It was a disappointing result for the Cats after last week’s heroics against the Zebras. James Podsiadly lead all scorers on the ground with four goals whilst Simon Hogan keeps putting his hand up for senior selection gathering 28 disposals in the 16.15.111 to 11.9.75 defeat.
Geelong again continued its trend of slow starts in first quarters letting Casey take the upper hand early to be leading 3.6.24 to 1.1.7 at quarter time. Coach Amos didn’t blame half his side being late due to a bus problem as a reason for the poor start. Jack Hollmer provided plenty of run from defensive as Casey had 18 inside 50’s to eight, whilst Ben Raidme and Hogan found plenty of the ball.
“We have been a little but slow and for whatever reason I’m not too sure, last week was a bit the same where sandy got out of the blocks. Preparation wise we’ve been pretty good, I think from a coaches point of view it’s been pretty good, we’ve rolled out and everything has been in place and I thought they’ve prepared the way they need to, we’re certainly getting better at it but for some reason we’re not starting great at the moment. It’s something we will have a bit of a chat about soon and maybe change that up a bit.” Coach Dale Amos said about the slow starts.
The second quarter saw Amos move Tom Allwright up forward to help out with Podsiadly and Ben Johnson which had some success with all three kicking goals for the quarter, but it wasn’t enough as the Scorpions outscored the Cats 4.3 to 3.3 to lead by 23 points at the main break. Kane Tenace was the Cats leading possession getter for the quarter with eight.
The third quarter went in the same direction as the second with both sides kicking the same score as they did in the second quarter. Concerns for Geelong with Brodie Moles coming off in the third quarter and not taking any further part in the game with what appeared to look like a groin strain. Kane Smith also came off in the third quarter with a cut above the right eye but had stitches and returned to the field in the fourth quarter. Taylor Hunt had an impressive quarter collecting eight touches across half back and finishing with a goal.
“I think his got a slight groin strain, hopefully not too bad, it’s difficult to tell how bad it is at the moment, but he came off without it hopefully being too bad.” Amos said of Moles’s injury.
Geelong kicked themselves back into the game early to get within 14 points before a few late goals to Casey pushed the final margins out to 36 points. Raidme collected eight possessions for the quarter and had 24 all up for the match whilst Trent West had nine touches for the quarter and kicked a goal. He also had 34 hit outs for the match.
We had a fairly good contribution from him, he was really good in the ruck again and he’s starting to get more confidence in the fact he’s taking more marks and having more impact in the game and around the ground. Amos said of West.
Speaking about few of the better players for the match Amos said “Jeremy Laidler was good, Robbo (Russell Robertson) is a really good player and he did quite a good job on him down there, a couple of one on one contests he won, he was competitive and Taylor Hunt is growing every week. He’s getting more and more confidence, giving dash and he kept us in the game at different stages by breaking the game open.”
