Cats hold off Eagles as Tom Hawkins kicks seven hundredth goal

West Coast Eagles v Geelong Cats, AFL 2022 round 14 Ben Jensen TOM HAWKINS kicked his seven hundredth AFL goal on Saturday afternoon in Perth as the Cats defeated the cellar dwelling Eagles by 18 points. While the Cats led for most of the first half they certainly didn’t dominate and scores were level at halftime, as the Eagles finally put in an effort worthy of the 1992 Premiership side who looked on. In the second half the Cats pulled away somewhat with a five goal to two third quarter, the 18 point margin maintained by the final siren. Former Cat Tim Kelly was a late change while Sam Menegola accounted himself well in his first game for the season. So while it wasn’t quite the 100 point win that some predicted, it was the second time running the Cats have won after the bye, and the form up front of Tyson Stengle and Hawkins was entertaining. Next Saturday the Cats travel to the MCG to play the Tigers in a home fixture with a 4:35pm kick off; remember the AFL’s “kids go free” month, visit: https://www.afl.com.au/kids-go-free.

AFL 2022 ROUND FOURTEEN
WEST COAST EAGLES V GEELONG CATS
SATURDAY 18 JUNE 2022, 16:35 AEST
OPTUS STADIUM

GEELONG CATS: 4.4, 6.5, 11.6, 12.9 (81) DEFEATED
WEST COAST EAGLES: 2.3, 6.5, 8.6, 9.9 (63)

GOALS
GEELONG CATS: Stengle 3, Hawkins 3, Menegola 2, Cameron, Close, Duncan, Smith
WEST COAST EAGLES: Waterman 2, Kennedy 2, Cripps 2, Petruccelle, Rioli, West

BEST
GEELONG CATS: Guthrie, Selwood, Stengle, Blicavs, Cameron, Menegola
WEST COAST EAGLES: Yeo, Barrass, Redden, Gaff, Shuey, Cripps

INJURIES
GEELONG CATS: Nil reported
WEST COAST EAGLES: McGovern (ribs)

CHANGES
GEELONG CATS: Nil
WEST COAST EAGLES: Tim Kelly (illness) replaced in selected side by Jackson Nelson

SUBSTITUTES
GEELONG CATS: Francis Evans (unused)
WEST COAST EAGLES: Greg Clark (replaced McGovern in the second quarter)

REPORTS
GEELONG CATS: Nil
WEST COAST EAGLES: Nil

CROWD: Not sure at Optus Stadium, Perth

UMPIRES
FIELD Chris Donlon, Andre Gianfagna, Michael Pell EMER: Louis Jago
BOUNDARY Nathan Doig, Josh Garrett, Matthew Tomkins, Joshua Furman
GOAL Sam Hunter, Daniel Hoskin EMER: Jason Yazdani

PREDICTIONS
Ben – Cats 85 points
Oscar – Cats 110 points
Kiss of death – Draw

GEELONG CATS – SELECTED SIDE
IN: S Menegola, J Kolodjashnij
OUT: G Rohan (illness), B Parfitt (injured), Q Narkle (sub)

B: T Stewart, S De Koning, T Atkins
HB: J Bews, M Blicavs, Z Guthrie
C: M Duncan, C Guthrie, I Smith
HF: Z Tuohy, J Cameron, C Stephens
F: B Close, T Hawkins, T Stengle
FOLL: R Stanley, S Menegola, J Selwood
INT: J Kolodjashnij, M O’Connor, L Dahlhaus, G Miers
EMER: S Higgins, F Evans, O Dempsey, S Neale

WEST COAST EAGLES – SELECTED SIDE
IN: J Jones, J McGovern, D Sheed, W Rioli, E Yeo, J Petruccelle, R Bazzo
OUT: G Clark, I Winder, L Foley, J Nelson, H Edwards, A Witherden (all omitted), S Petrevski-Seton (illness), P Naish (sub)

B: S Hurn, T Barrass, L Duggan
HB: J Jones, J McGovern, B Hough
C: A Gaff, T Kelly, J Redden
HF: D Sheed, J Darling, J Waterman
F: J Cripps, J Kennedy, W Rioli
FOLL: B Williams, E Yeo, L Shuey
INT: J Petruccelle, R Bazzo, C West, C Jamieson
EMER: A Witherden, L Foley, J Nelson, G Clark