Giants outplay flat-footed Cats
TIME and space.
Give Giv that to any AFL team — in particular a young, starfilled outfit like GWS Giants with m match-winners on every line — and you will get r ripped to shreds.
Geelong learnt that the hard way w in the second half on Saturday, Saturd with the Giants reeling in a 21-point halftime deficit to win by four points at GMHBA GMH Stadium.
The Th Giants were allowed far too m much uncontested possession sessio in the third term, fuelling th their running game. That momentum mome proved impossible for the Cats to stop.
GWS GW had 77 uncontested possessions posses and 31 uncontested ma marks to Geelong’s 38 and 13 in t the third term, kicking 6.4 to 3.2 on the back of their spread from the contest.
It got them back in the game and allowed them to kick on in t the final quarter, with the winning winni margin having the potential tentia to be slightly bigger had the G Giants taken their chances in fron front of goal.
“They “Th took our legs away and w we allowed them to have theirs. theirs They had speed on the game, that’s the way they want to play. pl We didn’t execute from o our point of view, but obviously viousl they made us do that,” Geelong Geelo star Mitch Duncan said after a picking up 26 touches in t the loss.
“I think t around the contest, that w was one, and then their spread and run from there, getting t the ball on the open side (hurt us).
“Blokes like (Lachie) Whitfield and (Josh) Kelly, their legs and their ball use is superior.
“If you can’t win the ball at the source against them, they’re hard to catch.”
Geelong’s prime movers all had down days in the middle of the ground.
Electric midfielder Tim Kelly was held to just nine touches, copping the attention of tagger Matt de Boer for chunks of the match.
Joel Selwood had just 18 touches, while Patrick Dangerfield had 17. When the game was on the line late, neither was able to have a significant impact on the contest.
Dangerfield won two of his three final quarter touches in defence, while Selwood won three of his four in Geelong’s
back half.
Amazingly, it’s the first time the duo have both had under 20 touches in a match since Dangerfield’s arrival in 2016.
It’s just the second time Dangerfield has had 20 touches or less in blue and white hoops. On the flip side, the Giants’ midfielder dominated with Stephen Coniglio (34 touches,) Kelly (32 touches), Whitfield and Jacob Hopper (both 31 touches) and Tim Taranto (28 possessions) all winning a stack of the footy.
That allowed Jeremy Cameron to get on top of his matchup with a rotating Mark Blicavs and Harry Taylor, while Jeremy Finlayson and Harry Himmelberg all made the most of GWS’ 50 inside-50s.
“They (GWS) were really good around the ball. Coniglio, Taranto, Hopper, they’re young guys coming through and they’re playing some good footy and if you can’t get a hold of them or nullify their influence it makes it hard,” Duncan said. “I think they made us defend more in that second half. They took away our power and our legs. Teams are naturally going to do that to us but we’ve just got to bring it back and make sure we can stay on top for longer periods.”