GEELONGÂ Â Â Â Â Â 3.2 Â Â Â 7.4 Â Â Â Â 11.10 Â Â Â 15.10 Â Â Â (100)
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Cats on cusp of top four
Geelong cruised to a 66-point win over Essendon but the percentage boost wasn't enough to return to the top four.
ESSENDONÂ Â Â 0.3 Â Â Â 0.4 Â Â Â Â Â 3.4 Â Â Â Â Â 4.10 Â Â Â (34) Â Â Â Â Â Â
GOALS
Geelong: Hawkins 3, Caddy 2, Cowan 2, Cockatoo 2, Dangerfield, Duncan, Guthrie, Menegola, Motlop, Stanley.
Essendon: Daniher, Francis, Grimley, McKenna.Â
BESTÂ
Geelong: Enright, Guthrie, Selwood, Henderson, Dangerfield, Henderson, Hawkins, Taylor, Duncan, Cockatoo.
Essendon: Parish, Kelly, ZMerrett, Gleeson, Ambrose, Laverde, Brown.
INJURIESÂ
Geelong: Menzel (tightness), Taylor (back).
Essendon: Goddard (groin).Â
UMPIRES:Â Fisher, Hosking, McInerney
CROWD:Â 29,254 at Etihad Stadium
Corey Enright had 25 possessions in the first half on Sunday, eight of them involving some level of legitimate competition from players wearing red and black jumpers.
Essendon as a team had 194 possessions in the same period of time, kicking four behinds and no goals.
Those numbers tell you much of what you need to know about this match, between a team whose year is inching to a close and one who has bigger things still to do.
There are two ways to consider the way in which almost every single Essendon player pushed up behind the ball in the first half, leaving very few in the forward line and making it almost impossible to score.
The Bombers frustrated Geelong, a bit. They made the Cats work reasonably hard enough to set up (what turned out to be reasonably straightforward) shots for goal.
They 'limited'Â them to seven goals for the first half.
On the flipside, they got the ball and took it sideways, backwards and nowhere much else. They had no-one to kick to. They took until the last four minutes of the half to set up a genuine shot on goal (it hit the post).
That Brendon Goddard injured his groin while kicking the ball out of defence, turning it over, giving up a shot on goal and sitting out the rest of the match, summed things up fairly well.
The Bombers tried to fill up a backline populated by some of the best readers of the game in the game, hence Enright's ability to rack up 11 possessions more than his next busiest teammate.
In some ways Essendon controlled the game, but that control only stretched to holding Geelong up for brief patches, with the Cats able to find their way through enough times to keep the Bombers far enough at bay, without blowing them away.
The first half would have probably gone down as one of the most boring ones ever played, until Steven Motlop kicked a 45-metre banana goal from the boundary line after the siren.
Essendon kicked their first goal not long after the second half started, through Sam Grimley, they hung in there and they were bits and pieces to like about their game.
Darcy Parish, again. Zach Merrett, again. Jayden Laverde read the game well and stuck around to finish off pieces of play.
Marty Gleeson took marks, Patrick Ambrose was diligent in defence and Conor McKenna kicked a confident, running goal. James Kelly held things together.
They were able to string together multiple possessions a few times, and hold onto the ball. They were able to reduce the match to a scrap, for large amounts of time.
They started to leave some forwards in their forward line and kicked two late goals in the third quarter, keeping the Cats as close as they had while trying to clog things up earlier on.
Geelong did what they had to do, though, without looking like the team they could have been.Â
The Cats responded to the Grimley goal with two in five minutes, and from there the question was how much they would win by.
There were some cons. Tom Hawkins had a wonky day, missing more shots for goal than he nailed. Dan Menzel got injured and sat out most of the second half.
Enright's excellent afternoon became a quieter one, with just four touches in the second half. The complete blow-out that felt close almost all day never really ended up happening.
There were more than enough pros, though. Geelong still got home by 66 points. They still gave their percentage a good boost with games against Richmond, Brisbane and Melbourne to come in the last three rounds.
Enright had already set up the win. Lachie Henderson was steady in defence and Joel Selwood played an unselfish game, setting up two teammates for goals he could have kicked himself.
Patrick Dangerfield, quiet by his standards early, was much more dynamic after half-time. Josh Cowan, Nakia Cockatoo and Sam Menegola all did things that made it clear they want to stay in the team.
This was a long, stilted, frustrating game. It wasn't the game it could have been for the Cats. They still have top four teams to keep chasing. But they got things done.