Geelong’s dual premiership coach Chris Scott wasted little time watching the replay of the controversial Cam Rayner double-goal right on half-time after his team’s dominant qualifying final victory over Brisbane.
The Cats will contest their 14th preliminary final in 19 seasons after demolishing the Lions by 38 points at the MCG on Friday night, and look well-positioned to contend for a third flag under Scott and fifth since 2007 – but the Rayner incident was the biggest talking point.
Two-time Brownlow Medal-winning midfielder Lachie Neale suffered a right calf injury in the final quarter to compound Brisbane’s woes. Scans will confirm the severity, but he may not play again this season.
Geelong blew the Lions away with four goals in a blistering five-minute period late in the second term, and Tyson Stengle was lining up for a fifth before the umpires intervened to pay Rayner a free kick for an off-the-ball incident about 150 metres away.
A slight nudge from Geelong defender Mark O’Connor into Rayner’s back resulted in the star Lion diving to the surface, but his theatrics paid off with a shot from the goal square.
That was only the start of the madness, with Rayner’s gesticulating in O’Connor’s direction attracting the attention of fellow Cat Zach Guthrie, who rushed in and bumped the Brisbane forward, who again took a tumble – and again received a free kick.
A smirking Rayner, who had only one disposal before that moment, subsequently kicked a second goal within seconds to slash Geelong’s lead from 27 points to 15 on the cusp of half-time.
“I’m not going to comment on [whether Rayner went down too easily] because I think it’s pretty obvious, so I’ll let others comment on it,” Scott said.
“Funnily enough, I did try to find it, but it was so far away, you couldn’t see in the behind-the-goals vision. Fortunately, one of my colleagues in the box said, ‘You don’t want to see it’, [after watching it] on the broadcast vision, so I didn’t see it until post-game.”
O’Connor did not speak to reporters post-game, but Guthrie told this masthead the two Rayner free kicks were “line-ball” decisions that “just happened to go in their favour”.
“It’s a tough one. [Rayner]’s a gun player, and we put some effort into trying to make it tough for him … and he had a few good moments tonight, but I was really proud of Mark O’Connor for the job he did,” Guthrie said.
“It’s obviously really, really tough to go out there and do a job like that on such a good player, but I thought he did an exceptional job.
“I haven’t seen [the Rayner free kicks], but it’s probably not even worth looking. I guess you could, to educate yourself. I was disappointed with myself for making the error. In the moment, you’re disappointed that you let the team down, and I let Mark down as well.”
Scott said it was worth having a discussion about whether the action was worth the significant penalty, and that in those cases the umpire would “want to be really sure that it’s right”.
Rayner instantly became the most hated man on the MCG, but embraced his villain status early in the second half after outpointing O’Connor aerially to boot a third goal before taunting Cats fans, who showered him with boos any time he touched the Sherrin thereafter.
They gave the umpires the same treatment when the half-time siren sounded.
Lions coach Chris Fagan had not watched a replay of the free kicks when he spoke to the media, but noted the pro-Geelong crowd “weren’t too happy with it”.
“Obviously, the umpire saw something, and doubled up, but that probably helped flatter the scoreboard a little bit for us because Geelong were by a mile the better team tonight,” Fagan said.
“I don’t mind [how Rayner reacted]. It was a hostile crowd, there were a lot of Geelong supporters here tonight, and that would have been Cam’s way to bring a little energy for the team, so I had no issue with that.”
The match was as good as over at three-quarter-time, with Geelong already 31 points clear after the hard-running Ollie Dempsey half-volleyed through a brilliant finish to cap a scintillating five-goal term that effectively sealed Brisbane’s fate.
Scott’s decision to start Mark Blicavs in the ruck in Rhys Stanley’s injury absence was a masterstroke, and it was he and Jeremy Cameron who ignited the Cats in the opening quarter.
Cameron had five marks and six shots at goal by quarter-time for 2.3, and forced Fagan to shift Ryan Lester off him, while Blicavs had seven disposals and four clearances as only Geelong’s errant goalkicking prevented them from boasting more than a 12-point lead.
Cameron’s influence waned in the final three terms, but Blicavs performed a starring role and had no lack of support, right down to Oisin Mullin’s brilliant tagging job on Brisbane’s All-Australian midfielder Hugh McCluggage (14 disposals).
The Irish Cat capped his shutdown role with his first AFL goal late in the opening term.
Dempsey was outstanding with 25 disposals and three goals, while the dashing Max Holmes had 23 touches, five clearances and a long goal during a brilliant third-quarter display where he also set up a Jack Martin major. Bailey Smith (22, four clearances) has had bigger games, but was part of a dominant on-ball brigade.
Geelong will have next week off, but Scott cast doubt on whether ruckman Stanley would be fit to return from his hamstring injury for their preliminary final.
“It’s a complicated one for us. We just want to wait a little bit before we communicate and potentially make an error,” Scott said.
“I think it’s unlikely that he would have been right to play next week, but then it makes the timeline a bit challenging, and we would hate to put something out that is misleading, so we’ll wait to get some certainty.”
Harris Andrews was one of few winners for the Lions, who had more disposals, but 13 fewer inside 50s, lost contested possession by 16, and conceded 21 marks inside 50 while taking only six of their own.
Brisbane will host the winner between Fremantle and Gold Coast at the Gabba next week.