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June 26, 2006
Cats Find Their Claws
Geelong has shown its 2006 premiership campaign is far from over with an impressive 66-point victory against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval on Saturday.The 18.10 (118) to 6.16 (52) win was the Cats' biggest against Fremantle, and also broke a six-game losing streak for the club at Subiaco Oval.
Two weeks ago, Geelong imploded against West Coast at Skilled Stadium when it surrendered a nine-goal lead, but a repeat performance never looked likely as the visitors restricted Fremantle to just two goals after the five-minute mark of the second term, while kicking 13 themselves.
The Cats entered the match knowing a loss would all but end their finals aspirations, but have now won two on the trot and are only four points outside of the top eight, looking to push into the top half after the mid-season break.
Gary Ablett was simply superb and was by far the best on ground, booting six goals in a dominant performance that would have delighted the Geelong faithful.
Brad Ottens looked confident up forward and kicked four goals, while Cameron Mooney (two goals), Cameron Ling, Joel Corey and Corey Enright were also influential in the win.
The Dockers struggled to find a winner all day, but Josh Carr (33 possessions), Des Headland and Matthew Pavlich never gave up.
After a wasteful start to the match by both sides in which six consecutive behinds were registered - including four to Fremantle - stand-in captain Pavlich finally stopped the rot, and when he set up Ryan Crowley two minutes later, the Dockers had jumped out to a handy 14-point lead.
But Mooney inspired his teammates into action, booting Geelong's first goal of the afternoon before setting up another, as the visitors kicked into action with three goals in seven minutes to snatch the lead late in the quarter.
Aaron Sandilands drifted forward and kicked truly to regain the lead, but a goal after the siren by Gary Ablett ensured the Cats entered the first break with a three-point buffer.
Gary junior posted the first of the second term too, but Paul Medhurst replied immediately for the Dockers with a beautiful 50m goal tucked away on the boundary line.
But it was from there the game broke open for the Cats, as the visitors slammed on six unanswered goals in 14 minutes of inspired football to open up a commanding 40-point lead.
Headland finally broke the trend with a good goal on the run, but the celebrations were short-lived for the Dockers as Paul Chapman kicked truly to restore the Cats' lead heading into the main break.
Geelong was simply more efficient with its disposal of the ball, and this was supported by the half-time stats. Although the Cats held a 40-point lead, they had just two more possessions, and had the same number of marks as the Dockers.
Fremantle needed a spark early in the third to have any chance of a remarkable comeback victory, but any hope was snuffed out after just three minutes as Ablett and Mooney threaded the big sticks.
Ottens scored the only other goal for the term - at the 27-minute mark - to extend the lead out to an impenetrable 55 points.
To add salt to the wound, Luke McPharlin hobbled off midway through the term with an ankle injury, and Robert Haddrill - who was playing his first match since round eight last year - suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury right on the three-quarter-time siren.
With nothing more than respect to play for in the final term, Jeff Farmer gave the 34,236-crowd something to cheer about when he registered his first just two minutes in.
However, the fans began to head out of the stadium when Ablett kicked his fifth shortly after.
Ablett's sixth goal of the day was by far the best, as the mercurial forward somehow threaded the big sticks while being tackled deep inside the left full-forward pocket to the raptures of the small Geelong fan-base that made its way over, to add cream to the delicious victory pie.
Geelong coach Mark Thompson was ecstatic with the huge win.
"We haven't had too many times where we've come away with a win," he said.
"It was a good result. We've played pretty well the last three weeks and we're playing longer in games, and today was probably the best we've played for a while."
"We know we're capable, we do know that, the players know that, the supporters basically know that…I was pretty confident that at some stage we'd get out of it (the form slump) and I'm pretty confident that that has arrived."
Fremantle coach Chris Connolly said he was disappointed with the loss, and admitted the club had a few things to sort out in the mid-season break.
"I don't want to witch-hunt, or name individual players. Obviously we had a lot of poor players today," Connolly said.
"Everyone's got their things they have to deal with after a loss today, everyone in the club. We've got to get some things together quickly and move forward."
"We need to, as a group, really sort out what's acceptable and what's not with the way we go about our business, and make sure we are in the right frame of mind intensity-wise. Our intensity wasn't right today, and it should have been."
FREMANTLE: 3.6, 5.8, 5.13, 6.16 (52)
GEELONG: 4.3, 12.6, 15.8, 18.10 (118)
GOALS – Fremantle: Crowley, Pavlich, Sandilands, Medhurst, Headland, Farmer
Geelong: G Ablett 6, Ottens 4, Stokes, Ling 2, Milburn, Enright, Chapman, Mooney
INJURIES – Fremantle: McPharlin (right ankle), Haddrill (right knee)
Geelong: Nil
CHANGES – Geelong: Mackie replaced in selected side by Kingsley
REPORTS - Nil
UMPIRES - Kennedy, Nicholls, Ryan
CROWD - 34,236 at Subiaco Oval, Perth
Geelongblog.com Player of The Year
5. Gary Ablett
4. Cameron Mooney
3. Brad Ottens
2. Joel Corey
1. Cameron Ling
Leaderboard
30 - Gary Ablett
24 - Paul Chapman
20 - Joel Corey
17 - Jimmy Bartel
14 - Cameron Mooney
14 - Darren Milburn
12 - Jarad Rooke
11 - Brad Ottens
6 - Corey Enright
5 - Kent Kingsley
4 - Josh Hunt
3 - Cameron Ling
3 - Matthew Scarlett
1 - Shannon Byrnes
1 - Steven King
*NOTE* Uni exams are over. This ends the worst period in Geelongblog.com history. Standards will now be upgraded from 'Shitful' to 'Craptacular'. Thank you for your patience.
Posted by Sammy D at June 26, 2006 03:32 PM
Comments
YAY! Can't wait for some real posts from you guys. Hope your exams went well! :)
Posted by: Jess at June 26, 2006 09:56 PM
dont get ya hopes up Jess... i'm still waiting on my Kent Kingsley Krew shirt. ;)
Posted by: Ricketts at June 28, 2006 06:44 PM
I'd give the boys another week or so to get into true uni holidays boredom before they post anything "real".
Hey it was Sammy D's bday so he's been busy and The Kolonels Girlfriend just had her birthday so they have both been living up the good life
Posted by: Sticko at June 30, 2006 09:10 PM