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July 11, 2006
Average Performance Against A Horrible Side
In a first for Geelongblog.com this season we headed up for an afternoon clash at Telstra Dome against the Carlton "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime" Blues (Geelongblog.com was not present at the Bulldog game earlier in the season). With a volatile stomach after last nights 21st Birthday antics it wasn't the most pleasurable match to sit through.
The Blues suffered a big set back before the game had even started with Matty Lappin a late withdrawl. Him being one of their few good talents it somewhat settled my nerves that had been building just thinking about possibly losing the unloseable. What didn't exactly settle the nerves was a horrible first quarter that we somehow managed to come out with a 13 point lead due to some Gazza magic, a short period of good crumbing by our forwards & some major Carlton ineptness infront of the sticks.
From there the game was pretty much a cakewalk. Not that we played anything that resembled very good football, just simply that Carlton are a rabble without Murphy, Lappin, Waite etc and are terrible by foot. I lost count of the amount of times Lance Whitnall blasted the ball out of defence straight to us.
In a turn of events which has me convinced we'll kick 8.22 this weekend we managed to kick an amazing 22.4. The four behinds consisting of a poster & an unbelievable Ottens miss (then again does such a thing exist anymore?).
The football we played was average which some small impressive patches at times, but you felt another average side would have kept it a tight affair, let alone what a good team would do. Scarlett struggled against Fevola, who literally is Carlton's forward line, but he did manage to sneak down a kick a goal himself after some clever footskills by Gazza again.
On the positive side Steven King played nearly a full game and was impressive around the ground in patches despite his immobileness and sometimes lacking a football brain. Matty McCarthy kicked the most pedestrian 5 goals I've ever seen at AFL level but it was good to see him kick straight and get some confidence, while Linga did a nice job on Nick Stevens & Cam Mooney looked at home playing CHF despite dropping a few marks.
Who really has impressed me has been Matthew Stokes. No offence to Stokesy but when we drafted him I may have unfairly written him off as simply some company for Varcoe but he has turned out to be a great little find for us this season. Brent Prismall also did some lovely stuff in only his 2nd game of AFL, and his first game didn't really count did it?
Anyhow, onto Port Adelaide @ Skilled Stadium on Sunday. If we lose we can finally throw our finals dream away for this season, but if we win we can keep the annoying little fantasy alive for know so it should be an interesting game.
CARLTON: 2.5 4.7, 7.10, 11.11 (77)
GEELONG: 5.0, 11.1, 17.2, 23.4 (142)
GOALS - Carlton: Fevola 4, Kennedy 2, Simpson, Houlihan, Carrazzo, French, Whitnall
Geelong: McCarthy 5, Ablett 3, Mooney 2, Mackie 2, Chapman 2, Scarlett, Enright, Bartel, Prismall, Ling, Johnson, Ottens, Stokes
INJURIES - Carlton: Nil
Geelong: Nil
CHANGES - Carlton: Lappin (knee soreness) replaced in selected side by McGrath
REPORTS - Nil
UMPIRES - Rosebury, Nicholls, Ellis
CROWD - 32,096 at Telstra Dome
Geelongblog.com Player of the Year
5. Cameron Ling
4. Cameron Mooney
3. Steven King
2. Gary Ablett (for 1st quarter)
1. Corey Enright
Leaderboard
32 - Gary Ablett
26 - Paul Chapman
24 - Joel Corey
19 - Darren Milburn
18 - Cameron Mooney
17 - Jimmy Bartel
12 - Jarad Rooke
11 - Brad Ottens
10 - Corey Enright
8 - Cameron Ling
5 - Kent Kingsley
4 - Josh Hunt
4 - Steven King
3 - Matthew Scarlett
1 - David Wojcinski
1 - Shannon Byrnes
Posted by Sammy D at July 11, 2006 11:08 PM