Dockers keep Geelong to season low total but Cats reign supreme to tune of 41 points

GEELONG regains its defensive edge to roar back to form as it squeezes the life out of top-four rival Fremantle at Simonds Stadium.

George Salpigtidis

IT was the showdown where one side possessed all the ammunition, and the other's greatest weapons were a supposedly an impenetrable bullet-proof vest and unwavering faith in their battle plan.

Last night's match-up between Geelong and Fremantle at Simonds Stadium promised a fascinating clash of styles as Geelong's free-wheeling method and scoring potency was put to the test against the competition's stingiest defence.

The Dockers managed to restrict the Cats to their lowest total for the season.

Yet it wasn't near enough for Fremantle, which was beaten at its own game and would have gone down by much more than the 41-point margin if not for Geelong's inaccuracy.

It's a defeat that cost the Dockers the chance to jump into the top two.

But the club's top-four and even top-two chances are still very much alive.

In many ways it was the loss Fremantle had to have.

Riding high after an unbeaten streak that had stretched to eight matches, the loss of key midfielders Michael Barlow and David Mundy compounded the team's big man woes and was ultimately the straw that broke the camel's back.

Ross Lyon might rely on system over personnel, however that can only be true to a point and that juncture was well and truly reached in the third quarter last night.

The Dockers might have been hanging in the game at halftime, but the Cats assumed total control in the third when only their wastefulness in front of goal prevented them from blowing the match apart.

It was death by a thousand cuts as Geelong sprayed 2.9 in the third term with its foot on Fremantle's throat, playing 80 per cent of the quarter in its forward half to rack up 17 inside 50s to one.

For a team that has battled so admirably this season without some key players, the loss of leading clearance winners Barlow and Mundy severely depleted the Dockers' ability to hurt the Cats.

Geelong is remarkably the worst clearance team in the competition this season, and was missing leading clearance winner Steve Johnson through suspension, but assumed control around stoppages.

The enormity of Fremantle's task was made clear at the opening bounce when focal point Matt Taberner, off the rookie list and playing just his second match, was manned up by All-Australian defender Harry Taylor.

George Salpigtidis

It was a contest Taylor relished as he repelled everything that came his way.

There's usually no shortage of feeling between these two - there's been a total of 18 weeks' suspension dished out in games between them over the past five years - and the spite was evident from the outset.

The fighting that mattered was for the ball and the Dockers always looked outgunned in the clinches without their best midfielders.

The first quarter contested possession count of 48-27 to the Cats told a sorry tale as the home side built an early lead.

Luke McPharlin was switched from Tom Hawkins to James Podsiadly after a threatening Hawkins kicked two of the Cats' three first quarter goals.

Second-gamer Tom Sheridan finally got Freo on the board with a running goal eight minutes into the second stanza and it was quickly followed by a mark and goal to Tendai Mzungu as the visitors hauled themselves back into the match.

Two more from Michael Walters made it four goals to two for the term for Fremantle and it closed the gap to 11 points at half-time after the sides had 25 forward entries apiece.

Substitute Viv Michie earned a debut after two years ruined by foot problems when Lee Spurr was a late withdrawal, and he was into the action in the second term when Paul Duffield had to be subbed out with a calf injury.

Ryan Crowley

Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley was one of few Dockers to emerge a winner, getting under the skin of his second opponent in a week as he held a frustrated Geelong skipper Joel Selwood to just seven touches in the first half and a total of 13.

Geelong led by 32 points at three-quarter time, a lead which should have been far greater considering the volume of shots at goal.
　
BEST
Cats: Taylor, Christensen, Duncan, Kelly, Corey, Mackie, T Hunt.
Dockers: Crowley, Dawson, D Pearce, Walters, Fyfe.

INJURIES
Cats: J Hunt (ill)
Dockers: P Duffield (calf) L Spurr (ill) replaced in side by V Michie

Reports: Nil
Umpires: S Stewart, M Nicholls, S Meredith
Crowd: 26,743 at Simonds Stadium.