GEELONG will enter the final round of the VFLW season in second spot on the ladder after holding off a fast-finishing Hawthorn for a six-point win at Box Hil City Oval on Saturday.
However, the double-chance still isn’t guaranteed despite the Cats posting their tenth win of the season.
If Port Melbourne was to win its final two games North Melbourne and Hawthorn, and Geelong loses to the unbeaten Collingwood in the last round, the Cats would fall to third and an elimination final.
Coach Andrew Bruce was happy with Geelong’s start to the contest but disappointed with the Cats’ performance as the game went on.
“We were really happy with our first quarter,” he told Bay 93.9’s The Sideline View. “We were 1.5, and we probably should have been, maybe, 4.2 – we missed a couple of opportunities.
“We definitely were all over the Hawks in the first quarter and were really comfortable with the way we were playing our footy.
“Then, as the game went on, we had a few issues (in) that we didn’t like the way we played.”
Bruce says a combination of a bigger ground that was heavy underfoot and not playing to Geelong’s system allowed Hawthorn back into the game.
“We handballed a lot more than we should of,” he said. “When we used the footy by foot, and we switched the footy, we gave ourselves really good opportunities.
“But there just wasn’t enough of that, and we fell back into allowing Hawthorn to make it more contested than it needed to be.”
Adelaide AFLW premiership player Jess Foley again impressed for the Cats, while Maddy Boyd and VFLW-listed duo Annabel Johnson and Olivia Fuller were also important contributors.
Twitter: @tom_king79
Geelong 1.5, 3.6, 4.6, 4.8 (32)
Hawthorn 0.0, 1.0, 2.1, 4.2 (26)
GOALS; Geelong: J. Woollett, P. Sheppard, L. Gardiner, D. Moloney
Hawthorn: S. Perkins 2, E. Chaston, D. Carbone
BEST; Geelong: J. Foley, M. Boyd, A. Johnson, O. Fuller, R. Garing, L. Gardiner
Hawthorn: I. Khoury, T. Luke, D. Carbone, J. Richardson, K. Hay, G. McRae
