User:Teratix/Geelong Melbourne 186 draft

Round 19, 2011
Geelong Melbourne 37.11 (233) 7.5 (47)
1 2 3 4 GEE 8.3 (51) 20.4 (124) 28.8 (176) 37.11 (233) MEL 0.3 (3) 1.4 (10) 5.4 (34) 7.5 (47)
Date	30 July 2011, 2:10pm
Stadium	Skilled Stadium
Attendance	22,716
Umpires	Scott Jeffery, Heath Ryan, Shaun Ryan

On 30 July 2011, the Australian rules football clubs Geelong and Melbourne played a home-and-away match at Skilled Stadium, during round 19 of that year's Australian Football League season. Geelong scored 37 goals and 11 behinds for a total of 233 points, defeating Melbourne by a 186-point margin.

Geelong were heavy favourites going into the match; they were placed second in the league, separated from first-place Collingwood only by percentage. After a narrow loss to West Coast in round 16 – just their second for the year – Geelong had posted victories over bottom-half teams Brisbane and Richmond in the two weeks before the match. Melbourne, following their round 16 bye, had defeated last-placed Port Adelaide to put themselves in contention for a top-eight finish and thus reaching the 2011 AFL finals series. However, they faced a challenging three-game span against high-ranking sides – they had lost to Hawthorn the previous week and were set to face Carlton after the Geelong match. failed to overcome were eleventh on the ladder but remained in contention , depending on how well they performed in their six remaining home-and-away matches.

Among Melbourne supporters, the defeat is so notorious it is sometimes referred to only by their club's margin of defeat – "186".

Background

Melbourne and Geelong have played football against each other since the 1860s (1881 match pictured).

Melbourne and Geelong are the world's oldest football clubs that are currently professional; both were formally established in 1859. Some of Melbourne's members drew up the first laws of Australian rules football that same year and parts of Geelong's own code were integrated in 1860. Both clubs were founding members of the Victorian Football Association in 1877 and the Victorian Football League twenty years later. The two enjoyed success over the course of the 20th century: by 1965, Melbourne had won twelve premierships and Geelong had won six. However, at this stage both clubs entered long premiership droughts, persisting into the 21st century.

In 2007, Geelong finished first in the league and broke their 44-year premiership drought with a 119-point grand final victory over Port Adelaide. It was their first win in an AFL Grand Final since 1963. Further successes followed: returning to the grand final in 2008, another premiership in 2009, and only falling short of another appearance in 2010 after losing to eventual premiers Collingwood in the preliminary final.

Melbourne's record over this period was far less successful. Their coach Neale Daniher resigned in 2007 after the club lost its first nine matches, and was replaced by Dean Bailey for the 2008 season. In Bailey's first year – a season where Geelong topped the ladder – Melbourne finished on the bottom.

2011 season

[1][2]

Teams

Melbourne

B:	James Strauss	James Frawley	Nathan Jones
HB:	Colin Garland	Jared Rivers	Daniel Nicholson
C:	Jack Trengove	Jordan Gysberts	Colin Sylvia
HF:	Lynden Dunn	Jack Watts	Jeremy Howe
F:	Brad Green	Liam Jurrah	Addam Maric
Foll:	Mark Jamar	Brent Moloney	Luke Tapscott
Int:	Matthew Bate	Jordie McKenzie	Ricky Petterd
	Stefan Martin
Coach:	Dean Bailey

Geelong

B:	David Wojcinski	Matthew Scarlett	Tom Lonergan
HB:	Andrew Mackie	Harry Taylor	Corey Enright
C:	Cameron Ling	Joel Selwood	Jimmy Bartel
HF:	Travis Varcoe	Tom Hawkins	Mathew Stokes
F:	Allen Christensen	Cameron Mooney	Steve Johnson
Foll:	Brad Ottens	Paul Chapman	Joel Corey
Int:	James Kelly	Darren Milburn	Trent West
	Mitch Duncan
Coach:	Chris Scott

Match

External videos
Match highlights from the AFL's YouTube channel

First quarter

Within 75 seconds, Jimmy Bartel was tackled high and scored Geelong's first goal from his free kick. Joel Corey kicked Geelong's second three minutes later. Cameron Mooney, in his closely-observed return to senior football, then marked Mathew Stokes's pass for a 40-metre set shot – he converted, scoring his first goal for the season six minutes into his returning match. For John Salvado, reporting for the Australian Associated Press, this moment made clear it would be "the Cats' day".

Melbourne's Jack Watts interrupted Geelong's scoring with a behind during the ninth minute. Travis Varcoe and Andrew Mackie resumed Geelong's goals ten minutes later. Melbourne moved Watts into defence in an attempt to shut down Geelong's attacks, but the tactic failed. In time on, Geelong scored another three goals through Brad Ottens, Tom Hawkins and Mooney. Steve Johnson was involved in all three: he directly set up Ottens's and Mooney's goals, and was part of a chain of passes leading to Hawkins's goal. Although Johnson had only scored one behind to this stage, he recorded five score assists for the quarter. Following Hawkins's goal, Melbourne moved Jack Trengove to a defensive role alongside Watts.

Geelong's total for the quarter was 51 points – an eight-goal advantage over Melbourne, which scored just three points in the same period. It was Geelong's lowest-scoring quarter for the match. The AFL.com.au reporters Adam McNicol and Peter Ryan deemed the game "over" at this point.

Second quarter

"If the first quarter was impressive for the home side," wrote Salvado, "the second was something else again". Rohan Connolly concurred in a 2024 retrospective for ESPN, calling the first term "merely an entrée". Salvado also noted Geelong were kicking into the wind during this quarter.

Within the first minute, Mooney kicked his third goal with a left-foot snap from the boundary line – the sixth score Johnson assisted. Four minutes later, Lynden Dunn at last scored Melbourne's first goal, but McNicol and Ryan classed this a "minor interruption" for Geelong. In a span from the sixth to the sixteenth minute, Geelong kicked five goals without a Melbourne score: Stokes's first, Mooney's fourth, Mitch Duncan's first, Varcoe's second, and Bartel's second. After nineteen minutes, Daniel Nicholson broke Geelong's streak with a behind – Melbourne's only other score for the quarter. In time on, Geelong scored another six goals without reply. Trent West scored his first, before Mooney's fifth brought Geelong to 100 points during the twenty-third minute of the quarter. Hawkins' second goal soon followed. In the last six minutes, Johnson kicked the first two goals he would directly contribute for Geelong, separated by Stokes' second.

Geelong scored twelve goals and one behind in the second quarter for 73 points. This was their highest-scoring quarter for the match, outscoring Melbourne by eleven goals. The teams entered the half-time break with Geelong holding a 114-point lead, which Connolly thought "barely believable". The only question to be answered in the second half was which records Geelong could break.

Melbourne players recorded only 43 disposals in total for the second quarter. Jake Niall, reporting for The Age, found this figure "the most extraordinary" of "all the damning statistics" and believed it would have been unacceptable for Melbourne even by 1920s standards. Brad Green, Melbourne's captain, had the ball only once in the first half. Brent Moloney, whose sickness worsened during the match, recorded no possessions and was substituted for Matthew Bate at the half-time break. Moloney spent most of the second half sleeping in Melbourne's rooms, with Chris Connolly regularly checking on his condition. Melbourne's "only real sign of life", according to Scott Gullan of the Herald Sun, came during a clash between Dunn and Paul Chapman close to half-time. Dunn's tagging aggravated Chapman, who threw him to the ground in retaliation. Chris Scott, the Geelong coach, spoke to Chapman off-field to calm him down.

For some time during the second quarter, the Ford Stand scoreboard attributed Melbourne's score to "Casey", their reserves side. "Given what had transpired," remarked Niall, "one would have to wonder whether the scoreboard operator was having a lend of us".

Third quarter

The third quarter was Melbourne's highest-scoring quarter, or, as Salvado termed it, its "least embarrassing" quarter.

Geelong and Melbourne traded goals for the first seven minutes. Hawkins scored his third goal inside the first minute, before Bate, Melbourne's substitute, kicked his first goal four minutes after entering the game. Stokes' third goal was matched by Melbourne's Jeremy Howe, before Johnson kicked his third goal during the ninth minute. At the ten-minute mark Geelong scored a rushed behind; Allen Christensen, Geelong's substitute, followed up within 30 seconds for his first goal.

After Christensen's effort, there would be a sixteen-minute span where Geelong did not score any goals. Melbourne's Trengove kicked his first goal in the thirteenth minute, followed by a five-minute stretch whether neither side scored. In the eighteenth minute, Geelong scored two behinds, bringing their total above 150 points. Three minutes later and entering time on, Dunn kicked his second goal – the only time during the game that Melbourne scored two consecutive goals.

At this stage, Melbourne had matched Geelong's goalscoring for the quarter; McNicol and Ryan deemed they had "stabilised the situation". However, in the final seven minutes, Geelong increased their efforts and scored four unanswered goals: Duncan and Varcoe both scored their second, interlaced with two goals from Johnson which brought his total to five. Going into the final break, Geelong's total was 176 points, a 142-point lead over Melbourne.

Final quarter

The final term began with Geelong's Cameron Ling scoring a behind, then a goal, in the first three minutes. Watts countered for Melbourne with a goal near the six-minute mark. Geelong followed up with three consecutive goals: Corey's second, Joel Selwood's first, then Hawkins' fourth. The latter, which came at the 13-minute mark, lifted Geelong's total above 200 points. 90 seconds later, Liam Jurrah kicked Melbourne's final goal for the match from 50 metres out in open play; commentators deemed this "the highlight of their day".

In a span from the seventeenth to the twenty-second minute, Geelong scored another four goals: West's second, Duncan's third, plus Johnson's final two goals. Johnson would finish the game with seven goals – the same number scored by the entire Melbourne team. There followed a seven-minute stretch where Geelong did not score, punctuated by a Melbourne behind. In the twenty-ninth minute, Hawkins scored his fifth goal. This was Geelong's thirty-seventh goal for the match, equalling the AFL record. A rushed behind for Geelong in the thirty-second minute turned out to be the final score for the match.

In total, Geelong scored 37 goals and 11 behinds for 233 points, defeating Melbourne by 186 points.

Aftermath

[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]

External links

• Geelong vs. Melbourne, round 19, 2011 on AFL Tables
• Geelong vs. Melbourne, round 19, 2011 on AustralianFootball.com