Left smouldering for a decade, the Hawthorn v Geelong rivalry is about to fire up | Martin Pegan
The AFL’s best modern-day rivalry has been left smouldering for a decade,The flames might flicker whenever Geelong and Hawthorn meet,They threaten to take hold each Easter Monday,But the fear and loathing will return in full when the fuel of a preliminary final is poured on the Cats and Hawks clash on Friday night,Geelong have largely had the better of their old foes since Hawthorn completed their premiership three-peat in 2015.
They have won 11 of their 15 meetings since then – and each of the past four.The Cats, admittedly, have that sort of record against most sides during that period, helping them put to bed their reputation for always being the bridesmaid.Since breaking a 44-year premiership drought in 2007, Geelong have triumphed in another three grand finals and reached two more deciders.They have only missed the finals twice and have appeared in 14 preliminary finals in the past 19 seasons, and become a powerhouse of the competition.Yet for all that the Cats have achieved, and with the promise of more to come, one club continues to haunt them more than any other.
Continues to leave them doubting their place among the heavyweights,Hawthorn have earned their own spot among the elite with 13 premierships in 63 years,Even though they have been on more of a rollercoaster ride than the Cats this century, the Hawks have an uncanny knack of arriving at the right time to knock off the team in blue and white hoops when the stakes rise,During finals sign up for our free weekly AFL newsletterThe first sign of the Hawks’ hold over the Cats came in the all-time classic 1989 grand final,Hawthorn were in their seventh consecutive decider, Geelong their first for 26 years.
It was little surprise that the more experienced side won on the day, though the ferocious contest and one-goal margin cemented it in memories.For many Cats fans, that return to a grand final stage is a distant memory best forgotten.For younger supporters, it is just a mark in the record books.It was Geelong and Hawthorn’s next meeting on the last Saturday in September that really set fire to their rivalry.It had taken the Cats another 18 years, and three more grand final defeats, to reach the promised land in 2007 – and they were far from done with one.
With a single defeat for the season heading into the 2008 grand final, an imperious Geelong were within reach of completing one of the great campaigns.But the Cats’ wayward kicking for goal, and a defensive masterclass from the Hawks, piled pressure on the favourites and the game ended as a grand final upset for the ages.Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL WeeklyJonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL storiesafter newsletter promotionWith the power of a premiership behind him, Jeff Kennett, Hawthorn’s president at the time, questioned Geelong’s mental resilience.The Cats players made a pact not to lose to the Hawks again and duly won their next 11 clashes, including eight victories by single-figure margins and five by under a goal.The streak started when the Cats held off the fast-finishing Hawks by eight points in a grand final rematch in round one of 2009.
The “Kennett Curse” was truly born later that year after the Hawks led by 22 points at the last change.The Cats surged home and Jimmy Bartel marked in the forward pocket with seconds left on the clock, then kicked a crucial behind after the siren to snatch victory by the narrowest of margins.Geelong booted the last three goals of the game to overrun Hawthorn in the first Easter Monday clash in 2010, and so began a streak of breaking Hawthorn hearts in home and away matches.They saved their most comprehensive victory over their rivals for the only finals encounter in the stretch.A 31-point win in the 2011 qualifying final, which was a critical step on the way to Geelong claiming a third premiership in five seasons.
It was no less than the Cats had deserved, even if there would always be one that got away,But when Hawthorn finally snapped their 11-match losing streak, it became like a recurring nightmare for Geelong,It came in a 2013 preliminary final – the first time the sides had met in a winner-takes-all final since the decider five years earlier,Hawthorn booted the last three goals of the game in the five-point thriller and a few weeks later won the first of their three consecutive premierships,The rivalry kept simmering as the two sides remained in contention and split a pair of qualifying final meetings in 2014 and 2016.
But for all of the Cats’ recent success and an imposing head-to-head record that they have built up against the Hawks, they have not beaten their arch-rivals in a cut-throat final for more than five decades,Geelong’s determination to use the pain of the 2008 grand final to never lose to Hawthorn again was a noble if unrealistic aim,But it likely helped lay the foundation for their ongoing success, even if the Cats players and their supporters soon learned that no future result can be enough to exact revenge for the past,
Privatisation of UK industries is driving cost of living crisis, says Greens leader
The privatisation of the UK’s key industries is driving the cost of living crisis, damaging critical public services and making life harder for millions of people, the leader of the Green party, Zack Polanski, has said.Speaking after the Guardian revealed the British public have been paying a “privatisation premium” of £250 per household per year since 2010, he described the mass privatisation of UK industry as a “failed experiment”.“This report shows that privatisation has been one of the key drivers of the cost-of-living crisis and growing inequality … the Conservatives were the architects of this failed experiment, but the Labour government has done virtually nothing to change course.”In his successful campaign to become Labour leader in 2020, Keir Starmer vowed to support “common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water” but has backtracked since coming into power, ruling out nationalisation of the big six energy companies, water or mail.Labour has made some moves towards nationalisation, bringing some train operators back into public ownership, establishing the publicly owned GB Energy and completing the re-nationalisation of the national energy system operator
Starmer to recognise Palestinian state ‘after Trump state visit’
Keir Starmer will reportedly recognise a Palestinian state over the weekend after Donald Trump concludes his state visit to the UK.The prime minister has previously said he plans to recognise Palestinian statehood before the UN general assembly in New York this month if Israel does not meet a series of conditions to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.High-level meetings at the UN summit involving world leaders begin on 23 September. According to the Times, Starmer has held off on formally announcing the UK will recognise a Palestinian state until after Trump leaves for fear it could dominate a Thursday news conference the two men plan to hold at Chequers.The prime minister has found himself at odds with the US administration over the move, which is opposed to giving official recognition to the state
Donald Trump joins royals for state banquet at Windsor as thousands protest against US president’s visit – as it happened
The pomp and pageantry have been laid on thick for Donald Trump’s historic and unprecedented second state visit, with the US president visibly delighted by a day of processions, flypasts and gifts.He was notably kept away from public crowds and mostly contained within the walls of Windsor Castle, as members of the Stop Trump Coalition gathered in London to protest against his visit. The Metropolitan police estimated 5,000 people attended the anti-Trump rally in Parliament Square, denouncing the US president as a “fascist”. There were other protests all across the country.Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is now an independent MP, also congratulated the four activists arrested by police after pictures of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were projected on to the walls of Windsor Castle last night
Nick Clegg: US-UK tech deal is ‘sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley’
A multibillion-dollar transatlantic tech agreement announced to coincide with Donald Trump’s state visit represents “sloppy seconds from Silicon Valley”, Nick Clegg, Meta’s former president of global affairs, has said.The former deputy prime minister said the deals, heralded with great fanfare by the government as it tries to foster growth in the UK, were “mutton dressed as lamb” and would make the country ever more reliant on US tech firms.The announcements have included some of the biggest companies in the tech world, such as chipmaker Nvidia and the ChatGPT developer OpenAI. One announcement featured a Microsoft investment that was said to be worth $30bn (£22bn).However, speaking at a Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge, Clegg said the relationship between the UK and the US tech sector was “all one-way traffic” and that the announcements suited the companies
A wake-up call for all of us to resist the far right | Letters
Peter Kyle, the business and trade secretary, has said that he was not disturbed by the Tommy Robinson march on Saturday (Trump has fanned the flames of divisive politics around the world, says Sadiq Khan, 16 September). Well I certainly was. The levels of threatening hate and violence should be a wake-up call, not just for government ministers but for all of us. Stand Up to Racism has done its best to mobilise people to tackle this threat, but it’s clear that we have to find a new way forward to reinforce this work. I am urging people in all civil society organisations to start talking about the situation and in each sector to start talking to each other
‘Privatisation premium’: billions from UK energy bills paid to shareholders
A quarter of the average UK energy bill was funding corporate profits last year, according to analysis that reveals the hidden cost of privatising some of the UK’s key industries.The study – part of a wider Who Owns Britain project by the Common Wealth thinktank – found that a sum equal to 24.2% of the average energy bill went to the pre-tax profits of the major electricity generators, networks and household suppliers in 2024.In addition, the analysis reveals the scale of wealth extracted from bill payers since the privatisation of Britain’s energy system. It found that shareholders of Britain’s privatised energy companies have taken at least £70
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