Review AFL NAB Challenge 1 autopsy - Gold Coast defeats Geelong by 8 points

Sep 22, 2000
62,351
41,696
Calling Wambulances for the Geelong whiners
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
Ford
We are cooked.

Yes we are


134079-3dcc69a8-20e2-11e4-a212-44a8a3dd312b.jpg
 
Sep 15, 2005
13,075
20,637
AFL Club
Geelong
Bank the four points and move on to next ... oh hang on ...

no nasty injuries, so that's a plus ..

I thought the midfield looked pretty anemic without the skipper and Johnson; Caddy seemed to be going at about half pace ... Guthrie showed some dash but faded in and out like most of the players.

Clark fumbled and spilled some marks but I thought his hit-out was pretty encouraging; shows agility once the ball hits the deck, didn't look too knackered, and hit the scoreboard.

Cockatoo, Gregson and Kolodjashnij all did some nice things, Kolo looked particularly assured down back I thought .. first time I've really seen him in action and although he was a bit smaller than I expected, he played well.
Lang worked his way into the game nicely after a quiet start.

I thought both Gore and Luxford were a bit off the pace, but I have zero concerns considering the stakes - I'd never seen either play previously though, so just an observation ..

Simpson showed glimpses I thought; awkward with ball in hand but handy with ball in ruck contest.
 

vinum coupe

Cancelled
10k Posts Ruby Geelong Cats - Travis Varcoe 2012 Player Sponsor
Aug 4, 2005
22,931
16,128
Melbourne
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
Aussie cricket team
2 to 1 that we won't end up 10-16, why not bet now seeing your already predicting it.
Not good enough odds.
And no way will we finish 16th. Too much quality.
And that quality will over come a shyte game plan to a degree.

When you see Bartel kick the ball 20m wide of a free man and it goes over the boundary, you can see where their mentality is. It's certainly not an aggressive one.
 
Sep 22, 2000
62,351
41,696
Calling Wambulances for the Geelong whiners
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
Ford
Come knock on my door after week 3 of the main season.
abets mum taught him when he was young to NEVER knock on the door of strangers,especially creepy ones who post on internet message boards.

Oh crap,might've just described myself by mistake :p
 
Mar 6, 2014
41,562
39,805
AFL Club
Geelong
Bank the four points and move on to next ... oh hang on ...

no nasty injuries, so that's a plus ..

I thought the midfield looked pretty anemic without the skipper and Johnson; Caddy seemed to be going at about half pace ... Guthrie showed some dash but faded in and out like most of the players.

Clark fumbled and spilled some marks but I thought his hit-out was pretty encouraging; shows agility once the ball hits the deck, didn't look too knackered, and hit the scoreboard.

Cockatoo, Gregson and Kolodjashnij all did some nice things, Kolo looked particularly assured down back I thought .. first time I've really seen him in action and although he was a bit smaller than I expected, he played well.
Lang worked his way into the game nicely after a quiet start.

I thought both Gore and Luxford were a bit off the pace, but I have zero concerns considering the stakes - I'd never seen either play previously though, so just an observation ..

Simpson showed glimpses I thought; awkward with ball in hand but handy with ball in ruck contest.
lol- no 'meh' today, unfortunately, though it sure feels like a 'meh' game :)
 
Oct 8, 2014
1,365
2,229
AFL Club
Geelong
Not good enough odds.
And no way will we finish 16th. Too much quality.
And that quality will over come a shyte game plan to a degree.

When you see Bartel kick the ball 20m wide of a free man and it goes over the boundary, you can see where their mentality is. It's certainly not an aggressive one.

More like too much quality to finish out of the 8
 

vinum coupe

Cancelled
10k Posts Ruby Geelong Cats - Travis Varcoe 2012 Player Sponsor
Aug 4, 2005
22,931
16,128
Melbourne
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
Aussie cricket team
abets mum taught him when he was young to NEVER knock on the door of strangers,especially creepy ones who post on internet message boards.

Oh crap,might've just described myself by mistake :p
Abet also doesn't know how to bet.

Would you take $2 for Geelong to finish 10-16th
Or back them to win less than 14 games @ $1.87 on centrebet? o_O
 
5 weeks to go before the real deal. No injuries. Good efforts by many players. Nothing to be down about except for those who expect us to be better than we were last year.
The major disappointment for me was Murdoch, but we know he can be a key for us.
Smedts put in plenty of effort.
Lang looks like a real mid, Cocky will be worth his sponsorship, Gregson very impressive at times.
Clark could not really play worse but still snagged 2 goals.
Bartel and Kelly look fit which is great for 1 March.
We are unlikely to see Geelong beat GC in Q'land for many years now; that's just how it is.
Going to be a long long season and plenty of players to look forward to.
 
When you see Bartel kick the ball 20m wide of a free man and it goes over the boundary, you can see where their mentality is. It's certainly not an aggressive one.
Not sure how poor skills can be chalked up to defensive mindset. At times they tried to move the ball too quickly.
 

SleazySimon

Club Legend
May 23, 2012
1,841
1,916
Melbourne
AFL Club
Geelong
Ok.
What was the score guys?
Not even up on GFC website yet, not on the facebook page or twitter and not on here.
Not everyone can watch the telly.
Pathetic
 

DV2000

Club Legend
May 9, 2014
1,135
1,101
AFL Club
Geelong
Simpson was dominated for most of the game, too, and at this point of his career, that's really not good enough. It was made pretty clear that Simpson and McIntosh aren't the answer last year. They're neither reliable nor good enough to carry the ruck duties. At some point, the club needs to get serious and recruit a real ruckman, or this will be a sore point for years to come.

I was hoping some of the poor habits that had plagued previous seasons might have been worked out during this year's preseason.
Definitely agree with this. Ive been saying it for the last 7 or 8 months (moreso after the trade period, etc), and it could really hurt us this year. While we have recruited numerous big men, this isn't going to solve the problem. Most of them aren't full-time, solid ruckmen, so we could end up with 2 or 3 "pinch-hitters" trying to have an impat at ruk contests, which I think just isnt going to work. The risk we took with HMac hasn't paid off, but we'll have to see as time goes on.

I also hoped that some of our poor habits of previous seasons had been worked on duing the off-season, but judging by today's match, things haven't gotten a whole lot better. That said, they were pretty bad conditions for footy, and we played a large proportion of our very young and inexperienced players.
 
Don't really care about the result, just happy some kids played well and no injuries.

Thought our skills were really poor although first game back that is kind of to be expected. Stoppage setups worried me though, seemed similar problems to last year where we allowed too much space for players running into stoppages and were asleep defensively at stoppages.

Player wise I thought Lang was impressive and he could slot into the 22 fairly early in the year on a forward flank. Cockatoo is a bit further off but showed potential and I liked Kolo's game.

Simpson was the major disappointment for me, got smashed by Smith and was fairly non existent around the ground. I know he has had a lot of injuries ruining pre seasons but he's in his 8th year and it is make or break for him. Realistically with how quick the speed of the game is now and how much endurance it demands I just don't think you can have a ruckman who lacks endurance so much and can't cover the ground. If he can't get fit real quick he isn't in the 22. Hopefully Hamish and Stanley are fit and playing soon as we really need some better options in the ruck. Given how badly we have been exposed in finals the last 2 years for lack of ruckmen, this area, along with the midfield, has to improve if we are to contend.

I expect we will rotate the side a fair bit again for the next match before we settle on the 22 for round 1.
 
Here's a wacky idea,how about giving him some game time in a meaningless pre-season game to get some fitness ?

:rolleyes:
Exactly. Still 5 weeks to go, and I'm amazed/rapt to see him play a NAB game, unscathed.
 

vinum coupe

Cancelled
10k Posts Ruby Geelong Cats - Travis Varcoe 2012 Player Sponsor
Aug 4, 2005
22,931
16,128
Melbourne
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
Aussie cricket team
Not sure how poor skills can be chalked up to defensive mindset. At times they tried to move the ball too quickly.
That was not off the side of the boot. It was mindset.
The guy might now be B grade in the context of the league, but he used to be elite.

We'll see mate. Let's see how it all looks in 6 weeks.
But certainly, nothing looked promising from a team / game style point of view.
 
Funny old game. Hard to pick half a dozen best. Without looking at stats I'd have Taylor and Motlop there. Others were good in patches - Guthrie, Bartel, Lang, Duncan and Enright.

The positives were no injuries and some good signs from Lang (who looks so comfortable at the level), Cockatoo and Gregson. All made some blues but were overall positive contributions.

The real negative from me was the clearances were we were absolutely smashed. If we are to go anywhere in 2015 this is an area that must improve and we looked no better, if not worse, than 2014 today. Selwood will obviously help but it's as though they have no idea how to defend an opposition ruckman's taps. Simpson got schooled by Smith and our mids were just nowhere near Smith's taps.

Also thought it was telling how regularly our handballs were cut-off or intercepted. It was a clear case of the pressure stepping up quite a few notches from pre-season and we didn't really adjust well at all.

Overall happy and looking forward to the next hit-out. It's good to have footy back.
 
Well, it's time.
Time to join the YPO train.

We are cooked.

Some really, really good signs by kolo, lang, cocka.
Loved how Motlop, Duncan, and cocka tried to 'go' when they had the ball.

But the game plan is complete shyte. Kicking backwards 30 metres. And missing the target by 10 so they go back even further is crap. Its 2006 footy. Maybe even worse. At least in 06 it was just backwards handballs.

And for all the knocking GC get for not being able to play without their skipper.
We missed ours more.

I'll give it til about week 3 of the main season.
But based on game style. 10th.
Bookmarked.

Good to have you back VC.
 

Spazz Cat

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 10, 2013
24,890
30,162
AFL Club
Geelong
Don't really care about the result, just happy some kids played well and no injuries.

Thought our skills were really poor although first game back that is kind of to be expected. Stoppage setups worried me though, seemed similar problems to last year where we allowed too much space for players running into stoppages and were asleep defensively at stoppages.

Player wise I thought Lang was impressive and he could slot into the 22 fairly early in the year on a forward flank. Cockatoo is a bit further off but showed potential and I liked Kolo's game.

Simpson was the major disappointment for me, got smashed by Smith and was fairly non existent around the ground. I know he has had a lot of injuries ruining pre seasons but he's in his 8th year and it is make or break for him. Realistically with how quick the speed of the game is now and how much endurance it demands I just don't think you can have a ruckman who lacks endurance so much and can't cover the ground. If he can't get fit real quick he isn't in the 22. Hopefully Hamish and Stanley are fit and playing soon as we really need some better options in the ruck. Given how badly we have been exposed in finals the last 2 years for lack of ruckmen, this area, along with the midfield, has to improve if we are to contend.

I expect we will rotate the side a fair bit again for the next match before we settle on the 22 for round 1.
Yeah stoppages seem to be the same again. Not all that much to do with players just game plan. That said it was disappointing not to see JJ play. Not that he'll be a saviour or anything but he's a big boy. Would of been interesting to see.
Also forgot Bews in my last post. Was really good. Probably deserves some real games.
 
Clark was encouraging, got better as the game went on, 2 goals in a lowish scoring game.. Take that. He should only improve. Still appears pretty agile for a big bloke, that 2nd goal he did really well to recover and get back into the play let alone finish. Him and Hawk could be great together.

Cocky showed signs as did Gregson, Gregson really impressed me with his abilty to hit the right spots. Sure he fumbled but he is half way there for his first hit out against AFL players... plenty there to work with. Reminds me a hell of a lot of Bundy in the way he moves...

Overuse of handball still will be a worry... never more evident when we were streaming into an open goal and no one wanted to take the shot and we ended up turning it over when Stokes got given it under the pump and caught with it.

Rucks are a big concern, Lucey can't be expected to be anywhere near it yet so he will learn a stack.. I just have real concerns that Simpson simply isn't good enough, HMac is a better player but can't stay on the park.... Will be very interested to see what (if anything) Stanley brings.

Smedts was an interesting one, I just don't think he is a defender but he wasn't awful today.. and did a few things that showed me he is maturing. I think MC Extra Dollop pointed out early a tackle that he let go in time to not give away a free kick. In the last quarter there was a point he did well to get into the front position and influence a contest as well... Just would much prefer him on a wing or half forward flank.

Was impressed with Lang... I have mentioned before I want to see him most weeks in a forward pocket and that hasn't changed... looks clean and composed, smart with the ball.

Murdoch is in trouble, I think Blease will play NAB 2 against the Crows and wouldn't be suprised to see him push Murda out... he will be chomping at the bit to get a chance to prove himself as well.

At the end of the day its early and there is still work to be done, no injuries is always good... and was good to see us seeming to run out the game ok in that heat. Particuarly as apparently they still had a full on 90min session Thursday at training


also welcome back VC, I look foward to seeing some cages rattled
 
Back