The Hawks came into this game under tremendous pressure following last week’s abysmal performance against Essendon and the scrutiny on coach Peter Schwab, skipper Shane Crawford and just about every other player is set to increase following the Cats’ 16.13 (109) to 11.9 (75) victory.
It was only Geelong’s second win of the season – its first since round four – and now leaves the Cats just one win behind the Hawks, who provided only token resistance in a game in which they were expected to come out breathing fire following a week of intense scrutiny.
And while Cats coach Mark Thompson – who like Schwab is in his fourth year as coach – is under nowhere near the same pressure to maintain his position as the soon to be out-of-contract Hawks coach – this victory will go a long way towards easing the pressure at Skilled Stadium after the club’s poor start to the season.
But it is Hawthorn that now looks set to have a mortgage on the “team under the pump” award after yet another limp performance marred by appalling skill level and equally bad decision-making.
With so much at stake for both clubs, who went into this game in 14th and 16th places, this match was always expected to be a fiercely-contested match but seeing the Cats cruise home in the final term showed just how low the Hawks had sunk.
Little separated the teams for most of the game with the Cats for the most part holding onto a two-goal lead set up thanks to a devastating first quarter from young star Gary Ablett jnr.
By the last change the margin was still only 17 points but the anticipated Hawthorn fightback never eventuated.
As soon as Ben Graham goaled in the opening minute of the final term, there was only going to be one winner and if not for inaccuracy the final margin would have been even more embarrassing for the Hawks.
While the Cats hardly displayed the type of football that would worry Brisbane, West Coast and Port Adelaide they were the team that celebrated a much-needed win simply because they made less mistakes, better decisions and had more players willing to do their bit for the team cause.
The contribution of both team’s experienced players in particular could not have been more stark.
While the much-maligned Graham was a constant danger in attack along with Peter Riccardi and Cameron Ling and Joel Corey controlled the midfield, the Hawks’ most experienced players went missing.
With the exception of Ben Dixon - who kicked four goals - Angelo Lekkas in midfield and to a lesser extent Joel Smith across half-back, the Hawks stars had no impact on the game.
Key forwards Nathan Thompson and Nick Holland were hopelessly beaten by impressive Cats defenders Matthew Scarlett and Tom Harley respectively while skipper Crawford – under pressure leading into the game over his role in a comedy spoof on television while his team is struggling – was well beaten by Jarad Rooke.
And ruckman Peter Everitt, full-back Jonathan Hay and Daniel Harford were three other Hawks who struggled.
At three wins and six losses the Hawks’ finals hopes are now gone but until they eliminate the kind of basic errors that dominated their limp performance against Geelong, it’s hard to see them even winning another game.
In fact two atrocious errors summed up yet another dire Hawthorn performance.
Both occurred with the game up for grabs late in the third term.
The first saw two experienced players – Crawford and Lekkas - fail to rush a ball through for a behind, leading to a goal to Will Slade and then minutes later Sam Mitchell elected to turn his back on a potential goalscoring position and handball backwards resulting in Ben Kane having to kick to a contest allowing Geelong to sweep the ball out of danger.
Those two incidents summed up the Hawks day and it was no surprise when the young Cats ran away with the game in the final term.
GEELONG: 5.3 8.6 12.9 16.13 (109)
HAWTHORN: 3.1 8.3 10.4 11.9 (75)
GOALS: Geelong: Graham, Riccardi, Mooney, McCarthy, Ablett, Chapman 2, King, Corey, Slade, Rooke.
Hawthorn: Dixon 4, Crawford, Bateman, Thompson, Brown, Barlow, Lekkas, Osborne.
BEST: Geelong: Ablett, Corey, Scarlett, Ling, Harley, Enright, Graham
Hawthorn: Dixon, Smith, Lekkas, Barlow, Tallis
CHANGES: Geelong: Wojcinski replaced in the selected side by Spriggs.
UMPIRES: Coates, Fussell and Rowe
CROWD: 28,001 at Telstra Dome
