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July 28, 2006
Cats Keep Dream Alive
Due to reasons unknown to the Kolonel & I the blog has been down all week, but it seems administration have eventually sorted things out so thank you to them.
So this will probably be a pretty dodgy match report seeing it is getting typed up on the Friday after the game, but anyways...
For once getting to the game was a luxury as my mate decided to drive up to the TD seeing he gets free petrol instead of catching the dreaded train which we've both had enough of. The only downside of this involved putting up with Dougie Hawkins for about an hour but it still beats the train.
It was heritage round but for once there was little difference. We seemed to be wearing reverse socks, as in the white & blue hoops were swapped, which didn't make much difference as Kingy was the only one wearing them up. The Bulldogs meanwhile looked great in their guernsey that I associated with them while growing up. I personally thing they should keep it, but they won't so that's the end of that.
From memory we started pretty poorly. Gazza set us alight very early which made me think he was getting set for a huge game, then he was run down by Griffin for a holding the ball, and gave away the ball with an errant handball and from there he drifted out of the game.
The game was littered with disposal errors & mistakes but when goals were kicked they seemed to be of very high quality. Dog Johnson kicked some rippers, while ex-Lion Travis Baird & Brad Johnson were kicking their fair share at the other end.
By about midway through the 2nd quarter the Bulldogs had kicked away to a deserved 23 point lead and we looked like we were fading fast. Then came for me, the turning point in the match. We were able to kick 2-3 quick ones to bring the margin back to around a goal before a controversial non-decision was given in a our forward pocket. While Geelong fans were up in arms complaining why we shouldn't be having a kick for goal to square the game up, the Bulldogs did their thing where they run down the ground in about 10 seconds with none of our players getting near them and kicking an easy goal. I thought this might break our resistence somewhat, but Chappy kicked a goal from a set shot after the half time siren to get us back to that 1 goal margin.
You could tell the players were fired up by the way they ran to Chappy after he had kicked the goal. A small characteristic that I feel that we lacked in the past in some instances. I'll never forget one game against Melbourne about 3-4 years ago but it's not time to get into that. So it was great to go into half time with the momentum.
The third quarter which included Matty Egan getting forward and kicking the first goal of his career set up an exciting last quarter as teams went into the last break level.
We got out of the blocks quicker than the Doggies in the last kicking the first two goals of the quarter through Ottens & Corey only for the Dogs to answer back through Gilbee & Grant. With 90 seconds to go and the ball on the wing Joel Corey went up in the ruck contest as the third man and hit the ball down the field into the path of the running Jarad Rooke who found the diving Ottens about 40m out on a bit of angle.
Despite the roars of the Geelong members on the opposite side of the ground after Ottens kicked it was clearly a behind, whether they were celebrating this fact I do not know, however Geelong managed to hold on for a memorable victory revenging the 1 point loss to the Western Bulldogs earlier in the season.
Brad Johnson was probably the best player on the ground as he kicked 5 goals and got numerous possessions around the ground leading Tommy Harley a merry dance. Thompsons stubborness to move Harley off Johnson almost cost us the match. Ling put the clamps on West, as did Rooke on Cooney. Rooke also had a super 2nd half providing lots of run. Scarlett was a loose man back all day and had an amazing 34 possessions, but he could have been more damaging. Ottens had a much improved 2nd half after a diabolical first, he really provided a target up forward and it was good to see Thompson stop moving him into the ruck when Kingy needed a rest as we needed him up forward. Other good players included Chappy, Hunt, The Coreys, Steve Johnson while Mackie & Kelly got a lot of the ball but seemed to turn it over a whole lot.
GEELONG: 2.3 7.4 11.8 13.12 (90)
WESTERN BULLDOGS: 4.2 8.3 11.8 13.11 (89)
GOALS – Geelong: Chapman 3, S Johnson 2, Ottens 2, Kelly, Egan, McCarthy, Rooke, Ling, Corey
Bulldogs: Johnson 5, Baird 2, Gilbee 2, McMahon, Robbins, Harris, Grant
INJURIES – Geelong: Nil Bulldogs: Nil
CHANGES – Nil.
UMPIRES: Stevic, McLaren, Chamberlain
REPORTS - Nil
CROWD - 39,417 at Telstra Dome
Geelongblog.com Player of the Year
5. Cameron Ling
4. Paul Chapman
3. Jarad Rooke
2. Matthew Scarlett
1. Brad Ottens
Leaderboard
32 - Gary Ablett
30 - Paul Chapman
24 - Darren Milburn
24 - Joel Corey
20 - Jimmy Bartel
18 - Cameron Mooney
15 - Jarad Rooke
14 - Brad Ottens
13 - Cameron Ling
10 - Corey Enright
5 - Kent Kingsley
5 - Matthew Scarlett
4 - Josh Hunt
4 - Matthew Stokes
4 - Steven King
1 - David Wojcinski
1 - Shannon Byrnes
1 - Tom Harley
Posted by Sammy D at July 28, 2006 12:03 PM
Comments
Good to see the blog up and running again Sammy. It's disappearance was more mystifying than that random door that popped up at deakin during the week that caused us so much confusion!
Do you know what happened to Eade with the decision to take off McMahon in a pocket rather than through the proper interchange?
Posted by: Sticko at July 28, 2006 03:48 PM
I don't know what happened to Eade. I doubt anything. I'd suggest the AFL will examine the rule during the off season.
Posted by: Sammy D at July 29, 2006 10:14 AM
Well he didn't actually break any rules it just meant McMahon couldn't come back on the ground again. The rule must be changed slightly. Not sure how because I've never really thought about coaches using it to much as a tactic
Posted by: Sticko at July 29, 2006 11:40 AM