Cats find winning gear Michael Gleeson
The Age
May 5, 2013 GEELONG 3.3 9.3 15.7 20.11 (131)
RICHMOND 4.1 8.4 11.7 13.9 (87)
GOALS
Geelong: Christensen 3, Smedts 2, Bartel 2, Duncan 2, Stokes 2, Johnson 2, Hawkins 2, Enright, Murdoch, Selwood, Blicavs, West.
Richmond: King 4, Riewoldt 3, Martin 2, Ellis, Knights, McGuane, Grigg.
BEST
Geelong: Christensen, Johnson, Stokes, Enright, Duncan, Bartel, Hunt, Guthrie
Richmond: Edwards, Grigg, Martin, Grimes, Knights, Jackson, Rance
UMPIRES Donlon, Kamolins, Nicholls.
CROWD 55,625, at the MCG
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Momentum, like confidence, can turn on a kick. Or it can turn on the tap, touch, handball and boot of Mathew Stokes. Or it can swing on the bloody-minded and frustrated tossing of opportunities in a tantrum.
In a two-minute period Stokes halted then redirected the course of a game that Richmond had worked so determinedly to manufacture in its favour. He intercepted a Trent Cotchin handball, stepped inside a player and goaled, which as a description of the artistry of his effort is as brief as it is inadequate.
A minute later he fell to his bottom as a ball looped towards him one-out in a marking duel. He bounced back to his feet in time enough to spoil the mark then scurry after the ball and keep it alive when three Richmond players willed it out of bounds. Stokes ran along the boundary and handballed to Trent West in the goal square for a major.
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When Stokes first goaled after pressing forward from starting the game in the midfield, his side trailed Richmond by 19 points but his two quick interventions halted that run and when Billie Smedts and Mitch Duncan converted soon after Geelong had overwhelmed Richmond to lead at the main break by five points.
Richmond had played itself into a winning position in the first half by being physical in a way it had not been all year.
Ranked 18th for tackling this year it could ill-afford to allow a side such as the high-possession helter-skelter Geelong to play unimpeded.
A side that had averaged fewer than 50 tackles a game in the first rounds of the season had 18 tackles to Geelong's six in the first quarter and 31 to 23 to the main break. Which was why Richmond was able to claw back into the game.
First Jake King goaled when Jack Riewoldt smartly opted against trying to mark a high ball and palmed it instead to King beneath him, who converted the chance. A centre clearance, a long ball in and this time Riewoldt did mark. Moments later, King eased a tackle up off his shoulder to his neck for a free and a goal. Richmond having been out-played for much of the first term had worked its way to a lead.
Shane Edwards and Shaun Grigg, unlikely types to be governing the midfield, kept Richmond's spirited assault alive in the second term and Dustin Martin imposed to convert, stretching the lead to 19 points. Joel Selwood and Cotchin were heavily tagged, which is not unusual. But both largely had little impact, which was unusual.
Typifying Richmond's determination to be physical Selwood interestingly was the subject of team-wide physical attention - or as Terry Wallace coined it he was ''in the gun'' for each Tiger to buffet when he had the opportunity.
After the main break Richmond returned to the ground and in two minutes lost both ruckmen - Ivan Maric to a rolled ankle and Ty Vickery to an accidental head collision and the Cats quickly goaled. Momentum swings on strange things. This time Richmond stopped and returned it to Geelong.
In a renewing of the physical commitment Chris Newman and Taylor Hunt wrestled. A moment later Newman ran down a flank and kicked long to the goal square as he was heavily tackled. Newman didn't like it and pounded Hunt.
The ball that had been marked in the goal square was denied - a free paid to Hunt, then a 50-metre penalty. Selwood salted Newman's wound and was put on his back, only to then lift Newman up in the air WWF style in a suplex. A further 50-metre penalty against Ricky Petterd and the Cats had another.
The passions that rose in the game opened up the contest and allowed Geelong to move in. The Cats' goals flowed, booting 11 to Richmond's five after half-time.
TALL ORDERFirst Ivan Maric went down, with a rolled ankle two minutes into the third quarter. Then just a minute later Tyrone Vickery went up in the ruck in the middle and came down cracking his forehead into the head of Steve Johnson. Vickery was helped from the ground on wobbly legs, bleeding from the head and was immediately subbed out. Suddenly Luke McGuane was called on to handle the ruck work in the middle. Maric returned to the ground later.
NEW HURDLEMark Blicavs, the most famous steeplechaser in Australia not to go to the Olympics, is nominally a ruckman, but as athletic as he is, he is also tremendously versatile, which explained why he started the game on the wing. He has played wing occasionally in games, but as a starting position it was interesting and indicated the position the Cats believe he could yet occupy.
DOUGHNUTThe first half was a free-flowing affair with a lot let go by the umpires but it was still remarkable that Richmond earned not a single free kick in the second quarter. The umpires certainly became a lot more involved in the third term in a frenzied five-minute period when fights erupted, free kicks were reversed and 50-metre penalties doled out. The Tigers over the night had the lesser of the umpiring.
BORIS BEWDYCorey Enright, in his 250th game, crept forward in the last quarter to goal and every single Cats player ran to him to enjoy the moment. It might have been Johnson's 200th also but the Cats loved Boris' goal as much as some Johnson magic.
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