Match

Geelong Cats vs Sydney Swans

Commentary / 22 Apr 2023

Pre Game

00:00
Sydney has won four of its last five matches at this venue (including one game against West Coast), but lost by 22 points in its last match here against Geelong in 2019.

Quarter 1

00:00
Q1 is now underway.
00:30
Geelong has been a slow starter this season and is ranked last for points differential in the opening ten minutes of games.
02:49
The early goal for the returning Sam Simpson followed a forward half intercept by the Cats. Geelong has scored 35 points per game from forward half intercept possessions this season (ranked No.1).
03:58
Geelong is ranked No.1 for centre bounce clearance differential this season, but Sydney has won the first two centre bounce clearances tonight and scored its first goal from this source.
05:34
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Gary Rohan)
08:16
The Swans have applied a pressure factor of 187 this season (ranked No.1). Geelong is ranked fourth in this measure and not surprisingly the early minutes of this game have featured a number of strong tackles from both teams.
09:04
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Mark Blicavs)
09:16
Geelong has an early 3-1 lead in forward half intercepts and both of its goals have come from this source. Gryan Miers provided the assist on the last goal, which was goal assist No.12 this season for Miers (ranked No.1 in the AFL).
10:35
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Gary Rohan)
12:33
The Cats have a 7-2 lead in clearances and it was the last of these that led to the goal from Tom Hawkins. Geelong has outscored their opponents by 14 points per game from clearances this season (ranked No.1).
15:31
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Oliver Henry)
15:37
Three goals from four forward half intercepts to start the game for the Cats. This season teams have averaged 27 points from 22 such intercepts per game.
18:19
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Jeremy Cameron)
18:27
Geelong has an early 10-3 lead in hard ball gets with this driving the contested possession advantage. The Cats have scored a goal from 27 percent of their inside 50 entries this season (ranked third), but have five goals from just nine entries to start tonight.
20:15
SCORE GOAL - Swans (Tom Papley)
20:22
An important goal against the flow for Tom Papley and Sydney. Papley kicked a career-high six goals last week, but also recorded career-highs for kicks (21), metres gained (686) and AFL Player Rating points (30.3).
23:27
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Jeremy Cameron)
23:57
With Sydney missing its first three choice key defenders tonight, the Geelong key forwards have already kicked three goals including the last from Jeremy Cameron. In Rounds 1-4, Sydney was ranked second at preventing the opposition from taking a mark in the forward 50.
27:12
Geelong now leads 6-1 in contested marks, 3-0 in intercept marks, and 6-2 in forward 50 marks and has been able to exploit these potentially vulnerable areas for Sydney early in the game.
27:34
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Jack Bowes)
30:18
Geelong outscored Sydney 41-6 in the opening quarter of the Grand Final last season and has again dominated the opening quarter tonight (39-12). The Cats turned an 8-1 lead in forward half intercepts into a 25-0 advantage in points scored from this source.

Quarter 2

00:00
Q2 is now underway.
00:10
The Swans average 25.4 forward half intercepts and 10.2 forward half clearances per game and a total of 50 points per game is scored from these sources. In the opening quarter, Sydney had just one forward half intercept and zero forward half clearances.
01:13
Sydney has a 6-2 edge in centre clearances, but only two of these clearances have resulted in an inside 50 entry, while Geelong has scored both times it has won the centre bounce clearance.
03:25
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Tom Hawkins)
03:36
Geelong now leads 7-0 in forward half clearances and 18-0 in points scored from this source. All of the goals tonight for the Cats have come from forward half chains.
05:08
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Brad Close)
05:36
The Cats lead 13-5 in effective clearances, with both goals this quarter coming from such clearances. Geelong also leads 11-8 in contested possession in its forward 50, which is a zone where the team defending normally wins this measure.
10:00
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Tom Hawkins)
10:21
The hard ball get count is now 17-7 in favour of the Cats and the two key forwards for the Cats have already contributed five goals in a dominant start to the game.
11:14
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (Errol Gulden)
14:21
Geelong has successfully applied 71 percent of its tackle attempts tonight while Sydney has recorded tackle efficiency of only 58 percent. The AFL average is 64 percent and Sydney has not been below 60 percent in any game this season.
15:40
SCORE GOAL - Swans (Will Hayward)
17:22
Geelong has now scored 1.2.8 from its three centre bounce clearances while Sydney has scored 1.1.7 from eight such clearances.
19:04
Geelong has had ten chains starting in its defensive 50 and is yet to generate an inside 50 entry from any of these chains. However, with the ball in its forward half for 65 percent of the game, the Cats have been able to score heavily from forward half chains.
19:58
Swans Interchange - Matt Roberts off due to an injury.
20:37
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Patrick Dangerfield)
20:56
The Cats have scored 8.2 from set shots tonight and 10.2 from shots at goal beyond 30 metres. The AFL average conversion from more than 30 metres from goal is less than 50 percent.
22:45
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (Errol Gulden)
23:09
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (James Rowbottom)
24:35
SCORE GOAL - Swans (Isaac Heeney)
24:41
Three of the four goals for Sydney have been launched by an intercept in the defensive midfield. The Swans now lead 18-0 in points scored from defensive half chains, but trail 2-61 in points scored from forward half chains.
26:37
SCORE GOAL - Swans (Dylan Stephens)
27:42
When these teams met in the 2022 Grand Final, Geelong led at half-time by 36 points, which is the current margin two minutes before the main break tonight.
29:22
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (Rushed)
29:41
In the last ten minutes, Sydney has edged Geelong for contested possessions (14-11) and inside 50 entries (6-3) and has had the last five scores in the game.
31:42
The experienced Cats have dominated the first half with a clearance count of 24-16 being converted into both a lead in points scored from stoppages (38-8) and a territorial advantage (30-20 inside 50 entries). Geelong also leads 61-8 in points scored from forward half chains.

Quarter 3

00:00
Q3 is now underway.
00:32
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Brad Close)
01:28
The top-4 players on the ground for ranking points in the first half are all aged 30 or greater. The Geelong players tonight are on average three years older than their opponents, and the eight oldest players in this game are all Cats.
02:33
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Jeremy Cameron)
02:49
A fast start to the third quarter for the Cats with its first forward half intercept resulting in another goal. Geelong now leads 15-6 in such intercepts and 37-8 in points scored from this source.
05:20
Patrick Dangerfield leads all players for score involvements (7) and also has team highs for contested possessions (9) and clearances (5). Dangerfield has launched three scoring chains which are also a game-high.
07:56
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Gary Rohan)
08:04
Geelong leads the clearances 4-1 and inside 50 entries 7-1 this quarter with Sydney again forced to defend repeat entries from the Cats from either stoppages or intercepts.
09:10
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Oliver Henry)
09:24
Geelong has recorded a shot at goal accuracy of 55 percent this season (ranked second), and tonight has taken this to another level with a return of 10.2 from set shots and all of these set shots have been from beyond 30 metres from goal.
10:52
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Gary Rohan)
11:04
The Cats continue to be potent in scoring from stoppages. Geelong has scored 2.3.15 from seven centre bounce clearances. The AFL average is a score from 25 percent of such clearances.
14:52
The last goal to Jeremy Cameron was the first score of the night for Geelong to come from a defensive half chain and featued another forward 50 mark. The Cats lead now 12-3 in such marks and 9-5 in contested marks.
16:32
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Tom Hawkins)
16:45
Another centre bounce goal for the Cats (now lead 51-8 in points scored from stoppages) and the two key forwards for the Cats have now shared eight goals evenly.
22:03
The Swans have scored from 55 percent of their forward half clearances this season (ranked No.1). Tonight, Sydney has not scored from five such clearances, while Geelong has scored 5.0.30 from 11 forward half clearances.
26:12
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Zach Tuohy)
26:40
Six goals in a row to the Cats with the match continuing to follow the script of the 2022 Grand Final. In that match, Geelong led by 74 points at the final change following six unanswered goals in the third quarter.
27:57
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Tom Hawkins)
28:40
This is the second week in a row that the Cats have kicked four goals from centre bounce clearances. The AFL average is 10.7 points per game from this source.
29:35
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (Aaron Francis)
30:43
Geelong was ruthlessly efficient in the third quarter with forward half kicking efficiency of 70 percent (compared to Sydney with 41 percent). The Cats kicked three goals from centre bounce clearances and scored 44 points from just 14 inside 50 entries.

Quarter 4

00:00
Q4 is now underway.
00:51
Sydney had won the inside 50 count by 11.6 per game this season before tonight (ranked second). Geelong leads this count by 14 tonight with its control in clearances and forward half intercepts driving this territorial advantage.
01:34
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (Errol Gulden)
04:29
Mark Blcavs has stepped into the ruck role again tonight and contributed an equal team-high six clearances, six score involvements (second only to Dangerfield), and kicked a goal in another strong game from the versatile Cat.
07:07
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Gary Rohan)
07:56
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Patrick Dangerfield)
08:26
Geelong now leads 18-4 in forward 50 marks, with the last two intercept marks from errant kick-ins. Sydney had not conceded more than 12 such marks to its opposition in the first five games this season.
08:46
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Sam Simpson)
09:20
After kicking 14.2 from set shots in the first three quarters, Geelong has scored 0.3 from its set shots at goal this quarter.
13:02
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Oliver Henry)
13:27
While Geelong leads the inside 50 count 50-33, it has more dominant advantages in forward 50 disposals (50-21) and forward 50 marks (20-6) with its ball use into the forward 50 also better than that of Sydney.
14:18
SCORE BEHIND - Cats (Rushed)
18:55
Tom Stewart averaged a career-high 28.2 disposals, 588 metres gained, and 10.5 intercept possessions at this venue last year. Tonight Stewart has a team-high seven intercepts, gained 459 metres from his 22 disposals, and been the main player assigned to mind Tom Papley.
19:24
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Brad Close)
21:14
Brad Close has again been a good contributor for the Cats with his seven score involvements including two goals and two assists while he has also applied four tackles and won four intercepts in an all-round game.
23:17
SCORE GOAL - Cats (Jeremy Cameron)
23:41
Both of the goals to the Cats this quarter have come from defensive half chains (after only scoring one such goal in the first three quarters). Geelong now leads 73-26 in points scored from turnovers.
25:26
SCORE BEHIND - Swans (Tom Papley)
26:24
A dominant win by the Cats who outscored the Swans 57-10 from stoppages and 53-9 from forward half intercepts. The big names for Geelong all played well with ten goals between Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron and a game-high 13 score involvements for Patrick Dangerfield.