The Giants have extended their winning streak at GMHBA Stadium to five in a Mother’s Day classic with a four-point win over the Cats.
Geelong were not at their best and could not find an answer for key forward Jesse Hogan, who kicked seven goals in a best-on-ground performance to lead his team to victory.
Jesse Hogan was the matchwinner for the Giants with seven goals.Credit: Getty Images
Mark Blicavs had a chance to regain the lead with 100 seconds remaining but hit the post. A snap from Shaun Mannagh also went wide in the dying seconds as the victory belonged to the Giants.
The well-earned win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Giants.
They set up the contest when they jumped from the blocks, with their midfield exposing the Cats lack of depth in that area.
They worked harder than Geelong early and had five goals on the board before the Cats settled and lifted their pressure.
It brought the Cats back into the game, and they hit the lead in the second quarter, but the Giants refused to die, particularly with Hogan in such hot form inside his team’s forward 50 metres.
He was brilliant, not only adding to the scoreboard but opening up opportunities for his successor Aaron Cadman to mark as Hogan drew all the attention.
The Cats were fiddling around with their centre-square combination, with Jeremy Cameron starting in the middle and Tom Atkins at one point playing in the ruck, but the Giants remained on top.
In the third term they cracked the game open, their orange tsunami flooding the middle of GMHBA Stadium with piercing handballs cutting through the Cats’ defence as they stretched their lead out to close to two goals.
But the Cats don’t like the record the Giants have established at their home ground and refused to yield.
They scratched and scraped goals with forward pressure and centre clearances to be the first to reach 100 points – usually a good indicator of which team wins – when Tyson Stengle missed a set shot.
But the margin was only one behind when Patrick Dangerfield missed a pass inside forward 50 metres. It gave the Giants a chance to settle and Jake Riccardi became the matchwinner as he crumbed a marking contest to kick the winning goal.
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