Geelong overcame a slow start and third-quarter scare to post a 59-point win over AFL cellar dwellers Greater Western Sydney at Skoda Stadium on Saturday.
The hosts kicked the first five goals of the game and continued to serve it up to one of the league’s premiership favourites until fading out late in the 24.13 (157) to 15.8 (98) loss.
The Cats regained the lead in the 15th minute of the second quarter thanks to the first of James Podsiadly’s five goals, but never managed to snuff out GWS’s resistance until the final quarter.
The visitors played most of the fourth term with only one man on the bench.
Nathan Vardy was substituted off late in the third term, while Steve Johnson and Allen Christensen were involved in an accidental clash of heads.
Johnson and Christensen, who were among Geelong’s best, knocked each other senseless in the eighth minute of the final quarter when they both bent over to collect a ball in dispute.
The pair eventually rose to their feet and were helped off the ground, but took no further part in the match.
GWS failed to take advantage of the personnel advantage, with the Cats kicking 10 of the game’s final 11 goals to claim top spot on the ladder.
It was a different story in the third quarter, when the Cats simply couldn’t shake the Giants despite Podsiadly, who was returning after one match out due to knee and ankle injuries, booting four of his majors.
Buoyed by co-captain Callan Ward’s run off halfback and the marking prowess of key forward Jeremy Cameron, who hit the post twice and finished with four goals, GWS levelled the scores in the 28th minute of the penultimate quarter.
But the upset of all upsets wasn’t to be.
Geelong skipper Joel Selwood, nursing a suspected dislocated finger, lifted another level in the fourth quarter to galvanise his side.
Selwood spearheaded the rout with 10 disposals and two goals in the last quarter.
For the Giants, Ward, Cameron, Adam Treloar and Rhys Palm were all great in what, early on, had all the makings of one of the best performances of the Giants’ 33-game existence.
