St Kilda big man Michael Gardiner launches himself across a pack to take a match-winning mark. Photo: VINCE CALIGUIRI

Most AFL seasons these days are tight at the top of the ladder, particularly when it’s still only round 14. There might be a front-runner, but there’s always at least four or five sides with some realistic chance of premiership glory.

Not every year, though. Like in 2009, when two teams, St Kilda and Geelong, seemed a mile ahead of the rest of the competition. That’s because in terms of the AFL ladder, even at this stage of the season, they really were.

The Round 14 clash that season between the Saints and the Cats at the then-newly-named Etihad Stadium on a Sunday afternoon remains universally acclaimed as one of football’s greatest games, a thrilling contest of an elite standard which remained in doubt right until the final siren.

But that in itself wasn’t a great surprise given the lead-up, St Kilda and Geelong breaking new ground as not just one but both teams went into their highly-anticipated clash undefeated in their first 13 games, the Saints on top by percentage, the third-placed Western Bulldogs no less than four games adrift.

This was a game which pitted the highest-scoring team (Geelong) against the stingiest defence (St Kilda).

The Cats and Saints were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 for fewest points conceded, disposals, uncontested possessions, tackles inside the forward 50 and, least surprisingly given their dominance, percentage of game time in front.

No fewer than 10 of the eventual All-Australian team of 2009 were on the park this day. Geelong’s feted midfield boasted Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey, Joel Selwood and Cameron Ling. The Cats’ defence boasted Matthew Scarlett, Corey Enright, Andrew Mackie and James Kelly.

In the engine room, the Saints batted impressively deep, with Nick Dal Santo and Leigh Montagna oozing class, Lenny Hayes and Luke Ball the workhorses, Clint Jones the shutdown man, and Brendon Goddard and Jason Gram all damaging extras.

Come game day, 54,444, still an AFL record for the venue, crammed in under the roof to watch what we hoped would be a classic. We weren’t disappointed.

St Kilda got off to a strong start, kicking the first five goals within 17 minutes, big forwards Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke dangerous.

“That first quarter I had never experienced speed of the game like that,” Ling told the Herald-Sun, recalling the game 10 years later. “You had basically zero time to get rid of the ball. As soon as you hesitated at all they were just onto us, and they made us turn the ball over a couple of times, just took the ball away and piled on those early goals.”

But Geelong, which by this stage had won an incredible 52 of its past 55 games, was about to remind us why.

Late goals in the first term to Ablett and Travis Varcoe made the deficit more manageable. And it was the Cats gradually pegging the margin back bit by bit across the second and third quarters.

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St Kilda’s key forwards, though, were having the better of it than their Geelong rivals, unfashionable Saints backman Zac Dawson keeping the Cats’ Cam Mooney in check, while at the other end, Koschitzke and Riewoldt were giving the likes of Geelong’s Harry Taylor a torrid time.

When Riewoldt marked, played on and drilled a 55-metre bomb from half-forward he made the margin 10 points at the final change, setting the scene for an epic final term.

Koschitzke and Michael Gardiner (who kicked his third goal of the day) looked to have stopped the Cats once and for all, stretching the lead back out to 23 points with only 11 minutes left. But, as we should have known, Geelong would come again.


Gardiner pokes out his tongue after kicking the winning goal. Photo: FAIRFAX SYNDICATION

The Cats would kick three goals in the next five-and-a-bit minutes through Max Rooke, Paul Chapman and Mooney to pull the gap back to just five points with still eight-and-a-half minutes remaining.

Stephen Milne gave St Kilda breathing space again, but the Cats’ Darren Milburn responded, and when Matthew Stokes slotted one on the run, scores were level with a tick under five minutes to go.

“I’m tingling and I’m not playing,” said AFL Legend Leigh Matthews on the Channel 7 broadcast. Said Dennis Cometti: “This place is going ballistic.” And it was. Even the players out there noticed it.

“I remember sort of looking at a few of the Geelong guys and scores were level and we were almost sort of laughing about it, because we knew how big the build-up had been,” Riewoldt said later to AFL media. “The fact that we were level so deep into the game, it was almost sort of comical. The crowd noise … that’s the loudest I’ve ever heard a crowd at Etihad Stadium.”

It was still 85 points-apiece with one minute 40 left when St Kilda’s Luke Ball kicked long into the teeth of goal. It was then Gardiner launched himself into the air and floating across the pack took a huge grab.

He’d then have to wait another few minutes to take his shot as an accidental elbow had KO’d Cat backman Taylor, who was carried off and still feeling the pinch well after it had all finished.

“I remember waking up in the changerooms … I just kept going over the same questions all the time,” Taylor told AFL media. “I kept asking the trainers, ‘did we win?’ They’d say we lost (and I’d ask) ‘how many goals did Riewoldt kick?’ They’d say, ‘three’. Twenty seconds later (I’d ask again), ‘did we win? How many goals did Riewoldt kick?’

“This went on for about five minutes, and Cameron Mooney walked in and said we’d actually won and that Riewoldt had kicked 10. At this stage I was sort of in tears!”

Gardiner kept his cool during the delay, duly converted, and for good measure took another important mark on the wing in the final seconds to ensure a Saints victory. It had been an epic, and acclaimed suitably by sustained applause even from supporters of the losing team.

Even then, there was a sense that this wouldn’t be the last time these two great teams would slug it out on a big stage. And so it proved on grand final day. But that’s for another story.

This article first appeared at ESPN.