Ablett all class in massacre
07 May 2007 Herald-Sun
Scott Gullan
All that is required to give a summary of this match is: Geelong wins the ball out of the centre, Geelong goes forward, Geelong player marks and Geelong kicks a goal.
Just insert whatever Cats player's name you like in that sequence because they were all in on the massacre.
To narrow down the farce, the opening 18 minutes of the first quarter is a good snapshot of what went on at Telstra Dome last night.
At the one-minute mark Daniel Jackson sent the Tigers into their forward 50m. The next time the football passed that number painted on the turf in blue paint was at the 17-minute mark, courtesy of Danny Meyer. Extraordinary.
It's probably a record, but given so many other ones went last night, it was lost in the 35-goal avalanche.
During this time the Cats kicked five goals, which they doubled by quarter-time.
And so the trend was set.
The stats sheet was laughable. Geelong had 383 possessions, 123 more than the Tigers, took 36 more marks and had 47 scoring shots to 20.
When a side wins by 157 points it's usually hard to pinpoint who is best on ground.
But this was Gary Ablett's night.
Not that this should come as a surprise to Tiger fans, as his father spent his career terrorising the boys from Punt Rd.
This wasn't Ablett the goalsneak on show, it was Ablett the midfielder.
After slowly building up his minutes in the middle of the ground over recent seasons, little Gazza cut the Tigers to shreds.
He finished with 32 disposals, six marks, six clearances, seven inside 50s and three goals.
Ablett had plenty of mates seeing a truckload of the footy. Joel Corey had his best game for the year, and Andrew Mackie kicked four goals from a half-back flank.
Cameron Ling destroyed young Tiger Brett Deledio, Jimmy Bartel continued his brilliant form, and Nathan Ablett kicked four goals to again show he is a super talent.
The much-vaunted forward structure that had gone AWOL over the past fortnight was back in the groove.
Cameron Mooney (two goals) presented brilliantly. Steve Johnson (two goals) returned in great style. Travis Varcoe buzzed around for three goals, and the great white hope Tom Hawkins came off the bench and kicked four goals in the second half.
And that's not forgetting Paul Chapman, who kicked four goals in the first half before a sore hammy saw him sit out the rest of the match.
There were plenty of great moments to savour. None more sweeter for Cats fans than at the 12-minute mark of the third quarter, when G. Ablett cleared the ball from the centre bounce, ran to the edge of the square and delivered a rocket pass that hit Hawkins, who was leading at top pace up the middle of the ground, on the chest.
As for Richmond, well, what do you say?
One player who caught the eye of many was youngster Matthew White. But that was because of his Asafa Powell impersonations when sprinting off the ground to the interchange bench.
Captain Kane Johnson started the game on the bench, which says a lot about where he's at.
One interesting stat at quarter-time was the zero possessions to Deledio, Jay Schulz and Chris Hyde, who had all started on the ground.
Joel Bowden's kick-out from full back straight to Mooney - who then handballed to Varcoe for a goal early in the third quarter - was the blooper of the match although his teammate Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls put in a contender when after spending plenty of time over a set shot from 50m he also didn't manage to get it over the man on the mark.
Once again Matthew Richardson looked like he tried his heart out and he was forced to spend most of the second half in the ruck because of an injury to Troy Simmonds. Youngster Cleve Hughes kicking three goals could be classed as a positive but we're stretching it.
Really, the entire three hours was a waste of time because it doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know. The Cats are very good flat track bullies who are yet to do anything vaguely similar against a good team - next Sunday against West Coast at Skilled Stadium will reveal more - while Richmond have yet to win a game because they're no good.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,21683231%255E19742,00.html
