Geelong’s VFL side have suffered a definitive defeat at the hands of the Footscray Bulldogs, going down 7.11 (53) to 15.15 (105).

The Cats were without a major score as Footscray piled ten goals on the scoreboard, until a free kick to Jordan Schroder in the dying minutes of the second quarter saved Geelong the humiliation of a goalless first half.

Geelong were often well short of the calibre of Footscray’s contested work as they clearly excelled against the lacklustre play of the kittens, lagging behind the play and failing to contest in one on one situations.

Academy coach Paul Hood lamented the loss against the top of the table Dogs and emphasised the need for consistency after the match.
‘It was an opportunity for us to test ourselves against a VFL side full of AFL listed players and the results show that we’ve still got a bit of work to do.’

‘Footscray really played with great passion and great pressure on us throughout the game and at times we matched it, but for long periods we didn’t. So it’s back to the drawing board for our young guys and we’ll just keep working on the consistency of our effort.’

Hood was similarly disappointed with the effort of the playing group at large, particularly in light of last week’s domination of the Northern Blues in abysmal conditions.

‘We were just a little bit too passive. We waited for the game to open up, we waited for game to come to us. If it’s a good team you’ve got to take the game on so that was the biggest disappointment.

‘Our inability to win the ball at the contest was the most disappointing thing about the match, whereas Footscray won it for themselves.

‘We know we have the ability to play good football and to see it in patches becomes frustrating. We can be a capable team. We’ve had good days previously and good quarters, we just need to see it more often.’ Hood said.

Defender Joel Hamling provided some welcome relief in the relentless tide of Footscray goals, keeping forward Ayce Cordy goalless while racking up 13 disposals and 5 marks of his own.

Jesse Stringer also kept his foot in the door of senior selection with another electric performance, providing some much needed pressure in the midfield contest.

‘Jesse gave us a bit around the ball in what was a tough day for our mids, but Jess cracked in really hard and helped us out a little bit.’

Young gun Billie Smedts was also keen to showcase his versatility in the midfield, amassing 13 disposals and 8 tackles in his changing roles throughout the match.

‘Billie Smedts had a pretty good day wherever he was. We moved Billie onto the ball in the third quarter after he helped us behind the ball too, but it was just difficult when the ball was going the wrong way for a large part of it.’

‘Ultimately the biggest frustration is the lack of consistency from week to week. It’s part of development, but it should really burn inside the players to not accept playing like we did today.’

The young Cats will return to Simonds Stadium next week to take on the Richmond Tigers in their first Saturday match under lights for the season. Geelong will be looking to claim victory after falling spectacularly to the Tigers at Punt Road in Round 5.

‘Don’t write us off for next week just yet. We’ll be really hungry for the win to be sure that we square the ledger with them.’ Hood stated.

Be sure to make your way to Simonds Stadium at 7:30pm to support our up and coming stars of the Cattery, or follow @GeelongVFL for updates throughout the week and match day tweets.

VFL - Footscray Bulldogs 15-15-(105) def. Bendigo Bank Cats 7-11-(53).
Goals: Gibbs 2, McCarthy, Schroder, Walker, Maas, Banjanin.
Best: Hamling, Stringer, Smedts, Maas, Paliouras, Luxford.
Injuries: Nil Reports: Nil @ Simonds Stadium.