GEELONG coach Dan Lowther did not mince his words when summing up what went wrong during the Cats’ goalless loss to Carlton at Ikon Park yesterday. The Blues won 4.5 (29) to 0.5 (5), and when Lowther was asked exactly what when wrong, he replied with “how long you got?”.

“Everything went wrong for us today,” Lowther said. “It’s not to discount Carlton because they came out and smacked us between the eyes with their intent from the start, their contest method. The way they were just clean with ground balls and ball use off the back of their contested ball was far superior to our girls today.”

The Geelong mentor said having matched it with two of the best sides in the opening fortnight – going down to Melbourne by two points and drawing with North Melbourne last week – he thought the upward trajectory was set to continue.

“Clearly if you don’t bring the right intent to win that possession first and then how you use it, they really showed us how important that is,” Lowther said.

“I just think Carlton handed the game better for sure. We came in with a plan in place, knowing that Carlton have strengths and weaknesses just like any team. They came out and dictated the number one rule in the game which was hunt the footy and be stronger where it counts the most and we just couldn’t respond to it at the right time and the ball was played in our back half for far too long.”

Of course on the other side of the equation, Carlton coach Matthew Buck said he was “really pleased” with what his side was able to produce, winning the contested ball plus-26, having 12 more inside 50s and laying 15 tackles inside 50 once there.

“We knew Geelong are a great side and the contest was going to be hot and we just thought if we could bring out best we would be right in the game and it kind of felt like it went our way and it was a Carlton game, so proud of the team,” Buck said.

Carlton dominated the hitouts against the Cats who have lost their ruck stocks to injury, leaving forward Kate Darby (four hitouts) and athletic 170cm utility Gabbi Featherston (12) to battle against specialist rucks Jess Good (25) and Breann Moody (24).

Despite the Blues only coming away with a plus-one clearance advantage, the Blues were able to control forward half possession and lead to midfielders Maddy Guerin, Mimi Hill and Abbie McKay all hitting the scoreboard.

“We thought Jess Good was really exceptional and gave our players first use,” Buck said. “I thought Maddie Guerin was terrific and probably swung the game our way early. But Abbie McKay and Mimi Hill spent a little bit time through there as well, but Keeley Sherar, Lily Goss plays her role as well. “Went and executed the plan and did their role well, so hats off to those girls they did really well.”

Guerin in particular had a massive day out. Backing up her match-winning goal from last week, the former Demon had 31 disposals, three marks, five tackles, eight clearances and a huge goal from 45m to start the game.

“She is a natural goalkicker, Maddy,” Buck said. “It’s just backing her in to go for it. “She has real power when she drives out of contest, but also when she kicks the ball, she can kick it a long way so she nailed that one, it was really good to see. she’s had a great preseason off a knee reconstruction and she’s three games in now and she’s obviously been a great player for us today and hopefully she can continue that form.”

While pleased with his side’s ability to kick goals in challenging conditions, Buck also praised the full team defence across the ground in keeping the Cats to just five behinds for the match.

“We talk a lot about contest and defence,” he said. “It’s probably just not our backs that get it done, but we’re a whole squad who wants to defend hard and we work together and do a lot of work on that during the week so to do that against a quality opposition I think rings true for our players to go ‘well what we’re going after is starting to work for us’ so there will be some individuals on the back in the background, but great team defence performance.”

Carlton will back up with another game at Ikon Park in a quick five-day turnaround before facing Richmond under lights on Thursday, while Geelong has the extended seven-day break before clashing with Gold Coast Suns at People First Stadium.