« Groundhog Day , Geelong Style | Main | Cats sink Dolphins »
April 25, 2007
Cats out scrapped by Hawks
HAWTHORN 0.3 4.7 8.9 10.16 (76)
GEELONG 3.3 4.8 8.13 9.18 (72)
Goals: Hawthorn: M Williams 3 S Crawford S Taylor B Guerra T Boyle L Franklin X Ellis C Young. Geelong: M Stokes 2 G Ablett 2 J Kelly 2 D Milburn D Wojcinski C Ling.
Best: Hawthorn: L Hodge S Crawford L Franklin B Guerra M Williams J Lewis. Geelong: G Ablett C Ling J Bartel D Milburn D Wojcinski C Enright.
Injuries: Hawthorn: C Young (shoulder) R Ladson (ankle) replaced in selected side by B McGlynn. Geelong: G Ablett (corked calf).
Reports: J Hunt (Geelong) reported by field umpire S Ryan for allegedly charging S Crawford (Hawthorn) in the third quarter.
"It's probably going to be more of an ugly game than it will be a fashionable”
Mark Thompson was at least successful in his prediction of the standard of game that was produced in Geelong's Round 4 clash, which Hawthorn won by four points.
In blustery conditions at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, it was a more determined and slightly more polished Hawthorn side that managed to overcome Geelong in the last quarter to take the points.
The Cats had 52 more handballs than the Hawks – no doubt a concerted effort to run the ball in the windy conditions – but inaccurate kicking and poor efforts from key players hampered Geelong's attempt to remove Hawthorn's vice-like grip on its Aurora Stadium record.
Geelong made a solid start to the match, getting away to a three goal lead with the assistance of a strong breeze in the first quarter. But Hawthorn's second quarter was equally impressive and by the main break only a point separated the teams.
It was clear by this stage that the wind would dictate that tall forwards would have minimum impact on the result of the match. Mackie was holding Franklin well and Mooney, Nathan Ablett and Hawkins were starved of the ball.
The third quarter proved to be the difference between the teams. While Geelong piled on four goals, Hawthorn were not to be denied adding four of their own into the stiff breeze. Geelong on the other hand, could only manage 2.10 into the wind for the whole match.
In the final quarter, both teams had their chances to snatch the victory. In the end it was Hawthorn that managed the extra goal, courtesy of Xavier Ellis, that made the differene.
Geelong coach Mark Thompson was surprisingly philosophical after the game.
"(The Hawks) were always going to be a difficult side to play against," he said.
"As long as we have enough wins at the end of the season, that's all we want to focus on. Win or lose, as long as we keep improving and working on our game style … that's what we want to achieve.
"We'll come out next week and the week after and people will forget about this game."
And despite the disappointing games from Geelong's tall forwards, Thompson gave praise to Bartel and Gary Ablett for the strong performances as well as Mackie and Ling for their excellent negating roles.
Ablett in particular played an excellent game after copping a heavy knock to the calf in the second quarter which saw him on crutches for the trip back to Melbourne.
For now, Hawthorn's good record in recent years against Geelong remains.
The Hawks will be happy to be in a stronger position than many had tipped them to be after four rounds.
Geelong play their next four games in Victoria, three of which will come at their home stadium. Two wins in the next two weeks against the Kangaroos and Richmond would build some nice momentum before a difficult mid-season period.
Geelongblog.com Player of The Year
Round 4:
5. Gary Ablett
3.5. Jimmy Bartel
3.5. Darren Milburn
1.5. Cameron Ling
1.5. Andrew Mackie
Leaderboard:
1. Gary Ablett - 10.5
1. Jimmy Bartel - 10.5
3. Nathan Ablett - 7
4. David Wojcinski - 6
5. Corey Enright - 5
6. Paul Chapman - 4.5
7. Brent Prismall - 4
8. Darren Milburn 3.5
9. David Johnson - 2.5
10. Matthew Scarlett - 2
11. Cameron Ling - 1.5
11. Andrew Mackie - 1.5
13. Cameron Mooney - 1
14. Mark Blake - 0.5
Posted by catempire at April 25, 2007 12:33 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://geelongblog.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/39
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Cats out scrapped by Hawks:
» Shemale video. from Shemale.
Shemale center. Shemale boom. Shemale escorts. Free shemale pictures. [Read More]
Tracked on April 16, 2008 09:20 AM