A mighty display of dominance from the Bendigo Bank Cats over arch rivals Port Melbourne has reinforced the legitimacy of their 2012 VFL premiership victory, smashing the Borough by 85 points in the Grand Final rematch at Simonds Stadium on Saturday.

Expected to be a bruising encounter, the game was hotly contested from the opening bounce with the Cats finding plenty of forward entries but trailing the Borough until halfway through the opening term.

An eight goal to two second quarter set the Cats up with a 52 point lead at halftime, stunning the parochial Port Melbourne following that had made the journey hoping to witness vengeance for their premiership loss.

The run was with the Geelong side however as they piled on twice the amount of goals as Port could manage, with a scoring efficiency of 76% of inside 50’s registering on the scoreboard. Fifteen separate goalscorers proved too hard for the Port defenders to shut down and the Cats romped home 21.17 (143) def Port Melbourne 9.4 (58).

Cats Coach Matthew Knights believed they were in for a tough fight against a benchmark side.

“We knew port were going to be keen on this game after last years Grand Final,” he said.
“They are a really good team when they get the ball in their hands.”

Two dominant displays either side of the bye give Knights lots to be happy about, with plenty of VFL listed players up and about in recent weeks.

“I think our last eight quarters have been very solid football to keep the Northern Blues to under ten goals, and kept Port Melbourne to 58 points today. I think our defensive attitude is sound” said Knights.

“We didn’t come here today thinking we had it over Port.”

“We came here thinking that we are playing the best side in the competition and we have to play at a high level to win.”

The contrast in ability to put goals on the board is stark- the Cats managing an average of more than five per quarter, while the Borough only managed a tick over two.

In a bold move, Cats coach Matthew Knights moved key defender Ryan Bathie into the full forward position from the opening bounce. This gave the Cats an immensely strong body in their attacking 50 and paid off for Geelong with Bathie kicking the opening goal for the Cats. He managed two majors for the day and had plenty of goal assists.

This move was made possible by moving AFL omission Mitch Brown into defence, with Brown given the massive task of minding last year’s ‘Frosty Miller’ medal winner Dean Galea. As last season's league leading goalkicker and Ports most potent forward, Galea represented Port Melbourne's best hopes of putting the goals on the board to beat the Cats.

Brown managed to keep Galea- the most dangerous forward in the league- completely scoreless over four quarters, something which no defender has managed to accomplish in three years of VFL football.
Knights was full of praise for Brown.

“To keep Dean Galea, a top line forward, in check was superb effort and I thought Mitch played an outstanding game,” he said.
“Mitch was going to need support from those around him and he got it from Sully and Capra and Bews.”

“It certainly helped him, but we felt even in one on one situations that Mitch did a great job against Galea.”
The entire Cats backline was nigh on bulletproof all day, with Sully and Capra working in tandem to bring the ball to ground level where Brown and Condy could rebound off halfback, releasing Bews to push up the ground to devastating effect.

In other areas, Caddy looks set to continue his assault on AFL selection with another standout performance in the hoops. 24 possessions, 8 contested, 6 tackles, 4 clearances, 4 inside 50’s and a goal looks good on any players balance sheet.

Knights assessed that Caddy isn’t far off making it through for AFL selection off the back of his recent form.
“I think Josh’s last two games have been AFL elite standards,” he said.

“Josh has played at such a high level that his next AFL opportunity is certainly not too far away.”
“Josh is also in a good place to launch into the second half of the year, I don't plan to be coaching him too much longer.”

Focal Points:
Ruck Depth:
With Simpson getting a well earned call up to duo ruck with West against Brisbane, Vardy out with a strain, MacIntosh struggling to surmount injury and Blicavs given time up forward in the AFL this week; the Cats ruck options in the VFL were tested mightily against former Hawks and Bulldogs ruckman Wayde Skipper and man mountain Adrian Bonaddio. Doing the deed for the Cats was the ever stalwart Andrew Banjanin, collecting 37 hit outs and 14 possessions along with 4 inside 50’s  and 11 clearances. ‘Banjo’s’ work around the ground is formidable and his ability to contest in the play is what puts him above opposition ruckmen at times. Ably backed by the hard charging Josh Walker the Cats more than managed to match the Port big men- they beat them squarely.

Work Ethic:
Stats don’t always tell the entire story. They help, but they don’t show commitment, effort and heart which the Cats had in spades all day. The second quarter was arguably the Cats most dominant quarter- they essentially put the game all but away by halftime. However, stats show they had the equal least amount of possessions that quarter, moved the ball by foot twice as much as by hand, yet took the least amount of marks for any quarter of the game. What happened was the Cats out hunted the Borough in the second term. They statistically had less of it than Port, and when they went forward they were not always hitting a target. It came down to intent and second efforts as they Cats worked as a team and smashed Port for contested possession. The Cats had the ethic and the will to win in far greater quantity than Port Melbourne did.

Pressure, Pressure, Pressure:
Yes, that’s right, Pressure x3. Cubed. In defence, in the middle or in the forward line the Cats were all about delivering unrelenting pressure on Port Melbourne on Saturday. The Cats were mobile and outrunning Port across the ground. When Port found possession they found a side serve of blue and white pressure to go with it. The predominantly VFL listed Cats with only 8 AFL listed players available, outpaced Port and showed how vulnerable the Borough can be to superior leg speed. This speed advantage allowed the likes of Bews and Condy to push up into attack out of defence with relative safety. If Port rebounded, the Cats could outrun them back into Ports attacking half to create a contest or a turnover. The Cats scored 12.9 from turnovers for the day, highlighting the overall pressure they put on Port across the ground. Gleeson (9), Selwood (8) and Caddy (8) were ferocious at the hard ball through the middle while forward contested possessions were the domain of  Hollmer (11) and Corrigan (9), allowing the Cats to keep the ball inside their forward half for more scoring chances.

Bendigo Bank Cats 21-17-(143) def. Port Melbourne Borough 9-4-(58).
Goals: Hollmer, Hartman 3, Smedts, Flanagan 2, Bews, Brown, Bathie, Gleeson, Selwood, Thurlow, Raidme, Banjanin, Caddy, Walker, Gibbs.
Best: Brown, Caddy, Walker, Corrigan, Hartman, Banjanin, Sully, Barham.
Injuries: Smedts (concussion).
Reports: Nil @ Simonds Stadium.