Geelong captain Joel Selwood believes Monday’s narrow loss against Hawthorn is a “friendly reminder” the team can’t slack off during games.
The Cats led by 13 points several minutes into the final quarter of the traditional Easter Monday clash before the Hawks kicked the final four goals of the game to claim the 14.8 (92) to 11.14 (80) win.
“We pride ourselves on making sure we finish off games well, so it’s a friendly reminder that if you’re a bit off … it doesn’t take much for the next side to come up,” Selwood said.
“They were much better for most of the night … we weren’t good enough around the ball and in the aerial contests.
“It’s actually nice that we’ve got a six-day break so we can turn this around pretty quick.”
The Cats were on the back foot early in the game, with Mitch Lewis kicking Hawthorn’s first goal in just 49 seconds, and the Hawks adding two more before the Cats had even registered a disposal.
“That was the story of the game, we were outplayed a little bit early [and] certainly outplayed in the last quarter,” coach Chris Scott said.
“The numbers were really strange for us … in contested ball numbers we were badly beaten.
“Really early in the game you have to tackle low and make sure you don’t give away free kicks and we gave away some free kicks that resulted in early goals and they got some momentum.
“It was a combination of our sloppiness there and their good execution.”
The Cats went into the quarter time break 23 points behind, but wrestled back control of the game through the middle quarters.
Geelong kicked five goals in each of the second and third quarters to get ahead.
Key forwards Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron both kicked three goals, as did small forward Tyson Stengle.
However the Cats struggled to find goals, with just five individual goal kickers on the day – Max Holmes and Patrick Dangerfield were the only other Cats to hit the scoreboard.
“We just didn’t put them away [even though] we had our chances to,” Scott said.
“We had the game on our terms and didn’t hammer home the advantage.
“As we’re seeing across the season, if you don’t take your chances, the opposition is probably going to get theirs.
“And they certainly took them … good kicking is good footy.”
The loss leaves the Cats sitting in seventh position on the ladder with three wins and two losses in the first five rounds.
The team will look to bounce back with a strong performance against a struggling North Melbourne side that sits second last on the ladder at Blundstone Arena in Hobart on Sunday afternoon.
