The Roar
The Roar

AFL
Advertisement

Highlights: Cats too good for spirited, unlucky Bulldogs

Jimmy Bartel has retired. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Expert
29th July, 2016
16

The Geelong Cats celebrated their milestone men with a 25-point win over the Western Bulldogs on Friday night, but the comfortable victory wasn’t the result of any lack of effort by the Bulldogs.

» Re-live all the action with our live blog

Coming into this match having lost five senior players to injury when teams were named, the Bulldogs were hit even harder during the match, as Tom Liberatore (ankle) and Jackson Macrae (hamstring) both saw their nights end early.

Despite those disadvantages, the Bulldogs really took it up to the Cats. They were just a single point behind them at quarter time and a goal behind at the half.

The Dogs even had a short burst during the third quarter where they were dominating the play and could have jumped into a significant lead – unfortunately, they managed just six behinds and no goals from that quarter, allowing Geelong to slip out to an advantage that they wouldn’t be able to run down.

The Cats performed consistently well throughout the night and their accurate kicking on goal, finishing with 16.7, proved to be the difference in a match where both sides had the same number of scoring shots.

Jimmy Bartel in his 300th game and Corey Enright, breaking the games record for the club, were well-honored by their teammates, something the club would’ve been glad to see after coughing up a heartbreaking loss to Melbourne in Enright’s 300th last year.

Bulldogs players and officials including some former Geelong teammates now on the Dogs’ coaching staff and injured Dogs skipper Bob Murphy lined up alongside the Cats players in a guard of honour to see the two legends of the game off after the match ended.

Advertisement

One very positive note from the Bulldogs, Tom Boyd played arguably the best game of his short career to date, hopefully silencing a few criticisms. Three goals and a handy contributor in brief spurts in the ruck, he has a future.

The Cats now sit at second on the ladder but, of course, with eight games still to come this week that could fluctuate a bit. In their four remaining games they have no more top eight opponents and so have a chance to really finish off the year strongly.

The Dogs on the other hand are seventh and may be overtaken by North Melbourne this weekend, if the Roos win tomorrow night by a sizeable margin. Coincidentally, the Roos are their opponents next week. They’ll be sweating on the fitness of Liberatore and Macrae, along with some of their other outs, ahead of that crucial clash.

Final score
Geelong 16.7.103
Western Bulldogs 11.12.78

The Roar’s AFL MVP votes
3: Rhys Stanley – played largely as a forward with Zac Smith taking the lion’s share of the ruckwork and that set-up worked out splendidly with Stanley booting five goals straight. Cats would love to see more of that in September.

2: Patrick Dangerfield – 33 touches, 17 contested possessions, six clearances, ten inside 50s and three goals without a blemish – yeah, this guy is pretty good at footy.

1: Steven Motlop – 21 touches of the footy and three goals is exactly the kind of performance the Cats want to get out of this guy more consistently. A star when at his best. Two goal assists also.

Advertisement
close