2006 NAB Cup - Week 1

[Twizzle]

Kingsley nine as Cats nab Blues
10:11:15 PM Sat 25 February, 2006
Matt Burgan
Exclusive to afl.com.au

Geelong full-forward Kent Kingsley has produced his finest individual goalkicking effort in an official AFL fixture to help his side hold off a gritty Carlton outfit by 28 points at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

In the second match of the double-header at the Dome, Geelong 0.15.8 (98) defeated Carlton 1.8.13 (70) to advance into the quarter finals of the NAB Cup. The Cats will play the Kangaroos at Cazaly Stadium in Cairns next Saturday night.

Kingsley, whose previous personal best was seven goals against Essendon in round nine 2004, booted nine goals.

His tally against the Blues is the best effort by a Geelong player in a pre-season/night series fixture, eclipsing Billy Brownless' eight-goal haul against West Coast in 1992.

Kingsley also became the 10th player in pre-season/night series matches to kick nine goals or more since these games were first played in 1956.

He shone in two quarters, booting five in the first term, before jagging four in the final term - including the last of the match after the final siren.

Matthew Scarlett in defence was at his All-Australian best for the Cats, while ball-magnets Jimmy Bartel, Cameron Ling, James Kelly and Darren Milburn combined for almost 80 touches.

Lance Whitnall, in his role across half-back was one of Carlton's best, while Ryan Houlihan and Matthew Lappin were the leading possession winners for the match with 25 disposals each.

Entering the match, Carlton was at virtually full strength, with new recruit and former Swan Jason Saddington (knee) the only first-choice player on the sidelines.

Geelong went in without skipper Steven King, Tom Harley, Steve Johnson, Brad Ottens, Peter Riccardi, David Wojcinski, Henry Playfair and Andrew Mackie.

Carlton's outstanding pre-season of 2005 looked set to continue into the new year, when it slammed three goals to zip, which included goals to Irishman Setanta O'hAilpin and first-gamer Marc Murphy.

Despite the Blues' impressive start, it soon became the Kingsley show.

In the space of 15 minutes, Kingsley jagged five unanswered goals, giving the Cats an 11-point lead at quarter-time.

The Geelong spearhead had several opponents during this period, including Bret Thornton, Whitnall and Adam Hartlett.

An entertaining opening was followed by a dour term, which featured just two goals.

Charlie Gardiner became Geelong's second goalkicker in the early stages of the second term, while Carlton's only major came after the siren, when new Blue Dylan McLaren kicked truly.

The deficit was reduced to just eight points at the main break.

Major ball-winners to half-time included Lappin (15 disposals) and Whitnall (12) for Carlton, while Darren Milburn and Cameron Mooney had 11 touches each for the Cats.

Gary Ablett booted the first of the second half, extending Geelong's lead to 12 points, yet it came in a period when goals were hard to come by.

Carlton peppered its 50-metre zone for much of the third term - and this was reflected on the scoreboard when it scored six behinds for the quarter - but the Blues lacked system and fluency.

Carlton's tenacity eventually paid dividends when Nick Stevens banged through the first and only super-goal of the night at the 17-minute mark.

Geelong youngster Tom Lonergan answered with a fine snap but Brendan Fevola immediately replied, pegging the Cats' lead back to just two points heading into the final stanza.

The Blues hit the front at the start of the last quarter, when Brad Fisher kicked the first of two goals for the term.

But when Kingsley bobbed up again with four of Geelong's six final quarter goals, the Cats were home.

Geelong coach Mark Thompson was pleased with the first-up win, but added that Carlton put a good level of pressure on his side.

"You can't expect too much from the players, really. We started well and we had a good first quarter, but the little bits in between, we looked like we were a side that was playing their first game," Thompson said.

Thompson said Kingsley played a fantastic match.

"I wish he could kick like that every week - it'd be nice - and it'd make my job easier," Thompson said with a chuckle.

"He's just had a good summer. He looks strong, he looks quick and he looks confident.

"Sometimes key forwards - Alastair Lynch comes to mind - when you're 26 or 27 (years old), you can really play that key position role and I think Kent could be in for a big year."

Carlton coach Denis Pagan said the biggest difference in the match was the polish and the usage of the ball between the two sides.

"Our hardness, we were equal. Our entries, equal. We won the clearances. But just our usage of the ball, we made turnovers and that was the difference in the finish," Pagan said.

"Accuracy was another area too. We had our chances but we couldn't capitalise on them."

CARLTON: 0.3.2, 0.4.7, 1.5.13, 1.8.13 (70)
GEELONG: 0.5.1, 0.6.3, 0.8.6, 0.15.8 (98)

NINE POINT GOALS: Carlton: Stevens
Geelong: Nil
SIX POINT GOALS: Carlton: Fevola 2, Fisher 2, Deluca, McLaren, Murphy, S.O'hAilpin
Geelong: Kingsley 9, Lonergan 2, G.Ablett, Gardiner, Ling, Milburn
BEST: Carlton: Whitnall, Lappin, Houlihan, Stevens, S.O'hAilpin, Fisher
Geelong: Kingsley, Scarlett, Bartel, Ling, Kelly, Milburn
INJURIES: Carlton: Nil
Geelong: Mooney (buttock)
REPORTS: Nil
UMPIRES: Farmer, James, Jennings, Schmitt
CROWD: 31,297 at Telstra Dome

[from Geelong FC]

 

[Twizzle]

shame we didn't kick stright, score could have really blown out

 

[CyberKev]

I hear that Mitchell Clarke looked a likely type for Brisbane in their opener.

Has a lot of potential to seriously embarrass 5 other AFL clubs does big Mitch.

Will watch him with interest.

 

[CyberKev]

shame we didn't kick stright, score could have really blown out

LOL.

Given that you only had 1 extra scoring shot for the game it could feasibly be argued that you were lucky to have won by as much as you did.

Bad sign for Carlton if Kingsley could get 9 on them though :shock:

 

[meltiger]

All I will say is thank f**k Tommy Roach won't spend half a game standing Mark Williams come the regular season lol

I said last week he wasn't up to it!

 

[CyberKev]

All I will say is thank f**k Tommy Roach won't spend half a game standing Mark Williams come the regular season lol

I said last week he wasn't up to it!

In his defence, there are a lot of players in the comp who would find Williams a tough task. For mine, he is the hardest forward to match-up on in the comp.

 

[meltiger]

In his defence, there are a lot of players in the comp who would find Williams a tough task. For mine, he is the hardest forward to match-up on in the comp.

Thursfield would have done a better job.

In Tommy's defence, it was just a bad match-up

I'm not overly worried as I said on PRE. Having Gaspar, AK and Will all out left our backline bare as anything.

 

[CyberKev]

Thursfield would have done a better job.

In Tommy's defence, it was just a bad match-up

I'm not overly worried as I said on PRE. Having Gaspar, AK and Will all out left our backline bare as anything.

Thursfield, particularly given his inexperience, would also have struggled.

I think he may have fared better on the likes of Boyle.

I don't think anyone at Richmond is particularly well suited to a player like Williams, which is a good thing, given that he and Boyle were the only two forwards to perform up to scratch on the weekend.

The players you mention will undoubtedly improve the Tiger backline, but wouldn't have necessarily had a lot greater impact on Saturday as all of them are not greatly suited match-ups for the only two Hawk forwards who fired.

 

[meltiger]

Thursfield, particularly given his inexperience, would also have struggled.

Thursfield managed to beat Milne for most of the game (Milne kicked 3 with 2 late goals) the 2nd time we played St Kilda, and we we comprehensively trounced that day.

Also managed to beat O'Loughlin too, certainly someone I would argue is as difficult to play on as Williams.

With Gas & AK - The confidence levels of the backline are always down when those two are out, quite simply, you can't run on with 3 of your best 4 backmen off the field and expect to be overly competitive.

 

[CyberKev]

Thursfield managed to beat Milne for most of the game (Milne kicked 3 with 2 late goals) the 2nd time we played St Kilda, and we we comprehensively trounced that day.

Also managed to beat O'Loughlin too, certainly someone I would argue is as difficult to play on as Williams.

Milne is a crumbing pocket, whereas Williams plays centrally and generally uses smart, lightning leads that can be finished with either a strong overhead mark, or a Dunstall style chest mark that gives the defender practically no hope of spoiling when Williams gets a foot on him. Milne can be damaging, for sure, but he is also part of a much stronger forward set-up and would get less direct opportunity to Williams who tends to draw a majority of Hawthorn forward thrusts. This makes Williams a more difficult assignment, particularly for a young player who is only a flanking peripheral defender.

O'Loughlin also tends to drift around the 50 arc where sometimes he will take a good few marks and have an impact, and sometimes he'll scarcely come into play. He is a talented footballer, but is anything but consistent, does not play a similar style to Williams, and is never the central focus of the Swan attack.

Williams was in good nick on Saturday and got good delivery for the times at which he took his marks. When Williams is on song with his leads and getting some good delivery we will beat any direct opponent 9 times in 10, much less the raw and inexperienced ones.

He also dropped a few marks that he should have swallowed on the weekend (opponent well beaten, unforced errors) and could've got a few more.

 

[livingintheghetto]

I just finished watching the brisbane bombers game ...fantastic win there by the might lions

 

[camsmith]

I'll watch the reply of the Hawthorn v Richmond game later, but i was pretty impressed with new blokes, Humm was probably the standout.

We missed Cogs in the middle, and even Pets up around the 50 meter mark would have been handy, so i think the signs are good for us for the year ahead, although we will be doing it tough to get into the finals. We still need to find more space all over the ground and its great running the ball out of the backline, but we need to be able to give the ball off to someone who DOESN'T have a player right on him.

We just need to run harder and open up the ground and then guys like Lids and Harts and room to run and show us what they can do.

Anyway i might have more to add after ive seen the replay... next week i believe we play the Dogs at Shep.

 

[meltiger]

We still need to find more space all over the ground and its great running the ball out of the backline, but we need to be able to give the ball off to someone who DOESN'T have a player right on him.

You can thank the Hawthorn mega-flood for that.


Pettifer was sorely missed. Many like to bag him but I honestly believe he is an important part of our main line up.

People hitting the panic buttons around the place and Hawthorn people going into raptures makes me laugh.

I'll give them a NAB Cup win if it keeps them warm and fuzzy inside. They play like that in the main season and they will lose by 100 every week. They are sh*t, there's no two ways about it.

We won't repeat that performance too often.

 

[camsmith]

Yeah, but to be fair to Hawthorn, we did flood quite a bit aswell.

Watching the replay and hearing what TW had to say, i think he knows what his doing. He didn't take this game too seriously..
Good to hear him acknowledge that we were handballing too much, i completly agree.

People hitting the panic buttons around the place and Hawthorn people going into raptures makes me laugh

Yeah you would have thought this game was for a place into the Grand Final going by the celebrations of the Hawks supporters when the final siren went. After the game walking to the car, a mate of mine who goes for hawthorn said, "im going to get a membership now.." I attempted not to laugh, almost as bad as Carlton and St Kilda supporters when it comes to the Preseason cup.

 

[CyberKev]

You can thank the Hawthorn mega-flood for that.

Both teams extensively dropped players back behind the ball throughout the game. This is an age old tactic and is removed from full-on flooding, hence the loose, uncontested nature of the game. Forwards from both sides had plenty of opportunity, but failed to make the most of them.

Pettifer was sorely missed. Many like to bag him but I honestly believe he is an important part of our main line up.

Agreed.

People hitting the panic buttons around the place and Hawthorn people going into raptures makes me laugh.

Agree that its crazy to hit panic buttons over a first-up NAB cup game, but a cursory glance at HHQ will show that most Hawthorn fans weren't overly excited by the performance on the weekend.

I'll give them a NAB Cup win if it keeps them warm and fuzzy inside. They play like that in the main season and they will lose by 100 every week. They are sh*t, there's no two ways about it.

Meh, the Tigers were lucky not to be 12+ goals down at halftime. Guess its a good thing for both sides that its not the main season.

We won't repeat that performance too often.

You were belted on numerous occasions last year with that brand of performance. Hopefully things will go better in 2006.

 

[meltiger]

You were belted on numerous occasions last year with that brand of performance. Hopefully things will go better in 2006.

We didn't have a backline last weekend! You can run from that all you like ... It is a fact. Jay is looking to be at the least serviceable. If we can get him in the short term playing the role Benny Gale did in 2001 ... We will be a completely different team.

& I don't care what you say, Thursfield would have done a better job than Tommy.

We'll also not see as pathetically gutless a performance as what we did by Joel Bowden either. Several goals were directly a result of his turnovers.


On Hawthorn, they are sh*t, but they seem to be moving in the right direction. I still tip em to win 10 games this year come the real stuff.

 

[CyberKev]

We didn't have a backline last weekend! You can run from that all you like ... It is a fact.

And Hawthorn didn't have a forward line outside of Williams (who you don't have a sound match-up for) last weekend and you can run from that all you like.

& I don't care what you say, Thursfield would have done a better job than Tommy.

And I don't care what you say, Williams would have still kicked 5 because its a poor matchup.

We'll also not see as pathetically gutless a performance as what we did by Joel Bowden either. Several goals were directly a result of his turnovers.

As with all other defenders, Bowden makes errors, he made a couple of forced ones under pressure on the weekend and they were punished. Richmond, as with Hawthorn, as with all sides at some point or other, but with sides outside the eight more often than is desirable, get goals kicked on them from turnovers.

On Hawthorn, they are sh*t, but they seem to be moving in the right direction. I still tip em to win 10 games this year come the real stuff.

Time will tell.

The side could've won 10 last year and didn't, so I'll not look beyond the first win (whenever it arrives) at this point.

 

[meltiger]

And I don't care what you say, Williams would have still kicked 5 because its a poor matchup.

Absoloute rubbish Kev. He's not that good.

 

[meltiger]

& regardless of which, you may not have had a forward line but the only notable out was Crawford. Along with Everit sitting down for most of the game.

Two players who could improve your team to come back & you beat us by only 10 points & same as always, straighter kicking from our forwards would have changed the result. better decision making also would have changed the result ... The point Richo kicked to put us in front should have been a 9 pointer to Joel Bowden and game over.

We had at the very least, 6 players out who would walk into the main side. As I've said all along you lot can take your NAB win all you like, if you think your anywhere near us in terms of how the team is progressing though your kidding yourselves. We are miles ahead.

 

[CyberKev]

& regardless of which, you may not have had a forward line but the only notable out was Crawford. Along with Everit sitting down for most of the game.

Both of whom would have contributed heavily to the contest, as would Brown & Coughlan for the Tigers (and possibly Pettifer). The other outs for the Tigers were scarcely different from the lesser outs for the Hawks, with the sole exception of Gaspar, who would have had no impact on the game because he couldn't have matched up on Williams.

Two players who could improve your team to come back & you beat us by only 10 points & same as always, straighter kicking from our forwards would have changed the result. better decision making also would have changed the result ... The point Richo kicked to put us in front should have been a 9 pointer to Joel Bowden and game over.

Irrelevant.

Had Hawthorn had more than 1 forward firing and thus been able to exploit weight of opportunity they would have been 12+ goals ahead at half-time and it would have effectively been game over.

Better decision making???

Better decision making going inside 50 during the first half of almost total Hawk ground play dominance would have, as mentioned above, contributed to a 12+ goal halftime lead.

We had at the very least, 6 players out who would walk into the main side. As I've said all along you lot can take your NAB win all you like, if you think your anywhere near us in terms of how the team is progressing though your kidding yourselves. We are miles ahead.

The players to come back into your side are no more than a reflection on the relative strength of the side. Only 3 of them could've genuinely had any real impact on the game (due to positional importance and match-up capability) as distinct from the 2 from Hawthorn (which even then is assuming Barker couldn't have a similar impact for an underperforming Hawk forward structure as Pettifer would have for the Tiger one).

As always your uncontrollable bias and ignorance of footballing facets beyond the superficial result in you making delusional and outlandish statements.