Cats into preliminary final

Geelong Cats v GWS Giants, AFL 2021 second semi final Ben Jensen GEELONG celebrated Joel Selwood becoming the Cats’ games record holder with a 35 point win over the Giants, bringing down the curtain on former Cats Shane Mumford’s AFL career. The match began with an arm wrestle but by quarter time the Cats led two goals to nil; the Giants not registering a goal. GWS hit back in the second quarter but the Cats still head by 15 points at half time.

In the second half the lead got back to within ten points but from then on the Cats held a comfortable two to three goal bugger for the rest of the match, a three goal blitz from 300-gamer Tom Hawkins in the final quarter smashing the Giants’ hopes. The win came at a cost however with Brandan Parfitt suffering a hamstring tear that will see him miss the rest of the season. He will miss the preliminary final against Melbourne this Friday night and should the Cats win the grand final too.

AFL 2021 SECOND SEMI FINAL
GEELONG CATS V GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY GIANTS
FRIDAY 3 SEPTEMBER, 19:50 AEST
OPTUS STADIUM
MATCH PREVIEW

GEELONG 2.5, 5.8, 10.9, 15.13 (103) DEFEATED
ST KILDA SAINTS 0.3, 3.5, 5.7, 10.8 (68)

GOALS
GEELONG CATS: Hawkins 5, Cameron 2, Rohan 2, Close 2, Menegola 2, Ratugolea, Smith
GWS GIANTS: Stone 2, Himmelberg 2, Kelly, Lloyd, Hill, Mumford, Haynes, Ward

BEST
GEELONG CATS: Hawkins, Tuohy, Menegola, C Guthrie, Smith, Dangerfield, Cameron
GWS GIANTS: Whitfield, Haynes, Hopper, Kelly, Ward, Mumford

INJURIES
GEELONG CATS: Parfitt (left hamstring), Hawkins (corked leg)
GWS GIANTS: Nil reported

CHANGES
GEELONG CATS: Nil
GWS GIANTS: Jesse Hogan (calf) replaced in the selected side by Phil Davis, Sproule (shoulder)

SUBSTITUTES
GEELONG CATS: Zach Guthrie (replaced Parfitt)
GWS GIANTS: James Peatling (replaced Sproule)

REPORTS
GEELONG CATS: Nil
GWS GIANTS: Nil

CROWD: 44,091, Optus Stadium, Perth

UMPIRES
FIELD Chris Donlon, ‘Razor’Ray Chamberlain, Simon Meredith EM: Jacob Mollison
BOUNDARY Nathan Doig, Chris Esler, Matthew Konetschka, Damien Main
GOAL Angus McKenzie-Wills, Dylan Benwell EM: Matthew Dervan

GEELONG CATS – SELECTED SIDE
IN: Zach Tuohy, Esava Ratugolea, Max Holmes
OUT: Mark O’Connor (hamstring), S.Higgins (managed), Sam Simpson, Luke Dahlhaus (both omitted)
B: J.Henry, L.Henderson, J.Kolodjashnij
HB: Z.Tuohy, M.Blicavs, T.Atkins
C: C.Guthrie, M.Duncan, I.Smith
HF: E.Ratugolea, J.Cameron, G.Rohan
F: B.Close, T.Hawkins, G.Miers
FOLL: R.Stanley, J.Selwood, P.Dangerfield
INT: J.Bews, M.Holmes, S.Menegola, B.Parfitt
EMER: S.Higgins, S.Simpson, D.Fort, Z.Guthrie

GWS GIANTS – SELECTED SIDE
IN: B.Hill, C.Stone
OUT: S.Reid, T.Green (both injured), T.Greene (suspended)
B: J.Stein, S.Taylor, I.Cumming
HB: L.Ash, N.Haynes, L.Whitfield
C: J.Kelly, S.Coniglio, H.Perryman
HF: T.Taranto, H.Himmelberg, D.Lloyd
F: Z.Sproule, J.Hogan, M.de Boer
FOLL: S.Mumford, J.Hopper, C.Ward
INT: T.Bruhn, B.Hill, C.Stone, C.Idun
EMER: J.Riccardi, K.Briggs, P.Davis, J.Peatling