Jeremy Cameron has tightened his grip on a second Coleman Medal with a career-high 11 goals on a night a Marvel Stadium security officer questioned a North Melbourne fan about comments allegedly aimed at Bailey Smith.
Cameron began the night by booting Geelong’s opening three goals, and finished with a bag, as the Cats strode to a 101-point win – 22.18 (150) to 7.7 (49) – ensuring they remain firmly in contention for at least a top-four finish.
The silky left-footer claimed his maiden Coleman Medal in 2019 with GWS. He began this round with a competition high 58 goals, 11 ahead of Port Adelaide’s Mitch Georgiades, and will be difficult to catch from here.
“I hate talking about myself … I always say I am a product of players up the field. We are building as a side – it’s great the way the ball is coming in,” Cameron told Fox Footy.
“You have got to play your best forward from now on in.”
Coach Chris Scott praised Cameron, but also pointed to the evenness of the Cats’ forward line.
“I think it’s clear to everyone when the ball is in his hands, and right from the start he looked sharp. He took his chances early and was dangerous all night,” Scott said.
Smith was also dominant with an equal career-high 43 disposals, including 13 clearances, but found himself on the end of alleged comments from a Roos supporter in the first term.
A security officer approached the man at quarter-time.
The fan, sitting a few rows back from the boundary fence, had a smile on his face during the discussion, and seemed to plead his innocence. He was allowed to stay at the venue.
“You can have a yell, as long as it’s not obscenities or anything,” AFL great Dermott Brereton said on Fox Footy during the commentary.
“It didn’t bother Bailey Smith, although it did actually take his mind from the game and engage the fan.”
A Cats spokesman said he was only aware of the incident through the game broadcast, but it didn’t appear to be a major issue.
Smith had a game-high 11 disposals in the first term, and a whopping 25 by half-time.
Kangaroos coach Alastair Clarkson defended his decision to not tag Smith in a half-time interview with Fox Footy.
“We want to try and back ourselves in. Our guys are still learning the game. We have got some young guys in there, and we want to give them some exposure. If you go chasing him too much, it just buggers up your structure and that sort of stuff. We’ll see how we go. He was pretty dangerous in that first half,” Clarkson said.
However, Collingwood great Nathan Buckley, in commentary on Fox, questioned Clarkson’s comments, pointing out the Kangaroos’ midfield featuring Luke Parker, Luke Davies-Uniacke and skipper Jy Simpkin was not young.
Smith was not tagged in the second half.
Fellow Cats midfielder Max Holmes enjoyed another superb game, while Tom Atkins was also influential on a night the Cats had a competition season-high 77 inside 50s.
So dominant were the Cats that Patrick Dangerfield was subbed off, while Jack Martin was largely rested in the final term.
The Cats booted 10 straight goals from midway through the first term until Cam Zurhaar ended the run in the shadows of half-time.
The Kangaroos, missing injured key forward Nick Larkey (knee soreness) and ruckman Tristan Xerri, battled hard early but fell apart amid the Cats’ pressure. This was their 14th straight loss to the Cats.
Clarkson and his men have only four wins and a draw this campaign, the Kangaroos appearing destined for another bottom-two finish for a sixth-straight season.
Clarkson, nearing the end of his third season in charge, hasn’t been able to lift a club that has had its fair share of high draft picks. Colby McKercher had 32 disposals for the Kangaroos, while Parker had 31.
But he pointed to the disparity in experience between the Roos and the Cats.
“I think Jeremy Cameron probably had more games on his own than the collective group of North Melbourne defenders that made up our back seven,” Clarkson explained of the Cats spearhead, who booted a career-high 11 goals from 18 kicks.
“I think most of Jezza’s goals that he scored were off a turnover from us and you can afford to roll the dice a little bit like that when they were moving the ball so well, but most of those came from a turnover from us.
“We knew going into the game that clearances and contest were going to be critical for us, and that was obviously going to be really hard without ‘Big X’ [Tristan Xerri], our ruckman.
“But we still backed ourselves in that if we could be OK in contest and clearance we’d be in the game, knowing full well that they’ve got one of the most formidable and dangerous forward lines in the competition.
“The contest in the middle of the ground was just so critical for us and they were too good in that space.”
Clarkson said the Roos wouldn’t get caught up in the “hysteria” surrounding results.
“We’ll continue to give exposure to our players - what we don’t want to get caught up in is the hysteria around results,” he said.
“We know where we are as a footy club, and right at the minute our depth is being tested.”
Clarkson also defended his club’s decision to trade away their 2025 first-round pick to Richmond last year, given the Roos are currently 17th on the ladder – behind the Tigers.
“We rated young [Matt] Whitlock really, really highly and so our list management team made a call on that last year,” Clarkson said.
“It’s just horses for courses – there’s not a club in the competition that get it right all the time, and there’s some that... everyone would applaud our list management team for getting Nick Larkey right – he was pick 75 [selected at No.73]. Where’d he come from? Luke Breust was a rookie [selection at Hawthorn].
“There’s always hits and misses, but that’s the game that you play - you roll the dice, and we’ll see where that rolls with us.”
The Cats enjoy arguably the softest run to September of finals aspirants, but Scott has said his team will be prepared for the battles which await later in the year.
“My observation is, the top eight teams at the moment would all think they could beat each other on their day. We understand that we don’t have much room to move with the way that we play,” Scott said.
“We definitely should be exploring how we can get better. It’s a matter for us of cohesion rather than searching for something outside the box. We are not over-confident by any stretch, but we do think when we get our game going, we present some challenges for the opposition.
“We didn’t feel like we have been great over the last month or so, so they [Kangaroos] kicked a few late, but defensively we looked more solid.”