The Hawks didnt win this one, the Cats blew it, just like we did in 99. Great job by the Hawks to maintain focus and despite being smashed in the midfield in the first half and copping injuries to some key players they persisted and pressured Geelong and in the 3rd quarter and Geelong lost the plot under the self imposed pressure of not converting their abundance of chances.
Geelong should have been up by 3-4 goals at half time. If that were the case, the run and confidence of the hawks would have been diminished and at the opposite end Geelong would have been up and running. Instead, thier woeful kicking for goal and lack of forwards presenting saw them go into the second half 3 pts down despite absalutely dominating.
When they couldnt find avenues for goal early in the 3rd they lost the plot. I saw it unravelling just before the quickfire 3 goals the hawks put up. They were fumbelling, second guessing and just wern't excecuting the 'share at all cost' game plan that has made them so successful. Two passages summed it all up, Moony at 55 meters had 2 free and 1 manned up inside 50 and went to the only one of the 3 in range of a defender, ball was rushed behind. Second was Ottens with 2 players streaming to the goal square on their own, he has a shot 20 out and misses, they have been handballing over the top all year
I cannot agree with any of your comments of them being too slow, or having played around with the ball too much. They have been the best team for 2 years and are still the best team, they have pace, are strong, use the ball brilliently and generally play the best team game I have seen. Their lack of key forwards is more than supplimented by goal kicking mid sized players and midfielders of the class of chappy, johnson, abblett and ling.
As for Abblett, im glad Hodge got the NS, as I believe it should go the the best on the winning team (if you lost, the last thing you want is a medal which confirms that if the rest of your team held up their end you would have won), but anyone who thinks Abblett was not best on ground by a mile is an absalute moron or in denial. Stats arn't always the best indicator, but in this case, the stats support what was plain to see, he had every right to feel shattered about losing with the effort he put in.
The pain of 99 haunts me til this day. I cringed as the Cats made the same mistake we did and fell over when it really matterred. Sad, just sad, and their supporters will now feel the pain for years to come as we have.
He is often their barometer in the forward line, running amuck, kicking or assisting goals.