The returning coach says he has ‘unfinished business’ after taking on a job loaded with emotional risk – both for him and the club
It’s halfway through the final quarter of the 2015 preliminary final. Hawthorn has played almost flawless football, but the Dockers are rattling home. Nathan Fyfe is running around with a broken leg, because that’s what you do when you play for Ross Lyon. The crowd is febrile – later we will learn that a woman has been punched in the face and that a Hawthorn player has been whacked over the head with an inflatable anchor.
The Fremantle defender Tendai Mzungu switches play with a 20-metre kick across half back. His target is Tom Sheridan, who’s playing his 38th game. Hot on his hammer is Cyril Rioli, probably the last person in Australia you want in your vicinity at a moment like this. Sheridan drops the easiest of marks. Rioli pounces, turns on a dime, slams home a 50-metre goal and gives the crestfallen, butter-fingered kid a dig in the kidneys.
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