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Geelong continued their imperious form, brushing aside Richmond to celebrate fullback Matthew Scarlett’s 200th AFL match with a 20.14 (134) to 10.11 (71) AFL victory at Telstra Dome tonight.
The Tigers, who had come into the game with five wins from their previous six matches, started brightly with two goals in the first eight minutes.
But from then on, the game was dominated by the Cats, who strangled the life out of the Tigers, hitting the front by quarter time then outscoring Richmond 13 goals to four during the middle two quarters.
While the Cats put on 18 goals after quarter time, it was their defensive intensity over the length of the field that was most impressive and made life simple for their attack.
Richmond struggled to move the ball with fluency at any stage of the game, with many of the Cats’ goals easy finishes as a result of turnovers further up the field.
Geelong’s inaccuracy at stages of the match proved almost a curse for the Tigers, given the difficulty they had moving the ball out of defence.
Several times, the ball was stuck in Richmond’s defensive half for long periods as the Cats kicked successive behinds, with the pressure only relieved when Geelong scored a goal.
Geelong defensive stalwarts Tom Harley, Darren Milburn and Scarlett were all superb, with Harley and Milburn in particular giving their side a huge amount of rebound and dominating the Richmond attack.
The Cats were also tenacious in the centre of the ground, led by gun midfielders Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey and youngster Joel Selwood, with their attack on the ball and their opponents superb.
Bartel also kicked two crucial goals to end the first half and send Geelong to the long break with a 26-point buffer.
Tagger Cameron Ling, returning after missing two games with a cheekbone fracture, was straight back to his restrictive best.
He kept Richmond ball-winner Nathan Foley from having any great effect, while winning a decent amount of the ball himself.
In attack, the Cats did not have a forward who dominated, but it did not matter, with the spoils shared between 12 goal-kickers, with three-goal hauls to Tom Lonergan and Ryan Gamble the biggest.
For Richmond, defender Chris Newman was probably his side’s best player, keeping star forward Steve Johnson goal-less until late in the final term, while providing some rebound.
Brett Deledio showed his class through the midfield, while youngster Shane Edwards showed some dash in the centre, before leaving the ground dazed after his head crashed to the ground in a Milburn tackle midway through the third quarter.
Tigers star forward Matthew Richardson gave his side a scare when he limped to the bench after hurting his right knee while attempting to mark early in the second quarter.
But he returned late in the half and fought hard to score three goals in the second half, two of them from impressive marks.
Geelong coach Mark Thompson said he made special mention of Scarlett’s milestone before the game and was pleased that his side never let up their intensity.
“I told the team that they should put every effort into winning this game for this man because he’s been such an important person for the club,” Thompson said.
“As an on-field role model he has been amazing, a little bit of who we are is because of people like him.”
Thompson also said Ling’s performance was courageous and validated the club’s decision to select him to return from injury this week.
Richmond coach Terry Wallace said he could not fault his side’s effort, but clearly the Cats were currently a class above them.
“We’ve still got a way to go, we know that and we understand that,” Wallace said.
“But also you have a look at other sides, good sides in the competition, (Geelong) beat Adelaide in Adelaide by 68 points, they beat the Bulldogs two weeks ago down at Geelong by 60 points.
“They’re a very good side … that’s where we’re at in our progression, not to where they are, I think we’re around the same mark that they’ve beaten other sides by.”
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