CATS CRASH OUT TO DOCKERS; SCARLETT RETIRES - The Cattery - Unofficial Geelong Football Club Site

CATS CRASH OUT TO DOCKERS; SCARLETT RETIRES
Ben Jensen 9 September 2012

By Ben Jensen twitter.com/thecattery FREMANTLE has shocked Geelong and most of the football world by knocking the Cats out of the AFL finals in week one. The Dockers smashed the Cats in the opening quarter, kicking five goals to just one behind. The Cats went on to outscore the Dockers eleven goals to nine but it wasn't quite enough, going down by sixteen points. Matthew Scarlett made no fuss in his final game besides wave his bottle of sports drink at the crowd as he marched off the MCG in his 284th and final game as one of the all time greats. No official announcement was made but there didn't need to be.

Geelong was beaten in most areas of the game, and particularly struggled to contain Freo linchpin Matthew Pavlich who finished with six goals. The Cats struggled up forward too, neither Tom Hawkins or James Podsiadly registering a goal and in fact the only multiple goal-kickers were defenders Andrew Mackie and Josh Hunt with two apiece. Too often the ball was bombed into the forward line to find Freo defenders on their own, the ball soon rebounding back to their forward line.

There was a fightback of sorts in the second half but just when the Cats looked to be on a roll the Dockers banged home another goal to snuff it out. Allen Christensen and Joel Selwood fought bravely as did Andrew Mackie and Joel Corey, who copped a nasty poke in the eye and may be reconsidering his own future in the coming weeks. The Dockers go on to play Adelaide at AAMI Stadium next weekend while the Cats are left to cheer on the VFL side, who face Box Hill in a knockout final today at Casey Fields for a place in the Preliminary Final.

FREMANTLE: 5.7, 8.9, 12.11, 14.12 (96) DEFEATED
GEELONG: 0.1, 3.5, 6.9, 11.14 (80)

GOALS
FREMANTLE: Pavlich 6, Ballantyne 3, Walters 2, Crowley, De Boer, Pearce
GEELONG: Mackie 2, Hunt 2, Christensen, Duncan, Motlop, Selwood, Stokes, Vardy, Taylor

BEST
FREMANTLE: Pavlich, Barlow, Mundy, McPhee, Walters
GEELONG: Selwood, Bartel, Corey, Mackie, Duncan

INJURIES
FREMANTLE: TBA
GEELONG: TBA

UMPIRES:

FIELD: Brett Rosebury (8) Troy Pannell (28) Jordan Bannister (33) EM: Chris Kamolins (19)
BOUNDARY: Michael Marantelli Nick Liparota Alan Zanich Mark Foster
GOAL: Chelsea Roffey Chris Appleton EM: Darren Mills

CROWD: 44,460 at MCG, Melbourne

GEELONG	FREMANTLE
IN: Jonathan Simpkin OUT: Steve Johnson (suspensded)	IN: Kepler Bradley, Matthew de Boer, Alex Silvagni OUT: Luke McPharlin (Hamstring), Jonathon Griffin, Thomas Sheridan
B: Matthew Scarlett, Tom Lonergan, Josh Hunt HB: Andrew Mackie, Harry Taylor, Corey Enright C: Allen Christensen, Joel Selwood, Taylor Hunt HF: Mathew Stokes, James Podsiadly, Jimmy Bartel F: Paul Chapman, Tom Hawkins, Nathan Vardy FOLL: Trent West, James Kelly, Joel Corey INT: Jonathan Simpkin, Steven Motlop, Mitch Duncan, Jordan Murdoch EMER: David Wojcinski, Cameron Guthrie, Josh Walker	B: Adam McPhee, Zac Dawson, Alex Silvagni HB: Lee Spurr, Michael Johnson, Paul Duffield C: Michael Barlow, Ryan Crowley, Tendai Mzungu HF: Nicholas Suban, Christopher Mayne, David Mundy F: Hayden Ballantyne, Matthew Pavlich, Kepler Bradley FOLL: Aaron Sandilands, Nathan Fyfe, Clancee Pearce INT: Garrick Ibbotson, Stephen Hill, Michael Walters, Matthew de Boer EMER: Zachary Clarke, Dylan Roberton, Cameron Sutcliffe