They were better than us where it counted, says Scott

GEELONG coach Chris Scott kept his summation of Saturday’s four-point loss to GWS Giants on Saturday pretty simple.

“A group of really good players beat our guys where it counted,” Scott said. So where did it count? The scoreboard, obviously. But also through the middle of the ground.

The Giants assumed control of the midfield after halftime, getting their lethal running game going with lots of spread and uncontested possessions.

They also won the battle of the forward lines. They made the most of their opportunities in front of goal, while the Cats failed to turn their first quarter dominance into scoreboard pressure.

They also used the ball better. While the stats will say Geelong had a disposal efficiency of 74 per cent, the Cats lacked composure with the ball when trying to go forward.

That was especially evident late with Geelong finding it impossible to get through the wall the Giants had set up to retain the ball inside their forward half in the dying moments of the game.

While the scoreboard would show the Cats led by 21 points and were run down in the second half, the tide had turned after quarter time. It just wasn’t fully reflected on the scoreboard.

But when everything clicked for the Giants they rocketed into contention with a 6.4 to 3.2 third term helping them get within striking distance.

The game could have been totally different had the Cats shown more of a ruthless edge in the first quarter.

Scott’s men had dominated the game for the majority of the opening term, but Patrick Dangerfield’s out-on-the-full and misses to Gary Ablett, Tom Hawkins and Mitch Duncan meant the Cats only lead by 20 points.

“It could, probably should have, been closer to 40.

“We just completely dominated the game early on. It makes a big difference if you are five goals to zip as opposed to 2.3 or whatever it was. That’s a really disappointing part of the game,” Scott said.

“We didn’t take our chances, especially early in the first quarter, we could have probably changed the complexion of the game but I think the bottom line is we were outplayed for three quarters.

“We uncharacteristically, I think this year, gave them some really easy goals in that third quarter and they got a bit of momentum.

“We still had our chances, but sometimes you get beaten by the better team on the day. They are a team full of very, very good players.”

Geelong’s midfield well and truly had its colours lowered to the Giants.

Mitch Duncan and Brandan Parfitt were the only two Cats in the middle of the ground to rack up more than 20 touches.

Joel Selwood could only muster 18, while Dangerfield had 17. Tim Kelly, who was tagged for periods by Matt de Boer, finished with nine.

But even Geelong’s second tier midfielders including Sam Menegola (14 possessions) and youngster Charlie Constable (16 touches) couldn’t have an impact,

Giants Stephen Coniglio, Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield and Jacob Hopper all had more than 30 possessions, while Tim Taranto wasn’t far away with 28.

And when those Giants are allowed to get the game on their terms they are almost impossible to stop.

“Some of our best players weren’t as effective as they have been in the past and the opposition have some really, really good players there,” Scott said.

“Even without (Callan) Ward … to a man their guys around the ball after quartertime were fantastic and put our defence under pressure.

Gary Rohan kicked a goal five minutes into the final term to give Geelong a seven-point lead, but the Giants would storm home with Jeremy Cameron and Jeremy Finlayson (both three goals) kicking majors to get their side in front.

The Cats would make a late charge, but the kicked they needed to make to launch an attack struggled to find its way to a player in blue and white hoops.