Cats rebound at Lions' expense - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Cats rebound at Lions' expense

24/07/2010 07:05:07 PM Comments (0)

Geelong rebounded from a testing month at Brisbane's expense on Saturday, easily dispatching the Lions by 63 points in their AFL match at Skilled Stadium.

Midfielder Joel Selwood was outstanding with 41 disposals and the Cats' smaller forwards also dominated as they took care of the Lions 19.13 (127) to 9.10 (64).

Gary Ablett mainly played in attack and kicked five goals, while Steve Johnson contributed four in his return from suspension and Travis Varcoe continued his improvement with four goals as well.

The Cats had lost two of their four matches, meaning they gave up top spot to Collingwood.

While Brisbane were always at long odds, having now lost 12 of their last 13 games, Geelong coach Mark Thompson was more concerned about how his team played.

It was particularly alarming for Geelong that they had dropped to 10th in the league for contested ball over the last month and their scoring had also dried up.

"We haven't had our best month of footy, so to hit a couple of KPIs (key performance indicators) that we've been really wanting to hit was a pleasing result," Thompson said.

"I know our opposition wasn't the best in the world, but it really shouldn't matter who you play, it's more about us and we played the way we wanted to play.

"It's the first time in nearly a month we've been able to ... give them any reasonable (training) workloads and do any reasonable skill drills that had any contact in (them) and change in direction.

"It was a good week all-round, our boys were over Adelaide (last week's loss) and what happened over there."

Geelong dominated from the start, kicking five goals to three behinds in the first term.

They had kicked nine goals before the Lions kicked their first, midway through the second term.

Brisbane's workrate was better, but to have any chance against the classy Cats they had to make a good start.

Instead, they butchered the ball when going into attack, giving key forward Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola no chance.

Fevola had a dirty day, only kicking one goal, while Brown rallied to kick four.

Adding to the Lions' woes, Brent Staker was reported for striking Darren Milburn and Mitch Clark and Amon Buchanan suffered concussion.

But coach Michael Voss was much happier with his team's attitude in the wake of their 75-point loss to Hawthorn last weekend.

"For us, it wasn't so much about the finesse today, it was actually going to be about our will," Voss said.

"The finesse side of things was probably in the end what actually let us down.

"I know we'll be able to turn this situation around, you've got to have your will first before the finesse comes.

"Right to the very, very end, despite being 10 goals down, we still had guys who were chasing, tackling and hitting in and going right to the post."

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