GEELONG is through to another VFL preliminary final after eclipsing the Casey Scorpions by 49-points in front of a crowd of around 7000 in a qualifying final at Simonds Stadium on Friday night.
Cats VFL coach Matthew Knights described the 12th consecutive win of the season as “fabulous” and was an opportunity for some of the rising youngsters to stand u
p in finals pressure.
Shane Kersten finished with four goals and has become perhaps the Cats most pivotal player up forward in the VFL.
“His (Kersten) evolution of his season is that he was in the NAB Cup team and playing really well and then he had a really bad hamstring injury for about eight or 10 weeks there so it really derailed his season but for the last four to six weeks, he’s got going again,” Knights said.
“He’s probably the type of player we need hitting form at the right time of year, I thought the combination with Bathie, Walker and Kersten worked really well considering the conditions, it might have been a chance that it might have been a bit top heavy but I thought the three of them work really well together and all had a quite a big impact.”
George Horlin-Smith was best on ground for the Cats and has put his name up for a senior recall if required for AFL finals. The VFL team will have a week off next week.
It was, however, an admirable performance from Casey given that it only had seven Melbourne-listed players playing; at least five fewer than what it has been accustomed to this season.
Ex-Cat Tom Gillies was rampant early with two goals to help the Scorpions to an early second quarter lead before the Cats unleashed with strong rebound from defence followed by some creativity from Jesse Stringer up forward.
Casey’s Cameron Pedersen kicked a late goal to reduce the deficit to 15-points at the main break.
An undisciplined effort from Cats veteran Josh Hunt gave Casey the opener of the third term to close the margin to nine points, but again Geelong responded to the minor challenge with five unanswered goals.
Shane Kersten’s fourth goal of the match extended the margin to 40-points nearing the last change.
Taylor Hunt, who is an emergency for the AFL clash against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday, did not play.
Casey, who has had a wretched run in finals, faces the prospect of yet again being bundled out in straight sets with a cut-throat semi-final meeting against the winner of Werribee and Essendon next week.
Geelong’s historic first VFL final on Friday night may well be the start of a trend at Simonds Stadium with the AFL looking into scheduling Geelong’s qualifying final clash in Geelong next week if it meets Fremantle.
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