Geelong needs to finish its season with a win to guarantee a place in the Victorian Premier Cricket finals after losing to third-placed Fitzroy Doncaster last Saturday.
The Lions chose to bat at Schramms Reserve and started solidly until opener Lakshmn Shivakumar (26) chopped on Josh Garner with the score at 53.
Australian T20 and one day player Glenn Maxwell made 49 off 50 before holing out off left-arm spinner Hayden Butterworth.
With the run rate hovering at just over five an over, opener Jack Rudd looked set for a ton with the Lions at 192 off 38 overs.
But Rudd holed out off leg spinner Tom O’Connell in a bid to lift the Lions to a run a ball.
Fitzroy Doncaster made just 68 following Rudd’s dismissal, including a 7/38 collapse, but still finished with a defendable 258.
Former Alexander Thomson junior Kieren Helwig tore through the lower order, claiming 4/41 and combining with keeper Josh McDonald for a run out after his promotion from Geelong’s second XI a few weeks ago.
Maxwell struck first for the home side dismissing Eamonn Vines for 17 with a ball that appeared high and just going down the leg side.
McDonald (13) was run out trying to make a single with the Cats at 66, before Maxwell struck again snaring Butterworth (33) caught and bowled for no additional score.
The Lions dismissed Gus Boyd (3) and Tyler Larkin (2) cheaply, with the Cats in trouble at 5/77.
Tom Jackson (16) and Tom O’Connell (31) put on 40 for the sixth wicket before both they were dismissed with Geelong on 117.
Josh Larkin made 54 off 63 to give Geelong some hope.
But Maxwell put the final nail in the Cats’ coffin dismissing him with the score at 165.
Josh Garner made a valiant 31 but the Cats finished 70 runs short.
Geelong dropped back to sixth place with the loss, but a win against seventh-placed Northcote at Geelong Cricket Ground on Saturday will guarantee entry into the finals.
A loss would put Geelong at the mercy of eighth-placed Melbourne University and ninth-placed Dandenong, which have easy games against Greenvale Kangaroos (16th) and Kingston Hawthorn (last) respectively.
Northcote has had a mixed season despite finishing fourth on the ladder in 2019/2020.
Top order batsmen Mark Phelan and Josh Sundberg both average 40-plus, while paceman Michael Topp has taken 26 wickets.
But if the Cats negate these threats and play their best they should clinch a finals berth.
