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May 31, 2006
Fortress? What Fortress?
*cough* Uni *cough*
Cats Go Down AgainA goalless final term has cost Geelong dearly on Saturday afternoon, with Richmond winning at Skilled Stadium for the first time since 1990 and just the fourth in the past 30 years.
Leading by three points at three-quarter-time and kicking with the aid of a handy breeze in the final term, Cats fans would have been confident their team would go on to its fourth win of the season.
But a week after strangling Adelaide at Telstra Dome, the Tigers had other ideas and kicked 5.2 to just 0.9 in the last quarter to hand the home side its second loss in a row and its sixth in seven weeks, 17.8 (110) to 12.18 (90).
It was only Richmond's second victory in 15 attempts at Geelong dating back to 1982 - the last time the Tigers' appeared in a grand final, while the Cats were let down by their forward line.
The Cats were forced to rely on their small players to kick their goals with Gary Ablett, who was a constant danger after only passing a late fitness test to play, booting two goals.
But it was an indictment on the Cats' misfiring forward line that their leading goalkicker for the day was midfielder Jarad Rooke, who has made his name in league football as a tagger, with three goals.
Unfortunately the Cats again left too little to too few with Matthew Scarlett magnificent at full-back on Matthew Richardson, who kicked a wasteful 1.4 and one out of bounds, while James Bartel, Shannon Byrnes and Cameron Ling never stopped trying.
However, the much-improved Tigers never stopped working for each other and showed great character to run away with the game in the final term after the Cats threatened to take control of the game late in the third term.
In the first three terms the Tigers began each quarter better only for Geelong to finish the quarter stronger but Richmond looked vulnerable when their 16-point lead at the 18-minute mark of the third term was turned into a three-point lead by the Cats at the last change.
However, when Richmond again started the final quarter the stronger through goals to Kayne Pettifer and two from Andrew Krakouer, the Cats just could not summon up another comeback as they wasted chance after chance in front of goal.
Fittingly it was Simmonds, who dominated the ruck all day, who sealed the game when he palmed the ball superbly to Chris Hyde from a ball-up at the 25-minute mark with Hyde running into an open goal to ensure the Tigers' first win over Geelong at any venue since 2000.
The Tigers suddenly find themselves well-placed at five wins and four losses with winnable games against Fremantle, the Kangaroos and Hawthorn to come but what is clear is just how much some of Terry Wallace's players have improved.
And none more so than Pettifer, who finished with 21 possessions, 11 marks and three goals, while Hyde - who had kicked just 12 goals in his 55 previous matches - had a day to remember with four goals while Mark Coughlan (27 possessions) dominated the midfield and Joel Bowden was rock solid in defence with 11 marks.
With things not going to plan, it was a clearly disappointed Cats coach Mark Thompson who conceded that his players will have to assess where they are at if they are to be a chance to make the finals.
"We've just got to reassess again. Obviously a high finish in the top eight is out of the question. We've just got to scramble and win games to make the finals. That's got to be the goal," he said. "We played some good footy at times, but we weren't able to sustain it."
"In the end we lost the opportunity by kicking points. It was just a major disappointment. I thought we took a good attitude into the game, what we didn't expect was our poor use of the ball at critical times. They just capitalised on our mistakes."
Wallace said after the game he was surprised his side had been so unfancied going into the match considering the recent form of the two sides.
"We were confident going into the game that we could win and we were a little bit surprised that no one else was as confident as we were," he said.
"We had won four of our last five and they had won one out of six so I thought our form was better than the opposition leading into the game."
"So in that case unless something changed dramatically, either we fell away or they lifted, we believed we could get the result."
GEELONG: 5.3, 8.7, 12.9, 12.18 (90)
RICHMOND: 4.3, 8.3, 12.6, 17.8 (110)
GOALS – Geelong: Rooke 3, Bartel 2, Ablett 2, Ottens, Mackie, Corey, Byrnes, S Johnson
Richmond: Hyde 4, Pettifer 3, Simmonds 3, Krakouer 2, Tambling, P Bowden, Coughlan, Tivendale,
INJURIES – Geelong: Nil
Richmond: Deledio (knee)
CHANGES – Geelong: Harley (soreness), replaced in selected side by Koulouriotis, Riccardi (calf), replaced in selected side by Stokes
Richmond: Nil
REPORTS - Nil
UMPIRES - McBurney, Davis, Chamberlain
CROWD - 23,386 at Skilled Stadium
Geelongblog.com Player of The Year
5. Gary Ablett
4. Jimmy Bartel
3. Jarad Rooke
2. Matthew Scarlett
1. Shannon Bynres
Leaderboard
21 - Gary Ablett
19 - Paul Chapman
14 - Jimmy Bartel
13 - Darren Milburn
12 - Jarad Rooke
10 - Joel Corey
8 - Brad Ottens
6 - Cameron Mooney
5 - Kent Kingsley
4 - Josh Hunt
3 - Corey Enright
2 - Cameron Ling
2 - Matthew Scarlett
1 - Shannon Byrnes
1 - Steven King
After watching the VFL on Sunday. Callan & Blake have to come in, it is that simple.
Posted by Sammy D at May 31, 2006 07:29 PM