CATS GET JOB DONE AGAINST DEMONS
Ben Jensen 5 May 2012

By Ben Jensen twitter.com/thecattery GEELONG didn't exactly blow Melbourne away at Simonds Stadium today but did what they had to in order to secure the four points, winning by 43 points in a match with a few highlights but not much finesse. Dark clouds were in place well before the first bounce, though there was only a light shower towards the end of half time and beginning of the third quarter. It was a cold day down at KP. Before the bounce skipper Joel Selwood and Tom Lonergan pulled out with injury, replaced by Shannon Byrnes and Tom Gillies. In the VFL the Cats were well beaten by a Casey side by 43 points.

Steve Johnson returned to somewhere near his best, with 35-odd possessions, three goals and countless goal assists while Steven Motlop played perhaps his best game for the club. Paul Chapman and James Podsiadly also kicked three goals, Andrew Mackie two. Jimmy Bartel also had two goals, and was substituted out midway through the third quarter to give Cameron Guthrie a run. Jesse Stringer played very well right from the start in just his third game, in the process kicking his first AFL goal. In all though it was a pretty scrappy affair, the Cats only leading by five behinds at quarter time though jumping ahead by 30-ish points in the second quarter before going into half time 28 points ahead.

Mitch Clark went someway towards silencing his many detractors in the Melbourne media by booting four goals, three of them in the first half. The Dees caught the Cats on the hop in the third quarter but eventually ran out of puff, the Cats winning the quarter by six goals to four. Finally the match petered out, the final siren blowing after just 25 minutes, Geelong booting two goals to one in the final term. Johnson was almost unanimously declared BOG, besides the headcase two rows behind us, the woman in fact screaming for him to be dragged and banished to the VFL most of the afternoon.

Tom Hawkins kicked just the one goal, but a good one it was, from a not easy angle in the right forward pocket near the boundary line at the Construction End. Pods or 'the Punisher' as a wag behind us kept calling him was dangerous all day, booting three goals and thumping the ball deep into the 50m arc countless other times with his raking left boot. Like Johnson, Chapman seems to have his mojo back. James Kelly, in his return game, was decent. The backmen Harry Taylor, Corey Enright and to a lesser degree Mackie and Matthew Scarlett had good games. Trent West didn't have too many possessions but with some help from Hawkins rucked most of the day, not an easy job in a game with so many ballups.

In the VFL the Cats were well beaten by a Casey side by 43 points. Jack Watts kicked four goals and was named in the best players for Casey in a match marred by broken jaws to Jack Viney and Jordan Gysberts from the Scorpions. Liam Jurrah played well in his first game back, while Cat veteran David Wojcinski looks set to rejoin the AFL squad next week in Adelaide. Geelong local Tom Couch, overlooked by the Cats but given a lifeline by the Dees in last year's draft, was BOG. Geelong AFL listed Shane Kersten booted six goals, taking over spearhead duties from Mitch Brown who competed well but struggled to make much of an impact against the Demons in the main game.

GEELONG: 3.5, 9.11, 15.14, 17.17 (119) DEFEATED
MELBOURNE: 3.0, 6.1, 10.5, 11.10 (76)

GOALS
GEELONG: Chapman 3, Podsiadly 3, Johnson 3, Bartel 2, Mackie 2, Stringer, Kelly, Hawkins, Motlop
MELBOURNE: Clark 4, Jones 2, Bate 2, Davey, Dunn, Howe

BEST
GEELONG: Johnson, Corey, Chapman, Duncan, Motlop, Podsiadly, Enright, Taylor
MELBOURNE: Clark, Frawley, Jones, Jamar.

CHANGES
GEELONG: Joel Selwood (concussion) and Tom Lonergan (soreness) replaced in selected side by Shannon Byrnes and Tom Gillies
MELBOURNE: Nil

INJURIES
GEELONG: Jimmy Bartel (ankle)
MELBOURNE: Nil

UMPIRES:

FIELD UMPIRES: Craig Fleer (2) Stuart Wenn (22) Jordan Bannister (33) EM: David Harris (34)
BOUNDARY UMPIRES: Tim Morrison Ian Burrows Chris Esler Patrick Tongue
GOAL UMPIRES: David Dixon Jason Venkataya EM: Stephen Williams

CROWD: 18,010 and at least one dog at Simonds Stadium, Geelong

PRE-MATCH TIP: "Cats by 83 points"

VFL MATCH, FRIDAY NIGHT

CASEY 5.2 10.4 15.6 22.8 (140) DEFEATED
GEELONG 1.5 5.5 11.5 14.10 (94)

GOALS
CASEY : J. Fitzpatrick 4, J. Watts 4, K. Lawrence 2, R. Plummer 2, R. Petterd 2, L. Cook 2, S. Blease , J. Spencer , M. Riseley , L. Jurrah , R. McGough , M. Fieldsend
GEELONG: S. Kersten 6, D. Wojcinski 2, D. Gleeson , G. Horlin-Smith, T. Selwood , J. Schroder , J. Walker , D. Gibbs

BEST
CASEY: T. Couch, J. Bennell, J. Fitzpatrick, R. Petterd, D. Nicholson, J. Watts
GEELONG: S. Kersten, G. Horlin-Smith, J. Sheringham, J. Schroder, L. McCarthy, J. Simpkin