Geelong continues Gold Coast's alarming slide as Damien Hardwick lashes 'ridiculous' lasso rule

Thank you for spending your Friday night with us once again.

Time for me to get some sleep before some more FIFA World Cup action tomorrow morning.

What a time to be a live. I'll be back for some footy with you all on tomorrow night's blog. Please join then!

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick isn't blaming this loss on the officiating tonight, but he's clearly not happy about it.

Hardwick says the AFL needs to tweak the lasso rule.

"The lasso rule, where it comes off a guy's foot indiscriminately, and then it's a [free kick]," he says.

"I don't know, that's not what the rule is for, for mine. Like if someone kicks it out of bounds, absolutely, but if we're knocking it off someone's foot and we're looking at that ... they need to change it, it's an easy change.

"It's a ridiculous look where the ball accidentally trickles off a guy's toe ... it is not as if you're deliberately trying to kick it out of bounds.

"It's not the reason we won or lost, I just think they change a lot of things, just change that."

When asked whether he was frustrated at the officiating, Hardwick replied by saying: "What do you reckon?"

"At the end of the day it was like the Roman Colloseum," he says.

"The crowd would do this one [thumbs down signal] and all of a sudden, free kick.

"At the end of the day, it is what it is, home ground advantage, we know you're up against it from the start, but a couple of them I thought weren't there."

Despite a third-straight loss, Hardwick remains relatively positive about his side's performance.

"We had ample opportunities, we just didn't take them," he says.

"I thought they kicked some unbelievable goals. I just thought they executed better inside 50 and took their chances.

"At the end of the day, what you've got to realise is our template and our identity is in reasonable shape, we've just got to execute better. We've got to get better."

It seems as though Max Holmes is a fan of the white out we saw in the stands tonight.

I thought the rally towels were an excellent addition.

The Cats have now won 10 straight games at Kardinia Park. It remains one of the more bizarre things in the AFL that they're not allowed to play finals at their home ground.

Here's a look at the main team numbers out of Geelong's 45-point win.

• Disposals: Gold Coast 388-337
• Inside 50s: Geelong 62-47
• Clearances: Geelong 40-29
• Centre Clearances: Geelong 12-11
• Contested Possessions: Geelong 132-117
• Intercepts: Geelong 67-64
• Marks: Gold Coast 95-69
• Marks Inside 50: Gold Coast 14-10
• Tackles: Gold Coast 65-62
• Tackles in Forward 50: Geelong 12-8
• One Percenters: Gold Coast 44-41

Ben King misses a set shot after the siren amid boos and Geelong settles for a comfortable 45-point win.

It was really comprehensive stuff from the Cats tonight after the Suns came out of the gates strong and really challenged them.

That run of eight straight goals spanning the end of the first quarter into half-time really sealed this match, and although the Suns pushed a few different times in the second half, they were never really in it.

Geelong's vaunted midfield duo of Max Holmes and Bailey Smith were again outstanding against a high-powered Suns engine room.

Holmes finishes as the leading ball-winner on the ground with 31 touches and also added 11 rebound 50s, seven score involvements four clearances and a goal.

Smith collected 27 touches and had 10 inside 50s and five clearances.

Suns skipper Noah Anderson led the way for his side with 29 touches, 11 tackles and nine score involvements, while Matt Rowell had six clearances.

A word too for King, who extended his lead at the top of the Coleman Medal chart with another three goals, while the man trailing him, Jeremy Cameron, finished with 3.5.

Ollie Henry takes a good mark inside 50 and drills the set shot from 45m out on a slight angle.

Henry with another pair of goals, he continues to be a handy contributor in that Cats forward line.

Geelong has now kicked 6.11 to Gold Coast's 5.6 in the second half.

Zeke Uwland takes a mark inside 50 and drills the set shot from 30m out directly in front.

Uwland has 14 disposals to go along with that goal on his return to the side.

It's been somewhat of a choppy first year in the AFL from last year's boom Suns draft pick.

Gold Coast saving face a little with these last two goals.

Ben King has three goals for the night after drilling another set shot from directly in front.

One of the rare times that Gold Coast was able to transition effectively from defence to offence that time.

King has kicked three of Gold Coast's seven goals for the night.

Geelong getting into some real percentage-boosting territory here.

It's a real grubber of a kick inside 50, but Jeremy Cameron manages to pick it up off his shoelaces and then snaps brilliantly from an acute angle while being tackled.

The Suns need to be careful to not let this blow out even further, it could have some very grave implications for their finals chances.

Unselfish stuff from Bailey Smith, who would've been well within his rights to have a shot on goal as he runs inside 50.

Smith gets to around 47m out and decides to pop it up into the goalsquare, where the Cats have an outnumber.

Ollie Dempsey takes the mark and he drills his second goal of the night with a snapped set shot from close range.

Geelong now out to a 39-point lead with 10 minutes left.

Surely that's curtains for the Suns.

Max Holmes triumphantly puts one fist up in celebration as he drills a set shot from outside 50m.

Gold Coast has tried desperately to get back into this game, but Geelong has had the answers all night long.

Holmes now up to 26 touches and he's also got four clearances to go along with that goal. He's also got a game-high 714m gained.

Geez, you need to be kicking these goals if you want to come back like the Suns do.

Zeke Uwland picks up the ball after Leo Lombard has a shot on goal smothered, and Uwland's got an easy snap on goal on his preferred left foot, but doesn't make great contact and Zach Guthrie gets a palm on it.

Brutal stuff for the Suns. They've been their own worst enemies at points tonight.

Both sides continue to be incredibly frustrated by the umpires here.

This time it's Geelong's turn as Max Holmes gives away one of those weird 50m penalties for running into the restricted area as Matt Rowell took a mark 60m out from goal.

I feel like no one knows the exact rule or even the reason for why this rule exists.

Holmes attempts to stand the mark, and the umpires ping him for it.

Rowell nails the goal to give the Suns the all-important first goal of the final term.

Ollie Henry misses a gettable set shot after the siren so Geelong settles for a 32-point lead at the final change.

They'll be happy with that buffer, but will know that they're not quite out of sight yet.

The Suns kicked the first two goals of the quarter to get back into the match, but also missed a host of opportunities in that quarter, kicking 2.4 for the quarter.

The Cats leading the inside 50 count 45-37 and the clearance count 31-20 after another dominant quarter from their midfield.

Bailey Smith leads the way for the Cats with 20 disposals, eight inside 50s, five clearances and four score involvements.

Max Holmes has also been excellent with a team-high 22 touches and 601m gained.

Gold Coast skipper Noah Anderson is the leading ball-winner on the ground with 24 touches, and he's also got 10 tackles and seven score involvements.

The Suns have just five goals for the night. They'll need to kick at more than that many to overturn this deficit.

It seems unlikely, but we've seen stranger things happen in this competition.

Joel Jeffrey goes on a mazy run with Sam De Koning chasing him and then unloads on goal from 45m out.

The ball looks like it's going to go in, but Jed Walter opts to go for a mark and spills it into the behind post.

Jeffrey not a happy man with his young teammate. That's symbolic of Gold Coast's night so far.

Ollie Wiltshire follows Shannon Neale's set shot with an absolute ripper of his own!

Lawson Humphries drills a ball in to a leading Wiltshire, who appears to spill the mark, but the umpires say Oscar Adams has again infringed in a marking contest.

This is a tough shot for Wiltshire, who is tucked into the pocket and is 45m out from goal, but like Neale, he absolutely flushes it.

Geelong suddenly back out to a 30-point lead.