Jack Gunston’s late poster gives Hawthorn one-point win over Geelong in Easter Monday classic
Jack Gunston became a hero among heroes as he blasted the ball through the air to put the Hawks a single point ahead of Geelong with 17 seconds left in an Easter Monday classic that matched any of the epic encounters between the two rivals.
The experienced footballer’s desperate shot saw the ball head towards the post to put the Hawks ahead.
There was no time for the Cats to respond and as the siren sounded Hawthorn were handed a photo finish.
By then the match had snowballed into the final two minutes, where the noise was so deafening that Sam Mitchell was unable to communicate with Max Bailey on the bench despite Bailey wearing a headset.
In those final 120 seconds, Cats spearhead Shannon Neale scored her fourth goal to give the Cats a goal. It looked then as if the contest had finally turned Geelong’s way.
But the Cats lost the middle distance, then failed to control the ball to break out of the back half and saw the ball bounce to the top of the square where Hawthorn’s Mitch Lewis stood upright to mark.
Lewis, a skilled golfer, set up his goal and proceeded to tie the scores with 50 seconds left.
“I wasn’t too bad [for nerves] “Actually,” Lewis said, “I had to go fast, so I think that helped.”
He saw the moment as a chance for redemption after giving away a free kick to block moments earlier which led to Neale’s goal.
By this time, the stadium was on edge as 84,712 fans (who did not have tickets for the game) decided to clear out the Easter eggs with uncontrolled screaming.
It became a matter of winning within a minute as the cross ball took place with 51 seconds left on the clock.
Neither coach could do anything with the 6-6-6 rule (introduced by Geelong CEO Steve Hocking), which meant players started the game in their respective positions.
Hawks captain James Sicily managed to lift his sore shoulder above his head to mark Geelong’s clearance and the ball went to Jai Newcombe, who made up for an uncharacteristically inept quarter with two crucial match-winning positions in the final 90 seconds.
The Hawks, who won the 2008 grand final by running from behind at every opportunity, this time desperately rushed to score the ball from their own half, while the Cats’ defenders desperately tried to keep the ball in play.
But their desperation was of no avail as the game’s oldest player, Gunston, who suffered a hamstring injury in the third quarter and moved to Brisbane for a lost year before being named an All-Australian last season, volleyed in the game’s decisive score.
“I was trying to break it down from start to finish. The last 30 seconds were very exciting but as soon as it hit the post I kind of celebrated but then [Max] “Holmes had the ball and I thought I had to defend,” Lewis said. “It was very exciting.”
Intensity consists of a single word. Another crazy one. Probably standard too, considering the number of times games between these two teams are decided at the last minute.
Cats coach Chris Scott was disappointed with the result and, frankly, struggled to process what had happened in the end after watching a match in which he thought “didn’t think we hit our belts”.
The Cats deserved to be blown to pieces trying to win the game after scoring a game-high 13 points midway through the final quarter of a see-saw game.
Both teams had their villains, their heroes and their moments to regret, but Jack Ginnivan was certainly a hero for the Hawks, as was Nick Watson, who scored two great centre-back goals.
Ginnivan may have been a showman but he was outstanding and worked as hard as Geelong’s Bailey Smith. His second goal of the third quarter put the Hawks ahead.
He defended strongly when necessary and looked dangerous within his team’s attacking range of 50 metres; He used his intelligence to cut off Geelong’s attacks several times in the desperate second quarter, when the Cats were threatening to blow the game away by seven goals.
“He’s a very smart player,” Mitchell said.
However, the Cats were unable to break the rope that Hawthorn had tied around his ankles, and in the end, the ankle broke instead of the rope.
“We’ve lost a few games where we’ve been up by a few goals with a few minutes left, but I’m not sure we’ve won a game like that,” Mitchell said. “It’s a feather in the cap, but it doesn’t mean you can do it next time.”
Next time? We can’t wait.
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