60 in 60 #10 Geelong FC
I am reflecting on the last 60 years, and writing 60 blog posts in 60 days. 30 about people and 30 about events, places, experiences and entities.
Anyone who knows me knows I love football and that my heart belongs to the Geelong Cats Football Club. The love affair began in 1966 when we moved to Geelong to live: I was 5 years old. The heroes of that era included Polly Farmer, Billy Goggin, Doug Wade and Denis Marshall. I saw them all play at Kardinia Park through the late sixties and early seventies.
I have experienced a great deal of pain and heartbreak as a Cats fan and it started early with our loss to Richmond in the 1967 Grand Final. Long before live broadcasts of the footy, I suffered through listening to it on the radio at Nan and Pa’s place in Northcote and watching the black and white replay on TV that night.
I didn’t know that it would be 22 years before the Cats made it to another Grand Final or that they would lose four in six years between 1989-1995.
Guru Bob of Coodabeen Champions fame once said, “Some people are destined to never experience joy and happiness in life. For these people God created the Geelong Football Club”. I knew exactly what he meant and each loss hurt worse than the one before. It was hard to resist thinking, “Surely THIS time we’ll win it” only to have those hopes and dreams dashed by Hawthorn West Coast (twice) and Carlton.
Then to compound the pain, it took another twelve years to get back to the Big Dance, in 2007. A future chapter of 60 in 60 will focus on the years 2007, 2009 and 2011 so I won’t go into detail here, except to say that after a 44 year drought, I was at the MCG when the Cats finally won the flag in 2007 and repeated the feat in ‘09 and ’11, bringing a measure of peace and fulfillment that was profound and sustaining.
I have a few friends who are not into footy (G’day Phil) and for whom these sentiments seem ridiculous and out of proportion to “real life” but I make no apology. Sport is part of life and I have loved playing, watching and participating in sport my whole life. I can’t separate my sense of self from my love of footy and in particular Geelong. I have ridden huge highs and sunk to horrible lows based entirely on the fortunes of the Cats. I’m not necessarily proud of how much they have affected my life and moods over the years, but if I wasn’t so passionate about them nor would I have experienced the joyous celebration and spirit of victory when it finally came. I am a passionate person in many areas of my life but not many of my passions have such a high profile or public face.
I wasn’t sure how this chapter would work and it has evolved organically as I wrote it. It captures some of my thoughts and feelings about my footy team without getting bogged down in minutiae, however, I can’t write about Geelong without recounting a few personal experiences and anecdotes.
· When I was 8-9 I played many games for the Cats little league team at half time of various VFL games on league grounds including the MCG and Waverley.
From the Geelong Advertiser in 1968
· My nephew Daniel Foster was drafted to Geelong with pick #23 in the 1999 National Draft and played 17 games for the Cats in an injury-plagued career. I had the privilege of officiating at his wedding, Josh Hunt was his best man.
· I jumped the fence at VFL Park Waverley in 1980 and 1981 to see Geelong lose heart-breaking preliminary finals to Collingwood. Peter Daicos was largely responsible. I gained a small measure of revenge in 1980, seeing Collingwood get thrashed by the Tigers in the Grand Final with my oldest mate Gary, a Tiger fan.
· I was at Kardinia Park the day Brian Peake made his debut after a high profile move from East Fremantle and arriving at Geelong in a helicopter.
· I was at Carrara the day Gary Ablett kicked 10 goals in a demolition of the Brisbane Bears.
· I was at the Gabba when Brisbane staged “The miracle on grass” to come back from 9 goals down to beat Geelong with a goal after the siren from Ashley McGrath.
· I was there again in 2019 when Geelong lost a thriller to the Lions by a point in the second last round, ex-Cat Lincoln McCarthy struck the killer blow.
· I was at the WACA in the last round of 1993 when we had a rare win against the Eagles but still missed the finals.
· I saw Geelong beat the Crows at Footy Park in 2012 but still bear the scar of the infamous mark not paid to Leigh Colbert in the 1997 knock-out semi-final when the Cats were leading. Adelaide went on to win the flag.
· I turned the TV off in disgust when Nigel Lappin cheated twice to kick goals and put Carlton in front in the final minute of the game in round 11 2002, thus missing Peter Riccardi kicking the winning goal after the siren for the Cats!
· I was there the night Tom Hawkins kicked the goal after the siren to beat Hawthorn 10 years later.
· I was at every one of Geelong’s 11 successive victories over the Hawks during the Kennett Curse era.
· I strained to listen to the epic 1989 Grand Final on a clapped out Coaster bus while driving a bunch of teenagers from Perth to Sydney on a torturous 3 day/6 flat tyre journey to the Blackstump Festival. The radio signal dropped out every time we drove into a valley. Despite Gary Ablett’s heroics-kicking 9 goals and winning the Norm Smith Medal- the Cats still lost in one of the toughest Grand Finals ever played. Of all our losses, the ’89 GF is the only one I can bear to watch.
· In 2018 I was an AFL member and went to 50 games across the season.
· I was in the guard of honour when Jimmy Bartel played his 300th game and Corey Enright broke the record for most games played for Geelong in 2016.
· I live in hope of seeing the Cats win at least another flag. For many years all I could claim was that they had won one flag in my lifetime even if it was in 1963 and I was 2 at the time!
· My favourite players across the journey: Gary Ablett Sr, Joel Selwood, Jimmy Bartel, Gary Ablett Jr, Tom Hawkins, Peter Riccardi, Billy Brownless, Matthew Scarlett, Gary Hocking, Doug Wade, Gary Malarkey, Polly Farmer, Billy Goggin, David Clarke, Patrick Dangerfield, Cam Mooney and Paul Chapman.
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