Geelong’s Tom Hawkins kept himself in the Coleman Medal race with four goals as the Cats held out the Western Bulldogs in a hard-fought AFL clash on Sunday but lost Travis Varcoe to another injury.
The Cats won 16.11 (107) to 11.7 (73) at Simonds Stadium, but only after a tougher fight than expected, with the Bulldogs pulling within 15 points early in the last term after trailing by as much as 37.
Varcoe, playing his first AFL game of the year after recovering from foot stress fractures, was subbed off after injuring an ankle in the first quarter, although the Cats were hopeful he could play against Sydney next round.
The Cats started well, their defence holding up superbly to keep the Bulldogs to just one scoring shot in the first term, a goal, despite the Dogs kicking with a stiff breeze and winning plenty of the ball in the midfield.
Andrew Mackie, Josh Hunt and Corey Enright all racked up touches across halfback and the midfield and used the ball well to help the Cats to a 14-point lead at the first change.
That stretched to six goals late in the second term, with Geelong booting five of the first six majors, including a thumping long-range set shot from James Podsiadly, who performed well.
But Dogs midfielder Adam Cooney, who has struggled for form and regular matches this season as he battles a chronic knee complaint, answered with his own 50m goal on the run late in the quarter.
The Dogs fell 37 points down early in the third quarter, but kicked four of the next five goals to cut the gap to 21 at the last change.
Cooney, enjoying one of his best games of the season, had 10 touches in the third term to help get the Dogs back in touch, while midfielders Matthew Boyd and Ryan Griffen racked up possessions.
Former Cat Nathan Djerrkura had fewer touches, but a big influence and set up the opening goal of the last quarter, to Jarrad Grant, to give the Bulldogs a real sniff.
That faded, though, when a turnover from the Bulldogs’ Lukas Markovic coming out of defence allowed Allen Christensen to set up Tom Hawkins for his third goal.
Hawkins added another late in the term to take his season tally to 58, two behind the competition leader, Fremantle’s Matthew Pavlich.
