News

GEELONG has put itself in the box seat for a tilt at the VFL flag after overcoming a determined Coburg in its qualifying final yesterday.

The Cats' 31-point win at TEAC Oval gives them a week's break before a possible grand final rematch with reigning premiers Sandringham in the preliminary final in a fortnight.

After a fantastic tussle in the first three quarters, the Cats blew the game open in the last term to run out comfortable winners, thanks to best-on-ground Jason Davenport.

The margin was less than a kick at each break, but last year's runners-up booted the first four goals of the final quarter to break the spirit of a tired Coburg.

Jay Cheep  who along with Scott Thompson proved Geelong has plenty of talent in its VFL list  took a strong overhead mark and goaled, before Todd Grima added the second of his three majors for the day to put the Cats up by 16 points six minutes into the last quarter.

Enter Davenport to seal the deal.

The Cats' young gun kicked the next two  the second a superb goal on the run  to put the contest beyond doubt.

The Tigers kicked two of the next three before Davenport again asserted his authority.

The 21-year-old is a match-winner, and looked every bit one in the last quarter, setting up the final two goals of the game.

He burst through the middle at the 28-minute mark, ran to 50 and could well have had a shot, but found Grima in the goal square for his third, before delivering again to Henry Playfair who goaled after the siren to cement Geelong's 22.16 (148) to 17.15 (117) win.

Davenport finished with 30 possessions, 10 inside 50s and four goals.

 ``You can see just by that match there it went up another level and to be able to now train for two weeks specifically for our next opponent is ideal,'' coach Leigh Tudor said.

``That's as big an arm wrestle as we've had all year and that's as challenged for quarter-by-quarter, for contest-by-contest as we've been.

``The game was on from the first bounce so we're really pleased to be able to win like that and be able to show our fitness in the last quarter.''

Geelong went into the quarter-time break a point down after a Jay Schulz-led Coburg booted four in a row mid-way through the first term.

It set up an enthralling second quarter, in which 15 goals were kicked and the lead changed half a dozen times.

Tom Hawkins and Davenport kicked two each for the term, while Andrew Krakouer was also starting to provide a real dangerous spark up forward for the Tigers.

Seven goals to eight for the quarter gave Geelong a five-point deficit at the main break, before finally edging in front by three-quarter time.

Playfair was moved off a lively Schulz and into the forward line, where he joined Hawkins as the main focal points.

After both sides kicked three goals for the term, Hawkins was rewarded for a wonderful chase down on Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, and goaled to give his team a four-point lead heading into the last quarter.