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Brisbane v Geelong Preview

By Ryan Hadji

Life’s about to get a whole lot tougher for the Lions. We all know in modern day Football how important it is to have a quality ruckmen in your side. Look at the recent premiership sides- Ottens and King in ’07, Cox for West Coast in 06, Ball and Jolly in 2005. At the moment their best two ruckmen Jamie Charman and Matthew Leuenberger are both out injured. This leaves the 21 year old from East Fremantle Mitch Clark to hold the fort while Charman and Leuenberger sit on the sidelines. 

Clark was Charman’s back up for the 12 games he played last year, but besides that he hasn’t had a lot of experience as a ruckman at AFL level. His opponent Mark Blake has been in career best form averaging 22 hit-outs a game, and looks to improve. Jared Brennan who played his first game of the year last week will be Clark’s back-up, and already I’ve got grave concerns for the Lions.

But it’s not only the Ruck where the Cats look so strong, take a look at their forward line: Mooney, Hawkins, Johnson, Champan and Varcoe. Together they’ve kicked a combined 37 goals, but they’ll only get better. Steve Johnson probably one of the most underrated forwards going around has booted 12 goals for the season, Paul Chapman the small tough-nut has kicked 8 goals from the pocket, and Travis Varcoe is the X factor in the forward line with silky skills & very dangerous.

Both sides midfield is their best asset. Gary Ablett jr, Jimmy Bartel, Joel Corey, Joel Selwood and Corey Enright against Luke Power, Simon Black, Travis Johnstone, Daniel Rich and Bradd Dalziell; Geelong’s is that much better than the Lions, I feel a thrashing coming on.

One of the better players this season for the Lions Josh Drummond, celebrates his 50th match on Sunday. Drummond totally understands what the Lions have to do to beat the Cats “The contested footy is going to be crucial and we probably have to nullify their ball winners”. Drummond went on to say “But you can worry about them all you want and all their stars but it’s going to come down to us. It’s the tackling pressure, and the way we played against Sydney is the way we play our best footy”.

Sunday’s clash is made up of a Premiership team with so much polish, pace and effective skill against a developing side with really only a midfield and two gun forwards. The Cats will make it 5-0 in a thrashing of a young side and inexperienced coach.