The ‘absolutely crazy’ premiership story of how the Lions held the Fort

In the grand final pre-match, Melbourne captain Max Gawn described Darcy Fort as clearly the best non-first-choice ruckman in the AFL. Skinny, strong, he called him. Which sounds like a café latte order, but is accurate.

You might also call him rangy. You can call him a premiership player.

The game was not necessarily won in the ruck, but it certainly wasn’t lost there, which was the fear when Oscar McInerney’s shoulder twice popped out (that is a very painless term for what looked anything but) on the MCG last week.

A fortnight ago, Fort, the wirey-haired 31-year-old, was playing in the hail against Werribee. On Saturday afternoon, he was showered in confetti, beer and plaudits.

When Fort went to the stage and accepted his medal, one man in the middle of the MCG laughed and beamed, bouncing up and down higher and happier than anyone on the ground. It was Oscar McInerney. When Fort left the stage with his medal and a smile he weaved straight through his teammates to rejoin Big Oscar. The pair hugged and laughed again. They do that a lot, these two.

“Watching ‘O’ go back out there last week, having a few other cracks with his sore shoulder, we were all inspired. I’ve been very sad for him, he was going to be playing, but he did a great job preparing us, preparing me, so all credit to him. He deserves this more than anyone,” Fort said.

“It’s absolutely crazy. If you told me I was going to be here five or 10 years ago, I would have told you it’s a dream ... if you told me I was going to be here even a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.

“Lots of great people have helped on the journey, lots of great clubs. And it was absolutely great to be out here representing them today,” said the player who was drafted by Geelong in 2018, only after he’d been through the VFL with Werribee and Footscray, then Central Districts in the SANFL. He had the eight games at Geelong, then a lifeline at the Lions.

In some ways, the burden of expectation was lighter on him, not withstanding the fact he had to come into the game having not played since round seven.

No one expected him to beat Grundy, and as a natural competitor, he knew he could make it hard for the Swans’ ruck. For Grundy, the Swan by way of Collingwood and briefly Melbourne, carried the weight of knowledge that everyone inevitably thought the dual All-Australian should have the decisive advantage.

“With the quality of our midfielders, my job was just to compete, get the ball down to them and let them go to work. And they did a great job today. [Will] Ashcroft, superstar Lachie [Neale], ‘Dunks’ [Josh Dunkley], Hugh [McCluggage], they did a great job,” Fort said.

Against Jordan Sweet in the preliminary final, Grundy was harried into error when the bigger opponent took the front position and Grundy grappled and hung on. He gave away six free kicks for the game. Could Fort, who despite only playing two senior games for the year and none since round seven, out-reach Grundy too and draw errors?

If the honours went any direction early on it was to Fort. It was his clearance after Kai Lohman’s first goal in the opening term that led to an immediate forward entry for the blond poppet’s second goal in a minute. In terms of creating momentum, it started at the source.

“I was trying to use what I’m good at, try and use my feet a little bit more, use my arms, make any contest straight across the line,” he said.

The most uncluttered difference in this battle of the rucks came in the second term when Joe Daniher, not Fort, was at the centre bounce.

He waited for Grundy to step to him, then pushed him so solidly in the chest that Grundy stumbled backwards and Daniher roosted the ball off a step forward. It fell generously to the advantage of Callum Ah Chee to mark and goal. Football can be a delightfully simple game at times. Or cruelly simple, depending on the lens you view it through.

When the Lions surged in the third quarter, Fort and Daniher were ascendent. Fort had a shot at goal of his own which missed, while Eric Hipwood’s outrageous goal from the Wayne Harmes pocket began with Fort decisively beating Grundy in the ruck contest.

“I looked at the goal, thought, ‘That’s probably beyond my range’. But I said, ‘Oh, why not? We’ll see what happens’.”

It might have been his only miss of the day.

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