AFL: Geelong v West Coast, 2nd Preliminary Final Highlights

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• published: 24 Sep 2011
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The highlights of the Geelong Cats thumping big win over West Coast in the 2nd Premlinary Final by 48 points. GEELONG made it 4 Grand Final appearances in 5 years with a comftable win over the resugent Eagles, who came from 16th and wooden spooners last year, to get to a Prelinary Final this year. But Geelong was just to strong throughout the game, winning convincingly and setting up a mouth-watering clash against minor premiers Collingwood. The final scores were: Cats 17.15: 117 to the Eagles 10.9: 69 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL INFOMATION ABOUT GAME: ALMOST the biggest cheer involved in Geelong's 48-point preliminary final win over West Coast at the MCG was reserved for a player wearing the red vest and who was not even on the field at the start of the final term. With a sense of theatre that sums up his football life, Steve Johnson was walking around the boundary from the rooms where the motorised stretcher had delivered him half an hour earlier. In a sign that encouraged Cats fans he might be a chance to play in Saturday's Grand Final against Collingwood after injuring his knee - and in a statement to the Magpies - Johnson was buoyed by the cheers he received as he edged his way around the ground. While maintaining on Channel 10 he wouldn't have a prognosis until early this week, Johnson was at least not ruling himself out of taking on the Magpies in six days' time. The injury - twisting his left knee in an Andrew Embley tackle six minutes into the third term - had already flattened a relatively pedestrian game, but the fact there was still some hope he could playresuscitated some of the interest in the crowd. It was the only negative in an afternoon of positives for Geelong as it qualified for its fourth Grand Final in five years, pitting the club against Collingwood in a premiership playoff for the first time in 58 years. Better still, while the Magpies were subjected to a bruising encounter against the Hawks on Friday night that threw up injury concerns to key players, the Cats came through relatively bruise-free aside from Johnson's incident. At no stage was Geelong challenged. At no stage did West Coast threaten to lead, let alone look like winning it. From almost the first moment of this lopsided clash, highlighting the difference in intensity of one of the great teams of the modern era as opposed to the team that has elevated itself from the bottom to fourth in 12 months, the Cats were imposing. Four goals to nil came in the first 15 minutes as Geelong dominated the contests and the stats sheet, and it didn't let up. The margins at the main breaks were 22, 25 and 56 before the final margin was brought back to 48 after the Cats put the foot on the brake. Matthew Scarlett was outstanding, relishing his role deep in defence to set up numerous moves and repel the ball on the all too infrequent occasions it went down there. The Cats' backline was a constant source of aggravation for Eagles coach John Worsfold. Scarlett had plenty of partners in setting up play, with Andrew Mackie, Harry Taylor and Corey Enright doing as they pleased all too often. James Kelly had 28 touches and was a critical player from start to finish. Joel Selwood had the better of younger brother Scott and even ended up for a brief moment late in the game alongside older brother Adam in attack. Jimmy Bartel never plays a bad final, while Cameron Ling did a number on Matt Priddis, restricting his impact on the game. The Cats had 12 goalkickers, including three to James Podsiadly and two each to Tom Hawkins, Allen Christensen and Travis Varcoe. The performance of Nic Naitanui in his first finals series has been remarkable. Yesterday, he was one of the highest-ranked players on the ground and was tireless with 18 possessions (15 of them contested). But his ruck partner, Dean Cox, looked to be labouring. Beau Waters had 38 possessions running out of defence - where he was often the spare man - and did a good job, but at times he blazed away into attack. While the Eagles seemed satisfied with having leapt off the bottom of the ladder, the Cats are clearly far from sated. They want more success to sit alongside their 2007 and '09 triumphs. And, with or without Stevie J, they will take a power of beating. SCOREBOARD GEELONG 5.7 8.11 15.14 17.15 (117) WEST COAST 2.3 5.4 7.6 10.9 (69) Goals: Geelong: Podsiadly 3, Christensen 2, Hawkins 2, Varcoe 2, Wojcinski, Bartel, Hunt, Selwood, Stokes, Chapman, Johnson, West. West Coast: Kennedy 3, Naitanui 2, Kerr, Darling, Shuey, LeCras, Selwood. Best: Geelong: Scarlett, Kelly, Selwood, Mackie, Bartel, Ling, Enright, Taylor. West Coast: Naitanui, Kerr, Waters, Gaff, Hurn, Shuey. Injuries: Geelong: Johnson (strained knee). West Coast: Nil. Reports: Nil. Umpires: Chris Donlon, Matt Stevic, Ray Chamberlain, Mathew Nicholls. Crowd: 59,455 at MCG