AFL Round 1 Geelong v St Kilda: All the news, analysis and fallout as the Cats win a thriller

Geelong coach Chris Scott has set a warning to the rest of the AFL: Patrick Dangerfield is back after the Geelong skipper sunk a set shot from 50 to ice the game on Saturday night.

Scott Gullan and Mark Hayes

6 min read

March 17, 2024 - 7:35AM

News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

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On a night in which many young Cats were influential in a gutsy win, coach Chris Scott saved special praise for arguably his most prized veteran.

Patrick Dangerfield, soon to turn 34, sealed a tense victory with a 55m bomb in the final minute with St Kilda having charged back within a kick after two goals of their own in time-on.

The skipper, whose 25 possessions were a team high, could easily have been excused for looking around and passing the ball to a teammate in order to run some crucial seconds off the clock.

But the 2016 Brownlow medallist went a long way to proving he’s in the best early-season fitness he’s had in years by putting the game to bed from beyond the 50m arc.

“We were confident with Patty’s pre-season that he was at least going to give himself a chance to play as well as he ever has,” Scott said of his champion midfielder who’s been plagued with leg injuries in recent seasons.

Patrick Dangerfield was outstanding for Geelong on Saturday night. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

“It was a really good sign for us, even though it was just a shot for goal, but there have been versions of Patty in the past when he’s been limited that he would have been too fatigued to make the distance with that shot.

“I might be clutching at straws a little bit, but I think it’s a good sign he’s in good shape.

“There wouldn’t be many players in the comp that would back themselves to even make the distance in that situation.

“It was an interesting decision. It’s one where if you take the long shot and it gets rushed through and the opposition gets the ball back, it can be hard to defend.”

Scott said the theory of what Dangerfield should do in such a situation “is easy”.

“If you kick the ball short and turn it over, you’d be flat. It wasn’t straightforward, but for him to have the confidence in himself is a great sign,” Scott said.

“He backed himself to kick it and that’s why the great players are the great players.”

Scott admitted frustration that his team had dominated territory for much of the match, but had been hit hard by the fast rebounding Saints.

“If you told us we were going to have +20 inside 50s, then you’d have been pretty confident, but that doesn’t account for the difference in (quality of) looks,” he said.

“It’s difficult given the way they play to get many really good looks in your half. One way to do it is to give up field position and stack your back half and try to get them on the rebound, but that’s dangerous against them.

“And generally it is with us, as well, (but) they’ve got line-breakers who can be dangerous.”

Scott was delighted with some of his emerging talent, saying Tanner Bruhn and Jhye Clark had excelled.

He also praised three-goal hero Ollie Dempsey, saying he didn’t want to heap pressure on the converted basketballer by singling him out, but that he was showing amazing poise “early in his football journey”.

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon was proud that his team never gave up the fight, despite playing from behind for all bar the opening 15 minutes.

Max King was inaccurate for the Saints on Saturday night. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

But he said he was frustrated that his charges had gotten away from their assigned method against the Cats.

“We were lucky to be close, but they left the gate open (late),” Lyon said.

“When we got it from the inside to the outside quicker, we looked dangerous.

“But we were very disappointed with our method around the ball. We were a bit cute with the ball.

“The phone in the coaches’ box is very sturdy because it got a workout. I haven’t banged a phone like that in years – it was very therapeutic,” he joked.

“But I was frustrated because this group has been very predictable delivering what we want to, but for whatever reason, we were quite inconsistent with our method.”

Lyon said his first-gamers, including Port Adelaide recruit Riley Bonner, had shown encouraging signs.

JEZZA SETS SELWOOD STAND ALIGHT

Geelong’s new stand was crying out for a moment and it should come as no surprise who took it upon themselves to deliver it.

Jeremy Cameron made sure his image will be the one plastered all over for the opening of the Joel Selwood Stand thanks to an extraordinary piece of individual brilliance.

Cats fans are used to seeing freakish behaviour on their hallowed turf given they’ve had the pleasure of watching Gary Ablett do it on a weekly basis, then his son do the same 20 years later.

Cameron has Ablett-ish tendencies which he showed at the 28-minute mark of the first quarter.

By that stage it had been a fairly ho-hum opening with just a goal each but that all changed when Cameron ran onto a loose ball on the wing.

Jeremy Cameron celebrates his goal on Saturday night. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

He likes to roam far and wide when he’s not seeing enough of the ball so it was on one of his regular jaunts up the ground when he decided to liven up proceedings.

With ball in hand he sidestepped one Saint and then delivered a kick out in front of Brad Close who trapped it near the boundary line at half-forward. He then looked inside and attempted a handball to Zach Tuohy.

But Cameron had kept running and intercepted it, then as he ran towards the boundary he worked a brilliant drop punt through from the goal from a ridiculous angle.

Then came the money shot.

As the fans rose to celebrate Cameron jumped up and stood on the fence momentarily before punching his chest as he bounced back down to the turf.

And that’s when we found out what 40,000 people sounded like at GMHBA Stadium.

Eddie Betts knows a bit about producing miracle goals and he told Fox Footy he wasn’t surprised by anything Cameron does with football in hand.

“He practices these shots every time at training: Left foot, on the boundary. The way that he kicks it, it’s Buddy Franklin-like. He seems to just find a way.”

Jeremy Cameron that is insane ðŸ¤¯#AFLCatsSaints pic.twitter.com/Dl4VtCr9Eg
— AFL (@AFL) March 16, 2024

Sam De Koning takes to the sky in Geelong’s win on Saturday night. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

The next biggest cheer didn’t come until a couple of hours later when Cats skipper Patrick Dangerfield kicked a long goal at the 30-minute mark of the final quarter. That tells the story of the game which was devoid of any real highlights.

Both sides were inaccurate – they hit the post six times between them – with Saints spearhead Max King the main culprit with 2.4 goals.

The third quarter was a snooze fest with Geelong failing to kick a goal and St Kilda just managing one and in the end it was two minutes of magic from the Cats which got the deal done.

After a couple of bad misses early in the last quarter Ollie Henry nailed a set shot from 30m at the 16-minte mark and then 30 seconds later Tom Hawkins marked at the back of the pack and then converted his first goal of the night.

Darcy Wilson kicked a late goal to get the Saints within two points. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Oliver Dempsey booted three for the Cats. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

To the Saints credit they kept coming and made things very interesting after a Rhys Stanley dropped mark allowed King to kick long to first-gamer Darcy Wilson whose second goal for the game brought the margin back to just one-point.

While Cameron owned the Joel Selwood Stand moment it was skipper Patrick Dangerfield who owned the matchwinning moment after he went back and kicked a long bomb from 53m inside the final minute.

That was pure nirvana for the Cats fans but they also would have been happy with some of the lesser lights who made significant statements.

Oliver Dempsey kicked three goals and looked dangerous all night, Jhye Clark is hard and tough in a Joel Selwood sort of way while the improvement of Tanner Bruhn and Max Holmes is exciting.

Although not as exciting as Jeremy and his fence jump, of course.