AFL round 10 match review: Geelong v. Port Adelaide at Geelong

Another week, another win for the mighty Cats, who must now be considered a serious premiership contender. This week’s victim was Port Adelaide, as the New Kardinia Park witnessed a Thursday night thriller. In the end, two points was all that separated the sides, as a wasteful start by Geelong was followed by a thrilling middle half and a tense final term.

The Cats’ pressure from the previous week carried over into the opening of this match; it took nearly two and a half minutes for the ball to leave the hosts’ attacking half, yet their first thirteen inside fifties yielded only four behinds. Port went into quarter-time up three goals to one and signalled their intentions early in the second term when Charlie Dixon laid a ferocious hit on Joel Selwood.

Geelong drew level through a Patrick Dangerfield goal, and pulled ahead when the same player majored from a fifty-metre penalty. Two more lead changes followed, Geelong taking a narrow eight-point buffer into the long break despite Paddy Ryder’s domination of the rucks. The fiercely-contested match kept see-sawing, with more changes of lead, Dixon’s checkside goal and Robbie Gray’s diving mark the highlights of the third quarter.

The Power had regained the ascendancy late in the fourth quarter when Dixon, taking more than the allowed thirty seconds to take his set shot and forced to play on, kicked the ball into the man on the mark. After Tuohy won a free at the other end, Geelong won the ball from a stoppage at the top of the square, Selwood (with his nineteenth and last contested possession of the match) and Dangerfield combining for the winner.

Next up in the three-game home stand in the Pivot City is Port’s noisy neighbours, the Crows, in what could be a preview of September with the added twist of Danger going up against his old side.

Geelong 11.15.81 (Dangerfield 3, Blicavs, Hawkins, Menegola, Menzel, Motlop, Parsons, S. Selwood, Tuohy) – Port Adelaide 11.13.79 (R. Gray 3, Ah Chee, Dixon, S. Gray, Polec, Powell-Pepper, Ryder, Westhoff, Young)