The battle of no love lost

Slattery Media ©

The hype around Sunday's AFL blockbuster between St Kilda and Geelong is about much more than two teams looking to remain unbeaten and take bragging rights into September. It's about the hostility between two clubs which have been compared constantly over the past five years and have grown to resent both the comparison and each other.

When St Kilda defeated Geelong in the 2004 NAB Cup final, there was a sense that the Saints had thrust themselves above the Cats into the role of genuine contender and when they won the first 10 matches of that year, the bubble had started to build and talk turned of ending a premiership drought which stretched back to 1966.

In the end both teams fell one game short of the Grand Final, with St Kilda losing to Port Adelaide and Geelong to Brisbane, both by less than two goals. Over the next two years, they would both endure roller coaster rides and at the end of 2006 were at the cross roads after St Kilda bowed out in the first week of the finals and Geelong fell apart and finished 10th. Surprisingly it was the Saints who sacked their coach, while Geelong persisted with Mark Thompson.

Both decisions have proven vital to the state the clubs now find themselves in. Geelong famously went on to break a premiership drought of its own in 2007, while under Ross Lyon, St Kilda finished ninth. The next season, Geelong would easily defeat the Saints in their Round 4 encounter and then thrash them again in a Qualifying Final where the tension between them was there for all to see.

Post-match Robert Harvey, in the third-last game of his career, would refuse to shake hands with Matthew Scarlett after he was sledged by the Geelong defender.

St Kilda was cast as the squealer, Geelong the relentless bully, and that image is marked all over this Sunday's game. Thompson has predicted blood will flow and said the two teams did not like each other, while Lyon reverted to type, saying the battle will be won on the field not in the media.

"That's not very nice from Bomber is it, keep the hostilities until Sunday," Lyon said on Friday. "As a coach, we respect all our opposition, we respect Geelong, and once the ball's bounced we aim to go and compete fiercely."

But Lyon, who takes the term 'playing your cards close to your chest' to levels akin to the KGB, did admit that the Saints' recent poor record against the Cats made him want to beat them all the more.

"You can interpret that any way you like, but the bottom line is, they've beaten us be 50 points three times in a row, so that's makes me quite hostile," he said.

Lyon has put the heat on Geelong though, saying that it was up to the dominant side of the past two years to stamp themselves on the match and dispatch St Kilda as a new contender.

"We've all noticed that anyone is on the rise, that they like to stamp their authority and be physical, we're aware of that. That's the beauty of being on top. If you want to be the best in the AFL, you've got to be able to cope with a lot of things," he said.

"This is a new challenge for our group. We've risen to every challenge this year, clearly and this is another one we want to confront and work our way through."

This is as hyped-up as the notoriously demure Lyon gets ahead of a game. In his own inimitable way, he knows this is going to be a massive acid test not just for the skills of his players, but also their character.

Geelong's mindset is more about atonement. Not for that NAB Cup defeat five years ago, nor for the fact that St Kilda's players were rated ahead of those at Geelong for some time. It's not even about St Kilda.

Cameron Mooney admitted earlier in the week in _The Age_ that had Geelong won last year's Grand Final it would probably not be in this unbeaten position. There is a sense of unfinished business for the Cats and they see St Kilda as the main obstacle between them and redemption.

For both teams, Sunday is the entree. September 26 is the main course.