{"id":53812,"date":"2025-08-08T21:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53812\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T21:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T21:07:08","slug":"afl-cameron-kicks-four-as-cats-cruise-against-bombers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53812\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: Cameron kicks four as Cats cruise against Bombers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Cameron’s bid to kick 100 goals in an AFL<\/a> season has stalled, with the Geelong spearhead managing four against Essendon.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Cameron was the centre of attention on Friday night at GMHBA Stadium as the Cats had a regulation 44-point win over Essendon, who challenged the home side in the second half.<\/p>\n

Geelong kicked clear in the final term for the 15.19 (109) to 10.5 (65)<\/a> victory.<\/p>\n

There had been speculation that Cameron could dine out on the undermanned Essendon defence, but he finished with an inaccurate 4.5.<\/p>\n

That takes Cameron to 79 as he tries to become the first key forward since Lance Franklin in 2008 to reach triple figures.<\/p>\n

His fourth goal took him to 300 career goals for Geelong — the 15th Cats player to reach that milestone.<\/p>\n

Bombers defenders Jayden Laverde and Mason Redman battled manfully against Cameron, who missed two set shots late in the final term.<\/p>\n

The Cats did what was needed to secure the win and go a step closer to a top-two finish, with Sydney and Richmond to come before the finals.<\/p>\n

But defender Jack Henry was a concerning casualty, subbed out at halftime with hamstring tightness.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Cameron’s bid to kick 100 goals in an AFL season has stalled, with the Geelong spearhead managing four against Essendon.\u00a0Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cats star Bailey Smith had a team-best 31 possessions and racked up nine clearances, while Archie Roberts (33 disposals) and Liam McMahon (four goals) impressed for Essendon.<\/p>\n

Cameron went goalless in the first quarter — instead fellow key forward Shannon Neale kicked the opening three goals of the match.<\/p>\n

After McMahon kicked the first goal of the second quarter and reduced the margin to only 15 points, Cameron took a mark about 45m out an acute angle.<\/p>\n

He kicked superbly to open his account and a few minutes later took a strong mark after a bullet pass from Smith, converting for his second.<\/p>\n

His third came in the last quarter after a dubious free kick — the umpires had an ordinary night — and a 50m penalty.<\/p>\n

But there was no doubt about his fourth, which came from a strong mark in front.<\/p>\n

Essendon veteran Dylan Shiel will come under video scrutiny for an incident in the second term when he pushed opponent Mark O’Connor.<\/p>\n

That put O’Connor in the way of Bombers newcomer Luamon Lual, who catapulted over the top of the Geelong player and landed heavily on his upper back.<\/p>\n

After a few seconds on the ground, Lual was able to leave the field under his own steam.<\/p>\n

He returned to the game and was subbed out of the game at three-quarter time.<\/p>\n

The Bombers had enough opportunities — the inside 50s were 25-20 Geelong’s way in the first half — but they butchered their passes into attack and the Cats defenders had a field day.<\/p>\n

Geelong took 19 intercept marks in the first half – a club record.<\/p>\n

The Cats extended their lead to 44 points in the third term and a blowout loomed.<\/p>\n

But out of nowhere the Bombers rallied with four-straight goals and reduced the margin to 21 with the first two goals of the final quarter, before Geelong kicked clear again.<\/p>\n

Forward Jack Martin, who kicked four goals in about as many minutes last week, was a late withdrawal and the Cats said he was managed. Jhye Clark took his spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremy Cameron’s bid to kick 100 goals in an AFL season has stalled, with the Geelong spearhead managing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-53812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}