Thumping, ump-bumping victory
Cats smash Giants but Hawkins under microscope for touching an official in a ...
I FELT like I had a point to prove last night.
The loss to Sydney last week stung and I felt that I didn’t perform really well and it didn’t sit well with me.
We use a lot of cliches in footy. We move on, we review the game and all that is true, but there was still that burning desire inside me to make sure what happened last week didn’t happen again.
Footballers are naturally competitive people and you don’t make it very far in this game if you don’t have a hunger to win.
While I can only speak for myself, I would have thought some of our leaders would have also wanted to send a bit of a message.
The 61-point win was a just reward for what were four really good quarters. It was a really good way to answer.
We didn’t really do a whole lot wrong against the Giants.
I was really proud of our young, developing defensive group.
Jack Henry took so many intercept marks. I couldn’t tell you how many he finished with, but he is looking really comfortable out there.
And I think our midfield deserves a lot of credit, too. A good midfield can make a defence look amazing and the amount of pressure they put on around the ball forced the Giants into a number of errors.
They also did their job superbly.
We don’t expect them to win every stoppage, even though they are more than capable of doing that.
But they are ferocious and we know when they play like that they can beat most teams.
This season is going to be so even and I’ve got no doubt whoever wins the premiership this year could be on the end of a 10-goal belting at some stage this season.
So when it comes to early wins, it’s always good to bank them.
Is this week’s four points more important than next week’s? Probably not. All wins are valuable.
But certainly being 4-3 looks a lot better than 3-4.
We know the challenges are going to keep on coming, starting with Collingwood next week. To use a cliche I hate — we will enjoy last night’s win but move on quickly. That’s just the way it goes.
‘There was still that burning desire inside me to make sure what happened last week didn’t happen again.’