« Midweek Happenings | Main | Bartel To Miss St. Kilda Clash »
August 08, 2006
Road Win For Cats Comes Week Too Late?
When this game started I'd been awake for 10 minutes and was pretty hungover so I think it's best I handball this off to Simon White
Cats cling to finals hopesGeelong has revitalised its finals aspirations, overcoming an innacurate display in front of goals to account for the Brisbane Lions by 17 points at the Gabba on Sunday afternoon.
Mark Thompson's side looked in command of the contest for the most part but a poor conversion rate threatened to bring them undone - particularly when the Lions kicked the first three goals of the second half to momentarily hit the front. The Cats, however, hung tough and were able to forge a 14.20 (104) to 13.9 (87) victory, their ninth of the season.
The result puts Geelong back within four points of Fremantle in the battle for eighth spot, with the Dockers hosting Hawthorn later on Sunday.
While the Cats struggled to make full use of their many chance, the efficiency of two of their smaller forwards - Steven Johnson and Peter Riccardi - was telling.
Johnson registered the first major of the day with a miraculous left foot snap from deep in the left forward pocket and added another two in a second term spree during which both sides combined for seven goals in eight minutes.
Veteran Riccardi started on the bench, as is the norm these days, but it didn't take him long to make an impact, with two fine pieces of finishing on his trusty left boot in the second quarter and a soccered third term goal that helped stopped the Lions' revival in its tracks.
Big forward Henry Playfair further swung the momentum back the Cats' way with a major one second before the three-quarter-time siren and Johnson's fourth of the afternoon - set up after a superb tackle laid on Jed Adcock by Paul Chapman - arrived early in the last quarter to all but ensure the four points for Geelong.
If the second half was a slightly dour affair, then the hour that came before it was rather more entertaining. Each side posted four goals in the first stanza, with Geelong's twin towers, Brad Ottens and Steven King, looking dangerous.
At the other end, in-form Lion Daniel Bradshaw was somewhat surprisingly picked up by Matthew Egan, while star Cats defender Matthew Scarlett stood the less well-credentialled Daniel Merrett.
Geelong led by five points at the first change - their tally of behinds to that stage - and extended their advantage to 10 points at the long break, albeit having posted a wasteful 9.11.
A Josh Drummond goal, followed by two quick and clever snaps by Bradshaw saw the Lions assume an unlikely lead by the eight-minute mark of the third quarter. But such a scoreline was unfair on Geelong, something the Cats proved by taking advantage of their flow of play to kick the next five goals of the contest and put the result beyond doubt.
Although the Lions restored respectability to the scoreboard late on with a fourth goal from Bradshaw and a handy snap by Rhan Hooper, it was a case of too little and too late.
For the Cats, Jimmy Bartel was prominent throughout in amassing a game-high 30 possessions, with Chapman a valuable contributor across half-forward, Steven Johnson impressive and David Johnson keeping the electric Hooper to only seven disposals.
Luke Power led the Lions' possession count with 29 touches and Simon Black did some good work around the stoppages en route to his 21 possessions. Drummond was lively in the forward 50m but limped off in the last quarter with what appeared to be a hamstring problem.
The Lions' lengthy injury list may yet have a couple more additions. Apart from Drummond, Adcock left the ground to receive treatment on a back complaint, Michael Rischitelli went off and received work on his shoulder and Bradshaw spent time off the ground with a finger injury.
Geelong coach Thompson was thrilled with the result and said the win help remove some "bad memories" of previous visits to the Gabba and last week's loss in Canberra .
"We have never won at this ground against the Lions so we are thrilled to come up here and take the points," he said after the game.
"It was unacceptable last week how we played being so awful so we wanted to avenge that.
"We have had some bad memories at this ground and I don't blame the players for not winning by a lot - just to win was a good effort here."
Lions coach Leigh Matthews bemoaned his side's lack of run and was quick to point to the physical transformation from when the then triple-premiers of 2003 regularly dominated the up-and-coming Cats.
"The last couple of times we've played Geelong it's actually been a bit of deja vu from three-and-half years with the jumpers swapped. They've now got the bigger stronger bodies and we've got the skinnier ones," Matthews said.
"We didn't have enough contributors who could affect the game but we kept plugging away. We couldn't attack through the centre corridor and had no real run in our game. With uncontested possessions, you've to to run to get them.
"They were able to get the ball and run and straighten themselves up, whereas we were trying to do it the cheating way, if you want to call it that, by going out wide."
BRISBANE: 4.0, 8.1, 11.5, 13.9 (87)
GEELONG: 4.5, 9.11, 12.17, 14.20 (104)
GOALS – Brisbane: Bradshaw 4, Merrett 2, Keating, Harding, Power, Sherman, Patfull, Stiller, Hooper
Geelong: S Johnson 4, Riccardi 3, Chapman 2, King, Hunt, Ling, Corey, Playfair,
INJURIES – Brisbane: Drummond (hamstring), Bradshaw (dislocated fingers)
Geelong: nil
CHANGES – Brisbane: nil
Geelong: nil
REPORTS - nil
UMPIRES - Donlon, Grun, McInerney
CROWD - 28,055 at the Gabba
Geelongblog.com Player of the Year
5. Josh Hunt
4. Jimmy Bartel
3. Steve Johnson
2. Paul Chapman
1. Brent Prismall
Leaderboard
34 - Paul Chapman
32 - Gary Ablett
28 - Jimmy Bartel
24 - Darren Milburn
24 - Joel Corey
19 - Brad Ottens
18 - Cameron Mooney
15 - Jarad Rooke
13 - Cameron Ling
13 - Corey Enright
9 - Josh Hunt
5 - Kent Kingsley
5 - Matthew Scarlett
4 - Matthew Stokes
4 - Steven King
3 - Steve Johnson
2 - David Wojcinski
1 - Brent Prismall
1 - Shannon Byrnes
1 - Tom Harley
Posted by Sammy D at August 8, 2006 07:22 PM