CATS COMPREHENSIVELY THRASHED BY CROWS; VFL TEAM ON A ROLL
Ben Jensen 4 July 2006

By Ben Jensen GEELONG was brought crashing back to earth by the Adelaide Crows in their first Sunday game of the season, thrashed by ninety-two points in front of 41,752 mostly rabid Crows fans at AAMI Stadium. After two wins no the trot to bring some brightness to an otherwise disappointing season, the Cats were expected to do some damage and at least give the Crows a contest. They did just that in the first quarter but with a seven goal to two second quarter in Adelaide's favour, Geelong were simply blown away and sadly never recovered.

Geelong now has very little realistic hope of qualifying for the finals, and even if it did manage to scrape through into seventh or eighth position, what good would it do?

In good news, next year should bring a gun recruit in Tom Hawkins to the club, but he shouldn't be viewed as the saviour for 2007 - maybe 2008 or 2009, but in this season and next, forwards currently at the club, namely Kent Kingsley, Cameron Mooney, Henry Playfair, etc, need to pull their weight. It hasn't happened the past two seasons, 2004 being the only good season for the forward line in recent memory.

While no positive news to report AFL wise, in the VFL however, there was some good news, the team having the better of Frankston by forty-four points down at Frankston's City Oval. 'Charles' Gardiner lead the goal kicking with four, Todd Grima kicking three and Andrew Mackie two. Mackie was named best on ground while marking forward Matthew McCarthy continues to push heavily for AFL selection in the light of Kingsley and other forward failures of recent weeks.

This Saturday Geelong face another struggling Victorian club in Carlton at the Telstra Dome. It could provide a shot in the arm in terms of a relatively easy match, but Carlton were ordinary in Saturday night's loss to the Lions, but had been unlucky in recent weeks, being robbed in Perth against West Coast, and beaten by the Kangaroos. In sort the Blues are due for a win, the Cats need to dramatically improve from Sunday's effort, and should be helped by playing at the Telstra Dome.

Just who plays against the Blues will be interesting, surely there'll be changes to the forward line and midfield?

ADELAIDE 3.6 10.12 14.17 21.21 (147) DEFEATED
GEELONG 2.4 4.5 5.6 8.7 (55)

GOALS: ADELAIDE: M Ricciuto 5 B Burton 5 T Hentschel 2 J Porplyzia 2 S Goodwin R Biglands K McGregor M Bode T Edwards S Thompson A McLeod.
GEELONG: B Ottens 2 J Kelly K Kingsley M Stokes G Ablett P Chapman D Milburn.

BEST: ADELAIDE: B Burton M Mattner A McLeod T Edwards M Doughty N Bassett S Goodwin M Ricciuto G Johncock.
GEELONG: P Chapman C Ling D Milburn.

VFL RESULTS

GEELONG 1.1 (7) 6.5 (41) 11.9 (75) 15.9 (99) DEFEATED
FRANKSTON 3.5 (23) 4.5 (29) 5.7 (37) 8.7 (55)

GOALS
GEELONG C. Gardiner 4, T. Grima 3, A. Mackie 2, J. Davenport 2, A. Cook, M. McCarthy, H. Playfair, L. Forbes
FRANKSTON A. Edwards 3, J. Berry 2, C. Fortnam, B. Phibbs, A. Eames

BEST
GEELONG A. Mackie, P. Koulouriotis, M. McCarthy, C. Gardiner, S. Clarke, T. Lonergan
FRANKSTON N. Winterton, P. Kennedy, C. Oliver, N. Benbow, B. Dunne, B. Phibbs