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Geelong vs North Melbourne

Scoreboard | Match report | Match statistics

Round: 2   Venue: Docklands   Date: Sun, 07-04-2013 1:10 pm   Crowd: 34,152  
Geelong 4.0.246.4.4013.8.8616.16.112 C:  Chris Scott
North Melbourne 7.1.4312.3.7515.5.9517.6.108 C:  Brad Scott
  NTH by 19NTH by 35NTH by 9GEEL by 4  
Brownlow Medal 3 Joel Selwood (GEEL)2 Andrew Swallow (NTH)1 Lindsay Thomas (NTH)

Match Report

Geelong has staged yet another remarkable comeback, turning a 41-point deficit into a thrilling four-point win against North Melbourne at Docklands stadium on Sunday afternoon. The Kangaroos were nigh on unstoppable in the first half running in swarms and kicking the ball with remarkable accuracy, hardly ever missing a target. They kicked seven goals in the first term, with Drew Petrie and Lindsay Thomas kicking two each. Only a late goal from Tom Hawkins (his second for the quarter) had the Cats in touch at the first break.

After an arm-wrestle in the first 10 minutes of the second quarter, the Roos exploded again, kicking three goals in five minutes (two to Petrie and one to Liam Anthony). The Cats' Allen Christensen broke the sequence with his first at the 16-minute mark, but Thomas's third and another to Leigh Adams saw North leading by 41 points and threatening to blow Geelong out of the park. But as they had done on the first quarter, Geelong managed a goal (through Christensen) just before the half-time siren to reduce the margin to 35.

The question on the lips of many fans at half time was whether Geelong could repeat its effort of the previous week against Hawthorn, and turn a significant half-time deficit around in the third quarter. That answer came quickly and emphatically. Christensen kicked his third at the four-minute mark and Steven Motlop, James Podsiadly and Tom Lonergan all followed up with goals in the next six minutes the cut the lead to just 10 points. Noth responded with goals to Thomas, Robbie Tarrant and Thomas again, but the momentum of the match had swung. Paul Chapman kicked his first and the Cats began to come again. Hawkins and Mitch Duncan followed up with goals and the margin at the final change was just nine points.

Lindsay Thomas opened North's account at the three-minute mark of the last quarter kicking his fifth but Chapman replied with his second two minutes later. A string of behinds to Steven Motlop saw the margin cut back to just five points before ex-Sun Josh Caddy kicked his first goal for his new club and the Cats took the lead for the first time in the match at the 10-minute mark. Rain began ti fal at about this point, and with the roof open, things became slippery. Daniel Wells restored the lead for North at the 18-minute mark and the next 10 minutes were frantic, with the ball travelling from one end of the ground to the other and mistakes being made by both sides under intense pressure.

With 28 minutes on the clock, Jimmy Bartel received a free kick for a push in the back and a 50-metre penalty which put him on the goal line. He saluted, putting the Cats in front with a minute to play. The Kangaroos made one last foray forward in the dying seconds but Geelong defended grimly to win a memorable match by four points.

Selwood and Christensen were excellent for the Cats, while Matthew Stokes, who came on as a sub late in the third quarter, was brilliant in his short time on the field. Andrew Swallow and Thomas were amongst the best for North.

Geelong will return to the Docklands next Saturday night to face Carlton, while North Melbourne, having lost two winnable games to start the season, will take on reigning premier Sydney in the first Hobart game of the year on Saturday afternoon.

GOALS
Geelong: Christensen, Hawkins 3; Chapman, Motlop 2; Selwood, Podsiadly, Lonergan, Duncan, Caddy, Bartel
North Melbourne: Thomas 5; Petrie 4; Tarrant 2; Bastinac, Mullett, Atley, Anthony, Adams, Wells

BEST - THE AGE
Geelong: Kelly, Stokes, Enright, Christensen, Selwood, Hawkins, Taylor
North Melbourne: Gibson, Swallow, Thomas, Wells, Bastinac, Goldstein, Petrie

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Geelong: Selwood, Christensen, Enright, Chapman, Kelly
North Melbourne: Swallow, Bastinac, Grima, Thomas, Petrie, Ziebell

COACHES' COMMENTS
Chris Scott (Geel): It was difficult to watch in the first half. I thought the things we went in planning to do weren't implemented. Their [North Melbourne's] skill level was - they were a different team from the one that played round one. The first half was poor [but] we're so proud that we're never beaten.

Brad Scott (NM): It was more encouraging than last week. I thought we took the game up to a very good team and competed really well. We just got another lesson in what absolute class acts do when under pressure.

SUBSTITUTES
Geelong: Mathew Stokes replaced Mitch Brown in the 3rd quarter
North Melbourne: Ben Jacobs replaced Kieran Harper in the 3rd quarter

UMPIRES: Stevic, Nicholls, Findlay

Source

Match report by Andrew Gigacz

Footnotes

Video sourced from YouTube, courtesy of AFL Media.

Match stats

Geelong Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
3 Bartel, Jimmy 10 1 9 19 1 0 0 11 4 0 29y 124d 227 149
46 Blicavs, Mark 4 6 8 12 0 1 4 2 1 1 22y 10d 2 0
1 Brown, Mitch 2 0 3 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 22y 222d 6 5
23 Caddy, Josh 10 4 5 15 1 0 0 3 0 2 20y 191d 26 18
35 Chapman, Paul 12 1 11 23 2 3 0 6 2 4 31y 153d 245 327
28 Christensen, Allen 8 4 11 19 3 2 0 4 4 3 21y 323d 38 31
11 Corey, Joel 7 1 15 22 0 0 1 3 1 0 31y 49d 255 74
22 Duncan, Mitch 10 4 7 17 1 1 0 5 1 2 21y 301d 53 53
44 Enright, Corey 10 3 12 22 0 0 0 2 0 0 31y 205d 246 53
26 Hawkins, Tom 9 5 7 16 3 1 1 0 3 0 24y 260d 103 174
19 Hunt, Taylor 6 4 9 15 0 0 0 3 1 0 22y 153d 43 10
9 Kelly, James 8 1 17 25 0 0 0 7 2 2 29y 99d 214 77
13 Lonergan, Tom 5 4 6 11 1 0 0 3 1 1 28y 325d 99 48
4 Mackie, Andrew 13 2 4 17 0 1 0 1 1 0 28y 243d 175 81
32 Motlop, Steven 14 2 8 22 2 3 0 0 0 0 22y 26d 29 30
31 Podsiadly, James 10 2 3 13 1 1 0 3 0 0 31y 209d 62 139
14 Selwood, Joel 14 2 12 26 1 1 1 8 3 2 24y 316d 137 63
2 Smedts, Billie 3 2 6 9 0 1 0 2 0 0 20y 303d 16 8
27 Stokes, Mathew 7 5 9 16 0 0 0 2 1 1 28y 136d 133 180
7 Taylor, Harry 4 3 1 5 0 0 0 2 0 0 26y 299d 114 23
5 Varcoe, Travis 4 1 11 15 0 1 0 4 2 0 24y 362d 103 114
12 West, Trent 3 0 3 6 0 0 28 1 1 4 25y 172d 43 18
  Totals 173 57 177 350 16 16 35 72 29 22 25y 353d 2369 1675
North Melbourne Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
13 Adams, Leigh 10 4 8 18 1 0 0 2 0 2 25y 1d 64 51
4 Anthony, Liam 11 2 12 23 1 0 0 4 1 4 25y 210d 51 26
18 Atley, Shaun 10 4 6 16 1 0 0 6 0 0 20y 206d 41 6
3 Bastinac, Ryan 19 9 10 29 1 1 0 7 0 1 21y 289d 59 24
10 Cunnington, Ben 5 0 7 12 0 0 0 4 0 1 21y 281d 56 16
11 Firrito, Michael 10 7 5 15 0 0 0 1 1 0 29y 131d 195 28
43 Gibson, Sam 21 12 5 26 0 0 0 0 0 1 26y 315d 15 7
22 Goldstein, Todd 5 4 4 9 0 0 42 4 1 3 24y 280d 81 37
17 Grima, Nathan 15 7 1 16 0 0 0 5 1 1 27y 245d 57 0
6 Hansen, Lachlan 3 3 4 7 0 0 4 1 0 0 24y 233d 81 71
23 Harper, Kieran 3 1 3 6 0 0 0 4 1 2 20y 296d 39 37
5 Jacobs, Ben 5 3 3 8 0 1 0 0 0 2 21y 88d 28 5
34 Macmillan, Jamie 6 4 5 11 0 0 0 4 0 0 21y 196d 38 14
42 McMahon, Scott 12 9 3 15 0 0 0 6 2 2 26y 309d 107 27
41 Mullett, Aaron 13 5 8 21 1 0 0 6 2 0 21y 43d 11 4
20 Petrie, Drew 11 6 3 14 4 1 2 0 1 0 30y 174d 224 266
9 Swallow, Andrew 18 7 11 29 0 0 0 5 4 2 25y 309d 131 65
25 Tarrant, Robbie 5 5 3 8 2 0 1 1 0 1 23y 347d 27 27
12 Thomas, Lindsay 11 4 1 12 5 1 0 3 2 3 25y 37d 112 160
16 Thompson, Scott 12 5 7 19 0 0 0 3 1 3 26y 333d 95 3
8 Wells, Daniel 10 4 8 18 1 0 4 1 2 0 28y 63d 192 117
7 Ziebell, Jack 17 2 6 23 0 1 0 5 3 1 22y 38d 64 19
  Rushed   1  
  Totals 232 107 123 355 17 6 53 72 22 29 24y 234d 1768 1010

Match highlights

Jimmy Bartel had 11 tackles for Geelong vs. North Melbourne (AFL, Premiership Season, R2)

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.