Suns shine in their Darwin fortress
It was a midfield, ground ball game in the humid Darwin conditions, and the Suns held all the aces. Touk Miller, Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell reigned supreme and looked the equal of any on-ball brigade across the competition.
They dominated the Cats’ midfield quartet of Jack Bowes, Tom Atkins, Brandon Parfitt and Oisin Mullin. Anderson had 41 possessions, Rowell 35 and Miller 32.
The Suns were born to play in the NT. They are now 6-2 in Darwin, after beating the Cats by 64 points, winning their past six across the past three years. That is a 75% strike rate. It was also the highest score of any team this season - 26.8 (164) - and the biggest score a Chris Scott team has conceded.
Gold Coast spent the week in Darwin, coming off a five-day break after beating the Roos last week, and were simply better acclimatised to the 29-degree night and slippery conditions.
While Geelong dropped and fumbled the ball, the Suns were clean. Jack Lokusious and Bailey Humphrey both booted five goals each, while Ben King notched up four, giving him the temporary lead in the Coleman.
To make it sweeter for Suns coach Damien Hardwick, he even had the luxury of resting co-captain Jarrod Witts, Nick Holman, Jed Walter and Jake Rogers for this match.
Geelong have only taken the field once without both Jeremy Cameron and Tom Hawkins since Cameron made the move south at the start of the 2021 season. That was a 25-point loss to the Bulldogs in round 24 last year. Now they are zero from two in that scenario.
But not even their presence could have helped the Cats. While Shannon Neale, Oliver Henry and Gary Rohan kicked five goals between them, they were starved of opportunity. It was the biggest defeat of Scott’s coaching career.
Now, that is using your head
The lessons of last week have been learned. Two Gold Coast players, Ben Ainsworth and Mac Andrew, clashed heavily in a marking contest during the second term and both were immediately taken from the ground by Suns medical staff.
Ainsworth was holding a towel to his face as he walked to the sidelines and was assessed before being allowed to return to the field. Andrew hobbled to the bench and after a brief stint back on the ground was subbed out of the game at half-time with a lower leg injury. He was replaced by Alex Davies.
Despite neither player being concussed, the optics looked good.
It was in stark contrast to last week at GMHBA Stadium when questions were asked as to why Jeremy Cameron was allowed to stay on the ground after he fell heavily in a marking contest against Port Adelaide and his head slammed into the turf.
Cameron was diagnosed with delayed concussion the following morning, but the AFL cleared Geelong of breaching any rules, saying the Cats medics had tested the Big Cat on the field before allowing him to play out the final 10 minutes of the game.
Intercept king Stewart fails to take a grab
Much of the talk following Port Adelaide’s shock victory against the Cats at GMHBA last week was Ken Hinkley’s plan to take Geelong defender Tom Stewart out of the game.
Before the clash in Darwin on Friday night, Suns coach Damien Hardwick was asked if he would adopt a similar tactic to Hinkley who used Jed McEntee to harangue and harass Stewart and significantly nullify his influence.
“Yeah, look, anything that reduces Tom’s influence we will certainly look at,” Hardwick told Fox Footy. “I have been coaching for a fair while and he’s hurt me a lot of times along the way, so we’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve.”
Hardwick didn’t specify what his plans were, but it was his midfield that made all the difference. The amount of quick and long ball that they supplied to the Suns’ forwards did not give Stewart a chance. At times he locked like he needed a helmet and a flak jacket, such was the constant bombardment. He had 21 possessions, but did not take a mark.
The Cats have now lost their past three - against Melbourne, Port Adelaide and the Suns - after winning their opening seven games. It is not panic stations yet, but Chris Scott would be keen to arrest the slide next week at home against the Giants.
Next week, they could get back Cameron (concussion), Hawkins (managed), Stanley (managed) and Sam De Koning (hamstring soreness).
