Cats, Bombers to clash in Country Game

THE Geelong Cats head down the Princes Highway this Sunday, October 8 for a pivotal clash against Essendon as the AFLW Finals Series approaches.

With only a handful games to go in the regular season, Geelong will be desperate for a bounce-back win over the BombsEssendon in Round 6 having lost two of its past three games, most recently to reigning premiers Melbourne at GMHBA Stadium on Thursday last week.

The Cats meet the Bombers for the second time in Warrnambool at Reid Oval in the AFLW’s second annual Country Game, which brings the top level of women’s football to regional communities.

Cats midfielder Georgie Prespakis will pull on the hoops for the 25th time, while sister and Essendon player Maddy Prespakis is set to play her 50th AFLW game.

Cats backline coach Elise Coventry said the side expected ninth-placed Essendon to attempt to gain the upper-hand early, following a tough 20-point loss to cross-town rivals Collingwood in Round 5.

“Coming off a tough match against Collingwood, the bombers have shown they are a really competitive side, and they’ll want to answer back from that loss, for sure,” Coventry said.

“We need to keep banking potential wins like this weekend’s if we’re to put ourselves in the best position possible for finals.

“We’ll be preparing as best we can and compete for four quarters; we can’t really afford to drop any more games in a season as short as this.”

 

 

The Cats trailing Melbourne by 22 points at the final intermission but it was a Kate Hore-inspired fourth quarter that put the game beyond doubt, with the Demons winning the final term 27-0 and handing the Cats a 49-point defeat.

Among the highlights was a three-goal performance from Irish product Aishling Moloney and a 30-disposal performance from Nina Morrison.

Morrison has been one of the Cats’ top performers across the first half of this season, averaging 25.2 disposals, 5.8 tackles and four clearances a game.

“At time last week I think we held up really well against the Dees, near on three full quarters of play, but they just came too fast and too quickly for us to hang on,” Coventry said.

“It’s been well-documented that we’ve been playing really good first halves of footy, so for us we’re trying really hard to put together a full four-quarter performance.

“To get three against the best side in the comp was a real positive.”

 

 

The Cats and Bombers’ game begins at 1.05pm.

Geelong hosts Fremantle at GMHBA Stadium on October 14.