Vintage Patrick Dangerfield leads Geelong into AFL grand final with win over Hawthorn

Patrick Dangerfield put Geelong on his back and carted them to a grand final. The 35-year-old unleashed one of the best and most important hours of his career, slaughtering Hawthorn out of the middle, on the ground, in the air, and around goals. He kickstarted what had been a sluggish Cats outfit, and propelled them to a grand final. In the end, they won in a canter.

The Cats were a bedraggled outfit early – hesitant, rushed and a shadow of the hyper-locked-in team we saw a fortnight ago. Their poor start was personified by an Irish rush of blood in the last line of defence that coughed up a goal to the lurking Jack Ginnivan. They were missing their handballs, meek in their tackles and sending forward entries sailing out on the full. They were awfully lucky not to be further behind at quarter time. Just to make matters harder, they were now going to have to win without Tom Stewart. He’s their gatekeeper, their organiser and their best distributor and now he was concussed.

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The Hawks completely controlled the ball in the first term. It wasn’t like the Brisbane form of control, with risky kicks through the middle. It was neat, organised, short kicking. It was the lowering of the eyes, 15-metre spot-ups that the great Clarkson sides trafficked in. And they did it virtually unbothered. There was none of the fierce pressure that the Cats applied to Brisbane. They looked heavy-legged and were chasing tails right from the beginning.

But two strong marks either side of quarter time from Shannon Neale woke them from their slumber. He and his opponent Tom Barrass are both enormous men but only one of them is an athlete and Neale was starting to give him the run-around. The Cats had rediscovered their ping around the middle of the ground. An outstanding look-away handball from Ollie Dempsey (a peripheral figure until that point) set up Tyson Stengle and suddenly we had a tied preliminary final.

Enter Dangerfield. The Geelong skipper was like a man possessed in the third quarter, exploding out of the first two centre square clearances, snapping truly a few minutes later, taking some terrific marks under immense pressure and keeping the ball in play to set up a Jack Martin goal. This was no longer a kick-and-catch possession game. This was brutal contested football and there’s no one who excels at that quite like him. He was left out of the centre square matchups in their Easter Monday clash earlier in the year. But Chris Scott always throws him in the middle for big games. And they don’t get much better than this. When he was resting on the bench, he’d put his feet up like he was on a deck chair. But few footballers have been more insatiable at getting to contests. He impacts contests he has no right to get to and he was the decisive figure in the premiership quarter.

There was more to the win than Dangerfield of course. This Geelong side is always pulling moves, attempting kicks and looking for angles you don’t expect. Gryan Miers is one of the chief instigators. He’s so inventive, and it’s so hard to anticipate what he’ll do with the ball. But crucially, his teammates know. His sizzling kick to set up Jeremy Cameron in the third term was as good as it gets.

Geelong have clever, skilled, well balanced footballers who are well synced. When they’re screaming through the middle of the MCG, they look like an athletics squad. But they didn’t blast on Friday night. They were cold and calculating about their forward entries. And they certainly weren’t Cameron or Dangerfield conscious.

The Hawks pushed them all the way. When the rain came, they were within three goals and had plenty of time to pull off one of the great comebacks. But Geelong steadied. The question mark hanging over them was always going to be their soft run into September. It didn’t bother them one bit against Brisbane. And Adam Simpson stressed all along that a soft run in was preferable to being constantly challenged. He said a softer draw allowed time to freshen up, to experiment, to rest senior players, and to get confidence into those on the fringe.

And that’s how it panned out. Hawthorn threw their best combinations but Geelong absorbed everything they had. The Cats danced, ducked and weaved and when Bailey Smith threaded the slippery ball through, they were on their way to their 7th grand final this century.

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