Plenty of positives as Scott heaps praise on dominant Geelong

LIVEWIRE Quinton Narkle grabbed his chance with both hands, Mark Blicavs reprised one of his previous roles as a mobile ruckman to good effect and the defence held North Melbourne to its lowest-ever score.

Ladder-leading Geelong is still a way short of its absolute best just a few weeks out from the finals, but there was a lot for coach Chris Scott to like in Saturday night’s 55-point win.

The statistic that will inevitably stand out the most from the match at GMHBA Stadium is North Melbourne’s miserable tally of 1.8 (14) — the lowest in its 95-year VFL/AFL history.

Scott said much of the credit had to go to the Cats’ midfielders who dominated the contested ball.

“I thought the defenders behind the ball were really strong as well,” he said. “They just made it hard for their opponents and got in the way.”

In a dour contest short on individual highlights, 21-yearold Narkle shone brighter than anyone, kicking two brilliant goals and amassing 21 possessions.

“Narkle coming in at this time of the year is not a reflection on trying to get a bit of youth into the team,” Scott said. “It’s a reflection of what we think our best team is right at the moment.

“He certainly delivered on that.”

Believing the weather would be worse than it turned out to be — with the forecast heavy rain only falling in the last quarter — Scott chose to omit specialist ruckman Zac Smith.

It left the versatile Blicavs — who has mostly been used in a key defensive post this year — to ruck against big Kangaroo Todd Goldstein.

He did the job admirably, even if Goldstein dominated the hit-outs as expected.

“Blicavs played really well — we know that’s an option for us and we’ve known that for a long time,” Scott said.

“But I wouldn’t read into (Saturday) as necessarily being the way forward for us in the ruck. It could be, but we’re very open to the other options we’ve got there.”