The Steamtug Blog

The World’s greatest footy match, and I was there to see it! My mate Charles is a member of the prestigious Melbourne Cricket club, where the grudge match of the year was to be played on Friday night, and he had tickets for the game! So how could I say no to see the old foes, Geelong and Hawthorn face off again. Hawthorn had not beaten Geelong in the last 8 times they have played, but with Geelong down a little on form, and Hawthorn starring enough to be called the favourites to win the grand final later in the year, it was shaping up to be the payback game for Geelong.

These 2 teams faced off for the grand final back in 2008 and Geelong who had won the year before were beaten in a hard fought contest. After the match, the Hawthorn president Mr. Jeff Kennet was too excited to keep his mouth from shooting off, declaring that Geelong did not have the mental capacity to beat his favoured Hawks. This was to become known as “The Kennet Curse” because after this announcement, star Geelong forward Paul Chapman vowed that they would NEVER let Hawthorn beat them again. And true to there word, Geelong has pulled out everything sometimes against all odds to carry that promise forward with Hawthorn losing the past 8 times they have come together. But this time it was different… with some of the old experience retired from the team, and some new young guns still learning the ropes, Geelong have been a little off form recently. Although the previous 2 games were showing promise, Geelong still remained well behind the dazzling Hawks, and this was predicted to be the one to break the curse, with all the experts predicting Geelong to lose.

The siren sounded, the umpire bounced the ball, and Geelong started the game like a shot out of a gun smashing the Hawks all over the ground kicking more than 9 goals in the first quarter, while the floundering Hawks were so shocked they could not handle the pressure evident by all the mistakes and fumbles they made and getting only 2 goals back.

But the game went on, and Hawthorn found the holes in Geelong’s armour, clawing back little by  little over the rest of the game, with Geelong returning many of the goals but the scoreboard revealed a diminishing  lead until half way through the last quarter the scores finally became level. The Hawthorn supporters, who had been quiet up until now smelt victory and came alive in excitement. The nibbling continued with Geelong holding their own in the fight, but not enough to prevent Hawthorn finally drawing with scores level, then another goal to hit the front. The atmosphere was electric, the crowd jumping around in excitement as the score became 1 goal, 1 behind (7 points) in favour of Hawthorn, before Geelong answered back with a goal to bring the scores back to 1 point in favour of Hawthorn. Then lots of intense fighting on the forward line for Hawthorn who managed to gain another 3 points as Geelong faught tirelessly to prevent another goal, without managing to get the ball out of Hawthorn’s attack zone.

But time was finished and the Hawthorn crowd relaxed a little as the victory seemed inevitable. They were all so happy and we too were proud of the fight our team had put up as the under dogs who had really showed the way without any of us believing we could win anyway. We could go home happy in defeat, knowing we had given it our best shot and really rattled the championship favourites for 2012.

Then a miracle happened…. with mere seconds remaining in the game, the ball was broken out by our defence who found a loose man down the ground who broke away and belted the ball forward to Tom Hawkins who managed to take a hard fought mark right on the 50 metre mark from Geelong’s goal. Now Tom is not known to be good when under pressure and often fails to kick the ball straight enough to reach his target. And let’s face it… he was a long way out and all the odds were against him. Still he had played a marvelous game with 5 goals already to his credit, most of which were earned after hotly contested marks.

So Tommy lines up… the siren sounds to end the game as the ball drops onto his boot… we can’t watch as the ball travels against the odds as dead as a die, right through the exact centre of the goal posts. Tom has the look of a stunned mullet on his face in disbelief that he actually stole the game back from all those excited Hawthorn supporters, and their shell shocked team to claim victory after the siren by a margin of only 2 points!!! We were in tears of joy as the quiet Hawthorn supporters made for the exit.

We were too shocked to leave the ground, so instead headed for the members bar (since we had members tickets) to have a few froffies to celebrate the witnessing of a modern day miracle. Now I propose to nominate TOM HAWKINS for MAYOR OF GEELONG! All those in favor, say EY!!!