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Cameron Mooney of Geelong celebrates a goal while Shane O'Bree of Collingwood looks on during the AFL Round 09 match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Geelong Cats at the MCG, Melbourne.
The dramatic final minutes of Friday night’s qualifying final has been a huge discussion point in recent days. Ever since Cameron Ling slotted what seemed like the game-winning goal for Geelong, only for us all to realise that the umpire had in fact paid a free kick to St Kilda seconds earlier, the talk hasn’t stopped.
But for the Cats to bounce back from their loss, perhaps a little less talk is needed.
There was a minute left on the clock when the incident happened, and the Saints ran out the game to advance to the preliminary final. The Cats, conversely, now face a much tougher road to premiership glory, without the luxury of a week off.
As it happened, Cam Mooney, the player responsible for the push in the back, told the umpire: “You just lost us the game. Do you understand that?”
After the game was finished, the debate over whether it was a free kick or not began to rage. While many say the context – one minute to go in a final – and the wet conditions should have been factored in by the umpire, no one’s willing to suggest that it wasn’t a free to the letter of the law.
But now, as the initial anger dies down and people begin to move on, it’s curious to hear that Mark Thompson was yesterday again questioning the umpiring on the night, after already speaking out about the last-minute call in his post-match press conference.
“The free kick was probably there but the 15 other ones that they didn’t pay were probably wrong,” Thompson said.
Coupled with Mooney’s reaction, you get the sense that the Cats are more than a little bit annoyed about the umpire’s decision. It’s fair enough to an extent – there can’t be many crueller ways to lose a match – however, the Cats’ focus this week should be squarely on fixing what went wrong during the rest of the match, not what happened with a minute to go.
One such area that needs to be looked at, for example, is how the side started so slowly, and not for the first time this season.
In their four matches this year against the current front-runners, Collingwood and St Kilda, Geelong have never been more than one point up at quarter time. Even in their biggest win this season, against the Western Bulldogs, the Cats’ first 20 minutes were so below par that Ten commentator Tim Lane declared “the days of domination are over”.
Of course, in each of these games the Cats have eventually clicked into gear. And they’ve looked absolutely brilliant once that’s happened.
However, while sometimes they click into gear early in the piece (see the 101-point demolition of the Dogs), often it doesn’t happen soon enough (see Friday night and the loss to the Pies in Round 19). And it could cost them a premiership.
You get the feeling Geelong are dangerously treading the line between confidence and arrogance. It’s hard to muster up many other reasons why they haven’t been switched on from the opening bounce.
To make matters worse, it’s not as though the Cats’ issues stop there.
Some selection dilemmas still need to be sorted out. The draw they now face – with Collingwood waiting for them if they beat Fremantle – makes things more difficult.
Of course, that’s not to say Geelong won’t bounce back from this. They are the type of side you do not write off in this situation.
However, it does give you the feeling that Thompson and Co. have bigger things to worry about than an umpire’s decision that most football followers agree was correct, if only to the letter of the law.