The Terrace

1. Geelong players are nice guys and Chris Scott is a good bloke. Nice guys and good blokes ‘deserve’ three premierships.

2. Channel 10 are televising the big game. They broadcast ’07 and ’09. Channel 7 broadcast ’08. It’s an omen.

3. To prove the critics wrong. Again. For the record, Tim Lane tipped against us (Collingwood by 11 points). Duh.

4. Bobby Davis would have expected nothing less. Bring on the piano accordionist and Happy Hammond.

And lastly…

5. We have beaten Collingwood twice this year. They haven’t beaten us once. We beat Hawthorn and West Coast in the final series by a cumulative score of 79. Collingwood beat them by a cumulative of 23 points. Sounds like a friggin’ form guide to us.

From all at The Terrace, go you bloody good thing. Play like Max Rooke’s life depended on it.

Jollywobbles noun

1. To rock from side to side whilst thinking about Darren Jolly’s groin.

To throw a Jollywobbly informal

1. Have a fit of annoyance or panic and spit on a colleague whilst thinking about Darren Jolly’s aforementioned groin.

Firstly, congratulations to Dane from all of us here at The Terrace. Fair play to you. And here’s to a week of intrusive media work followed by a crap game on Saturday.

Secondly, ff there’s one downside to the weekend results, it’s that Hawthorn and Collingwood didn’t both lose. I mean, Jeff referring to the pain being greater than the ’99 election was music to our ears, with the the taste of ’08 (and his comments the following year) still lingering. Watching the Pies bow out in similar fashion would have been nice. But, then again, having a crack at the the maggots on Saturday gives us a chance to bury their hopes once and for all. Beating Hawthorn, Weagles and Collingwood to win the flag would be a nice way to come down the home straight and pull off the holy trinity. Very nice indeedy.

And who would have thought, after all the hullabaloo at the end of last year, that we would get another crack at the elusive third flag? We mean, really, it’s almost time we starting knocking on Tim Lane’s door. Does anyone remember this article from September last year?  Or this one from the beginning of this year? We couldn’t resist this extract…

“Already, one or two important players were old by the calendar and a couple of others old before their time. Yes, they’d added James Podsiadly to their attack, hoped it was Tom Hawkins’ time, and Travis Varcoe was still improving. But it was wishful thinking to imagine this could compensate for what was being lost.”

Ahem, Tim. Ahem. Sure, Tim has been one of many – so we won’t dwell on it. Not just yet. And we won’t count our third kitten until it’s hatched. But, it’s been a trentwestendous year to date.

Finally, to kick off the week, we’re happy to share this Dale Thomas number.

So, we are all aware of the facts. Since time immemorial, Geelong is the only team to have played the Weagles in finals that has not defeated them at least once. Not once. And there are soooo many reasons for us to claim retribution. Here at The Terrace, we’re big fans of reverse psychology. And there is no lack of inspiration for us to draw from when playing this weekend. Here are the top three moments that should fuel the fire inside and provide inspiration on Saturday:

1. 1992 Grand Final – West Coast take the Cup home for the first time, and we are held to blame. Mark Bairstow cops a pasting for his game on Peter Matera. Peter Wilson annoys us, again.
2. 1994 Grand Final - Just when you thought ’92 was crap, think again. The game was over before half time, and Gary kicks one solitary goal. West Australians really do suck.
3. Round 10 2006 – We lead at home by 39 at half time, and 36 at three-quarter time, only to lose by three points. Oh dear.

So the point being, have no short memory. Remember the pain. Look for retribution.

Carn the catters!

There’s no doubt Friday is a very big game. But the burning question is: what the f&^%k is Don Scott wearing in this photo? That is one hooded cardigan gone horribly wrong. And don’t get us started on the orange pants.

Anyway, we digress. Enjoy some highlights from the last clash between the two clubs and try this stat for good measure: Geelong’s average winning margin against the Hawks of 7.3 points in six consecutive wins since 2008 is the lowest of any sequence of 6 consecutive wins v the same opponent.

Go Cats!

So, the streak has ended. It surpassed Richmond at the Punt Road Oval (1932-35) and South Melbourne at the Lake Oval (1934-36), and included 29 victories at an average of 63.5 points. Whilst there were a very fair share of immemorable matches, which were the most memorable? Let’s take a look at our top five…

2008

R3 Geelong 4.4 8.11 13.14 16.16 (112) dftd Melbourne 3.4 6.6 10.8 12.10 (82) – The game is a poor one, but the 2007 premiership flag is delivered via parachute. Tacky but memorable for sentimental reasons.

2009

R2 Geelong 5.3 8.9 11.11 15.15 (105) dftd Richmond 1.1 4.2 12.6 13.7 (85) -Stevie J. kicks 4 goals as the cats kick 4 goals to 1 in the last to overtake the Tigers and win by twenty points.

R18 Geelong 3.3 7.7 11.7 14.9 (93) dftd Adelaide 3.2 4.7 9.11 13.13 (91) – Chappy gets 24 disposals and six goals with a tweaked hammy, with a couple of last quarter blinders.  We win by two points, go onto win the flag and he wins the Normy. Special. Possibly best game of the streak.

2010

Believe it or not, matches in 2010 were, on the whole, immemorable!

2011

R19 Geelong 8.3 20.4 28.8 37.11 (233) dftd Melbourne 0.3 1.4 5.4 7.5 (47)  - if nothing else, memorable for one reason: record-breaking win.

R20 Geelong 8.1 18.4 21.8 29.14 (188) dftd Gold Coast 3.0 3.0 6.1 6.2 (38) – a lucky nomination as our final win, to the tune of 150 points. But no Gary.

So, that’s it. Seriously, were there any other memorable games? Apart from the one where they handed out commemorative ponchos…