On each weekday of the 2011 Toyota AFL Finals Series, Leigh Matthews will count down his 20 Moments of Greatness from the finals. Today: moment No. 3, when Matthew Scarlett improvised magnificently to turn a certain St Kilda attack into a match-winning moment for Geelong.

SCORES were level 23 minutes into the last quarter when Steve Johnson kicked from the wing to Gary Ablett, who was just off the centre circle.

Ablett had to wait under the ball for a second, giving Zac Dawson just enough time to race in from the St Kilda defence and punch the ball at just the moment it was reaching Ablett's hands.

The ball bounced towards Matthew Scarlett, who was up from the Geelong backline.  Instead of taking the ball and trying to handball to Ablett, Scarlett put out his foot and poked the ball to Ablett. It was a move as delicate as a flower. It was also effective.

Ablett raced forward for a few metres before kicking long to the goalsquare, where Travis Varcoe scooped up the ball from a marking contest and whipped the ball out to Paul Chapman, who booted through the left-foot snap that gave Geelong the lead.

Every act in this sequence of events required an element of brilliance, even that of Dawson, who was heroic in getting his first to the ball.

"If St Kilda got possession then I suspect they would have taken the ball down to the other end and kicked a goal," said Leigh Matthews.