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CATS CRUISE TO WIN OVER CROWS By Ben Jensen twitter.com/thecattery GEELONG CATS V ADELAIDE CROWS GEELONG easily accounted for Adelaide by 52 points at Skilled Stadium this afternoon. Debutante Mitch Brown kicked the first and last goals for the Cats, including a goal with his first kick, before he had actually but his hands on the ball, and finished with three. Fellow forward Dan Menzel also kicked three, Travis Varcoe, Steve Johnson, Cameron Ling and Allen Christensen the other multiple goalkickers for the Cats. The two Coreys, Joel and Enright, were Geelong's best while Varcoe and Christensen really stepped up, the former securing his spot for the next few weeks at least. Prior to the bounce were another two changes on top of the five enforced changes already with James Kelly and Brad Ottens confirmed as withdrawal, Shannon Motlop and Dawson Simpson coming in as straight swaps. Shannon Byrnes, himself an inclusion after Jimmy Bartel pulled out yesterday started as substitute. FULL SCORES Managed to fill the two absent Jensen seats the night before the game after about ten phone calls and texts, the brother in law and cousin (different people!) joining me. Had the usual pre-match routine of waiting for Russell 'Hooker' Renfrey to turn up and park his gleaming white Merc in his usual spot (see right) and it was time to take our seats for the game to begin. The Cats blew open the game from the word go with Mitch Brown soccering the ball through for his first goal with first kick in AFL football thanks to good work down field by the Cats. It took the Crows 22 minutes before they scored, in the meantime Christensen, Varcoe (two) and Steve Johnson all banging in majors. Brent Reilly kicked his first for the Crows before Pods snagged his only goal of the day. By quarter time Brown had his second and the Cats led by 38 points and in no danger at all of dropping this one. Second quarter was a bit of a fizzer, up the other end where we couldn't see so well. And precious little action at our end, just the one goal to the Crows to Nathan van Berlo. StevieJ opened the scoring 70 seconds in with a beautiful curler around the corner for his second, with Ling doing a similar effort for his first off the right boot.
The heavens opened up at half-time just as the Auskickers were about to start, or not about to start - was some kerfuffle in the Geelong Advertiser on Saturday about the kids being forced to use the neighbouring KP West or St Mary's Oval though we suspect sanity may have prevailed in the end. We were also supposed to be banned from the hallowed turf after the game but more on that later. Rain seemed to stop just as the second half kicked off though with nothing to wipe the seats off we did suffer WA (wet arse) syndrome. Heavens opened for around five minutes unfortunately, but that was that for the rest of the match fortunately. Players started slipping and sliding all over the shop but the quarter was certainly more entertaining and fortunately up 'our' end once more. The Cats kicked five goals to the Crows' two, Andrew Mackie kicking his first of the season from a beautiful set shot close to the boundary line on the Reg Hickey stand side 45-odd metres out. Christensen snagged his second and Menzel his first after the Crows got a couple. Shannon Byrnes joined the match for his 100th game and first of the season to a nice round of applause, taking the place of Matthew Scarlett who entrusted young backman Tom Gillies with the role down back under the tutelage of Tom Lonergan and Harry Taylor. He soon had a spray at goal but missed, the next two goals of the term came from David Wojcinski and Menzel for his second. Looked like the Cats were heading for a 100-point margin for a while there in the last quarter after they banged through four goals to Adelaide's one, but goals to Rory Sloane, Richard Douglas and Geelong target Patrick Dangerfield pegged the lead back to under six goals for the first time since the third quarter. Ian Callinan also kicked a goal in his first ever game, not bad for a guy one year older than Podsiadly. Mitch Brown kicked a third goal in game number one in what we thought would be the last goal of the match but Reilly kicked another after the final siren had sounded to make the final winning margin fifty-two points as the younger Cats ran out of puff and to be honest the rest put the cue in the rack. The earlier advice flashed up onto the 'big' screen about patrons who entered the 'arena' would be fined $5000 were retracted and we ended up being allowed onto the ground after all, just not to the centre-square. That didn't stop a couple hundred pinheads spring to the centre, most of them well past the age of 20, to find it surrounded by a motley crew of security guards. Managed to avoid being KO'd by a flying footy wandering across the ground and came across an interesting enterprise in Foster Street. Guy clad in a 1980s VFL jumper with a couple more on display for good measure was selling sausages in bread for a couple bucks, with free sauce and possibly a wee bit extra for onions. Made a decent enough trade, probably would have done well to sell a few drinks too we reckon. Geelong play Essendon in an away game at Etihad Stadium next Saturday night, and remain in top spot undefeated, a game ahead of Collingwood in second spot. Should be a few inclusions next week back from injury or suspension, but even if not the match committee will be pleased with today's performance from the next generation of players, as the fans were.
GEELONG:
7.3, 9.4, 14.10, 19.11 (125) DEFEATED GOALS BEST INJURIES CROWD: 23,246 Skilled Stadium, Geelong
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AFL 2011, ROUND 14 GEELONG V ADELAIDE SUNDAY 26 JUNE 2011 13:10 AEST SKILLED STADIUM FULL TEAM LISTINGS AND DETAILS VFL ROUND 13 PORT MELBOURNE V GEELONG SATURDAY 25 JUNE 2011 13:10 AEST TEAC OVAL
1951-52 PREMIERSHIP AND TRUCKING LEGEND RUSSELL 'HOOKER' RENFREY JUST ABOUT BAGGED HIS REGULAR CAR PARKING SPACE (WHICH IS WHEREVER HE LIKES!!)
THIS ENTERPRISING BLOKE MADE A
BIT OF A KILLING ON SNAGS IN BREAD AFTER THE GAME, $2 A SNAG WITH
ONIONS (LOVE THE VFL JUMPER DECOR)
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