at him.
He might as well have pointed at the scoreboard.
While his first goal got the Cats rolling, that one put his side 26 points up with three minutes remaining in the second term and was their fifth in a row.
It was only a fortnight ago that Josh Rachele was in front of Port supporters in the same pocket doing his infamous teeth-mocking celebration.
The Power got the last laugh that night, in what was its fifth successive win.
That Port fan only watched his team kick two more goals for the match after Cameron’s dribbler – if he did not join the thousands of other Power supporters who streamed out of the ground during the last term.
This was far from a vintage Cameron game.
Fresh off kicking nine goals against West Coast, the three-time All-Australian and 2022 premiership player finished with four majors.
It was three more than he kicked in the 2021 qualifying final loss at Adelaide Oval against the Power and in Geelong in round 9 when Port ended a 17-year winless drought at the ground.
This night was more about the smalls than the talls – think Tyson Stengle (four goals), Miers (three) and Shaun Mannagh (three) – and the collective Cats effort.
But it was Cameron’s stunning early goal that set the scene for the stunning result.
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