Duncan puts up excellent numbers

MITCH Duncan is probably used to being overshadowed by Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood, but when you have the sort of game Duncan had last night, people cannot help but take notice.

At 25, it is sometimes easy to forget his best football is most likely in front of him, which is a dangerous proposition given the numbers he produced against the Power.

Duncan gathered 31 disposals, took six marks, laid four tackles, had three clearances and three inside-50s, but it was the way he used the ball that stood out again.

He moves so elegantly at times he makes the game look easy, and his 16 handball receives show he runs to the right spots consistently, which helps enormously.

His delivery to Tom Hawkins in the third quarter was pure class, and after a tough win where Geelong came from behind for the second straight week, Duncan said it was pleasing to be rewarded for the work that had been put in on the training track.

“We fought very hard and I’m very proud of the group with the last two performances off the back of three pretty hard weeks for the footy club,” he said.

“We’ve obviously had two sixday breaks but I wouldn’t put it (the slow start) down to that.

“We’ve had good preparation and I thought if we kicked straight early we could have been three or four goals up and a bit of scoreboard pressure would have helped but hey, we got the win.”

Duncan said the Geelong players discussed the poor conversion rate — the Cats kicked 1.5 (11) in the first quarter — at quarter-time, but given their 18-8 inside-50 count were confident they would turn things around.

“We felt like we were on top and playing the game the way we wanted, we just weren’t capitalising on our entries and our possessions,” he said.

“It was definitely mentioned and we stayed calm and thought our conversion would come back, which it probably didn’t, but we grinded it out and they’re the wins you cherish the most when you work extremely hard for four quarters and get over the line.

“I was just thinking about the emotion and the difference of that if we lost compared to the feeling now, it’s the harsh reality sometimes.”