Cats' attack fires in huge win over Suns
Geelong's tall forward trio have fired together for the first time this season in a huge AFL win over Gold Coast, but coach Chris Scott admits he is unsure how much that proves.
The Suns at least bettered Melbourne's losing margin of 186 points to the Cats a week earlier, losing a predictably lopsided contest 29.14 (188) to 6.2 (38) at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.
The visitors were hurt by the early loss of experienced defender Campbell Brown, whose season is over after being taken to hospital with a fractured pelvis.
But Gold Coast at least managed to stave off the threat of having an AFL record score kicked against them, which was a distinct possibility when the Cats racked up 18 goals to three by halftime.
Of greater significance for Geelong was the fact that key forwards James Podsiadly (five goals), Cam Mooney (three) and Tom Hawkins (two) notched 10.5 and 19 marks between them, although Steve Johnson took the scoring honours with six majors.
It was only the fourth time the tall trio had played together this year, with the previous three all coming in the first 10 rounds, when Mooney was struggling with injury and did not kick a goal and Hawkins was in poor form.
Scott declared himself "relatively happy" with the set-up, but said the Cats were still pondering their best ruck-forward combination.
"We've got options, three tall forwards, two tall forwards, we're still not sure, but it depends what the opposition present, I think," he said.
The Cats' attack was helped by their midfield sending the ball inside their attacking 50m arc a staggering 80 times - believed to be an AFL record - compared to Gold Coast's 30.
Scott acknowledged that made it harder to gauge the attack's success.
"Gold Coast are an inexperienced group and they're not going to defend as well as the current top four," he said.
"But all we can do is play as well as we can against the opposition of the week."
The other Geelong experiment that paid off was the positioning of speedster Travis Varcoe at halfback, to play a rebounding role similar to that which has worked well for Carlton, with Chris Yarran, and Collingwood, with Leon Davis, this season.
Varcoe racked up 33 touches and 10 inside-50s and Scott said it gave the Cats a handy option heading into the season's business end.
Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna said despite the size of the loss, his side would learn more playing on enemy territory against a side of the Cats' class than being competitive against lowly opposition.
He said his young side should take something from the brief periods they matched the Cats.
"That's what you try to encourage the kids to understand. When we compete and we go one-on-one with some of these sides, we can force them into errors and make them look silly as well," McKenna said.
He said they needed to quickly rebound mentally for next Saturday night's clash with Brisbane at the Gabba.
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