This was published 8 years ago
Geelong v West Coast: Cats live up to the pre-season hype
By Peter Hanlon
A win of grit over grand finalist West Coast has emboldened Geelong coach Chris Scott that his team is meeting the upbeat expectation that swirled around it in the pre-season, with significant improvement still to come.
The Cats tuned up for a meeting with boom recruit Patrick Dangerfield's old team Adelaide next Friday night by shooting to a 51-point lead over the Eagles and rallying to win by 44 after the visitors kicked five in a hurry in the third quarter.
Scott was content that, given the opposition, it was his team's best performance of the season thus far.
"On balance we defended really strongly bar that [third-quarter] patch, and our attacking system looks pretty good as well," Scott said. "If there's one part as a coaching group we'd be critical of it's our conversion – that's a few weeks in a row now that we just haven't nailed a team when we had the chance.
Laughing all the way to the siren: Cameron Guthrie of the Cats is all smiles after scoring.Credit: Getty Images
"We're sure we can improve, but we've built a bit of momentum ourselves. At least we've got a bit of a platform now, where the optimism we had pre-season seems to be reasonably well founded."
He agreed the addition of ruckman Zac Smith and Dangerfield gave the Cats more options when faced with a momentum switch that was inspired by Eagles' big man Nic Naitanui.
"Last year Naitanui would have been rucking against [Mark] Blicavs. It is a shift for us. We think we've got improvement left in us – there's a lot of parts to our game that aren't going perfectly. But what we do have is more options than we did 12 months ago."
Geelong lost Lincoln McCarthy to an ankle injury and watched Nakia Cockatoo limp to the rooms behind him in the first quarter. Cockatoo came back and hobbled around, labouring after a knock below the knee, but McCarthy didn't return and is unlikely to play against the Crows.
"[The medical staff] were absolutely adamant he wasn't going to run the risk of further damage," Scott said of Cockatoo, whose goal at the start of the last quarter kicked his team back into gear. "While it was painful and it limited him a bit, he should recover quickly."
Scott wasn't concerned about a second-quarter report on Rhys Stanley for a bump on Brad Sheppard. "Our view, and I am sure it will be shared by the MRP, is that there was no head contact and he will be fine."
Scott noted there would be "great theatre" in Dangerfield's return to Adelaide, but said the Cats were concerned only with how well the Crows were playing.
He warned Dangerfield's old teammates and fans of the perils of baiting him. "I think Paddy will be up for it, but he will just go about his business I suspect and the Adelaide players obviously know him well, but sometimes you can needle opposition players and it only spurs them on."
West Coast coach Adam Simpson said there was no hiding from the contrast in his team's performances at home and away, after a third heavy defeat on the road this season following a 46-point MCG loss to Hawthorn and a 39-point defeat by Sydney at the SCG.
"We've got to address the fact we haven't really come close in the three games," he said. "I don't think losing is [the issue] – we all want to win, don't get me wrong.
"But the way you want to play – you want to play at your best every week. The disappointing thing for us is we're not playing at our best. Winning and losing happens, but to stay in the moment and in the contest for four quarters is our challenge every week."