Round 21: A (de)parting shot

Alright Big Leaguers, it’s time for full disclosure: I, the Captain, have bravely volunteered to make the ultimate sacrifice for the Geelong Football Club and for you, the faithful, for the good of the 2009 finals series. I’m putting myself in the breach, taking one for the team and putting my hand up as the ultimate team player to all but guarantee a successful September for the Cats.

That’s right, I’m leaving the country.

Following the lead of Mrs Watson, (who navigated a successful 2007 campaign from the many dive bars and steakhouses of Northern America) I will be knee deep in croissant and fine (cheap) champagne by the time Grand Final 2009 rolls around. Prelim too, for that matter.

So as I learn how to ask, “Is this beer full-strength?” in French, it seems everyone is lining up to ask questions of the Cats: Are they too nicked up? Can they mix it with Collingwood and St Kilda? Can the forward line function in the finals? Is Brad Ottens merely a figment of the Bellarine Peninsula’s imagination?

These questions are not new. Indeed, we’ve been asking, and attempting to answer, them for the best part of two months. So let me indulge you just a little longer.

Cast your mind back to that Round 16 St Kilda epic against St Kilda. Both teams were pretty much at full-strength (Steve Johnson aside) and the game was played at a rabid, finals-level intensity for the entire 100+ minutes. It’s almost the only game that counts, so far.

Both teams got a good look at one another, to “measure up”, if you will. Both sides would have come away encouraged.

The Saints have barely made a change from that day’s line-up and have (almost) bested all challengers since. The Cats form since that game, however, has been pretty patchy, leading me to two possibilities.

1) Seeing that they were good enough to be close enough, The Cats, learning from last year (as we’ve covered), have since been in a complete management phase, aimed purely at September. (I remind you that Hawthorn lost to Richmond in the last month of last season.) It explains the positional changes, the player trials and the resting. It might also explain how, more than a few times now, Geelong have been able to almost “turn it on” in the 4th quarter when required. Ideally this scenario ends with Ottens, Johnson, Kelly, Harley etc all coming back in round 22 and an unchanged side sweeping through September with the intensity turned back up to 11. Or…

2) The Cats, as we’ve known them, are done.

In a sport where we are constantly reminded that ‘a week’s a long time’ three years is an eternity.

But as a man counting the days until his departure, let me tell you that it all still unfolds one moment at a time.

Don’t worry, I’m (we’re) not gone yet.


Captain: Geel, Carl, Adel, Bris, Haw, StK, Col, Ess.
Season Tally: 115-45

Mrs Watson: Unavailable (I forgot to txt him)
Season Tally: 104-56