AFL Round 22 Geelong v St Kilda: All the news and fallout from Kardinia Park
Geelong superstar Tom Hawkins is breathing a sigh of relief but a Collingwood forward’s season is over after match review officer Michael Christian released his Round 22 review.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Geelong star forward Tom Hawkins is free to play Melbourne in a top-of-the-table clash next weekend after escaping suspension for a dangerous tackle.
Match review panel officer Michael Christian decided Hawkins did not breach his duty of care when he flattened Saint Darragh Joyce in a tackle on Saturday.
The tribunal decision which cleared Suns’ midfielder Nick Holman of the same offence on Cat Mitch Duncan in Round 10 would have been a factor in the Hawkins verdict.
Watch The 2021 Toyota AFL Premiership Season Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
In particular, Christian noted how Hawkins turned Joyce to the side in the crunching tackle even though the Saint’s arms were pinned.
“The momentum of the tackle results in Joyce’s left shoulder and then head making contact with the playing surface,” an AFL statement said on Sunday night
“It was the view of the match review officer that Hawkins’ actions were not unreasonable in the circumstances.”
Is Tom Hawkins in any trouble for this tackle on Darragh Joyce? 🤔
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) August 14, 2021
📠BLOG: https://t.co/7TVvMjRs53
🔢 MATCH CENTRE: https://t.co/q1mUc0tuIU
📺 WATCH #AFLCatsSaints on @kayosports: https://t.co/MraNRVCdegpic.twitter.com/FgwdP8WG0S
It is a huge relief for the Cats as Patrick Dangerfield’s match-day report for his collision with former teammate Brad Crouch was also thrown out after what coach Chris Scott labelled a “comical” charge.
Geelong will be without star defender Tom Stewart and utility Zach Tuohy for the clash against Melbourne, but the club will be thrilled brilliant goalkickers Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron will be available for the last game of the home-and-away season with home first final rights up for grabs.
But Collingwood spearhead Brody Mihocek will miss the last game of the season Essendon after he was banned for one match for his high bump on young Lion Tom Fullerton.
It is a boost for the Bombers as Ben Rutten’s men attempt to lock in a spot in the eight with a win over the Magpies.
And North Melbourne midfielder Jy Simpkin is on notice for a series of gut punches after his latest strike earned a $5000 fine.
Port Adelaide young gun Zak Butters was another who was docked $4000 for dual striking charges on Carlton’s Adam Saad and Nic Newman.
Western Bulldog Zaine Cordy was fined $2000 for a dangerous tackle on Hawk Jacob Koschitzke and Dog Lachie Hunter was fined $2000 for engaging in rough conduct with Hawk Liam Shiels.
Fire up the monster
If Geelong is to win the premiership this year, the three-headed monster needs to breathe fire.
No longer can the Cats rely on holding opposition sides to six or eight goals defensively, as they have done with the help of Tom Stewart for much of this year.
In 10 of its first 20 games this season, Geelong conceded eight goals or less.
Its average score against for those first 20 matches was a paltry 65 points, making it the second-best defence in the competition behind Melbourne.
But Stewart played in every one of those 20 games and the two-time All-Australian defender’s season now looks over courtesy of a dreaded Lisfranc ligament injury.
The No. 3 ranked defender in the competition, Stewart is a player who will be impossible to replace at the defensive end and it showed against St Kilda on Saturday.
Geelong’s backline looked all at sea in the opening quarter as it gave up the first five goals of the game and didn’t have an answer to St Kilda key forward Max King.
Time and time again King led into space that is normally harder to find than a needle in a haystack in what has been a rock-solid Geelong defensive-50 this year.
He took five marks, kicked 2.1 and has logged two score assists in the opening term alone.
Two things changed thereafter which helped turn the game in the Cats’ favour and put them on their way to a 14-point win.
The first was that King again hurt his adductor, spent significant time on the bench and was limited in his movement when he did come back on the field.
The second change was St Kilda’s forward entries dried up — they had 11 inside-50s in the first quarter but just 21 for the rest of the game as they were belted in the middle of the ground.
Geelong’s midfield dominance after quarter-time meant its defence was largely protected.
But the ease at which St Kilda was able to score from its inside-50s across the day — generating 17 shots on goal from just 32 entries — was a warning sign for the Cats that life without Stewart is not going to be easy.
“I don’t often say this but he’s been our best player for the year,” Geelong coach Chris Scott said of Stewart.
“You need a little bit of luck, but you can guarantee at some point you’re going to get some bad luck. So we’ve just got to find a way to respond.”
Stewart’s injury hurts, but it’s far from a fatal blow to Geelong’s flag chances.
A formidable forward line headed by Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron and Gary Rohan is the reason why the Cats can still win this year’s premiership.
Cameron returned on Saturday from five weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury and did not look like he had missed a beat as he kicked a game-high four goals against the Saints.
Hawkins booted three majors to take his season tally to 50 goals and Rohan is “probable” to return against Melbourne next week after missing the St Kilda game with a hip complaint.
When all three forwards are fit and firing, the Cats’ attack is a force to be reckoned with.
In the 10 games that Hawkins, Cameron and Rohan have played together this season, Geelong has averaged 91.3 points.
In the 11 games where only one or two of the trio have played, the Cats are averaging only 77.7 points.
Yes, Geelong might give up a few more goals this finals series without Stewart’s intercepting aerial brilliance.
But as long as they can keep the three-headed monster on the park, the Cats are still more than capable of kicking a winning score against anyone.
STANLEY LOCKS IN FINALS SPOT
The argument around what Geelong’s best ruck set-up looks like heading into September is over.
Rhys Stanley is the man after finding form at the right time of year.
Stanley was brilliant against St Kilda on Saturday and was a big part of the reason the Cats dominated the midfield battle after quarter-time.
Head-to-head with St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall for most of the match, Stanley logged a season-high six clearances and an equal season-high 31 hit-outs from 16 disposals.
Importantly, he also impacted the scoreboard with a first-quarter goal and finished with six score involvements to be the third-ranked played on the ground with 143 KFC SuperCoach points.
Geelong won the clearances convincingly on the day, 41-30.
It’s not that long ago that Stanley was out of the side, as has been the case at various stages across his career.
In fact, he was only recalled to the seniors by coach Chris Scott in Round 16 after finding himself on the outer in the middle part of the season and being overlooked for AFL selection on five occasions.
Mark Blicavs and Esava Ratugolea shouldered the ruck duties over that period.
But with Tom Stewart now sidelined with a foot injury, Blicavs is needed in defence and Ratugolea isn’t up to the No. 1 ruck role at this point in his career.
Stanley needed to step up — and he has.
His past month has been a solid block of football heading into finals and if it continues it will go a long way to Geelong tasting some September success.
THE KING IS RISING TO POWER
St Kilda key forward Max King could be anything.
It’s easy to forget he has only just turned 21 and has played only 38 AFL games.
But his past month of football has given a glimpse of the player he looks set to become for the Saints next year and beyond.
King started the clash with the Cats on fire and was an unstoppable force in the first quarter as he had five disposals, took five marks (three contested) and kicked 2.1.
He was again hampered by an adductor injury after that, as he was in Round 21.
However, it was as exciting a 20-minute patch as you will see from a young key forward and will give Saints fans hope heading into 2022, with their finals flame this year now extinguished.
Despite the injury issues the past two weeks, King has kicked 14 goals from his past four games for a total of 38 majors from 20 games for the season.
It’s not hard to see a 50-goal year ahead in 2022 if King can stay fit and continue his development.
Pain now, but pleasure awaits Saints
As St Kilda’s 2021 campaign all but ended at GMHBA Stadium tonight, you could excuse coach Brett Ratten for a sullen outlook on a match – and season – that promised so much.
But while he was at a loss to explain the Saints’ ill discipline and sudden inability to win contested possessions as the Cats pulled off a 45-point turnaround for a 14-point win, he was equally buoyant about their future.
“I’m pretty flat. The thing you take out of it was that our effort and endeavour were pretty good,” Ratten said.
“But you don’t lose contested ball by (36) … you could have moments and lose a contest here and there, but we just lost contest after contest … some of that was being second to the ball and giving away free kicks.
“But the second quarter they just dominated stoppages and field position and made it tough for us to get out and they changed the game.”
Ratten was full of praise for spearhead Max King, who had his finger prints on five of the first scoring plays of the game as the Saints rolled to a 31-point lead.
“It was pretty disappointing. We had a chance and started well, but with Max reinjuring that adductor, we just lost a bit of momentum and a focal point that was on fire,” said Ratten, who said his young full-forward was a beacon for Saints’ fans into the future.
“He was marking the ball at the highest point, converting, playing some fantastic footy.
“It was pretty encouraging, not just from (a) St Kilda (perspective), but any young forward in the competition.
“We have witnessed at the footy club for a while Max going about his craft and some of his training performances are like, `Wow!’.
“So we know he’s got talent, but to see it first hand against teams, he’ll get some real confidence going into next year.
“He’s been against Harris Andrews, (Jeremy) McGovern and he’s played on All-Australian players and done exceptionally well.
“It’s a snapshot for Max (into the future), but the biggest thing is how (we) complement him with players around him.”
Ratten said King’s injury was not worse than he’d done previously in a long campaign, but said he’d probably go into cotton wool with the Saints only a mathematical chance of making the final eight.
“He has tweaked it again (and) it points to him not playing next week.”
Ratten said his squad had recovered well from the low point of its season, a shock loss to cellar dweller Adelaide in Cairns in Round 13.
“We’ve made some inroads. When you think about the Adelaide game and where we were, we were low on confidence and really people were doubting themselves a bit,” he said.
“We weren’t superb, but we played some pretty good footy in the second half of the year.
“The development of our younger players — King, but also (Tom) Highmore, (Ryan) Burns and (Leo) Connolly got exposure as well.
“From an inside 50 point of view, we’ve denied the opposition a bit, which is pleasing, but we’ve got a lot of work to do in the off-season.”
St Kilda’s wasted season effectively over
History will show the hot favourite Geelong a 14-point winner over a St Kilda team effectively eliminated from finals contention by a loss at GMHBA Stadium.
What it won’t show is that the Cats had been 31 points down late in the first term and staring down the barrel of back-to-back home losses for the first time in 15 years.
The Saints had Max King looking like John Coleman up forward, a rampant combination of Jack Steele and Luke Dunstan in the middle and were rebounding as if their half-backline was a tightly sprung trampoline.
The resurrection wasn’t instant, but as soon as the Cats midfielders tightened up and King’s supply was cut off, the tide turn slowly but almost inevitably.
Admittedly the match remained in the balance until deep in the final term, but that seemed more a product of nerves than a reflection of possession as the Cats overcame a couple of key outs to momentarily, at least, return to the top of the table.
St Kilda, looking for their first win in Geelong this century, looked good things to keep their season alive early. The Cats seemingly had no answer for King, who threatened to blow the game apart until he left the ground late in the first term with his team up five goals to nothing.
In that time, he’d outmarked his direct opponent Jack Henry multiple times, Mark O’Connor and Zach Guthrie as the Cats looked rudderless in the back half without injured general Tom Stewart and his trusty lieutenant Zach Tuohy.
King had a direct hand in five of the first six Saints’ scores, including two goals of his own and another off the post.
Enter footy’s ultimate Inspector Gadget.
Mark Blicavs almost immediately crashed into King when he returned to the field and the big Saint was, from that point forward, a shell of the dominant figure he’d been.
A lot of that, naturally, stemmed from the steadily improving Geelong midfield, who’d been burnt early by Steele and Dunstan.
Unsung midfielder Sam Menegola was the key for the Cats, booting one and setting up several other majors as they regained momentum.
But it was Patrick Dangerfield who sealed the deal with his ferocious last quarter, taking four contested marks and finishing with 24 of his 31 possessions in contested fashion.
Bunch of fives
It’s pretty rare that Geelong concedes runs of multiple goals at their hometown fortress.
Yet five-goal opposition salvos have become almost common place in the past two weeks at GMHBA Stadium.
St Kilda slammed on the first five majors against the Cats, becoming the first team since Fremantle in 2015 to achieve that feat at the Cattery.
And that’s hot on the heels of Greater Western Sydney twice enjoying streaks of five goals in their shock Round 21 win against Geelong last week.
Jezza jumping
Rest easy, Cats’ fans … Jeremy Cameron is just fine.
The former Giant caused the pulse of a few hoops lovers to spike a few points when he limped off with another hamstring injury against Essendon in Round 16.
But in his first game back, although it took a while for the ball to reach his territory, Cameron was clearly back to his athletic best against St Kilda.
His pace was up, as was his efficiency, but his ability to kick one of his four goals from the 50m arc was the best test for his recovered hammy.
Say what?
There were many puzzling umpiring decisions – both ways – at the Cattery, but there was one gold medal standout for which the men in yellow will be eternally grateful that the crowd was again absent.
Seb Ross had gathered the ball about 35m from his defensive goal, towards left half-back and took off laterally. By the time he was directly in front of goal, his options dried up and he realised a bounce was in order.
That bounce, however, went awry and by the time he regathered, Shaun Higgins had enveloped him and the look of bewilderment on the Cat veteran’s face when his appeal for holding the ball was denied summed up the thoughts of all who thought they had the “prior opportunity” rule sorted.
GEELONG: 2.0 6.2 10.5 13.7 (85)
ST KILDA: 5.1 7.2 10.3 11.5 (71)
VOTES
3: Menegola (Geel)
2: Dangerfield (Geel)
1: Steele (StK)
Goals:
Geelong: Cameron (4), Hawkins (3), Smith, Dangerfield, Stanley, Menegola, Close, Simpson.
St Kilda: Membrey (3), King (2), Crouch (2), Sharman (2), Jones, Higgins.
BEST:
Geelong: Menegola, Dangerfield, Blicavs, C.Guthrie, Higgins, Selwood.
St Kilda: Steele, Dunstan, Membrey, Crouch, Sinclair.
INJURIES:
Geelong: Ratugolea (thigh).
St Kilda: Joyce (concussion).
REPORTS: Patrick Dangerfield for rough conduct in final quarter.
CROWD: 0 at GMHBA Stadium, Geelong
Race for trade period’s hottest property goes into overdrive
The list of clubs interested in Gold Coast’s sought-after pick 13 is growing, complicating Collingwood’s efforts to wrench Dan Houston out of Port Adelaide in a trade.
Harry who Dees need: Who is the kid central to Lions’ trade plans?
Two fringe Lions loom as the key to Brisbane pulling off a bumper trade and draft combination. CALLUM DICK looks at why Harry Sharp’s request to join Melbourne will benefit the premiers.