The Northern Blues have gone down by 81 points to the Geelong Cats in slippery conditions at Simonds Stadium.
A fast-moving and attacking Geelong were challenged early by the Blues, before the Cats broke away to comfortably triumph 19.13 (127) to 6.10 (46).
Despite having only two more wins for the season than their opponents, the Cats were able to get a stranglehold over the Blues, nullifying any chance of a fight-back by half time.
The Cats made the most of the difficult conditions which the Blues failed to come to terms with, with sun and rain appearing in equal measure at the Cattery.
For the second consecutive week, Northern fielded a new season-low for Carlton-listed players, with the Blues fielding six compared to Geelong’s 12 AFL listed players.
Northern showed promise from the first bounce thanks to two first quarter goals through Liam Jones, but essentially a half of goalless footy saw the Cats convincingly kick away to an unassailable lead.
Sam Cattapan played an outstanding game in amassing a team-high 27 disposals (10 contested), while acting captain Tom Wilson was next best with 24 touches.
Liam Jones showed patches of excellence playing a lone hand up forward, finishing with 18 disposals to go with his two majors.
Goals to Sam Cattapan, Blaine Johnson, Fraser Russell and Dillon Viojo-Rainbow after quarter time simply wasn’t enough to outdo a rampant Geelong outfit, who had too many contributors on the day by comparison.
For the Cats, Jordan Cunico, Billy Smedts and George Horlin-Smith gathered 28 disposals, while Matthew Stokes gathered 25.
Horlin-Smith also caused significant scoreboard damage to the Blues, slotting a game-high four goals, followed closely by Shane Kersten who kicked three.
Carlton youngster Nick Holman, who gathered 12 touches for the game, said the performance and result was “disappointing”.
However, Holman stressed there were some positives to take in an otherwise difficult season: namely, giving youth exposure to senior footy at both AFL and VFL level.
“I guess the positives you can take away from the game is it’s blooding some young VFL blokes with not much experience,” Holman said.
“Also with the AFL listed players, to get a few games under their belt and really understand what it takes to play at a VFL level.”
The Blues’ team was dangerously inexperienced today, highlighted by the fact that in just his second season, Holman’s seven Carlton games made him the second-most experienced player with AFL experience.
“I felt a bit responsible for the leadership side of things,” Holman said in response.
“I tried to not get away from what I was doing well previously, but in the end we were pretty inexperienced and it was a good learning curve for the boys.”
The Blues will now look to pre-season, where the biggest issue they’ve faced has been stringing together a consistent four quarter effort.
Holman echoed coach Luke Webster’s thought that is the most important thing for success moving into 2016.
“We have two or three good quarters and then drop away for that one, which was the third [quarter] today”, Holman said.
“They kicked 6.3 as a result, so we’ve just got to find a way to counteract that next year going forward.”
The Blues will now move in to off-season mode as they begin preparations for the 2016 season.
The 2015 season will come to a close on September 10th, when the Northern Blues host their Laurie Hill Trophy best-and-fairest night at Mantra Bell City, Preston.
GEELONG CATS 5.2 9.5 15.8 19. 13. (127)
NORTHERN BLUES 2.1 3.5 3.5 6. 10. (46)
GOALS
NORTHERN BLUES: Jones 2, Johnson, Cattapan, Viojo-Rainbow, Russell
