Cometti: Why Cats and Freo are history
Look I hate to say I told you so, but that's what I do.
I did say on Channel 7 last Thursday I'd be "more than happy to tip the underdogs" in the weekend's two semifinals.
Of course, I didn't tip them, I stuck with Geelong and Fremantle simply because history tells us top four teams hardly ever go out in straight sets.
Only twice in the last 14years had a top-four team gone out with back to back loses - Port Adelaide in 2001 and West Coast in 2007.
Well the weekend's results eyeballed history and laughed in its face.
Geelong were at "rock bottom", I suggested.
At the risk of making this read like Hansard, they had a couple of those "barometer players" in their team, players who, when you see their names, you know there's not much left.
So it proved.
The difference between North's best and worst is massive, and you can generally rely on seeing both in the same game. It's a defect that explains how the Cats got so close.
How Port were so close at half-time on Saturday night also needs an explanation.
Just like in last year's grand final, Fremantle's kicking at goal was poor.
The Dockers' style of play can often put a premium on goals and don't think the players don't understand and feel that. In their two biggest games in the last 12 months it's showed.
Perhaps the only bit of wisdom I've learned hanging around footy all these years is whoever coined the phrase "a team is only as strong as its reserves" must have been a reserve.
At the weekend Geelong and Fremantle had passed that tipping point and became a pair of underdogs.
From Fremantle's point of view, the best thing to come out of the game was the continued rise of Lachie Neale.
I thought he was clearly his team's best.
The future still looks bright but this morning they'll be kicking themselves.
The good news is they'll probably miss.
