Max Holmes and Chris Scott reflect on Friday night’s umpiring controversy
Mark O’Connor gives away a free kick during Geelong’s qualifying final against Brisbane in 2025. Picture: AFL Photos
BRISBANE dynamo Cam Rayner’s two goals from controversial free kicks just before half-time inspired a ‘p***ed off’ Geelong to a heated qualifying final win.
Small forward Tyson Stengle was about to have a shot to put the Cats 33 points ahead on Friday night, before the ball was taken down the other end of the MCG after Geelong’s Mark O’Connor was penalised for shoving Rayner in the back in the Lions’ goal-square.
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Cats defender Zach Guthrie then ran in to remonstrate with Rayner after the Brisbane premiership winner had reduced the margin to 21 points, leading the umpire to pay another free kick immediately.
Instead of being more than five goals ahead, Geelong led by just 15 points at the main break to give the Lions some belief.
“It p***ed us off, to be honest – they had three goals like that (from free kicks) in that (second) quarter, and it revved us up,” Geelong star Max Holmes told AAP after the Cats’ eventual 16.16 (112) to 11.8 (74) triumph.
“So it might have helped us a bit in the end.
“But there’s nothing you can do about that. It’s uncontrollable.
“So we just put our heads down, we still had the lead when they had those goals.
“It was one of those ones where we just knew we were dominating them the whole day.”
Geelong coach Chris Scott was proud of how his players didn’t become distracted by the situation.
“For the most part, that was handled pretty well on our part,” Scott said.
“I don’t think I’ve heard our crowd as engaged as they were, and maybe that was something that sparked them even more.
“It was so far away you couldn’t see it in the behind the goals vision.
“Fortunately, one of my colleagues in the box said you don’t want to see it on the broadcast vision, so I didn’t see it until post-game.”
Rayner leant into being the villain of the fired-up Geelong crowd, kicking the Lions’ first goal of the third term and celebrating in front of Geelong’s cheer squad.
Rayner was booed every time he went near the ball for the rest of the game.
“It was a hostile crowd, there was a lot of Geelong supporters here tonight,” Lions coach Chris Fagan said.
“That would have been Cam’s way of just trying to bring a little bit of energy for the team.
“So no issue with that.”
But the controversy mattered little as Geelong cantered to a comfortable 38-point win, gaining some revenge for their season being ended by the Lions last year.