Hawthorn and Geelong have offered some of the best football of the modern era in their Easter Monday clashes, but this year’s classic surpasses them all
The Easter Monday fixture between Hawthorn and Geelong, especially the four years from 2010 to 2013, saw some of the best home and away football of the century. Monday’s game may have surpassed them all. Chris Scott did his best to talk it down. But it was a game of the highest quality, and a finish of the utmost drama. It ran the full gamut between sumptuous skill and high farce.
The second quarter in particular saw some exceptional football, with the ball pinging the length and breadth of the MCG and the skills as good as you’ll see in the modern era. The buildup to Hawthorn’s first goal from Jack Gunston featured nine propulsive handballs, each incrementally bringing them closer to the corridor. And that’s how they transitioned the ball all afternoon, with smart, quick, angle-changing handballs culminating in a final kick inside 50, invariably to Gunston in an acre of space. Geelong are no slouches in that facet of the game, but the Hawks were a bit bolder and a bit sharper.