After 22 Rounds, Three Weeks Of Finals And 184 Games, It's The Showdown We Had To Have: Hawthorn V Geelong
The Sunday Age
Sunday September 21, 2008
GOODBYE, Saints. Hello, Granny. And that's the story for Hawthorn. They smashed StKilda out of a one-sided two-horse race for the right to play a seemingly omnipotent Geelong in next Saturday's grand final.
Not content to humble St Kilda, the rampant Hawks humiliated them by virtually doubling their score. On the way to the 18.10 (118) to 9.10 (64) annihilation, Hawthorn broke St Kilda's defence, then its spirit.After his team's ordeal finally ended, the iron man of Moorabbin, Robert Harvey, wept as the curtain finally fell on the 383-game career that ended so lamely. He would never have admitted it before last night, but in that Phar Lap-sized heart of his, St Robert must have nursed a hope that his last game would be next week ... in St Kilda's first premiership side since the club's legendary one-point win over Collingwood in 1966."I never expected in my final game that I'd be looking forward to that siren," Harvey said. "But that was the case." But even winners as comprehensively superior as Hawthorn cannot afford to be complacent just six sleeps away from what some suspect is shaping as the greatest team in generations.Still, Hawthorn enters the big game in such awesome form that even die-hard Cats supporters must have twinges of doubt. It will be the Hawks' first grand final since the glorious era that yielded five flags in nine seasons from 1983 to 1991 - and the first grand final meeting between the two since 1989, when they produced an all-time classic.But the win was not without cost, with star utility Luke Hodge sent to the bench with a suspected rib injury after being crunched by Justin Koschitzke. Hodge coughed up blood at the break, prompting club doctors' attention.But he showed characteristic courage to return to the ground and throw himself in front of St Kilda forwards. Only the foolish would bet against him playing next week.Five-goal small forward Mark Williams could attract the scrutiny of the match review panel for making high contact on Saints defender Max Hudghton, when he had his head bent over the ball, late in the game. And star forward Lance "Buddy" Franklin sent a scare through the Hawks camp when he left the ground with a hand injury late in the first. All that aside, things could hardly have gone better for the Hawks. By half time it was all over bar the shouting. There'll be plenty of that next week. --With AAP
© 2008 The Sunday Age
