Tyson Stengle – Michmutters
Categories
Sports

AFL 2022: Geelong defeat Gold Coast Suns, minor premiers, finals, ladder, scores, video, news

Geelong have extended their winning streak to 12-straight on Saturday as they topped the Gold Coast Suns on the road.

The win puts the Cats eight points clear on top of the ladder and secures the minor premiership for the dominant outfit.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

The Cats put the foot down from the opening bounce with forward Tyson Stengle in scorching form, slotting three goals to get the game going.

“It’s one of the great quarters we’ve seen from a small forward this year,” legendary Hawk Jason Dunstall told Fox Footy.

Anthony Hudson added: “He is putting on quite a show.”

It remained one-way traffic in the second quarter as the Cats went into the halftime break holding a 51-point advantage.

“The Suns are getting a masterclass,” Dunstall said.

In what could be their last match outside of Victoria for the year, Geelong cruised to a 17-4 record on the back of an inside 50 entry landslide of 72-43.

It’s the 15th time the Cats have secured the minor premiership, however the feat hasn’t meant much in recent history.

Melbourne last season was the only club to go from minor premiers to premiers, breaking a drought of seven straight minor premiers to fall short.

Collingwood can pull off the biggest heist in AFL history and pinch the minor premiership, to do so they’d need to win their final two games by around 50 combined goals while Geelong would have to lose next weekend by around 25 goals.

Jeremy Cameron finished alongside Stengle with three goals as the Cats flexed their muscles on the road.

They finish the home and away season on Saturday at home against the West Coast Eagles.

As if there wasn’t enough attention on him with speculation swirling around him about

leaving the Suns for Adelaide, Gold Coast livewire Izak Rankine decided to dye his hair a

shade of peroxide blonde.

Rankine is set to accept an offer of $900.00 a year to be the highest paid Crow and Adelaide supporters would have enjoyed his first quarter goal that included a spin in traffic and cheeky right-foot checkside for a goal. He also won a free kick with a crunching tackle and went within a fingernail of a second goal as his performance lived up to his haircut. He left the field in the fourth term favoring his left shoulder in what could be his last appearance of him as a Sun.

– with Greg Davis, NCA Newswire

.

Categories
Sports

Geelong Cats premiership favorites but fixture curveball, defeat St Kilda Saints, Nathan Buckley on Best On Ground

Geelong veteran Zach Tuohy believes there’s a different feeling about his playing group in 2022 compared to past seasons after the Cats claimed their 11th straight win on Saturday night.

But while seven-time All-Australian Nathan Buckley believes the Cats are “primed at the right time of the year and on top of the ladder for a reason”, he holds some concerns about how “hardened” the Cats could be come September, with clashes against two bottom-10 opponents to come over the final two home and away rounds.

The Cats on Saturday cemented their spot inside the top four with a 45-point win over St Kilda at GMHBA Stadium. It means the Cats will earn a double chance in finals for a fourth straight season – and the ninth time in 12 seasons under coach Chris Scott.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

The narrative around Geelong at this time of the year in recent seasons has been whether they’re able to translate their home and away form into a finals campaign, consistently reaching the preliminary final stage since 2013 but falling short of a flag.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s Best On Ground on Saturday night, Tuohy said there was something different about the 2022 Cats.

“We’ve certainly always felt we’re in with a big shout coming to the pointy end of the year, but this year kind of does have a different smell to it,” Tuohy told Fox Footy.

“I’m not sure you can shut down one or two of our players and think it’s going to effect the result too much, which is a great problem to have.”

Asked if the Cats were the clear No. 1 seed heading into finals, triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown told Best On Ground: “I think so. They’re building something nicely, they just seem to be very complete.

“I just have more confidence in the game style they play. I think it’ll stack up better in September.”

Saints champion Nick Riewoldt added Roo: “That style they played that brought them unstuck – in finals in particular under the fierce pressure – that control game, they can flick to it and still go to it, but they’re less inclined to start games like it

“I think they’re just far more potent on offense than they have been in recent times and they haven’t given up much defensively.”

After a tough five-game run against finals contenders, the Cats now face Gold Coast (11th) and West Coast (17th) to finish their home and away game.

Buckley suggested it’s “not the best way to finish the home and away season”.

“You want to be hardened because you get that week off between home and away and finals, so if there’s anything that’s not working for Geelong, it might be those couple of games,” he told Best On Ground. “But they’ve taken it all before them.”

Isaac Smith of the Cats is in stellar form. Picture: Darrian TraynorSource: Getty Images

But Buckley said the changes the Cats had made personnel-wise over the past 12 months would put them in good stead for a shot at this year’s flag.

“Sam De Koning down back, Tyson Stengle up forward, Jeremy Cameron’s up and about, Zach Guthrie played a really good game tonight and Tom Atkins through the midfield – five players they’ve found this year they didn’t have last year,” he said.

“They’ve always had a deep squad and players that can come in and play the roles, but they just seem to be deeper again this year.

“The other two are Max Holmes, who’s a young player that’s getting it done, and at the other end of the spectrum is Isaac Smith – those two are running players getting up and down the ground in front of the ball. Brad Close is another … I mean Sam Menegola wasn’t even in the 22 and he comes in and he’s a legitimate AFL player.

“They’re really well placed and that depth of squad they’ve been able to put together with shrewd trading and recruiting, salary cap management – ​​they’ve done well.”

.

Categories
Sports

AFL news 2022: Eddie Betts spills on Adelaide Crows training camp in new book, details

AFL great Eddie Betts has revealed just how damaging the Adelaide Crows training camp held in 2018 was.

The infamous leadership camp, following the Crows’ 2017 AFL Grand Final loss at the hands of Richmond, thrust the club into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Watch every blockbuster AFL match this weekend Live & Ad-Break Free In-Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

A number of players and officials walked away from the club in the wake of the camp and now Betts has detailed even more behind the scenes information in his upcoming autobiography ‘The Boy from Boomerang Crescent’.

The four-day camp held on the Gold Coast left Betts feeling “like a piece of me was brainwashed” with excerpts being reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.

Betts revealed confidential information he had shared in counseling sessions had been misused while writing that the camp misappropriated sensitive Aboriginal cultural rituals.

“The camp ended up appropriating a First Nations peoples’ ritual of a ‘talking stick’ and attempting to apply it to all of us, even the non-Indigenous players and coaches,” he wrote.

“In my view, the talking stick was used incorrectly, and I was not aware that any Elder had given permission for it to be used either.

“There was all sorts of weird shit that was disrespectful to many cultures, but particularly and extremely disrespectful to my culture.”

Betts confirmed the Richmond theme song was played repeatedly during a training session and he was put in a body harness and told to fight his way towards a knife as camp instructors hurled verbal abuse his way.

“Things were yelled at me that I had disclosed to the camp’s ‘counsellors’ about my upbringing. All the people present heard these things,” he wrote.

“I was exhausted, drained and distressed about the details being shared.

“Another camp-dude jumped on my back and started to berate me about my mother, something so deeply personal that I was absolutely shattered to hear it come out of his mouth.”

Following the now infamous camp, Betts approached the club and voiced his concerns with the camp and said he wouldn’t take part in any future mind-training exercises. Three weeks later he was dropped from the leadership group.

“After a meeting with all the Blackfullas at the club, I decided to address the playing group and talk about how I found the camp, mainly addressing the cultural safety implications for us brothers,” Betts revealed.

“I sought permission to remove all the Aboriginal boys from any further interactions with the ‘leadership specialists’ and their mind-training exercises.

“I told the club I wouldn’t be involved in any more mind-training exercises at all.”

The camp had a major impact on Betts’ on-field form and left the star forward questioning his place in the game. Betts left the Crows and returned to Carlton at the end of 2019 before retiring at the end of 2021.

The Crows were cleared of any work health and safety breaches after an independent investigation into the training camp by SafeWork SA.

Read related topics:Adelaide

.