Geelong’s first-half domination went a long way to seeing the Northern Blues crashed to their second consecutive defeat, by 58 points at Simonds Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Geelong dominated from start to finish on dark afternoon for the Northern Blues, who were kept goalless in the first quarter.

Luke Mitchell was lively in patches, particularly early on, despite missing two difficult shots on the run.

Geelong were gifted several shots on goals making the most of a lopsided free kick count, which stood at 7-1 late in the first quarter.

Many factors cost the Blues’ to cut into the Cats’ lead, yet inaccurate kicking led the way, with Northern registering seven behinds before Andrew McInnes stood up to land the Blues’ first goal from outside 50.

The goal was sweet moment for the young defender, who returned for his first competitive match since rupturing his ACL against Gold Coast in Round 22, last year.

McInnes began on the bench, but was greeted with warm applause from the small gathering of Northern Blues supporters. He would finish with eight possessions, yet showed no evident signs of lacking match awareness.

The Blues began the second half, playing their best football of the afternoon, nailing the opening three goals of the half.

The purple patch was led by Sam Rowe, swapping from the back half to up front with Jeremy Laidler – who had provided a strong target in the first half – to be one of three goal kickers, along with Tom Temay.

Yet their early good work was undone as Geelong went on to register four of the remaining five goals of the game, in a much improved second half from the Blues.

Up until the final quarter, the Blues had been convincing out-possessed, particularly in uncontested situations (74-60 at three quarter time), evident in the Cats dominance in entering inside 50 via the centre corridor.

Despite being able to stem the flow of Geelong goals in the second half – and statistically winning the final quarter – the Northern Blues’ victory in the tackle count (81-52) was more demonstrative of their being second to the football.

Tom Bell was best afield for the Blues with 25 disposals and seven clearances. He was well supported by Aaron Joseph (21 disposals, nine tackles), while Shaun Hampson was prolific in the ruck with 40 hit outs.

Nick Duigan accumulated 20 possessions while defensive colleague Joshua Bootsma was tireless down back with the Geelong forward line registering just four of the Cats’ 15 goals.

Speaking to carltonfc.com.au post-match, Hampson said the loss was most burning of the four losses inflicted on the Blues’ so far.

“The most disappointing aspect was being outworked from the get-go,” Hampson said.

“We were second to the ball and made it difficult for ourselves coming out after half time, playing catch-up footy.

Hampson said there were still positives to take away from the “disappointing” afternoon.

“We won the last quarter and probably could’ve won it by more if we’d kicked straighter.

“It showed that we were still able to flick the switch and play footy the way we wanted to.”

The Northern Blues return to Preston City Oval next Saturday afternoon to face the 13^th-placed Frankston Dolphins in a must-win match from 1.10pm.

NORTHERN BLUES                 0.4       1.7       4.9                   5. 15.   (45)

GEELONG                               4.4       11.9     14.10               15. 13. (103)

GOALS: Rowe 2, Temay, McIness, Totevski

BEST: Bell, Bootsma, Duigan, Rowe, Watson, Meese

Matthew Lodge covers Northern Blues games for Carltonfc.com.au. You can follow him on Twitter: @MatthewSLodge