Cats licking wounds after Lions attack

VETERAN Geelong forward Tom Hawkins believes Brisbane’s willingness to take the game on late in their top-of-the-table clash was ultimately the difference between the two sides at the Gabba.

The Lions were three goals down with eight minutes to play on Saturday but found their run at the most crucial stage of the match to produce a special comeback.

Hawkins, who went goalless for just the second time in 2019, said Brisbane’s ability to change the way they were playing hurt the Cats.

“It was really disappointing because it felt like we had reasonable control in the last quarter but Brisbane to their credit took the game on, took the ball through the middle, moved it off the line and just played quick footy,” Hawkins said.

“They had a couple of anchor forwards that looked really dangerous and were able to score. So they put us under a lot of pressure late in the game and Linc (Lincoln McCarthy) bobbed up and kicked the winner.

“They attacked the game and kicked to contests and surged it forward, and often early in the game we had them go down the line to the contest where we could compete and take the ball out if not win it, but late in the game they took the game on and went through the middle and changed the angles, which makes it hard to defend.

“It was a bit more attacking footy, it was quite risky but also quite high reward if you want to win those games and I thought they did that really well.”

While the ladder-leading Lions are hosted by a red-hot Richmond, Geelong face Carlton at GMHBA Stadium this Saturday, a match Hawkins knows his side will not be taking lightly.

The 31-year-old said the Cats would not spend too much time lamenting the loss to Brisbane but admitted they had areas of their game that needed fixing.

“We played some patches of really good footy in the second term,” he said.

“I thought we played forward attacking footy but as we know you have got to play longer than just patches of good footy well when you are away, so credit to them (the Lions), they played really well.

“But we have got to move on, there is no point dwelling on it. We will review the tape, it won’t be confronting but there will be some things that we need to improve on.

“At this stage of the season there is no point running away from what you are not doing so well … Carlton has been playing some pretty good footy and we get them on our home deck, which will be the last game of the season for them, so they will provide another challenge for us and hopefully we can take a bit of momentum into the finals.”