Geelong was outplayed in its sole official AFL preseason match against Gold Coast, but assistant coach Shaun Grigg believes there were plenty of positives.
The Cats were missing a number of their stars, including Tom Stewart, Mitch Duncan, Gryan Miers, Sam Menegola, Jon Ceglar, Jack Henry and Gary Rohan, for the trip to Metricon Stadium, where they lost 11.6 (72) to 13.17 (95).
Grigg said while the result wasn’t what the Cats hoped, it was a good chance to get game time into some of the fringe players ahead of round one in less than two weeks.
“It was good to have the full match practice – we’ve obviously only got one chance at doing that so it was good to get the minutes into the players we needed,” he said.
“Obviously we would have liked to play a bit better, but it’s all part of our preparation to get minutes into young guys.
“The focus was towards round one – we weren’t putting all our eggs in the basket to win this game but it’s part of our prep going forward.
“We’ve got some work to do that we’ll train – we’ve got 12 days to work on a few things and continue our prep towards the Bombers.”
The Cats were ahead by 15 points early in third quarter, but the Suns kicked 10 of the next 14 goals in the 23-point win.
Jeremy Cameron kicked three of the Cats’ goals, while Patrick Dangerfield kicked two.
Cam Guthrie was among the Cats’ best, collecting 32 disposals and one goal, while young stars Max Holmes and Sam De Koning also stood out.
Holmes had 23 touches and kicked a goal, while De Koning was strong in defence and could have played himself into the round one team with 19 disposals, six intercepts and several important spoils.
The Cats will face Essendon at the MCG on Saturday, March 19 in the first round of the 2022 AFL season.
The game will be the annual Country Festival game, recognising the contribution on rural communities to the sport and the country.
