On Saturday September 29, 1994, Geelong and North Melbourne battled it out at the MCG in a preliminary final that would see the winner take on West Coast in the Grand Final.
For the Cats names such as Couch, Ablett, the Hockings, Brownless, Bairstow and Riccardi were there just to name a few.
For the Roos it was greats such as Carey, Archer, Stevens, McKernan and Schwass.
There was barely anything separating the teams all year. The Roos with 13 wins and nine losses finishing third at the end of the season, the Cats with 13 wins and nine losses finishing fourth.
The Cats had disposed of Footscray in the Qualifying Final via a Billy Brownless after the siren goal and then in Semi Final without Bairstow, Couch or Hocking did a job on Carlton to advance to the Preliminary Final. The Roos played against the Hawks in a thriller in their Qualifying Final with the scores tired at the end of the fourth quarter. Extra time saw the Roos put on three goals five behinds whilst keeping the Hawks scoreless to advance to the Preliminary Final.
The first quarter was a desperate tussle. The Roos with more of the ball were unable to hurt the Cats on the scoreboard going into quarter time leading 5.9 39 to the Cats 3.3 21.
The second quarter was a completely different story with the Cats piling on seven goals to zero to take a handy 24 point lead into half time.
A surge of goals by both sides in the third quarter set up what was to be a exciting final quarter. In the clash between the two teams in round 20 of that year just four points separated the two sides at the final change with the Cats winning a thriller by one point.
Whilst being able to manage 15 goals to three quarter time the final quarter was a different story for the Cats with North’s defence continually rebounding the Cats forward forays. The Roos kicked the first three goals of the last quarter and with just two minutes remaining scores were level with the 80,121 fans on the edge of their seats.
What would happen next maybe shouldn’t have. Gary Ablett, held by Mick Martyn to just four disposals, one mark and two goals to that point, mark a floater from Leigh Tudor in the goal square as the siren blew. A dejected Martyn sat on his haunches and Ablett went back and slotted the goal to send the Cats into a grand final.
What happened the following week we won’t talk about. But re-live that final two minutes of the preliminary final by clicking above.
Geelong 16.13 109
North Melbourne 14.19 103
Goals: Ablett 3, Couch 3, Breuer 2, Brownless 2, Mensch 2, Pickering 2, Tudor 2.
Best: Hocking, Hinkley, Riccardi, Couch, Barnes, Pickering.
