CATS SCRATCHED BY KANGAROOS
Ben Jensen 15 April 2012

By Ben Jensen twitter.com/thecattery GEELONG has a bit of work to do after being easily defeated by North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium this evening as some WAGS readied themselves for the Logies tonight. The Kangaroos controlled the game from start to finish, although the Cats gave them a slight fright with four out of five goals to bring the equation for victory down to four goals in four minutes, but a goal from Jack Ziebell put the result beyond doubt. Three players kicked four goals each for the Roos, Aaron Edwards an absolute dead-eye dick in the first half, joined by Ryan Bastinac and Ziebell with four goals apiece. For the Cats James Podsiadly had his second bag of five for the season and Hawkins his second total of four, the pair with 12 and 11 apiece respectively to lead the AFL goalkicking.

Evergreen Brent Harvey was about equal best afield and was in good company with Ziebell, Daniel Wells and Andrew Swallow carving the Cats up. Michael Firrito did well down back especially in the first half, keeping the Cats quiet and was also damaging when running the ball forward. Several Geelong players simply had shockers, Steve Johnson couldn't do anything right but seemed sore from last week and copped a knock or two in the game for good measure. Tom Gillies didn't have the best of matches though he did kick his first goal in AFL football. The Hyphen, George Horlin-Smith kicked his first goal from his first kick, after coming on as a substitute for Andrew Mackie after half time, who copped a hell of a knock in the first half, unable to return to the field.

The ruck division of Trent West and Orren Stephenson (pronounced as in John 'Steffo' Steffensen the sprinter) really struggled to make an impact while Hamish McIntosh was all class, monstering those two and any defender unlucky enough to take him on. Harry Taylor did fairly well down back, Tom Lonergan struggled a bit along with Gillies. It was Mackie's absence that messed things around, combined with Matthew Scarlett's self-enforced absence making it all the more difficult. But the result was a shock, and could have easily been a seven of eight goal loss had the Roos not slowed down a bit in the final 15 minutes.

Next Sunday lunchtime Geelong take on Richmond at home and will unfurl the Premiership pennant, while the Kangaroos travel to the SCG to face the Sydney Swans. The Bendigo Bank Cats, the VFL team, had their third win on the trot over Frankston to sit second on the ladder to Port Melbourne. Matthew Knights has the side playing good footy so far, the discarded Mitch Brown booting five goals to put himself back into senior contention.

NORTH MELBOURNE: 4.5, 9.5, 16.8, 20.11 (131) DEFEATED
GEELONG: 1.3, 5.8, 9.14, 16.18 (114)

GOALS
NORTH MELBOURNE: Edwards 4, Bastinac 4, Ziebell 4, Adams 2, McIntosh 2, Anthony, Thomas, Harvey, Harper
GEELONG: Podsiadly 5, Hawkins 4, Motlop 2, Gillies, Horlin-Smith, Byrnes, Taylor, Guthrie

BEST
NORTH MELBOURNE: Harvey, Bastinac, Wells, Ziebell, Wright Edwards, Firrito, McIntosh, Swallow, Delaney
GEELONG: Podsiadly, Taylor, Selwood, Bartel, Kelly, T.Hunt

INJURIES
NORTH MELBOURNE: Nil reported
GEELONG: Andrew Mackie (cut lip)

UMPIRES:

FIELD: Matt Stevic (9) Michael Jennings (24) Jacob Mollison (32) EM: Shaun Gleeson (37)
BOUNDARY: Ian Burrows Robert Haala Darren Wilson Drew Kowalski
GOAL: Courtney Lai Jason Venkataya EM: Darren Mills

CROWD: 29,630 at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne

VFL ROUND 4
GEELONG V FRANKSTON
SATURDAY 14 APRIL 2012, 13:00 AEST
SIMONDS STADIUM

Match photos by Arj Images: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.342948379095606.82710.162448683812244&type=1

TEAM LISTS - http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-118-0-0-0&sID=242535&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=18941503

GEELONG 2.2 10.6 13.7 17.11 (113) DEFEATED
FRANKSTON 4.2 7.2 10.8 12.9 (81)

GOALS
GEELONG: M. Brown 5, J. Walker 2, J. Hollmer 2, G. Burbury 2, J. Stringer , L. McCarthy , D. Holden , D. Gleeson , J. Shannahan , S. Hogan
FRANKSTON: K. Haretuku 4, M. Clark 2, J. Greeley 2, C. Buchan , J. Matheson , R. Clements , K. Martin

BEST
GEELONG: J. Stringer, M. Brown, R. Bathie, G. Burbury, J. Simpkin, A. Banjanin
FRANKSTON: K. Haretuku, L. Delahunty, C. Buchan, L. Clark, S. Hockey, L. Osborne