Geelong AFL coach Chris Scott says his side need to adjust to life without injured ruckman Dawson Simpson after their big men struggled in their upset 10-point loss to North Melbourne.
The Cats trailed by eight points at the final change in Friday’s round-19 clash at Etihad Stadium and were unable to repeat their late comeback heroics against North in round two.
North held on with three goals to Geelong’s two in the final term to win 15.6 (96) to 13.8 (86) in front of a crowd of 33,584.
It was just Geelong’s fourth loss of the season but it was also their third defeat in their past seven games, leaving them in danger of losing second spot later this weekend.
Steve Johnson, Jimmy Bartel and defender Corey Enright were among Geelong’s leading ball-winners while small forward Steven Motlop was ever-dangerous with three goals and 21 telling disposals.
“This was an important game for us and we’re disappointed we blew it,” Scott said.
“We’ll need to make some changes and look at what we will do differently next time.”
Key forward James Podsiadly returns from a one-game suspension for Geelong’s home game against Port Adelaide next Saturday at Skilled Stadium.
The Cats had no answer to North’s big man Todd Goldstein who overpowered Trent West after the Cats went into Friday’s game without Simpson who suffered a season-ending knee injury last week.
“There’s no doubt the big 206-centimetre ruckman (Simpson) would have been handy,” Scott said.
Ruckman Nathan Vardy (two goals) replaced Podsiadly as a key forward alongside Tom Hawkins who kicked one goal and appeared to be still troubled by a back complaint.
“We haven’t gone with that (forward-zone) set-up all year. We changed up a few things particularly late in the game but none of them worked,” Scott said.
The Cats’ mentor says Hawkins’ back problem is improving.
“He was swamped a little bit tonight. It was hard for us to get quality ball to him,” Scott said.
“The back issue’s less of an issue now than it was earlier in the season.”
Scott said the ability of Motlop, 22, to get the ball in traffic and break the lines was exceptional.
