A ruthless Coburg and Melbourne’s gloomy weather conspired against an out-of-sorts Geelong at the MCG to send the reining premier crashing by 34 points on Saturday morning.
Geelong, determined to bury the ignominy of its round one debacle, was never in the hunt after half time against a hard-edged Coburg side destined to finish in the finals again this year.
Coburg was far superior for most of the match and once ahead in the second quarter, motored away in the unrelenting drizzle with the wet-weather smarts Geelong lacked.
Coach Leigh Tudor conceded the Cats failed to adjust to the slippery conditions and did not apply the same physical pressure that Coburg did.
“I just think Coburg played the conditions a lot better than us, they played really good wet weather football,” Tudor said.
“They were first in and won a lot of the contested ball and we just couldn’t stop them, so that’s pretty much it, we couldn’t match them.”
The result dropped Geelong out of the top four and into seventh position, four deep in a cluster of five teams on four wins and three losses.
Captain James Byrne sustained a fractured thumb and will miss a month’s football, while Brodie Moles (ankle), David Johnson (soreness) and Kane Tenace (knee) are all strong chances to play this week.
Rugged defender David Johnson, relishing the wet conditions, was the Cats’ best and was the resilient wall down back that the Cats needed more of.
He was complemented by father-son back flanker Adam Donohue, who was lively across halfback weaving through the traffic with the confidence of a seasoned-veteran.
“I thought David Johnson was clearly our best player, he was outstanding all day,” Tudor said.
“I thought Jeremy Laider and Adam Donahue were probably our second and third best players, which is a really good effort for them to be influencing games in their first season of senior footy, so they were good.”
Travis Varcoe unleashed a couple of sizzling runs to light up the dull sky, as did Shannon Byrnes, who ran himself into the ground to be the Cats’ leading possession winner.
The Cats never adapted to the wintry conditions and were often caught out in wrong positions, allowing their Coburg opponents to dictate terms around the contested situations.
This was evident during the third quarter, when Coburg slammed on three goals from 10 scoring shots as a result of some tardy defence from the Cats.
“We seemed to just be at the back of the pack all the time and not at the front. The Coburg guys were smart enough to go to the drop of the ball, but we were at the back of the pack,” Tudor said.
“So I think that’s definitely an area we need to improve on for next week.”
Geelong had a number of opportunities to rejuvenate some life into the contest during the third quarter, but squandered them with a series of near misses in front of goals.
Likewise, the Cats, needing a lift, linked up in a couple of promising forward forays, but were out-smarted by the hardened Tigers, who forced a number of avoidable turnovers.
The loss is the Cats’ second against Coburg this season.
The Cats face North Ballarat at Austar Arena on Sunday afternoon at 2pm.
Match details
Geelong 1.4 3.7 3.18 6.15 (51)
Coburg 1.4 4.11 7.18 11.19 (85)
Best: D. Johnson, A. Donohue, J. Laider, T. Varcoe, S. Byrnes, M. Firman
Goals: T. Lonergan 2, B. Prismall, S. Hogan, J. Davenport, M. Firman
