Australian Football

Match Report

Melbourne built on a much improved performance in round five against St Kilda by not getting blown away by an experienced Geelong side. With the Demons winless going into the contest, this game had the potential to get very ugly. The Cats annihilated Melbourne by 186 points in the corresponding game in 2011, which brought Dean Bailey’s coaching tenure at the Demons to an end. The Demons were only five points down at quarter time but inaccurate kicking from Geelong prevented the scoreline from blowing out. Melbourne wasn’t disgraced and proved to be highly competitive at stages throughout the afternoon. Former Lion Mitch Clark was dominant for Melbourne up forward with four goals, while Geelong’s Paul Chapman played his best game of 2012 so far after a slow start to the season. But Steve Johnson again dined out on the Demons – the mercurial Cats forward had 35 possessions and booted three goals. Cats captain Joel Selwood was a late withdrawal suffering concussion, but it mattered little for the Cats as they notched up their fourth win of the season.



GOALS

Geelong: Chapman, Podsiadly, Johnson 3, Bartel, Mackie 2, Stringer, Kelly, Hawkins, Motlop

Melbourne: Clark 4, Jones, Bate 2, Davey, Dunn, Howe

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Geelong: Johnson, Corey, Christensen, Enright, Bartel, Podsiadly, Duncan

Melbourne: Clark, Howe, Jones, T. McDonald, Grimes, Frawley

BEST - HERALD SUN
Geelong: Johnson, Enright, Corey, Motlop, Duncan, Chapman, Christensen
Melbourne: Clark, Grimes, Jones, Moloney, T. McDonald, Howe

COACHES COMMENTS
Chris Scott (Geel): We're playing ok. I thought we were a little cavalier with our ball-use at times. Their pressure was pretty good. We certainly let them score a bit too easily on the back of some mistakes, but we got the job done.

Mark Neeld (Melb): There were some frustrating moments. There was some moments where I thought we had a fair bit of momentum, which was good. I can't be disappointed with the player's effort and they are attempting to put a majority of stuff into practice that we are talking about and working on.