GEELONG could sew up a top four spot if it can overcome St Kilda at Marvel Stadium tomorrow (Saturday, August 17), with the Cats keen on a return to the finals following the tribulations of 2023.<\/p>\n
The Cats sit on 56 points in fourth with two games left to play in the home and away season, with Brisbane just behind on 54 points.<\/p>\n
If Geelong can defeat the Saints and Brisbane fall to reigning premiers Collingwood in Round 23, the Cats will be well placed to potentially earn a home final, with Round 24’s game against 16th-placed West Coast at GMHBA Stadium.<\/p>\n
Cats head coach Chris Scott has been extremely pleased with his side’s play in recent weeks, including Saturday’s hard-fought 62-73 win over Fremantle.<\/p>\n
“In the context of the season, it was a pretty important game for us,” Scott said.<\/p>\n
“We’re confident, but not over-confident, I hope, because I stress we were 7-0 at the start of the year, but it didn’t feel like we were the best team in the comp, and everything was perfect.<\/p>\n
“Then we lost some games in the tough part of the draw to good teams, most of them by small margins, and I didn’t think we were going that badly, either.”<\/p>\n
Among the list of performing Cats was small forward Shaun Mannagh, who kicked two goals against the Dockers – including the game-sealing major in the last quarter – and collected 15 disposals.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully all our fans turn out for us and push us off into a nice little finals series,” Mannagh said ahead of this week’s game.<\/p>\n
Patrick Dangerfield was elite last week with 11 clearances, while Shannon Neale also kicked a brace in another important showing for the young forward.<\/p>\n
Gryan Miers led all ball getters with 23 disposals and 292 metres gained, while Max Holmes, Zach Guthrie, Ollie Dempsey and Dangerfield all finished with 20 disposals each.<\/p>\n
Gary Rohan is likely to return to the line-up for this week’s matchup with the Saints, after a decision to delay his return from concussion an extra week.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow’s game at Marvel Stadium begins at 7.30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GEELONG could sew up a top four spot if it can overcome St Kilda at Marvel Stadium tomorrow (Saturday, August 17), with the Cats keen on a return to the finals following the tribulations of 2023. The Cats sit on 56 points in fourth with two games left to play in the home and away […]<\/p>\n