AFL Brisbane v Geelong: Lions belt Cats by 44 points to underline their premiership credentials
Geelong coach Chris Scott singled our star Patrick Dangerfield after Thursday night’s loss but it’s a high-profile recruit who is again in the hot seat. Have your say.
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Chris Scott used to enjoy menacingly prowling the Gabba but he couldn’t get out of there quick enough on Thursday night.
The former Brisbane Lions premiership defender had hit the “move on” button very quickly after watching his old team inflict the Cats worst defeat in almost four years.
“Everyone has their off nights, we just seemed to have a whole lot of our important players have off nights together,” Scott said.
A truer sentence has never been spoken.
After failing to kick a goal in the opening quarter, the Cats had a brief patch in the second where they kicked three consecutive goals but that was about it.
While Brisbane were impressive, in particular their back six led by Daniel Rich, the crashing to earth of Geelong who’d won six-in-a-row coming into the game was the story.
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“You never come away thinking, ‘Oh, well, that’s fine’. We can’t completely gloss over it but there’s a big body of evidence that we’ve put together now,’’ Scott said.
“We have a big group of players for one reason or another that just weren’t quite at their best tonight and probably haven’t been for the last week or so but we’ve got to get them back into the team.
“Dangerfield’s an obvious one there. We think we’ve got a big group of players that have missed footy that will get better as the year goes on. We’ve got a lot more optimism in our thoughts than pessimism right at the moment, even though it stings a bit, but you get beaten by a good opposition sometimes.”
Dangerfield is an interesting case study.
He missed eight games with a serious ankle injury and has, understandably, struggled to find his rhythm, particularly with his kicking.
His natural improvement over the second half of the season will be critical for the Cats positioning in the run home given the loss to the Lions saw them drop to fourth and they could even end up fifth at the end of the round should Port Adelaide defeat Sydney.
The Higgins dilemma
The pressure for spots is on at Geelong and prized recruit Shaun Higgins has found himself in the hot seat.
Last week he was “managed” - which meant he was dropped - against his former side the Western Bulldogs before suddenly appearing as the medical sub and then being activated early in the game because of the injury to Mitch Duncan.
He did enough against the Dogs to keep his spot in the side but there were again some uncharacteristic fumbles from the 33-year-old when the heat was applied by the Lions.
While he wasn’t on his lonesome to succumb to Brisbane’s pressure, the silk and class of Higgins was supposed to fill the void left by the retirement of the great Gary Ablett.
That has been missing - to be fair he did suffer thumb and hamstring injuries earlier in the season which saw him miss five games - and it will be interesting to see how the Cats coaching staff view his output.
It was a dirty night for the Cats forward line, which has been lauded all season since the arrival of Jeremy Cameron.
The former Giant failed to kick a goal against the Lions, while Gary Rohan and Tom Hawkins got their goals in junk time of the last quarter.
Hawkins again found himself having trouble with Brisbane’s Marcus Adams, whose ability to match the Cats spearhead in the strength department has seen him put together a handy record against last year’s Coleman Medallist.
The smalls also struggled with Luke Dahlhaus having just seven handballs, and no kicks, while Brad Close had his quietest game for the season with just 10 touches.
Expect livewire Gryan Miers to return from injury and shake things up next week against Essendon.
Ruck deja vu
The Geelong ruck debate continues to be the niggle which just won’t go away.
Brisbane’s Oscar McInerney was the dominant big man on Thursday night with 35 hit-outs, 18 disposals and nine clearances against Geelong pair Esava Ratugolea and Mark Blicavs.
Ratugolea has been preferred ahead of Rhys Stanley because of his ability to play as a key-forward but he didn’t hit the scoreboard, and only had eight touches and eight hit-outs against the Lions.
Maybe it’s time to dust Stanley off again given it wasn’t that long ago that he tore apart Nic Naitanui before, as has been his custom, dramatically falling out of form quickly.
Match report: How Cats’ forward monster turned into ‘three-headed minnow’
Revenge was a dish best served bold as a running and gunning Brisbane blew Geelong off the Gabba and underlined their 2021 premiership credentials with a 44-point thumping of the Cats in the Round 15 Thursday night blockbuster.
After being robbed of victory by an umpiring error in the dying minutes of the one-point loss to the Cats in Round 2, Brisbane left nothing to chance as they emphatically snapped Geelong’s six-game winning streak and cruised to their ninth win in 10 games.
The win could come at a cost for the rampant Lions with reigning Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale suffering a shoulder injury in the first term and bravely soldiering on for the rest of the match under duress.
He fell awkwardly after being tackled by Jeremy Cameron in the first quarter with all his weight going through his extended right arm. He eventually got to his feet but was clutching at his right shoulder.
He was rushed from the field in the hands of Brisbane trainers and surprisingly returned to action just minutes later but continued to favour the shoulder as he got plenty of the ball to help the Lions tear the Cats apart.
Brisbane kicked the first five goals of the match to lead by 30 points at quarter-time, 34 points at halftime and 43 points at the last change. Joe Daniher booted four goals for the home side while Charlie Cameron had three majors from seven shots on goal.
The final margin flattered Geelong.
The Lions backline as a whole was outstanding while the Brisbane midfield was led superbly by Dayne Zorko, Jarryd Lyons and Neale. Daniel Rich’s left-boot started attacking thrust after attacking thrust for Brisbane and was magnificent off halfback with 25 disposals to be best-on-ground.
Geelong were coming off impressive wins over Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs but could not match Brisbane’s intensity around the ground. Their forward line was rendered useless as the likes of Harris Andrews, Marcus Adams and Brandon Starcevich owned the skies and the ground for Brisbane.
After Brisbane opened up a 36-point cushion early in the second term, Geelong’s superiority in contested possessions and clearances started to pay dividends with three quickfire goals to Zach Tuohy, Patrick Dangerfield and Isaac Smith.
However, Brisbane managed to wrestle back the momentum with twin towers Eric Hipwood and Daniher combining for three goals.
Brisbane should have been further in front at quarter-time after some wayward goalkicking gave them a return of 4.7 (31) to Geelong’s solitary point that came from Cameron hitting the post with a set shot.
THREE-HEADED MINNOW
Geelong’s vaunted forward line trio of Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron and Gary Rohan had donuts between them in the first three quarters and just one mark inside 50 before Hawkins broke the drought in the final term. AFL icon Leigh Matthews said in commentary that the “three-head monster” turned into the “three-headed minnow”. After a week of being in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, Joel Selwood was also quiet. He had five touches at halftime and 13 disposals by fulltime after receiving close attention from Deven Robertson.
TEMPERS BOIL OVER
Geelong and Brisbane’s hostile relationship continued with a spiteful opening half
There were spot fires everywhere with Cats All-Australian defender Tom Stewart and Lions star Charlie Cameron in the thick of the action in the second quarter.
Stewart was penalised a 50m penalty for dragging Cameron down after he’d been awarded a free-kick.
The umpires lost control in the second term as tempers boiled over and the contest became increasingly spiteful. Melees, 50 metre penalties, pushing, shoving and a whole lot of whistle dominated the quarter. By halftime, 37 free kicks were paid with the season average for entire games being 38. Twenty-one free kicks alone were paid in the second term as both teams were guilty of poor discipline. Plenty of soft ones were handed out too that only added to the tension.
A STORM IS A BREWIN' 🌩ï¸
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LIONS STOP THE ROT
Geelong had owned Brisbane since the Ash McGrath-inspired “Miracle on Grass” after-the-siren victory in 2013 with 11 wins from the next 12 contests between the clubs. The only Brisbane win came late in 2019 when Linc McCarthy took a spectacular mark and kicked the winning goal in a top-of-the-table clash at a sun-drenched Gabba. The Lions make a real point of toppling teams that have previously dominated them and they came out with all guns blazing against the Cats to stop the rot in fine style.
Just put it up and Charlie will go and get it 😮
— AFL (@AFL) June 24, 2021
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LYONS’ RUN CONTINUES
Lions midfielder Jarryd Lyons is in career-best form so a new two-year deal for the out-of-contract ball magnet should be a slam dunk for all parties involved. The former Sun played another vital role with 24 disposals, 15 contested possessions and five clearances. He is no longer flying under the radar and cannot be considered underrated. He keeps racking up outstanding numbers to underline his importance to the Brisbane midfield.
SCOREBOARD
LIONS: 4.7 8.9 11.13 13.16 (94)
CATS: 0.1 3.5 5.6 7.8 (50)
GOALS
LIONS: Daniher 4, Cameron 3, McCarthy 2, Hipwood 2, Lyons, Coleman
CATS: Smith 2, Tuohy 2, Dangerfield, Hawkins, Rohan
GREG DAVIS’ BEST
LIONS: Rich, Zorko, Adams, Andrews, Cameron, Lyons, Daniher
CATS: Dangerfield, Guthrie, Tuohy, Higgins, Smith, Parfitt
Injuries:
LIONS: Neale (shoulder), McStay (knee)
CATS: Nil
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Greg Davis’ votes:
3: Daniel Rich
2: Dayne Zorko
1: Marcus Adams
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