Cometti: Cats win supports my rotation U-turn
Another Sunday, another thrilling finish. We're getting spoiled on Sunday afternoon.
Hey, I'm not talking about the derby!
Yesterday I was in Geelong where I saw the undermanned home team pull off an admirable victory.
It was a game that proved that making sense of footy by listening to "experts" is a very inexact science.
According to conventional wisdom, running out of interchange players is unlikely to end happily.
How often do you hear a win looks impossible because "they're out of rotations"?
It's no longer something I subscribe to.
Because yesterday for the umpteenth time I saw a group of Geelong players produce a performance that defied such logic.
In the opening minutes Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel was subbed out with a knee injury, an ankle injury meant star rover Matthew Stokes didn't reappear after half-time, while key defender Tom Lonergan was stretchered off just before three-quarter time.
Yet after trailing by two goals at half-time and kicking into the wind in the final term, Geelong outran the injury-free Gold Coast Suns to win by nine points.
I've seen reputable figures that dispute the widely held view that having 22 fit blokes against depleted opponents is a game changer.
Let's just say like all stats the stats on both sides of this argument only cry out for more stats.
What I do think is that many players are best suited to almost constant time on the field.
They thrive and prosper by finding and reacting to the tempo of a game.
Case in point, Joel Selwood, who while his driver's license says he's 26 has a body that might beg to differ.
It was refreshing to watch him win the game while "resting" in a forward pocket.
But even more impressive was the energy that saw him celebrate like he was on fire.
