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Hawks v Cats grand final: how can we make it happen?

Expert
8th July, 2013
33
1068 Reads

It’s not the sort of thing they would want to read, and I can almost hear the fans of the other clubs (or at least another half dozen with grand aspirations) vehemently disagreeing.

However right now, I would not be disappointed one iota, if we just said: “that’s it, the remaining home and away games are irrelevant, Geelong and Hawthorn will play the grand final.”

Stop shouting abuse and calling me an idiot! I’m not a Cats’ fan, nor a Hawthorn supporter.

I’m just being a realist and believe that match-up on September 28, is that one I would pay to see.

I know the Swans for instance always produce great, tense, enthralling, grand finals (their past three have been decided by four points, one point and the ‘blow-out’ of 10 points last year).

And if Essendon and Jobe Watson were to make the decider this season, what a story that would be. And while most people hate Collingwood, if the Pies are in a grand final, at least everyone can get involved by passionately cheering their opponents.

All good grand finalists I’m sure, but Hawks versus Cats could be something truly special for all footy fans to witness and enjoy, regardless of personal affiliation.

Look, I know there is a torrent of water to flow under the bridge before the last weekend in September.

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I know teams will tumble out of form, and others will run into it. I know injuries will debilitate teams, so much perhaps to even slam the window shut on their 2013 premiership hopes and aspirations.

There is so much which can and probably will happen over the next three months. But, put your parochialism for your own team, and perhaps even your hatred for these two clubs, aside for one moment, and having watched another ‘classic’ battle between Hawthorn and Geelong last Saturday night, wouldn’t it be a great grand final?

A hypothetical: Hawks and Cats finish one-two, advance to preliminary finals after week one.

Hawthorn play Sydney in one preliminary final, and extract a modicum of revenge for last year.

The Cats meet Essendon – provided the Dons haven’t lost all their premiership points by then due to the ASADA investigation, and if that be the case, then insert Fremantle or Collingwood here – and advance in a nail biter, setting up the real match the Cats have been waiting five year for.

While Saturday night’s victory maintained their unbeaten streak – now 11 – over the Hawks since they were dramatically upset in the 2008 grand final, all Geelong fans and I’m sure players, know that they would trade each of those 11 wins to have won back in 2008.

They will only ever avenge that loss, and obtain real redemption – and the only way to truly make Jeff Kennett regret his taunt – with a grand final win over Hawthorn.

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How could you not, right now, want to see a Hawthorn-Geelong grand final?

For starters they are arguably the best two football teams at present, and while grand finals always have so many intriguing little off-field stories which add to the main event, surely it would be impossible to top the theatre these two clubs would take into the final Saturday in September.

Even last Saturday’s match, while not the classic, free-flowing contest the two teams have often previously produced, it still had so much, in particular tension, enormous pressure, a dramatic fightback. and then, the now customary close finish.

Bring it on. Bring on that Cats-Hawks grand final. Sometimes all the hype doesn’t translate to the contest in the final game of the season. But I can’t imagine that happening with a Hawthorn-Geelong flag decider.

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