Knights Unfazed By Cats Mauling

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday March 31, 2008

Peter Hanlon

CATS 22.18 (150)

BOMBERS 6.15 (51)

A 99-POINT drubbing at the hands of Geelong will not send Essendon into their shell, with coach Matthew Knights last night vowing that his young team would continue to pursue an attacking rather than dour apprenticeship.

And in news that will chill the Demons, Geelong coach Mark Thompson said his team, which yesterday set an AFL record 462 possessions for the game, had not played as they had hoped, had over-possessed the ball, and would go all-out to produce "the best footy we're capable of playing" against Melbourne next weekend.

Geelong's midfield was blistering yesterday, Jimmy Bartel, Gary Ablett, Joel Corey, Joel Selwood, Matthew Stokes and Cameron Ling all taking the eye after seemingly being given free rein by opponents who chose not to use hard tags. Thompson was not surprised but wagered that "next time they play us, they probably won't let them free".

Knights maintained Mark McVeigh and later Henry Slattery had been tagging Ablett, but the Cats had simply given his Bombers "a huge reality check".

"You've got a Brownlow Medallist in Bartel running around, Gary Ablett junior, you've got [James] Kelly, who's on the top of his game, Joel Corey ... you can't lock down the whole lot," Knights said.

"We were keen to keep developing our club. We weren't going to try and play slow, chip around and avoid a 15-[goal]-to-10 defeat. We were going to take the game on to win, because we think that's the best way to develop our young players. Our defensive actions weren't up to standard today. They were last week, they weren't this week, and that was the tale of the tape, basically. We've got a long way to go in that area."

Knights said the power of Geelong would not temper the post-mortem. "I'm certainly not looking at it as a wipe-off, just because we were playing Geelong. We've got to learn from this today.

"We will attack it in regard to how we want to develop, which would be defensive actions and skill levels."

As if the lesson the Bombers received wasn't enough, they also lost the exciting Courtenay Dempsey to a hamstring injury, which has plagued his first two seasons in the game. Knights said the club would not rush his recovery, which will take at least a month.

He will persist with Adam McPhee at centre half-forward in Scott Lucas's absence, though the playmaker struggled yesterday against first-gamer Harry Taylor.

Knights rated Patrick Ryder the only winner in red and black, for his job in outpointing Cameron Mooney. "I give him a big tick for doing that today ... I thought he was just awesome and really held up. [But] apart from Patrick Ryder, I wouldn't have thought we'd have had a winner on the day."

Thompson said was not aware the possession count was unprecedented and, far from celebrate, it gave the Cats something to work on. "We played a bit of circle work there for a time," he said, pointing to 20 forward entries in the first quarter for only a four-goal reward. "There were a few little things that happened, but by the end of the game I thought we pretty much corrected them."

The form of Ryan Gamble and Trent West continued to please the coach, whose focus will not shift as the club prepares to unfurl the premiership flag at Kardinia Park on Sunday, with Melbourne charged with the mammoth task of spoiling the party.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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