Bailey Smith embraces the big stage as Geelong hold nerve in another Easter classic | Jonathan Horn
Geelong and Hawthorn have been playing on Easter Monday for 15 years now and have turned in three or four of the best games of the era.Monday’s game perhaps won’t be remembered in those terms but it was an entertaining, high-standard, occasionally spiteful affair that ebbed and flowed all afternoon.With a minute and a half to play, the Hawks were seven points adrift and their slim hopes rested on James Sicily’s boot.Normally a sumptuous kick, he’d had some uncharacteristic shanks throughout the game, three of which had directly led to Geelong goals, and the most important kick of all went sailing out on the full.The professionally provocative Nick Watson had missed an easy shot shortly before.
Indeed, Hawthorn had squandered a lot of chances throughout the game, especially in the first half.In contrast, after a comedy of errors, near misses and extreme pressure, Shaun Mannagh had dribbled home his third and ultimately decisive goal for the Cats.Halfway through the second term Geelong were four goals the better and Hawthorn had to labour for every score.But they had skilful, diligent players on the wings and flanks who worked hard off the line, who are good decision makers and who used the ball well.And they gradually got their run and carry game going, streaming down the middle of the MCG in three or four lanes.
When they’re in that mode, it’s like watching a swimming squad training session,They used overlap handball to great effect and had the Geelong defenders on their wrong leg,But the Cats held their nerve,At their best under Mark Thompson and for a large chunk of Chris Scott’s tenure, they were a team that was predictable to one another and to those watching them,But this current iteration is always pulling moves, attempting kicks and looking for angles you don’t expect.
It’s such a different Geelong side now – quicker, craftier, and harder running.For so long under Scott, they were a team of big bodies that moved the ball cautiously.In about 24 months, that’s flipped.They’re an athletics team now.It’s personified by Bailey Smith, who was excellent again on Monday.
He runs like a maniac, to the point where you wonder if he’s wasting energy,But he keeps hammering away and gets better the longer the game goes on,He does everything at a blazing intensity, as demonstrated by his second quarter brain fade out on the Shane Warne Wing, when he whacked Jarman Impey in the face with the Sherrin, an unusual act from an unusual young footballer,And despite being new to the club, he quickly bought into the intense rivalry between the two clubs, winding up the massive crowd at every opportunity,He’s never played in front of a crowd that big, and he was right at home on the stage.
There were the usual Easter Monday flashpoints, including a roundhouse right from Conor Nash that knocked Gryan Miers senseless.The small Geelong man had been at his inventive best in the first half, but the savage hit had him tottering off drunkenly, and will surely earn the Irishman a lengthy suspension.It was the pick of the nine games but there was some outstanding football played over the Easter weekend, including Richmond’s upset, Nick Daicos’ slashing game, the form of Carlton and Melbourne and the return of Marcus Bontempelli.Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL WeeklyJonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL storiesafter newsletter promotionBut it was blighted by the serious knee injury to Sam Darcy, who buckled like a thoroughbred toppling over a hurdle.He has been compared to Paul Salmon, whose career was derailed in a very different incident in 1984.
Afterwards, he was flanked by Dr Garry Zimmerman, who’s about half his height, and who’s given the bad news to dozens of Bulldogs players over the decades, including his dad, nearly 20 years ago to the day.As soon as Darcy was felled, the Dogs went on a hot streak.As long as there is Bontempelli, there is hope.But you’d almost rather lose by 25 goals than win and lose a player of that calibre.The following morning, the news was relatively and surprisingly good.
Darcy has played just 34 games but he’s already established himself as one of the best players in Australia.Long-levered, even tempered and adept on both plains, he’s so good at reading the ball in the air, sensing where it will drop, and using his negligible rump to outmanoeuvre some very strong defenders.He extends upwards like few others who’ve played the game, but he can also launch forward at packs.No one wants to fracture their knee, but when it comes to recovery time and the chance of recurring damage, it was the best possible scenario.
Sunday with Paul Chowdhry: ‘I’ll have a big brunch, then lie around watching YouTube’
Sunday highlights? The farmers’ market in north London, now that I’ve worked my way into being middle-class. I’ll buy smoked trout, organic chickens, pheasant, vegetables and a very good Chinese chilli oil.How do you get there? On one of those electric bikes, like Uber cyclists. I’m usually stealthed up with a mask, else people go: ‘There’s Paul Chowdhry on a bike. What you doing on a bike, bruv?’Do you cook? I live on my own, so I have no choice
Jameela Jamil: ‘I used to be a massive troll and bitch on the internet’
What’s been your most cringeworthy run-in with a celebrity?I knocked over Al Pacino at a party. It was at the head of UTA’s house back in maybe 2015. I’d stolen a bunch of food – they had really good wagyu steaks, so I took 10 wrapped in a cloth napkin, they were kind of bleeding. I bundled them in between my legs, underneath my miniskirt, and was shuffling as fast as I could out of the party when I knocked over Al Pacino. And then I left him on the ground, because the steaks flew out from under my skirt, leaving this bloody streak across the white floor
On my radar: Romola Garai’s cultural highlights
Born in Hong Kong in 1982, actor Romola Garai grew up in Singapore and Wiltshire. She has starred in films including Atonement and Suffragette, and TV series The Hour and The Miniaturist. Her directorial debut, the horror film Amulet, was released in 2020. Last year Garai portrayed Annie Ernaux in Eline Arbo’s adaptation of The Years at the Almeida theatre, later transferring to the Harold Pinter theatre, for which she won best actress in a supporting role at the 2025 Olivier awards. Now she stars alongside Ivanno Jeremiah and Jamelia in new BBC Three comedy drama, Just Act Normal, available on iPlayer
From Sinners to Étoile: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment
SinnersOut now Michael B Jordan plays twins, Smoke and Stack, who return home to Mississippi during the prohibition era with the aim of setting up a juke joint. Ryan Coogler’s supernatural horror also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell and Wunmi Mosaku.WarfareOut now Starring D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis and Joseph Quinn, this real-time thriller is based on US marines’ memories of a mission in Iraq. And it’s from an intriguing pair of directors: Alex Garland, one of the most brilliant of current film-makers, and Ray Mendoza, a former US Navy Seal who took part in the sortie.Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien StoryOut now The Irish author, who died last year, is the compelling subject of this documentary portrait, which features final interviews with O’Brien, a writer who counted Paul McCartney, Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda and Laurence Olivier among her friends
William Morris’s legacy of radical creativity | Letters
Re your editorial (The Guardian view on William Morris: how the Strawberry Thief took over the world, 11 April), William Morris developed the Strawberry Thief pattern at his Merton Abbey Works on the banks of the River Wandle.The workers who turned the design into a “swinish luxury” formed a close-knit community – the carpet knotter Eliza Merritt remembered “a tradition of comradeship”– whose members lived long, creative lives. The tapestry weaver William Sleath was rescued from destitution by Morris, who took him on as an apprentice at age seven.Sleath became a sensitive artist who continued to produce oils and watercolours into his 70s. His fellow weavers Walter Taylor and William Knight painted still lifes and scenes around Merton Abbey
The Guide #187: The Pitt, the medical drama that’s the best show you can’t watch
Forget Severance, Adolescence, even The White Lotus – the most talked-about show so far this year in the US has concerned the life-and-death dealings of an inner-city emergency room and a doctor that looks suspiciously like John Carter MD.No, time hasn’t turned back to 1994 (however much we might wish it would). We’re not talking about ER here, but The Pitt, a strikingly similar medical drama starring Carter himself, Noah Wyle, but that for legal reasons we probably shouldn’t describe as a spin-off. Since its debut in January, The Pitt has become a slow-burn sensation in the states, thanks to its realism, accuracy and timeliness, but most of all it’s high-concept, high-stakes conceit: the show takes place in real-time, across one, gruelling 15 hour shift in a Pittsburgh emergency department. So it’s not just ER, then, but ER meets 24
Notes on chocolate: elegant treats for when the Easter eggs are gone
Dove, London: ‘inventive, unusual, tantalising’ – restaurant review
Mediterranean producers unite in the face of dire adversity
TikTok trend for ‘Dubai chocolate’ causes international shortage of pistachios
‘It’s less intimidating, less vulnerable’: why cooking in company helps us to talk
Roast chicken and citrus salad: Caroline Eden’s walnut recipes