The Bendigo Bank Cats can herald an early warning to the competition in the battle of the bay against Frankston at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.
Sitting nicely in fifth position, the Cats will look to translate their bursts of scintillating football into a consistent four-quarter effort against a strong Frankston line up.
Ryan Gamble is still in doubt with ankle soreness and will undergo a fitness test today, while Simon Hogan is a likely starter after sitting out last week’s match with a groin strain.
Tom Couch will play his first match for the season after travelling to Tasmania as an emergency last week, while Nick Butler is still a week away with hamstring soreness.
The Cats will tackle a Dolphins side that has set out to build a stand-alone dynasty and has no AFL affiliation.
They play with a resolve and character that should never be underestimated and last season was the only side apart from Geelong to claim the scalp of Sandringham at Trevor Barker Oval.
Despite having the bye last weekend, Frankston sits in fourth position on the VFL ladder amongst a long jam of eight teams with one win from the opening two rounds.
Frankton was the hottest side running into the finals last year, after a midseason resurgence that catapulted it from outside the eight to finish in fifth, winning its last five matches of the home and away season in emphatic style.
The big question mark hanging over the head of Frankston this season is whether it has the firepower and depth to cover the void left by the departure of Aaron Edwards, who kicked 100 goals last season at an average of five goals a game.
Frankston struck an early blow in round one with a comfortable 29-point win over fellow stand-alone Port Melbourne, capping off a promising preseason where it went through undefeated.
Medium sized forward Justin Berry shot to prominence with six goals in the Dolphin’s round one victory over Port Melbourne, while Matt Burns kicked four goals and was third in last season’s club goal kicking.
Ashley Eames and Daniel Clarke dominated in the ruck, while the team’s midfield won plenty of contested football and played with an expected intensity.
The lead ballooned out to eleven goals before a fast-finishing Port Melbourne came home with a surge, kicking seven goals to two in the final quarter to peg the margin back to 29 points.
While not indicative of a lack of fitness yet, the Cats will take an added psychological advantage that they have superior match fitness to last the entirety of the game.
The Cats nearly reeled in a seemingly insurmountable eleven-goal half time deficit against Sandringham in round one, and last week slammed on fourteen of the last seventeen goals to cruise to a 67-point win at Bellerive Oval.
The action gets underway from 1pm on Saturday.
Bendigo Bank Cats Vs Frankston form guide
Since 2005 – played three matches.
Geelong – 2. Frankton – 1.
Last time they met
Round 12 2006. Frankston City Oval.
Result – Geelong won by 44 points.
The strong Cats line up overcame an early deficit thanks to the hard work of Andrew Mackie and Paul Koulouriotis, while Matt McCarthy thrilled the crowd with some aerial dominance and Charlie Gardiner booted four crucial goals in front of a pro-Frankston crowd.
Geelong: 1.1-7, 6.5-41, 11.9-75, 15.9-99Frankston: 3.5-23, 4.5-29, 5.7-37, 8.7-55
Best: A. Mackie, P. Koulouriotis, M. McCarthy, C. Gardiner, S. Clarke, T. Lonergan
Goals: C. Gardiner 4, T. Grima 3, A. Mackie, J. Davenport 2, A. Cook, M. McCarthy, H. Playfair, L. Forbes.
JJ Liston votes: P. Koulouriotis (Geelong) 3, C. Gardiner (Geelong) 2, P. Kennedy (Frankston) 1.
