GEELONG is into the grand final after beating the Western Bulldogs by 29 points in last night's preliminary final at the MCG.

It was a tense game, however, the Cats being sorely tested early and then frustrated for the rest of the game. Time and again it seemed they must run away, but the Bulldogs dug deep and shut them down again. The Bulldogs needed to score on the counter-punch, in this scenario, but they could not. They had kicked four goals by two-thirds of the way through the first quarter, then added only three more for the rest of the match.

Geelong was not allowed to score with its normal fluency either, but it kicked 10 goals in the same period. It never looked like a decisive swing in momentum, but it was.

Not until Steve Johnson scored a goal with less than three minutes to play to make the margin 28 points was the win assured.

Johnson and Ryan Hargrave grappled arms as they contested a mark until, in desperation, Hargrave grabbed a handful of his opponent's jumper. In vain did he protest that they had both been holding: they had, but the unfortunate Bulldog had been the one caught with a handful of material.

Trailing by 18 points with a quarter to go, the Bulldogs tested Geelong's defence in the early part of the last term. But what Matthew Scarlett and his teammates did not mop up or wrap up, the Bulldogs let chances go begging with some ordinary kicking. Matthew Boyd blazed out of bounds on the full from a set shot near the 50, Will Minson pushed a free kick at 40 just wide, Shaun Higgins slewed his kick out on the full when he just needed to go long to the square to set up an opportunity.

Geelong would not wait long to make the Dogs pay for their profligacy. But when the reckoning came it was a harsh one. Dale Morris chipped the ball towards Brad Johnson at centre half-back. Johnson attacked the ball front-on, Max Rooke attacked it from the opposite direction. He crashed into the Bulldog veteran, gathered the spill and popped it through for a goal. Johnson appeared extremely unlucky not to get a free.

That was virtually the last chance, and Johnson's goal, his second of a quiet night by his standards, snuffed out the faint light that remained burning.

Geelong led by 18 points at the end of the third quarter, though at one stage the Bulldogs had got within 12.

It was a strange quarter. Geelong threatened to run away with it when Travis Varcoe goaled within minutes of the resumption of play, stretching the lead to 27 points. But then Geelong continually broke down with the last kick coming into attack. Joel Selwood missed a very gettable set shot which would have extended the lead to 32 points and, from there, the Bulldogs slowly came back.

Jarrod Harbrow goaled from a free kick as Harry Taylor's attempted spoil caught his arm. Then Harbrow snapped another after a chain of handpasses finally set someone free to take a shot at goal.

The Bulldogs then squandered several opportunities to creep closer. Nathan Eagleton got a free kick when Cameron Ling crashed into his back and did not score from 40 metres. Hargrave kicked across goal and the ball was rushed through for a point. Then Minson took a strong mark in the forward pocket and his shot went narrowly wide.

Mitch Hahn got another behind, helped when one of the field umpires got in the path of his Geelong opponent. It would have been harsh on the Cats had it been a goal, but now they took the ball the length of the ground for Cam Mooney to take a mark and goal.

During all this, Bulldog Josh Hill was reported for high contact on Andrew Mackie.

Geelong controlled the second quarter, extending its lead from a goal at quarter-time to 21 points at the long break. From late in the first term, it had been six goals to one, and the Bulldogs' goal, from Eagleton, came from a Joel Corey handball error and was very much against the run of play.

The Bulldogs were still taking the game up to the Cats, but the tactical edge they enjoyed at the start of the game had disappeared as Geelong's defence reorganised itself.

Higgins, a thorn in Geelong's side in the first 15 minutes of the match, was rarely sighted.

Still, there was not much in it. Geelong was not scoring at a rush. One goal came from a Mathew Stokes pass to Steve Johnson.

The next, from an unlikely source in Tom Harley, followed a 50-metre penalty needlessly, and needless to say foolishly, conceded by Hargrave. Then Brad Ottens roved a goal-square contest to ram a ground-level ball through. Like Eagleton's sole reply for the Bulldogs, these were hardly textbook goals, but Geelong had added three of them to the Bulldogs' one.

Another sign of Geelong's pressure was the number of behinds conceded by the Bulldogs defence. At half-time, the tally was five, and only one of these had come as a conventional "rushed" behind. The rest were walked through, two within 30 seconds by Brian Lake in the first quarter, as the Dogs sought a springboard out of defence to relieve the pressure.

Many of the driving forces of each side had been relatively quiet in the first half. Geelong's Gary Ablett and Jimmy Bartel, the Bulldogs' Adam Cooney and Hahn, were all checked closely.

GEELONG 5.3 8.8 10.9 12.11 (83)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 4.3 5.5 7.9 7.12 (54)
GOALS Geelong: Rooke 2, S Johnson 2, Harley, Bartel, Varcoe, Ottens, Lonergan, Mooney, Stokes, Wojcinski. Western Bulldogs: Harbrow 2, Higgins 2, B Johnson, Eagleton, Akermanis.
BEST Geelong: Harley, Mackie, Ling, Ottens, Scarlett, Corey, Rooke Western Bulldogs: Cross, Lake, Giansiracusa, Callan, Eagleton, Gilbee
UMPIRES M Vozzo, S McBurney, S Ryan
CROWD 70,140 at the MCG.

THE UPSHOT
The Cats are through to the grand final and a shot at back-to-back premierships. The Bulldogs finish where they've been all year, in the top four, and have an extra week of list management up their sleeves.

TALKING POINT
Who goes out of the Geelong team should Paul Chapman prove in the next week that he has overcome a hamstring injury? Travis Varcoe put forward a very strong case to stay in the team last night, driving the Cats forward often in the second half.

HOT AND COLD
Andrew Mackie's poise, run off half-back and pinpoint passing was crucial to Geelong, in the first half particularly. Cameron Ling completely blanketed Adam Cooney who, like Ryan Griffen, couldn't find any real way into the game. Daniel Cross was tireless for the Bulldogs but Scott Welsh was hired to kick goals and has had a hugely disappointing finals series.