Cats given a rare hidingPeter Hanlon
March 11, 2012RICHMOND 0.5.6 0.9.9 1.12.10 1.14.15 (108)
GEELONG 0.0.1 0.3.6 0.4.11 0.6.13 (49)
NINE-POINTERS Richmond: Martin.
GOALS
Richmond: Riewoldt 4, Martin 2, King 2, Nahas 2, Houli, Grigg, Cotchin, Vickery.
Geelong: Christensen, Brown, Duncan, Byrnes, Motlop, Hawkins.
BEST
Richmond: Martin, Houli, I. Maric, Foley, Cotchin, A. Maric, Riewoldt.
Geelong: Kelly, Smedts, Corey, Stringer.
UMPIRES S Wenn, J Armstrong, M Brown.
VENUE Simonds Stadium.
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SPEAKING on radio before yesterday's game, the recuperating Daniel Menzel said his Geelong teammates far preferred actually playing the preseason games to the alternative - spending the early morning of game day straining through hole-to-hole running drills at Queen's Park golf course, in Geelong.
Little more than half an hour into proceedings, many success-saturated Cat fans shifted uncomfortably in their seats, wondering if they had time to sneak in nine holes and salvage something from their Saturday afternoon.
A few of their highly credentialled heroes were playing like they were already on the 19th hole.
The Cats took a rare belting, one that was hardly of premiership hangover proportions, yet moved the coach, Chris Scott, enough to say he could not find a positive, and that Richmond had beaten his team in every facet of the game.
Geelong had won 29 games in a row at its Kardinia Park fortress before Sydney stormed the barricades late last season. This makes it two defeats on the trot, if you care to count the pre-season competition.
The AFL does when it comes to life membership, which Matthew Scarlett earned yesterday by notching his 300th all-competitions game.
He will not remember it fondly, having endured an afternoon in which everything from the bounce of the ball to the tweet of the umpire's whistle seemed intent on disrespecting the occasion. Of the premiership Cats playing their first game of the year, he had some mates; Paul Chapman managed only eight touches before he was subbed off late, Allen Christensen was quiet.
James Podsiadly's first quarter of football since a prematurely ended grand final featured a kick across the ground to a teammate who was not looking, and a 50-metre penalty conceded for back-chatting the umpire. He at least kept presenting, and shook off some rust as the game wore on.
The Tigers were a study in contrast. Dustin Martin had 10 kicks to quarter-time and might have had three goals, was quietened by Taylor Hunt in the second, but bullocked his way back to play a leading role as the finishing touches were applied to a neat day's work all round from all in yellow and black.
Ivan Maric and his magnificent mane offered far more than nostalgia for Patrick Swayze movies, bettering Trent West and Orren Stephenson with a dominant performance that again freed Tyrone Vickery to spend more time in attack, where Jack Riewoldt was lively, with four goals.
''Our contested ball was really good, our clearances were up as well,'' coach Damien Hardwick said.
''Obviously, Ivan coming in, an experienced ruckman who's been in the system seven or eight years, really adds to that. His around-the-ground ruckwork, also his ability to take marks, was paramount to us today.''
Brandon Ellis and the recycled Addam Maric also did plenty to send the Tiger faithful back along the Princes Freeway with a smile on their faces for the first time since 2006.
''He's playing good, hard, tough, footy,'' Hardwick said of Ellis. ''We knew that when we got him, and he uses the ball really well also.
''Addam is another guy who uses the ball really well. He makes really good decisions, and defensively we've been really happy with the way he's played, which was obviously the knock-on him coming over from Melbourne.''
The Cats led the clearances 9-1 at the first change, and it was 11-1 after King and Vickery capitalised on further good work in the middle at the start of the second.
Scott noted that as James Kelly, Joel Corey and Chapman had started the day in the middle with West, ''it wasn't a personnel issue''.
The Cats took until 16 minutes into the second quarter to kick a goal, and would have gone goalless at the freshly exposed western end of the ground if not for Tom Hawkins' mark 15 seconds from the three-quarter time siren.
Some insist nothing good comes out of Colac, and the wind from that direction is free to play havoc since the demolition of the Doug Wade Stand.
The trees were barely fluttering yesterday. It will doubtless be much harder on winter weekends to come, and result in what Scott predicted would be football rarely seen in the modern game.
Yesterday was merely football rarely seen from the modern Cats.
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