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The Geelong Cats have come away from the Gabba having done what they needed to do to record a ten-goal win over the Brisbane Lions.
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Geelong took full advantage of Brisbane’s defensive frailties in the first quarter, picking apart the Lions’ backline with ease to rack up a six-goal lead by quarter time, and at that stage it looked like a genuine percentage booster was on the cards.
But the fourth-placed team started the second quarter more slowly, and the Lions took advantage to make up a large chunk of that gap with six goals to two, as the visitors began to look a little rattled with Brisbane gaining in confidence.
After the main break though normal service resumed. Geelong re-established their ascendancy in the midfield, but even more so in the backline, where the Lions simply couldn’t find a target. At the other end, the Cats perhaps weren’t as efficient as they would have liked, but still pushed their lead out with five goals to one to comfortably ice the game.
The final quarter was similar to the third – the Lion cubs tried their best but were clearly outclassed. Geelong pushed the margin out to an even ten goals by the final siren. A very decent win, but not the blowout the Cats needed to improve their chances of a home final.
Still, Geelong would have to be satisfied with the quality of their football, particularly after half time. The Lions were much more determined this afternoon than in most of their games this year, and at times really took it up to their opponents.
There was a lot of genuine quality in the Cats forward movements, particularly from Motlop who kicked five goals, and Menegola who set up a number of scoring opportunities as well as winning a lot of contested ball.
Patrick Dangerfield was, as usual, a big presence in the midfield and forwardline, but was a little wasteful in front of goal, finishing with two goals and four behinds.
This result puts the Cats in third heading into the last round, and assuming results go to form that’s probably where they’ll end up, with a trip to Adelaide the most likely first-week matchup.
Obviously that’s a much taller order than today’s game, but they’d be pretty happy with their form at the moment, and just as importantly they come away from the game with no injuries, and Bartel and Caddy likely to come back into the side ahead of September.
Despite losing by a big margin, Brisbane would probably be fairly content with their performance as well. Typically they’ve been all too easy to beat this season, but at least today their opponents had to play pretty good footy to get the result.
It seems as though time is running out on Justin Leppitsch’s senior coaching career, but this display wouldn’t do his chances too much harm, especially given the way his team responded after a poor first quarter. They’d be pleased with the output of Cutler and Andrews, two of their younger players who were very much among their best today.
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