Cam Guthrie’s fourth game of the AFL season ended before three-quarter time after being caught out at the worst possible time for Geelong.
The Cats, missing a host of premiership stars including Patrick Dangerfield, Mitch Duncan, Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron, never threatened after the first quarter in Darwin and trailed Gold Coast by more than 50 points in the third.
Part of a midfield thoroughly outplayed by the Suns, Guthrie was called to the bench and substituted out with just nine disposals, two clearances and 102 metres gained to his name.
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“The glum look of Cam Guthrie tells everything about Geelong’s night,” Alister Nicholson said in commentary for Channel 7.
Guthrie, 31, only made his first appearance of the year four weeks ago after recovering from a quad injury suffered in a pre-season game.
He returned with 27 disposals in a win over Carlton but has now had a combined 40 touches in Geelong’s three defeats in a row.
“Proud footballer, Cam Guthrie, so to be sitting out for this second half is not something he’d probably want to be doing,” his Cats premiership skipper Joel Selwood said.
“But coming into tonight knowing he was the leader within that midfield with the young guys around him, they’ve been hit for six.”
Guthrie, who managed just 61 and 57 per cent game time the last two weeks, spent a significant portion of the second quarter on the interchange bench.
Four-time premiership winner Shaun Burgoyne questioned whether it was a surprising call to bench Guthrie in spite of his low impact.
“Because they needed to increase their spread tonight. Should they have taken a tall off?” he asked.
Selwood said the result was clearly beyond saving.
“The challenge is just throw the magnets around and just see what you can find out about the guys,” he said.
Geelong’s night did not turn around after the substitution with the Suns taking a 19.7 (121) to 8.7 (55) lead into the final break.
The Cats conceded 12.6 (78) from turnovers to that point.
“Outplayed, especially through the middle of the ground and then bouncing off half-back,” Selwood said.
“Those players that are missing are key cogs to this side — it’s Mitch Duncan controlling the ball and then up forward with (Hawkins and Cameron) organising how that forward line is set up.
“Good learnings for these guys out there tonight and where they need to step up.”
Duncan, Hawkins and Stanley were managed out of the Darwin trip, Cameron is recovering from concussion while Dangerfield (hamstring) went down in Geelong’s most recent win three weeks ago.
Gold Coast continued to dominate in the fourth quarter and kicked out to their first ever 150-plus score with more than seven minutes left on the clock.
That also served to confirm Chris Scott had conceded his worst ever score as Cats coach.
“It’ll be tough to swallow tonight,” Selwood said.
“(Even) knowing that they’ve got reinforcements coming back, this does leave bruises, there’s no doubt about that. This is a young side.
“The Gold Coast Suns have done a great job. If you get a chance to have a kill, you make sure you kill it.
“It’s going to leave scars on these (Geelong) players that when they come up against them next they’ve got to be on their game.”