Johnson spearheads Cats win over Tigers

Geelong ruckman Brad Ottens faces at least four weeks on the sidelines following a knee injury sustained in his AFL side's 20-point win over Richmond at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.

Ottens went down awkwardly in a first-quarter ruck contest as his knee buckled.
But Cats coach Mark Thompson's fears of a more serious injury to his No.1 ruckman
were eased immediately after the match - doctors saying he had damaged a medial
ligament.
"He's done a medial, grade one, four to six weeks which is a better result than we
initially thought," Thompson said.
"We initially thought it was a posterior cruciate. We had our fingers crossed it
wasn't too bad."
Should further scans confirm no additional damage to Ottens' knee than the medial
ligament, it would be the Cats' second great escape of the weekend.
Geelong had to dig deep into mercurial forward Steve Johnson's bag of magic tricks
to make Richmond disappear in their 15.15 (105) to 13.7 (85) win at Skilled Stadium.
Johnson booted four goals - three in the final quarter - after the Tigers looked set
to cause a remarkable upset.
Geelong led by 26 points midway through the third term, before the Tigers rained the
last four goals of the quarter on the Cats to take a one-point lead and momentum to
the final change.
Richmond's Joel Bowden booted the opening goal of the final quarter to lift hopes
the Tigers could erase their round one smashing by Carlton in stunning fashion.
But Johnson dragged his side out of the mire virtually single-handedly with his
final quarter heroics.
First he brought last year's grand finalists level, then booted another goal out of
seemingly nothing to give the Cats breathing space they required.
He then added a third for the term and his fourth for the match at the 23-minute
mark to finish off the Tigers.
The Tigers' performance should take much of the pressure off coach Terry Wallace,
who had been under fire following his side's weak 83-point belting the previous
week.
But while praising his side's improved energy levels to nearly pinch an unlikely
victory against the competition benchmarks, Wallace was equally lamenting a golden
opportunity missed to make a bigger statement.
"I probably feel flatter today than I did last week," Wallace said.
"We were in a winning position - we were never going to be in a winning position
last week.
"Today we had a chance to win, which would have been fantastic for our footy club.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get the job done."
Geelong controlled the opening half, leading by 31 points at halftime and not
looking in any danger whatsoever.
But Ottens' loss allowed Tigers big man Troy Simmonds to control the ruck, while
Matthew Richardson and Brett Deledio led an eight goals to three third quarter for
Richmond.
Richardson finished with two goals and 28 disposals for his side, while Nathan Brown
and Mitch Morton also booted two apiece.
Richmond also suffered badly at the hands of some contentious decisions in the third
term, including a double goal when defender Luke McGuone was penalised for punching
away the ball in anger following a Cameron Mooney goal.
A free-kick was awarded to Cats forward Tom Hawkins directly in front for that
infringement, and he booted a goal.
Then a 50-metre free-kick was awarded against Tigers tagger Daniel Jackson and
relayed downfield, giving Joel Corey another easy goal.