First bloody Carlton game I've seen for 2 (count them!) rounds, so I decided to do a dodgy as all shit report on it, mainly because I'm starting a correspondance Journalism course on Monday. Nothing you don't already know about the game, but I wouldn't mind some critique of my writing style either.
Anyway, here it is.
Geelong returned to the winners list in emphatic fashion on Saturday against Carlton with a 65 point win at Telstra Dome. What was probably the Cats’ best performance since they topped the ladder at round 2 was helped in equal measure by their accurate goalkicking – of their 27 scoring shots, 23 were goals – and the Blues’ poor performance in the same regard. The win brings the Cats to a 6-8 record and keeps them in touch with the top 8 they seemed assured to reach at the start of the year.
Gary Ablett Junior was the star early for Geelong, but he nearly missed the game. Ablett had run out of fuel on the way to Telstra Dome and had to hitchhike to a service station to get some fuel for his car. The Blues were wishing he hadn’t made it, as his 3 goals helped the Cats to a 13 point lead at quarter time, with an ominous scoreboard standing at Geelong 5.0.30, Carlton 2.5.17. The Blues didn’t help their cause with 4 easily gettable shots being missed. The worst of these was Andrew Carrazzo’s kick into the man on the mark from about 15 metres out.
The pattern continued in the second quarter. Geelong kicked 6.1 to Carlton’s 2.2, and had 8 individual goalkickers at the half, Matthew McCarthy (playing his first game for the season) the only other multiple goalkicker for Geelong. By contrast, Blue spearhead Brendan Fevola had kicked 2 of his team’s 4 goals. Carlton’s two goals in this quarter came in quick succession, and it seemed that there may have been a spark for a comeback, but the Cats doused any such thoughts quickly.
The third quarter saw an identical score for the Cats (6.1), while the Blues managed 3.3 to be 52 points down at the final change. Carlton, while earnest and willing, let their cause down with several sloppy skills and poor shots for goal, although Carrazzo made amends for his earlier blunder with a miracle shot. Hemmed in on the boundary, the young Blue somehow got his foot to the ball and squeezed it along the chalk and through the big sticks for the highlight of the day.
A procession ensued in the final quarter, as the Cats seemingly rammed on goals at will while much finger pointing was done by the Blues’ defence. 4 consolation goals late in the quarter did little other than garner a smidgen of respect for Carlton, who ended up 11.11.77, some 65 points behind Geelong’s 23.4.142.
Among the best for the Cats were Cameron Mooney with a strong game at Centre Half Forward, Gary Ablett Junior, who sparked the side and set the tone on the first quarter (but was somewhat shut out for the rest of the match by Andrew Walker), Joel Corey who racked up possessions at will in the midfield and Steven King in a dominant display in the ruck. The star, though, was forgotten Cat McCarthy, who finished with a career best 5 goals and gave a couple off as well.
Good players were rather thin on the ground for Carlton, but of those, Kade Simpson ran hard in the middle and Andrew Carrazzo – a former Geelong rookie – worked industriously after his poor first quarter shot for goal. Cory McGrath, who was a late replacement for the injured Matthew Lappin, picked up several quality possessions but wasted his work with poor kicking for goal (0.4 for the afternoon) and Brendan Fevola, who was constantly double and triple teamed all day, finished with 4 majors to move to 54 for the season and further his lead in the race for the Coleman Medal.
In the final wash up, Geelong proved themselves too classy for the hapless Blues, who languish in 15th position, only kept off the bottom by bitter rival Essendon*. Both teams would be somewhat satisfied with the result – the Cats got the win and percentage they sorely needed after the previous week’s thumping by Adelaide and Carlton got some more game time into the young players who carry the future on their shoulders – Simpson, Russell, Kennedy et al.
The Cats can look forward to a testing match against Port Adelaide at Skilled Stadium in Round 15 in a match which shapes as one of the most important of the season for both clubs, while the Blues face the Bulldogs in Darwin.
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