GEELONG LOSE TO ROOS, AS USUAL
July 28 2003

The Canberra Kangaroos accounted for Geelong for the third time in a row and second time this season. The Cats, who were still in the game at three quarter time, went down by eighteen points. Geelong also got thrashed in the VFL, going down to the Box Hill Hawks by 46 points on Sunday afternoon. By all accounts, David Clarke, Kent Kingsley and co were as useless as they have been in the AFL in recent weeks.

While crisis engulfs Carlton, Richmond, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, the vultures have passed Geelong by. It must be said that unlike the Blues the Cats just don't have the senior players left to walk out on the club, don't have a former NBL basketballer as a staffer and apparently doesn't have a gambling problem.

But that doesn't mean to say that there is not very trouble times ahead for the Cats. This time last season players like Paul Chapman., James Kelly, James Bartel, Kent Kingsley and Steven King were dominating the AFL, amassing nine wins in a row. But this season those players have gone largely walkabout, with the exception of Chapman.

While King can be excused due to a chronic achilles injury, he should not have been playing in the first place. With second (third?) string ruckmen Peter Street and Paul Chambers have only been given two or three games at a time to ply their trade in the AFL is it any wonder they are struggling to amass more than five possessions a game?

Time has surely come for players like David Clarke, Brent Grgic, Peter Riccardi, Aaron Lord, to be put on the 'never to play AFL for Geelong again' list. Young players like Henry Playfair, Matthew McCarthy, Shannon Byrnes, Brent Moloney, Will Slade and Charlie Gardiner must play regular AFL until the end of the season. If this occurs we may not only pick up higher draft picks, but may have half a chance of going somewhere in the foreseeable future.

GEELONG V COLLINGWOOD MATCH PREVIEW: LORD DROPPED. MCCARTHY POLICY BACK IN VOGUE

MARK BLAKE TO PLAY IN VFL