CATS CLAW SWANS ON HOME TURF
16 April 2011

By Ben Jensen twitter.com/thecattery SYDNEY SWANS V GEELONG CATS GEELONG defeated Sydney by twenty-seven points in a bruising encounter at a wet SCG tonight. The Cats trailed by seven points at quarter time before keeping the Swans goal-less in the second term to build a thirteen point lead heading into the main break. The Cats inched further ahead in the third quarter but the Swans closed the gap, the margin unchanged at three-quarter time. But the Swans had no answers for the Cats in the final quarter with David Wojcinski third goal, and James Podsiadly finally kicking a goal to put paid to any thought of a Sydney comeback. Four wins out of four for the Cats, only side other than Collingwood to have done so. Also nine straight wins against the Swans, a streak stretching back to 2006. FULL SCORES

Former Cat Shane Mumford kicked two goals for the Swans courtesy of two free kicks and had a great battle with Geelong's Brad Ottens, showing Cat fans why he is being highly rated by some experts. Mumford and Ottens batted out a draw by our reckoning, with perhaps Mumford slightly better in the air but winners are grinners which edges is back Ottens' way. Can't quite believe they only named him fifth best for the Swans!

Darren Milburn started as the sub for Geelong, replacing Josh Hunt in the third quarter. Cameron Ling struggled tonight but kicked a ripper of a 'captain's goal' ten minutes into the final term to cancel out a Swans goal a minute earlier to put his side's lead back into double figures. Matthew Scarlett, who played loose across the backline for most of the game, really came into his own in the second half, marshalling the defence and launching wave after wave of attacks when he had the ball. He was our pick for BOG ahead of Chapman. Steve Johnson was his mercurial best, floating all over the ground. He took a great grab in the first quarter for his only goal.

The Coreys, Enright and Joel, were great, Enright especially in the last quarter taking several key marks to steady the ship with the match very much in the balance. Wojcinski certainly hasn't lost it; neither his pace nor his nous for the game and how to break the lines and turn a game off his own boot. We must say thankyou to Bomber Thompson here and now for insisting he and Milburn be given another year's contract; he's copped quite a bit of stick but this was one thing from last September-October we can definitely thank the man for.

The Channel Ten coverage was peppered with references to VB's 'raise a glass' campaign; all a very worthy cause, no more so than for Foster's Group if you believe what you read in the business pages.

Geelong play Hawthorn next Saturday night in an away fixture at the MCG before having round 6 off with the bye. Tom Hawkins may be fit by then and could push Cameorn Mooney out of the side.

GEELONG: 3.2 6.6 8.10 11.15 (81) DEFEATED
SYDNEY: 4.3 4.5 6.9 7.12 (54)

GOALS
GEELONG: Wojcinski, Chapman, Enright, Johnson, Ling, Menzel, Podsiadly, Varcoe
SYDNEY: Bevan, Mumford, Goodes, Kennedy, O'Keefe

BEST
GEELONG: Chapman, Johnson, Wojcinski, Kelly, Scarlett
SYDNEY: Jack, Kennedy, Goodes, McVeigh, Mumford

REPORTS
GEELONG: Nil
SYDNEY: Nil

INJURIES
GEELONG: Nil
SYDNEY: Nil

CROWD: 25,300 at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG)

UMPIRES: FIELD: Chris Donlon (1) Shaun Ryan (25) Jason Armstrong (26) EM: Heath Ryan (14)
BOUNDARY: Luke McSpeerin Luke Roberts Michael Saunders Chris Simms
GOAL: James Savage Sergio Villagra EM: Mark Canning