Saturday’s third AFL Round 14 match is between Geelong Cats and Fremantle Dockers. The opening bounce is set to commence at 7:40PM local time with the game to be played at Simonds Stadium. The home team Geelong Cats are the favourites for the match. View our preview and teams for the game between Geelong Cats and Fremantle Dockers.

Round: Round 14 7:40 PM June 29, 2013
Stadium: Simonds Stadium
Weather: 15° Possible shower

Featured Bookmakers:

Geelong Cats $1.50 vs Fremantle Dockers $2.60 at Sportsbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match

Geelong Cats $1.51 vs Fremantle Dockers $2.55 at Luxbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match

Odds Comparison by AFL Odds:

Geelong Cats	1.50	1.52	1.51	1.52	1.50	1.51
Fremantle Dockers	2.60	2.50	2.55	2.50	2.60	2.63

Preview:

The highlight of Saturday’s games will be when Geelong host Fremantle.

Outside of Geelong supporters, Fremantle players, staff and supporters would’ve been the only people not cheering on Brisbane’s miraculous victory over the Cats last week.

Inexplicably, after leading by 51 points in the third quarter, Geelong were beaten 103-98 last week.

This week, expect Fremantle to face the full wrath of an embarrassed Geelong outfit who return to Simonds Stadium for only the second time this year.

Fremantle recorded their fourth straight win last week with a 67 – 29 point win over North Melbourne.

It was the Dockers ninth win of the season and, throw in the draw with Sydney; they’ve only tasted defeat twice this season.

They have won 3 from 5 games on the road this year and can boast the best defence in the league, holding their last four opponents to an average 45 points.

They’ve been doing everything a required of a legitimate premiership side this year have Fremantle but they’ll need to produce a season best this week as Geelong look to bounce back from last week’s debacle.

Sixteen, four and eleven points have separated these two sides in their past three clashes and would expect this game to produce a similar result, so take a good look at the Tri-bet option.

Teams:

Geelong Cats:
B: Cameron Guthrie, Harry Taylor, Corey Enright
HB: Joel Corey, Tom Lonergan, Taylor Hunt
C: Andrew Mackie, Joel Selwood, Mitch Duncan
HF: Mathew Stokes, James Podsiadly, Mark Blicavs
F: Josh Caddy, Tom Hawkins, Steven Motlop
Foll: Dawson Simpson, Allen Christensen, Jimmy Bartel
Int: Josh Hunt, Jordan Murdoch, James Kelly, Jesse Stringer
Emerg: Jackson Thurlow, Billie Smedts, Nathan Vardy

In: J.Caddy
Out: S.Johnson (suspension)

Fremantle Dockers:
B: Zac Dawson, Luke McPharlin, Lee Spurr
HB: Clancee Pearce, Michael Johnson, Garrick Ibbotson
C: Paul Duffield, Ryan Crowley, Tendai Mzungu
HF: Nathan Fyfe, Chris Mayne, Stephen Hill
F: Hayden Ballantyne, Matthew Taberner, Michael Walters
Foll: Zac Clarke, Matt de Boer, Nick Suban
Int: Hayden Crozier, Danyle Pearce, Tom Sheridan, Jack Hannath
Emerg: Cameron Sutcliffe, Tanner Smith, Viv Michie

In: T.Sheridan
Out: M.Barlow (jaw)

Johnson, Crowley lose AFL tribunal bids

Geelong’s Steve Johnson’s two-match AFL ban has been upheld at the tribunal and the Cats star will have extra demerit points hanging over his head for the rest of the season.

In the night’s other tribunal decision Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley was found guilty of pinching North Melbourne star Brent Harvey.

Johnson will miss crucial games against the Dockers and Hawthorn, and will carry 79.04 points, rather than 9.28 had he pleaded guilty.

The midfielder-forward instead unsuccessfully argued his high bump on Brisbane’s Pearce Hanley during the Cats’ shock fade-out loss to the Lions at the Gabba on Sunday was unavoidable.

Coach Chris Scott had earlier admitted earlier on Tuesday it was a big risk by the club to challenge the rough conduct charge, even though the suspension would have been two games either way.

“It’s a huge risk, to take that many carryover points into the late part of the season,” Scott told reporters.

“But we feel really strongly about it that we have an obligation to defend our player.”

It’s the second time this season the Cats have gone to the tribunal over a bump and lost, after James Kelly copped a two-match ban for an incident with Essendon’s Brendon Goddard in round seven.

Johnson argued that his initial aim was to tackle Hanley, but after teammate Joel Corey reached him first and laid a tackle he changed his mind and braced for contact instead.

His advocate Peter Murdoch QC argued Johnson couldn’t have reasonably foreseen that Corey would tackle Hanley before he got there.

But Johnson himself admitted under cross-examination there was nothing unexpected in what happened.

In Tuesday night’s second case, Crowley denied pinching Harvey but the Kangaroos veteran maintained the Dockers tagger had done so repeatedly.

Harvey twice told umpires during the game about the pinching and repeated the accusation to an AFL investigator on Monday, before giving evidence to the tribunal.

Crowley’s advocate Seamus Rafferty put it to Harvey that the reason there was no footage of any pinching was that it didn’t happen even once.

“You’re right. It didn’t happen once. It happened about 300 times,” Harvey replied.

Earlier on Tuesday, West Coast’s Andrew Embley (one match), Melbourne’s Jake Spencer (three games) and St Kilda’s Tom Simpkin (two) all accepted suspensions for various offences.