David Harding
Gippy
Kristy lee
Cain LynchReverse tanking fact or AFL myth?
February 11th 2010 15:39
Geelong were never going to miss the four, or even the top 2 and top spot appeared to not be on their radar. Geelongs run home from Round 17 until the end of the regular season was not a convincing effort, Round 17 a win over the Hawks by 1 point kept them in the race for a 1st place finish Round 18 again was a close affair by the Cats, theywould scrap home by 2 points against the Crows but it was the Rounds 19 loss to Carlton that started a few people starting to think there were some problems with the Cats, with injuries around and some players seemingly being out of form the Cats were not going to finish 1st anymore, but the Cats wouldn't mind, they were in Round 16 12 points clear on the ladder from Collingwood, and were even further in front of the Western Bulldogs.
The Cats traveled to Sydney and battled the Swans a team that needed to win this game to have a chance of finals in 2009, the Swans were getting confident as they were neck and neck with the Cats all the way but the Cats eventually got over the line in a 5 point thriller at Stadium Australia, this would pretty much slam the door shut on the Swans season.
Geelong's loss to the Western Bulldogs in Round 21 had a few people thinking that the Cats were tired, and were ready to run out of steam and were not going to make to make the Grand Final again 14 points wasn't good proof of this, but the Cats were living dangerously heading into the finals until Round 22 of course, they blew Fremantle away. The game was pretty much over at half time and the Cats would make the Dockers fans suffer more and more throughout the day eventually handing them a 40 point loss.
So the AFL season was over, for 8 teams, Geelong finished 2nd, even though most thought they had the shakes, Western Bulldogs' 24 point win over Collingwood clinched them 3rd spot. St. Kildas 19 game unbeaten run was over, and they picked up a shock Kangaroos loss, but still finished easily top of the table.
Now you are wondering how does this turn into reverse tanking, it's a simple thing it doesn't there was no reverse tanking, there was however a Geelong side that was cruising they took their foot of the peddle and they knew the worst they'd get was second, so why would we bust a gut when we are going to probably face St. Kilda in the Grand Final?
The Cats would try hard enough to keep themselves in games, the game against Carlton was the sign that they were not going to make a big deal about things. Once they felt they were using too much of their petrol on the Blues they stopped and allowed the Blues to run away with the game and finish 32 point victors. The same was evident in the Western Bulldogs clash, keep with them for the whole game and then when they felt they were going to expel more energy then they any desire to, stop and let the game play out.
Losing to the Dogs was not a massive problem, a finals contender, top four team and a team that could challenge for the flag, but a Fremantle or a Melbourne they were not going to allow them a chance of a win against them, it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the ladder, but the Cats blew them away enough to cruise home. The Cats could have maimed them more by making it 60 or 70 or even 80 points but this late in the season, did it matter?
One could call this tactic "reverse tanking" because you are not really tanking, you are just not trying hard enough to win games, but you still manage the win. But the tactic does have a potential flaw, as seen by the start of the 2009 AFL Grand Final. The Grand Final saw the Saints close to taking the game by the scruff of the neck and crushing the Cats, the Cats were not able to get into it early, but bad kicking really hindered the Saints.
St. Kilda would lead at half time 7.7.49 to Geelong 7.1. 43 the Saints were unlucky to be punished a goal that was clearly a behind, but for us at home it was easy to see that because the game was slowed down, and we got to see it from a different angle as it sailed into the post. The Cats kept with the Saints, as the bad kicking curse would still strike the Saints, not only behinds but they would just miss the goals entirely and just have the ball fall short on the rare occasion as well. The last quarter was what Grand Final football should be, a tough dog fight for the game, the game could have gone either way in the last and then the Cats finally started their take over in the dying stages and ended up 12 point winners.
A game that gets to be added into the books as another brilliant grand final with more heartbreak for the Saints in the end. Teams will most likely deny any and all tanking in the game exists, some would just say this was a clever ploy that was successful once and may never be seen again, there are flaws with every AFL tactic, but what is the flaw in this one? Teams do run the risk of not being able to turn things around, Geelong had this as pointed out above, Saint Kilda generously assisted the Cats by their bad kicking in the Grand Final. Accurate kicking may have seen 2009 Premiers being the Saints.
But for now the Cats managed to unveil their new tactic, win a flag and add one more season of misery to Saint Kilda.
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