Cats dig deep to sink Crows
LAST night, not for the first time in recent weeks, Geelong found itself in a scrap.
As Chris Scott had forecast, Adelaide, fresh from a bye, came to GMHBA Stadium with a plan not dissimilar to its South Australian rivals a week earlier.
Don Pyke and the Crows were all too aware of how crucial getting their hands on the footy first was going to be to their hopes of winning and set about achieving that aim the minute the game started.
But while many teams have tried to do that against the Cats, not all have succeeded.
The Power did it, and did it well, and for the better part of a quarter-and-a-half Adelaide did it, too.
At quarter-time, the Crows led the clearance count 14-5 and 10 minutes into the second term — when their lead had blown out to 20 points — it was out to 19-8.
Significantly, the scores from clearances at that point had the visitors 25 points in front, so it was evident something had to change if Geelong was to avoid caving in to the early onslaught.
The success of that change, which came via several positional moves, including swinging Mark Blicavs into the ruck, is perhaps the biggest reflection of how different this Cats outfit is to previous incarnations.
Suddenly, there was a noticeable shift at stoppages, as Tim Kelly and Joel Selwood started getting their hands on the ball first and giving Geelong cleaner looks inside-50.
It resulted in Scott’s men squaring the ledger for clearances for the second term, dominating the inside-50 count and regaining the lead with a Tom Hawkins behind after the halftime siren.
But if Selwood and Kelly, who finished with 33 disposals apiece, were the catalyst for the regeneration of Geelong’s hopes before halftime, young gun Jordan Clark (23 possessions, four inside-50s and a goal) and Gryan Miers (20 possessions, eight inside-50s and two goals) proved the sparks the home team needed as Adelaide came hard in the third term.
They scored three goals between them to give Geelong a 14-point lead going into the last quarter and from there the Cats mostly had the game in their keeping.
Patrick Dangerfield, who had copped a heavy knock in a marking contest with Adelaide defender Daniel Talia in the second term, went forward and provided aerial support to Hawkins, and while neither player had any great scoreboard impact it was not through lack of opportunity.
But eventually Geelong’s dominance of the territory battle prevailed, with the 63-40 inside-50 count proving too difficult an obstacle for Adelaide to overcome.
In an old-fashioned sense it was a character-building win, albeit one that was not aesthetically pleasing for large parts.
There were many examples of skill errors and some poor decision making but the night was almost summed up perfectly at the 20-minute mark of the final term when Miers sent a low-flying ball into attack where it went through several teammates only to land in the hands of Kelly, who converted from the goalsquare.
But while it was a scrap to start with, wins against teams of Adelaide’s calibre should never be expected to come easily, and to withstand the initial ferocity and find a way out is testament to a side that has shown more than once in 2019 that it is no one-trick pony.