The Northern Blues went down to Geelong by 66 points at Preston City Oval on Saturday afternoon.

The Cats were too good from the first bounce, and walked away 19. 11. (125) to 8. 11. (59) winners.

Geelong had a number of AFL-quality players in its midst and was too strong for the Blues, with the likes of Shane Kersten, Rhys Stanley and Nathan Vardy doing the damage.

The Blues were unable to capitalise on their opportunities early and the Cats took control, dominating the clearances and giving their three talls clean use which Northern couldn’t curtail.

The Blues’ momentum dissipated quickly, as the Cats resigned the Blues to their fourth goalless first quarter of the year and their second in as many weeks.

Similarly to the first term, Northern started the quarter well but was unable to put it on the scoreboard.

Geelong implemented a loose man in defence early in the game and the Blues weren’t able to find targets forward and were inaccurate in front of goal (seven straight behinds).

The Cats kicked the first four goals of the second term to take a nine-goal lead, before Jason Tutt broke the drought and got the Blues’ first.

Northern then kicked two of its next three goals to reduce the margin to 41 points at half-time, with a glimmer of hope still remaining despite Geelong’s dominance given the events at Collingwood last week.

Kristian Jaksch was moved into defence to help the ailing backline deal with the sheer size of the Cats’ forwards during the quarter, but the work-rate of Geelong’s midfield to spread from contests gave it options aplenty inside 50.

The Cats had 10 marks in their forward line to half-time, while Northern only had the five (18-10 for the game).

Neither team was able to hit the scoreboard early in the third quarter, but Geelong had the ball locked in its forward half.

The Blues would eventually kick two goals for the quarter, including one to Charlie Curnow in his first senior VFL game after returning from glandular fever.

Curnow got through his return game unscathed, finishing with nine disposals, four marks and a goal, while Carlton veteran Michael Jamison also made a successful return from illness.

Geelong ultimately saw out the third term to lead by an even eight goals, before kicking six of the last eight goals to blow it out to a 66-point win.

Geelong finished with 13 more inside-50s which weren’t reflective of the margin, but it was its ball use that separated the teams.

The Cats were able to transfer the ball from defence and stoppages far easier than the Blues, cutting through the middle of the ground and giving their forwards easy marks.

Matthew Dick led the way for the Blues from a disposal standpoint with 29, while captain Tom Wilson was next best with 24 possessions and five clearances.

Speaking post-match, Wilson said the playing group had identified its slow starts and would have to sort the issue out.

“We had a high focus on getting out the blocks, but unfortunately we weren’t able to deliver on that,” Wilson said.

“We need to have some really honest feedback and honest conversations with each other.”

The Northern Blues will face North Ballarat next week away from home and will be looking to get back on the winners’ list.

NORTHERN BLUES     0.3       3.7       5.9       8. 11. (59)
GEELONG CATS          5.4       10.6     13.9     19. 11. (125)  

GOALS
Northern Blues: Buckley, Curnow, L. Jones, Strachan, Tutt, Viojo-Rainbow, Whiley, Wood

BEST
Northern Blues: Wilson, L. Jones, Korcheck, Buckley, Jaksch, Strachan