Cats turn back the clock
The experts and punters agreed that Collingwood were all but certain to beat Geelong on Friday night. The Pies were riding high after two big wins in a row; the Cats’ place in the pecking order still unknown. But it was Geelong supporters who could have been forgiven for thinking they’d accidentally flicked over to a replay of the 2007 grand final, such was their dominant start to the game. The Cats piled on the first seven goals, five of them within 10 minutes when fans were still streaming through the turnstiles, effectively ending the contest before it began.
This was Geelong reminiscent of their premiership best – running through the corridor, exquisite skills, busting tackles – only the names were different. Pint-sized teenager Cory Gregson kicked two early, Rhys Stanley is a ruckman who doubles as an extra midfielder and Mitch Duncan, Steven Motlop and Josh Caddy played like the young leaders they need to become. Mark Blicavs shadowed Scott Pendlebury and finished with more possessions than the Pies’ skipper, and Jed Bews added another scalp to his CV, holding Jamie Elliott goalless.
The margin blew out even more in the second quarter before two noticeable things happened after half-time. Geelong clearly tired coming off two consecutive six day breaks and Collingwood ramped the pressure up to 11. They inched closer and closer, Travis Cloke’s goal kicking demons returning just as his team looked like threatening. Midway through the last, the Cats hadn’t scored a goal for 45 minutes until Nakia Cockatoo chose an opportune time to kick the first of his career, and Motlop and Gregson joined the party in the next 90 seconds. The 41-point margin was a fair reflection of the fact Geelong controlled the tempo all night.
If Nathan Buckley learned anything, it was that the Pies’ decent start to the year was built on pressure and intensity. Anything less than maximum effort doesn’t cut it against half-decent teams. The Cats evened the ledger at 3-3 before a huge test against the Swans this week, and have improved week by week after their 0-2 start. Rebuilding while staying competitive isn’t easy, but Chris Scott and his team are making a decent fist of it.
Injury woes for two luckless talents
It’s a shame that despite a weekend highlighted by stirring upset victories to St Kilda, Greater Western Sydney, Brisbane and West Coast, two young talents will regard round six as a personal nightmare. Geelong’s Josh Cowan may not have the high profile of team-mate Daniel Menzel, a four-time knee reconstruction victim, but he has a similar luckless tale. The 24-year old midfielder with the Matthew Scarlett-esque mop of hair played his first AFL game in 1,384 days on Friday night, after persistent soft tissue and Achilles injuries had hampered him since 2011. Cowan collected four possessions before being subbed out with a hamstring injury in the first quarter, and sat despondently in the red vest for the rest of the night, facing yet another period out of the game.
The following afternoon, the Western Bulldogs’ loss to St Kilda was further soured by a suspected third ACL injury to ball winner Clay Smith after his knee collapsed beneath him. It was tragic, said coach Luke Beveridge after the game, and no football fan would disagree. The former first round draft pick was playing his third game of the year and just his fourth since his debut 2012 season. Sadly, it looks like an early 2016 return is his best-case scenario.
Tigers fly the flag but lose the match
“You sense two and three is an ugly result,” said Seven commentator Hamish McLachlan in one of the weekend’s understatements. North Melbourne and Richmond started the season with finals aspirations, premiership hopes in the Kangaroos’ case, and the loser of Saturday’s off-Broadway clash in Hobart was set to slump to that record. Blame the blustery conditions, but games in Tasmania are rarely good spectacles. Saturday’s was as scrappy as they come, marred by skill errors and one of the season’s worst displays of set shot kicking. The Tigers outplayed their opponent for most of the first hour but wasted their chances, and a Brent Harvey goal after the half-time siren was all that separated them at the main break. Thirty minutes later, the Kangaroos had opened an unassailable 41-point lead as Damien Hardwick sat stony-faced in the box.
For Tigers fans, it was a horror story. As if their lack of composure or inadequate support for Jack Riewoldt wasn’t frustrating enough, the Tigers contributed to their downfall through poor discipline. Shaun Higgins and Sam Wright goaled from 50m penalties and Lindsay Thomas was the recipient of numerous high free kicks. Brad Scott might have allowed himself a chuckle, after his comments following the Kangaroos’ heavy loss to Hawthorn last week that flying the flag is “crap.”
Two of Richmond’s next four games are against Port Adelaide and Fremantle, both away from home. If there was ever a time to pull a rabbit out of the hat, this is it. The Kangaroos rollercoaster – down one week, up the next – continues. They’ll start as favourites in three of their next four games, but if credibility is what they’re after, keep an eye on their round eight date with the Dockers.
Jack earns top Billings
Make no bones about it, St Kilda should have beaten Essendon last week. Adam Schneider fumbled the ball and the game late, and fittingly the Bombers’ response was one of relief rather than jubilation. But still, few gave the Saints any hope of beating the season’s surprise packet Western Bulldogs. And at half-time, with St Kilda down by 49, things were going to script for the league’s new glamour side. What happened next almost belied belief. St Kilda kicked seven goals to one in the third quarter to narrow the margin to 12 points at the last change. The Saints were bolstered by the return of Nick Riewoldt and Leigh Montagna, but this was a comeback triggered by the next breed. David Armitage played probably the best game of his career, and by three-quarter-time had an astonishing 37 possessions at 76% efficiency. He finished with 45. Crafty first-year forward Jack Lonie turned Bulldog defenders inside out and while Josh Bruce’s goal kicking radar was off, he continues to be a revelation up forward.
In the balance at three-quarter-time, the game needed a hero to stand up in the last. Marcus Bontempelli? Jake Stringer? Nope. Enter Jack Billings. The former number three draft pick, in his 20th game, declared that he is just as worthy of hype as the young Dogs. Billings kicked three of his four goals in the last, and while he modestly did the team-first thing in his post-match interview, he was undoubtedly the match winner. He combines attributes of Jamie Elliott and Steve Johnson – strong overhead marking and the ability to sniff a goal from anywhere – and will provide Saints fans with a lot of joy over coming years.
A loss is not the end of the world for the Bulldogs, and their victory over Sydney in the wet last week certainly contributed to their tired legs after half-time. But Saturday was about St Kilda, the fifth greatest comeback in VFL/AFL history, and clearly the best win under Alan Richardson. These Saints are playing with spirit and maybe, just maybe, the weekend’s win will be remembered in time as a watershed moment.
No Hodge, no Lewis, no Hawks?
Sure, Hawthorn had Luke Hodge and Jordan Lewis sitting in the grandstand after errant fists cost them a collective five weeks on the sidelines. And yes, Greater Western Sydney had played solid football all season save for a mishap against the Eagles last week. But surely the young upstarts from the west weren’t a realistic chance to beat the back-to-back reigning premiers, right? Wrong.
Saturday evening’s 10-point win was the fledgling Giants’ most significant step to date. It was an evening when everything came together. Jeremy Cameron equaled his career high of seven goals, Adam Treloar and Dylan Shiel continued their march towards A-grade status and former Lion Joel Patfull added toughness and poise to the backline. It was fitting that on the eve of Mother’s Day, a bloke nicknamed Mummy was so influential. Shane Mumford, who throws his 105kg frame around with reckless abandon, is a great footballer to watch. He had 37 hitouts, but more importantly eight bone-crunching tackles – and you sensed each one would have been felt by his opponent long after the game ended.
The Giants’ mature recruits all fit into Leon Cameron’s system and their midfield is packed with grunt and class. Even the loss of Tom Boyd has had a silver lining, with Cameron McCarthy contributing 15 goals in six games. It’s still early enough in the season for problems to be rectified, but the Hawks have a few. They were smashed by Essendon for a half and unraveled by Port Adelaide in a quarter. Against the Giants, they gave up a 27-point lead and afforded their opposition far too much time and space when the game was on the line in the last 15 minutes. As some of the great teams of the modern era will tell you, it’s not easy being the hunted.
