Cruising Cats content to show gaps in class
Lyall Johnson at Skilled Stadium | August 5, 2007
AS you would expect when top plays bottom, any number of passages from yesterday's match at Skilled Stadium showed the inevitable gulf between Geelong and Richmond.
It could be the time Matthew Scarlett shrugged a tackle wide on the defensive 50 and shot the ball into the corridor, where Andrew Mackie, racing through the centre and under pressure from a Tiger opponent, brilliantly tapped it to Mathew Stokes, who drilled a lovely goal at full pace from the 50-metre arc.
Not long after, Richmond's Shane Edwards, an up-and-coming player, marked on 50 metres, should have gone back for a shot but instead tried to go short and kicked straight to Cameron Ling, who was standing virtually beside the man on the mark.
Geelong moved the ball with deadly efficiency dozens of times as if the Richmond players were witches hats; at equally numerous times, the Tigers managed to hand over possession through poor decision-making and sub-standard skills.
But, to be fair, despite the impressive 70-point win by the Cats — which would have been more than 80 had Nathan Brown not scored two junk-time goals in the last term — Geelong was probably only brilliant in patches while the Tigers did well at times to, at least for the first half, keep vaguely in touch.
Notwithstanding the margin and the 21 goals they scored, yesterday's effort was a long way from the demolition job the Cats performed on the Tigers in round six. But given that the wind was slicing across the ground from wing to wing and the rain was making the ball and ground slippery, the result was pretty impressive.
Coach Mark Thompson praised his players for their commitment in less-than-perfect conditions and admitted he was impressed that they were able to rise above potential over-confidence and complacency to dismantle a side Geelong was expected to beat easily.
On the way to victory, the Cats kicked the first goal and led at every change, and even with a number of stars such as Ling and Gary Ablett less effective than their usual lofty standards, they had plenty of players lining up to drive the bus.
Jimmy Bartel was brilliant, as he had been all season, and he barely put a foot wrong as he and Joel Corey dominated the midfield. Nathan Foley was their best-performed opponent, and after a first half in which he collected 27 touches, he had Ling moved to him off Brett Deledio, to shut him down. Deledio, after being dragged deep by Ling in the first half, had a solid second in his first game back from a broken hand.
Up forward, Steve Johnson, Geelong's success story of the year, dispensed with almost as many opponents as he had goals — five — and was the main go-to man as Cameron Mooney and Nathan Ablett played second fiddle, Ablett in particular finding the smaller and more agile Luke McGuane difficult to deal with.
The pacey Stokes was extremely handy and finished with three goals, giving selectors something to think about if small forward positions come down to a choice at finals time between he and Shannon Byrnes, whose kicking often lets him down.
At the other end, Scarlett held Matthew Richardson well despite the Tigers big man scoring four. Darren Milburn proved he is more than capable as a ruck-rover type, gathering 32 possessions and kicking a wonderful banana goal.
You could almost throw a blanket over the rest of the Cats, Mackie being solid, Joel Selwood consistently busy, James Kelly lifting his game to fill the boots of Corey Enright and Steven King playing a creditable game in his first match back from a knee injury. Byrnes got a lot of the ball, as did David Wojcinski and Stokes, who also booted three goals.
King will be fined substantially for his part in providing comic relief in the last term, when he lined up the back of the goal umpire and proceeded to take a hanger over the top of him that left player and unsuspecting official sprawled in the goalsquare.
Brad Ottens was not selected due to flu, solving the dilemma of how to structure up with Mark Blake, who repaid the chance to go forward with two goals.
He and King won the hitouts, but Richmond dominated the clearances around the stoppages.
BEST Richmond: Foley, Richardson, Connors, Thursfield, Tuck, Raines.
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