Cats v Pies
They’re calling it the “Blockbuster”. It’s shaping up to be the game of the season to date. The Pies—the fresh, fast and fierce contenders—versus the Cats—the mature, mellow and masterful defenders.
Who will win?
Well, the answer is in the animals themselves. For the Maggies to win, they’ll need to fly—swoop on opportunity and attack in the face of intrusion. For the Cats to win, they’ll need to scratch, pounce, and land on their feet.
On paper, the Geelong midfield is simply classier, more efficient, and better experienced. Collingwood’s run will need to come from defence—big Heritier and Heath Shaw have the leg speed and the prowess to keep the ball flowing back into their forward congestion. In the midfield, Dane Swan will need to stack up another big possession game, while Scott Pendlebury, the X factor, will need to wave his wand. The small forward line is Collingwood’s biggest asset. The Medhursts, Didaks, Davises and Thomases need to keep sharp and circle the fly of big Cloke. Although Cloke can’t keep goals—actually, I’ll admit, he is improving— a handy point in the dieing minutes may just be that… handy.
Geelong will have to do one thing and one thing only—play to their reputation. Their list of stars alone— Ablett; Selwood; Bartel; Scarlett; Johnson; Chapman; Ling; Podsiadly— has almost enough depth and spread to take on full squads of twenty two. Fortunately, it’s a list backed by the support of quality secondary players—Mooney, Mackie, Taylor, Byrnes, Stokes, Enright, Milburn, Ottens, Varcoe. If each, or even most, of these luminaries plays to their name on Friday night, they will be all but unstoppable.
Bear in mind when these two teams clashed in 2007 (the year Geelong claimed the flag) and Collingwood dismantled the Cats, running off with an 86 point final advantage.
I think, or at least hope, that both of these inform sides will rise to the occasion. However, I think Geelong—a team that has the capacity to rise, and then rise again— will claim victory of the round nine “Blockbuster”…
… by 25 points.
