Hardwick says Geelong crowd influenced free kicks that ‘weren’t there’

Frustrated Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick says Geelong received crucial free kicks inside 50 towards the end of the second quarter that “weren’t there” due to the influence of the home crowd in their 45-point loss at GMHBA Stadium on Friday night.

The triple premiership coach exploded in the coach’s box just before half-time when Cats forward Jeremy Cameron received a free kick for front-on contact minutes after the out-of-zone umpire awarded him a free kick for high contact following a spilled mark.

Former champion full-forward and Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend Jason Dunstall said on the Kayo Sports coverage the umpires had “given away some reasonably soft ones tonight” after Cameron was given the free kick for high contact. Suns captain Noah Anderson approached the umpires at half-time for clarification.

In his post-match press conference, Hardwick said the lasso rule needed to be changed so it was not paid if the ball accidentally came off a boot, and then he was asked about his outburst on half-time. He said it almost seemed as if the crowd were able to influence a decision by giving the thumbs up or thumbs down.

The Suns need to execute better in the big moments, according to their coach Damien Hardwick.

As Gold Coast’s losing run continued tonight, Hardwick admitted his side couldn’t match the strength and experience of the Cats.

He said the solution was to execute better in the pivotal moments, and take their chances at goal – two key areas they fell short in tonight.

“What you have to realise is that our template, our identity of the way we are playing, is in reasonable shape, but we have to execute moments better,” Hardwick said.

Geelong’s unbeaten streak against Gold Coast at GHMBA Stadium has stretched to 10 as the Cats embarrassed the Suns’ big name midfielders to strengthen their hold on a top-four spot.

The game followed the same, familiar script dozens of Geelong games against non-Victorian teams have followed in the past two decades.

The plot is an arm wrestle eventually turning into a Cats festival of goals, with Geelong scoring more than 100 points – this time winning 15.15 (105) to 8.12 (60).

Bailey Smith spoke to Kayo Sports post game.

On the win:
“We love playing here, and I feel bad for Goldy, having to come down here. They touched us up when we played up there in opening round.

“It was better to have a better defensive game from all us mids. We got smacked around the ball and haven’t been as good as we want to be.

“We needed to fix a few things and I thought we did that tonight.”