Australian Football

Match Report

Geelong broke a two-game losing streak to get its stuttering premiership defence back on track. Many in the football world had questioned whether the Cats’ golden run had come to an end after losses to Collingwood and Adelaide. Although they came away with the four points, the Western Bulldogs made them work hard for the win. The Bulldogs pushed Geelong all the way in the second half, and got within three points late in the last quarter before the Cats steadied. Mercurial Cats forward Steve Johnson tallied a career-high 36 possessions in the win, spending significant time in the midfield. Young Dogs midfielders Mitch Wallis and Tom Liberatore continued their development, while Matthew Boyd was efficient as always with 34 possessions. The Dogs four previous win in 2012 had come against teams that wouldn’t feature in the finals, so to come agonisngly close to defeating the Cats was a huge disappointment.


GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Giansiracusa, Higgins 3; Dickson, Jones, Wallis, Liberatore, Skinner

Geelong: Hawkins, Motlop 3; Chapman 2; Mackie, Selwood, West, T.Hunt, Bartel, Podsiadly

BEST - 
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Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Griffen, Liberatore, Murphy, Hargrave, Minson, Austin

Geelong: Johnson, Chapman, Corey, Enright, Scarlett, Selwood, Motlop, Mackie


BEST - SPORTAL
Western Bulldogs: Wallis, Liberatore, Boyd, Cooney, Murphy, Austin

Geelong: Johnson, Chapman, Enright, Mackie, Selwood, Motlop

COACHES COMMENTS
Brendan McCartney (WB): What we're doing with our players is if we keep doing things right around the ball and we defend well, the goals will take care of themselves. Tonight's probably a case in point that it was very close to that happening.

Chris Scott (Geel): I didn't think we played great footy for most of the night, but we were good enough in the end. I don't think it's terrific footy, but it is gutsy footy.

Umpires: Pannell, McInerney, Mitchell