Cats get job done over Saints

St Kilda Saints v Geelong Cats, AFL 2021 round 9 Ben Jensen GEELONG played scrappily but a dominant second half dispatched a very inaccurate St Kilda by 21 points at Marvel Stadium on Friday night. The Cats led at quarter time but this was partially to do with the Saints’ inaccuracy, scoring seven behinds. This pattern somewhat continued the rest of the match but not as dramatically. St Kilda got in front by half time and while they retained then regained the lead for some of the third term four unanswered goals from the Cats until midway through the final quarter put the win too far away from the Saints. Max King ended up with one goal and five behinds including from dead in front. The Cats’ highest goalkickers had two apiece; Gary Rohan continuing his good form in front of goal, along with Tom Hawkins and Brad Close, the latter having probably his best game for the club and certainly best of the season. Geelong’s next game is against Gold Coast 2pm this Saturday at GMHBA Stadium.

AFL ROUND 9 2021
ST KILDA SAINTS V GEELONG CATS
FRIDAY 14 MAY 2021, 19:50 AEDT
MARVEL STADIUM, MELBOURNE DOCKLANDS
MATCH PREVIEW

GEELONG 2.1, 4.2, 6.6, 10.8 (68) Defeated
ST KILDA 0.7, 3.11, 4.13, 5.17 (47)

GOALS
GEELONG CATS: Close 2, Hawkins 2, Rohan 2, Cameron, Cam Guthrie, Menegola, Narkle
RICHMOND TIGERS: Bolton 3, Aarts 3, Riewoldt, Lynch, Rioli

BEST
GEELONG CATS: Cam Guthrie, Tuohy, Duncan, Smith, Stewart, Close, Henderson
ST KILDA SAINTS: Crouch, Ross, Billings, Sinclair, Membrey

INJURIES
GEELONG CATS: Nil reported
ST KILDA SAINTS: Marshall (‘foot’)

CHANGES
GEELONG CATS: Luke Dahlhaus replaced in selected side by Jordan Clark
ST KILDA SAINTS: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
GEELONG CATS: Holmes (unused)
ST KILDA SAINTS: Long (replaced Marshall in the third quarter)

REPORTS
GEELONG CATS: Nil
ST KILDA SAINTS: Nil

CROWD: 26,712 at Marvel Stadium, Melbourne Docklands

GEELONG CATS – SELECTED SIDE
IN: N/A
OUT: Sam Simpson (hamstring)
B: L Henderson, M Blicavs, J Henry
HB: Z Guthrie, T Stewart, J Bews
C: I Smith, Q Narkle, S Menegola
HF: L Dahlhaus, J Cameron, C Guthrie
F: G Rohan, T Hawkins, B Parfitt
FOLL: E Ratugolea, Z Tuohy, J Selwood
INT: T Atkins, S Higgins, M Duncan, B Close
EMER: C Constable, R Stanley, J Clark, M Holmes

ST KILDA SAINTS – SELECTED SIDE
IN: J Frawley, S Ross, T Highmore
OUT: N Coffield (omitted), D Joyce (omitted), M Wood (omitted), Z Jones (injured)
B: J Frawley, C Wilkie, H Clark
HB: J Webster, D Howard, J Sinclair
C: B Hill, S Ross, J Billings
HF: D Butler, J Battle, J Higgins
F: T Membrey, R Marshall, M King
FOLL: P Ryder, J Steele, B Crouch
INT: T Highmore, J Bytel, R Byrnes, J Lonie
EMER: B Long, N Coffield, D Joyce, S McKernan

UMPIRES
FIELD Leigh Fisher, Justin Power, Hayden Gavine EM: Andrew Heffernan
BOUNDARY Lachlan Rayner, Sam Stagg, Damien Main, Tim Lougoon
GOAL David Rodan, Stephen Williams EM: Dylan Benwell