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Sam Weideman breaks out on the big stage
It’s an underrated aspect of Melbourne’s past month that they have hit their straps despite the fact that Jesse Hogan and Jake Lever are sitting on the sidelines.
It’s not just that Hogan and Lever are good players, it’s that both have been considered so crucial to Melbourne’s build.
Hogan was thought of by some as their most important before he even debuted, Lever is the one they broke the bank to get.
However Hogan’s absence on Friday night meant there was room for the relatively inexperienced Sam Weideman in the team, and it proved to be brilliant timing.
Weideman lit up the first quarter with nine touches and two goals, including one on the siren to put an exclamation point on Melbourne’s dominance.
Like the team as a whole, he was quieter after quarter time – but still finished the night with 24 touches and three goals, having chosen a good time to play the best game of his young career so far.
Viney sizzles, Selwood stumbles
It was always going to be something of a roll of the dice to bring a player back from injury into an elimination final, but Jack Viney’s performance for Melbourne proved well worth the risk.
The co-captain was one of the key reasons the Dees were so good in the first quarter, tackling ferociously and setting the tone for their early dominance.
Viney finished the night with 20 touches, five clearances and 11 tackles – handy stats, but they don’t fully reflect the impact he had on the team.
His opposite number in Joel Selwood arguably had the better night statistically with 20 contested possessions and eight clearances, but in reality it was the kind of game that could harm his legacy.
Selwood’s characteristic willingness to look for high contact free kicks bordered somewhere between comedic and embarrassing throughout the night.
However the moment he will ultimately find it hardest to live down is when he cost teammate Tom Hawkins a shot on goal that could have put the Cats within striking distance by giving away a silly free kick off the ball on his way to the bench.
Nathan Jones kicks the sealer
When Melbourne kicked five goals to none in the first term the match really should have been over at quarter time, but any Dees fan who claimed to feel confident surely hasn’t been following the club too long.
And in the second and third quarters it seemed like Melbourne was desperate to do anything at all they could to let Geelong back in – while they were on top of the game, they kept finding ways to kick behinds, some from unbelievably simple scoring opportunities.
Their saving grace was that even when Geelong had the chance to kick goals they did pretty much the same thing. Melbourne kicked 1.10 in the space of two quarters, but Geelong weren’t much better with 3.6.
It was fitting though that shortly after the final change, Nathan Jones sealed the deal by kicking the first of Melbourne’s four goals for the quarter. It was the kind of goal that makes the Earth shake and must surely have registered on the Richter scale.
(Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Chris Scott’s finals record takes another punch
After winning three finals and a premiership in his first year at the helm, Chris Scott’s performance in finals hasn’t been great in the years that have followed and took another hit on Friday night.
While Scott has successfully delivered a finals appearance in all but one of the eight seasons he’s been at the helm, he has now won only three finals out of a potential 12 since 2011.
His tenure at the Cats has continually been one of the more controversial in the league – some feel Geelong have underperformed in his time, while others would say he has steered the ship well through a difficult era.
Certainly the fact that he has been contracted for the next four years minimum despite an ultimately underwhelming 2018 campaign is something his critics will be quick to question.
What’s next for Geelong?
We know what’s next for Melbourne – a semi-final date with Hawthorn that, despite being a bit shaky at times on Friday night, they’ll be a serious chance to win, if not favourites.
The next developments at the Cats look a little less clear however. Friday night’s loss – not just the fact, but the manner of it – will leave a bitter taste in their mouths over the offseason.
Melbourne’s poor accuracy in the second and third quarters afforded the Cats a chance to work their way back into the game and possibly snatch it, but they were powerless to do so – and this is a team that, on name value alone, is meant to be valuable.
Does signing a Luke Dahlhaus type somehow take them to the next level, or is greater action needed? Time will tell.