Veteran Geelong wingman Isaac Smith has described the second half of the preliminary final loss to Melbourne the “most embarrassing 45 minutes of football” he’s experienced.
After a stellar ten-year career with Hawthorn, Smith joined Geelong alongside Shaun Higgins and Jeremy Cameron in the hope of pushing last year’s runner-up over the hump in 2021.
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However, despite another strong home and away season, Geelong’s deficiencies were ruthlessly laid bare by Melbourne, who smashed the Cats by 83 points in the prelim.
After holding a 23-point lead at half-time, Melbourne broke the game open in a blistering third quarter which saw it kick eight unanswered goals, leaving the Cats stunned.
Smith recalled his feelings during the Demons’ second-half blitz, calling Simon Goodwin’s side “one of the white hottest teams I’ve ever played”.
“To be honest, I was pretty embarrassed walking off the oval,” Smith told RSN Breakfast Club.
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“Playing that last quarter and a half was probably the most embarrassing 45 minutes of football that I’ve played in my career.
“[It’s embarrassing] when you’re running around and you know that there’s a lot of people watching the game and there’s a full stadium. We just didn’t deliver, it was disappointing.”
The three-time premiership winner admitted that he was left extremely frustrated in the days following the match, saying: “As the week goes on, the more frustrated I’m getting”.
At 32, Smith is one of a number of Geelong players who is in the twilight of his career, but despite the crushing end to his first season at the club, he is confident the group can bounce back in 2022.
“Personally I was happy with the year I had, I was really happy with how Geelong embraced myself, my wife and my daughter,” he said. “It was a great year for us as a family.”
“We still think we’ve got the team to reload and go again… We certainly need to sit down and really analyse what happened especially toward the end of this year, and try make sure it doesn’t happen again.”