Australian Football

Match Report

Geelong virtually guaranteed itself a sixth consecutive finals series with a comfortable win against St Kilda on Friday. The 42-point win gave the Cats their 13th win for the season. With two rounds remaining, Geelong are two games and four percentage points clear of ninth-placed Carlton. For St Kilda, the loss almost certainly consigned the club to missing its first finals campaign since 2007, which was Ross Lyon's debut coaching year.

Geelong opened Friday night's match brightly, with Taylor kicking the first two goals. The Saints answered with a goal each to Milne and Geary before a goal to Trent West restored the Cats' lead. Geelong's power forward Tom Hawkins then demonstrated why he was so badly missed by the Cats after quarter time against the Eagles a week earlier. The 'Tomahawk' took big grab after big grab and kicked his sides next four goals. By half-time, Geelong had a healthy 34-point lead.

St Kilda, however, regrouped in the third quarter and significantly tightened up the defensive aspect of its game. The Cats were restricted to just four behinds for the term, although the Saints were unable to take full advantage of their dominance, kicking a wasteful 3.7. Nonetheless, St Kilda kicked the first two goals of the final term, with Adam Schneider's major reducing the margin to a single point. Then suddenly, Geelong, who had not scored a goal since the first half, regained their composure, and a Tom Hawkins goal at the six-minute was the catalyst for an avalanche of Cats goals. Geelong kicked the final seven goals of the game, as the enormous effort expended by St Kilda in bridging the earlier gap took its toll. Hawkins finished the match with six goals in a best-on-ground performance, while Saints small forward Stephen Milne kicked four for the Saints, who were missing captain Nick Riewoldt because of a knee injury.

GOALS
Geelong: Hawkins 6; T Hunt, West, Motlop, Podsiadly 2; Stokes, Murdoch, Mackie, Chapman
St Kilda: Milne 4; Saad 3; Geary, Armitage, Goddard, Schneider

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Geelong: Kelly, Duncan, Hawkins, Johnson, West, Taylor, J Hunt, Murdoch
St Kilda: Gram, Montagna, Hayes, Milne, Armitage, McEvoy, Saad, Dempster

BEST - THE AGE
Geelong: Hawkins, Kelly, Duncan, Johnson, Stokes, Taylor
St Kilda: Goddard, Gram, Milne, Hayes, Montagna, Fisher

COACHES' COMMENTS
Chris Scott (Geel): On balance, we thought it was a pretty positive night.

Scott Watters (StK): I thought at times we probably took too much risk and that probably opened up a couple of soft goals against us.

Umpires: Donlon, Rosebury, Meredith