Under the shade of the new Joel Selwood stand and filled with 11,000 fans, Geelong’s young brigade shone bright and showed what they can bring to the team.
Max Holmes was prolific, gathering 19 disposals, 7 inside 50’s, a goal, and utilising his pace and long kicking to advantage, gathering almost 600m to the half. Geelong players looked to feed him the ball as he fully embraced his speed to burn off multiple opponents.
Tom Hawkins was able to start proceedings after converting a tight set shot from the pocket, with the assist coming courtesy of young forward Shannon Neale
Neale, who is looking to cement his spot in a three-pronged attack with Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron, provided a presence early, crashing packs, contesting in the ruck, and marking strongly. He finished off a classy snap goal to the cheers of the crowd in the Joel Selwood Stand.
Ollie Dempsey wowed the crowd with another huge fly, mirroring his efforts from last week, and showed off his strong hands and kicking with a pinpoint pass in the second quarter to Jeremy Cameron.
Tyson Stengle finished off from a set shot in the pocket of the players stand he gathered from an intercepted kickout, and created other opportunities from stalking and pressuring his opponents.
Geelong’s midfield rotation featured a wide array of players, with notable contributions from Jhye Clark (17 disposals, 4 tackles), Mitch Duncan (21 disposals) and Mark Blicavs (20 disposals, 4 clearances).
Clark in particular made the most of the opportunity presented by Cam Guthrie’s absence in the midfield, with a high amount of centre bounce attendances and some confident contributions going forward. His tackle pressure was on show also, with the young Cat at one point dragged down towering Essendon Recruit, Todd Goldstein, for a holding the ball free kick.
Gun VFL recruit Shaun Mannagh came on for the second half and didn’t look out of place, with some neat work inside traffic and a nice snap finish to keep the Cats in touch at the start of the last quarter. A smart handball opened up traffic and set up a Gryan Miers goal for the lead shortly after.
Geelong will look ahead to a Round 1 clash against the Saints, with 40,000 fans ready to go in season 2024.
