Review Geelong beats Weagles by 47 points

[Partridge]

When you have a buffoon like BT getting a cushy media job despite the s**t he saids I.e the Taylor incident waving hand , putting down not only the team but the city itself (first night game with the new lights) and countless other incidents I would argue that no where else in the world would the media personality be this bad

How he has this job I haven’t got a clue he is at the very least not professional and borderline bullying the club and players , and the sad thing is he’s not the only one in the media that displays the same behaviour

Easy. It's a boys' club between players from the '80s and '90s, plus their sycophantic mates who are roughly the same age and still acting like lovestruck teenagers (that's Brayshaw at the very very top, then McLachlan, Hudson, Howard, all the non-players below). Papalia in Perth is actually pretty good but he's very peripheral.

The main reason it sucks is TV networks (populated by the fanboys of those commentators) now think commentary has to be like the corner of a pub. Which is great when you're smashed and it's your 3-4 mates. It's barely tolerable at best and horrendous at worst for everyone else. So the 3-4 clowns commentating have a laugh and think they're brilliant. Everyone else is looking for heavy objects to hurl at the screen.

 

[Mr Meow]

Easy. It's a boys' club between players from the '80s and '90s, plus their sycophantic mates who are roughly the same age and still acting like lovestruck teenagers (that's Brayshaw at the very very top, then McLachlan, Hudson, Howard, all the non-players below). Papalia in Perth is actually pretty good but he's very peripheral.

The main reason it sucks is TV networks (populated by the fanboys of those commentators) now think commentary has to be like the corner of a pub. Which is great when you're smashed and it's your 3-4 mates. It's barely tolerable at best and horrendous at worst for everyone else. So the 3-4 clowns commentating have a laugh and think they're brilliant. Everyone else is looking for heavy objects to hurl at the screen.

Richo's mix of "wise cracks" and sulking, or Dermie's Professor Waffle routine and whatever you can call BT's style have to be the most ingratiating. I actually somewhat enjoy Jobe Watson's hilarious word salads and inability to form sentences a 5 year old breezes by with.

 

[Mr Meow]

I think most of the hate is directed to the pundits, though. Obviously you can't please everyone but I don't think the callers get anywhere near as much grief as they do here.

It's usually over trivial things like Gary Neville refusing to acknowledge Liverpool played well, or Carragher squealing with delight when United concede. The post-game analysis of ex-players over their teams after a failed performance can be genuinely hilarious and the opposing pundits will keep negging them with the intention to cause an actual meltdown. Not very professional but they're quite open about it. And it's more contained to pre and post match if anything. But it is inadvertently trolling fans who get really, really worked up very easily.

The calling of the actual games in the AFL can be appalling. Getting names and facts wrong, not understanding what is going on, hilariously baffling takes and the distracted joking/waffling on about anything BUT the game. They genuinely create confusion rather than clarification. At times I prefer this to certain commentators in the EPL reeling off 20 pointless facts such as "Chelsea haven't trailed by 2 goals at half time to a bottom 6 club since the middle of 2016" and others that are at times obfuscating or getting in the way of basic description/analysis of the action at hand.

 

[Lana]

The worrying thing is we don't look like we have any levers we can pull, although as CE points out, the same could have been said about our midfield at this stage of last season. The club is managing Danger's veteran years superbly by limiting his TOG compared to his peaks years and maximising his impact when he's on the ground, but elsewhere in the midfield there are alarm bells galore that would be causing the MC a lot of headaches.

The most obvious upside for us is the possibility of Cuthrie's form returning, and in his case at least I'm confident he'll turn things around and get back to his best. His ball use at this point isn't representative of his usual skill level, so I'm sure it'll eventually revert to the standard we've come to expect between the arcs. Likewise, Blicavs has been merely okay so far this year, but I feel he'll get better as the year rolls on.

On the other hand, Parfitt's failure to develop into anything better than a C-grader, Bruhn being young and not quite ready yet, and Atkins' inability to contribute consistently across all four quarters I think are going to be far more ongoing issues for us, as I'm not sure I feel confident that any of those problems will resolve themselves by finals time.

I think we're going to have to try a few different options until something works out. Give more opportunities on-ball to the likes of Bowes and Holmes and see whether they step up, or possibly try Duncan on-ball every now and again like his old 2017 role.

Last year Atkins had to be it. We had nothing else fit enough to throw in there. It was him or O'Connor. We'll know that the club has runs out of ideas when they throw O'Connor in there. Atkins was also a hail Mary.

But at this point we're left to wonder why Parfitt has had such a huge drop off in form given his strong end to the Home and Away season. Strong numbers even if it is against relatively weak opposition. Come the end of the year I expect him to be solution, even if he isn't that player right now, I wonder if we have any sports/performance psychologists on retainer.

Either Guthrie isn't fit or he has lost his pace from wear and tear. If it is the 2nd then they should move him out of the main rotations, not doing anyone favours. He would still have something to give off a flank. It might give him a chance at a late run of good form as the general conditioning of the competition drops in the 2nd half of the year.

I don't think Duncan is in any condition to play anything resembling accountable football. I expect us to let him play loose down back, the opposition will have to put someone to stand him. Which is fine, it would give Stewart and/or Tuohy more room to do their thing.

I like Bruhn on the inside, but he needs to build a tank. If we're a s**t team, we'd be playing him each week to fast track him, I wonder how much better is it really for development vs picking up 30 disposals each week at VFL level

 

[Pollywaffle]

The option to just hear the whistle and the crowd noise would be the biggest improvement made to footy broadcasting since the scorebug.

Remember, we see tv etc as content interspersed with advertising whereas they see it as advertising interspersed with content.
Might work on something like kayo perhaps..or with ‘ticker tape’ ads down below.

 

[Pollywaffle]

The worrying thing is we don't look like we have any levers we can pull, although as CE points out, the same could have been said about our midfield at this stage of last season. The club is managing Danger's veteran years superbly by limiting his TOG compared to his peaks years and maximising his impact when he's on the ground, but elsewhere in the midfield there are alarm bells galore that would be causing the MC a lot of headaches.

The most obvious upside for us is the possibility of Cuthrie's form returning, and in his case at least I'm confident he'll turn things around and get back to his best. His ball use at this point isn't representative of his usual skill level, so I'm sure it'll eventually revert to the standard we've come to expect between the arcs. Likewise, Blicavs has been merely okay so far this year, but I feel he'll get better as the year rolls on.

On the other hand, Parfitt's failure to develop into anything better than a C-grader, Bruhn being young and not quite ready yet, and Atkins' inability to contribute consistently across all four quarters I think are going to be far more ongoing issues for us, as I'm not sure I feel confident that any of those problems will resolve themselves by finals time.

I think we're going to have to try a few different options until something works out. Give more opportunities on-ball to the likes of Bowes and Holmes and see whether they step up, or possibly try Duncan on-ball every now and again like his old 2017 role.

Does anyone see Menegola returning and playing a part?

 

[D BRIDGE]

I like Bruhn on the inside, but he needs to build a tank. If we're a s**t team, we'd be playing him each week to fast track him, I wonder how much better is it really for development vs picking up 30 disposals each week at VFL level

I have always been of the mindset that Bruhn's development has been somewhat poor.

He played 2 TAC Cup games in his under-18s year.
30 odd AFL games for GWS where he was basically a decoy small forward in all of them (almost zero midfield time)
10 games in the VFL since being AFL listed in 3 years where he has had solid numbers and I assume most of those games were played in the middle.

So maybe he has played 12/15 or so full games as a pure mid since 2019... NOT ENOUGH!

As soon as we rightfully dropped him back to the VFL he has his best VFL disposal game and is recalled into the seniors but is EMG and doesn't get a run.

As soon as they dropped him at GWS into the VFL he plays solid (as a mid I assume) and is recalled into the seniors to play a small decoy forward type role.

Honestly... just let the kid run around and dominate as an inside mid in the VFL, get fitter, work on his flaws, and grow in confidence.

I didn't love how GWS developed him and I don't love the way we are going about it either.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Does anyone see Menegola returning and playing a part?

A very fit Menners could be an important role player... But he would wanna be fit (very fit) and in form.

Any drop off and the answer is probably no.

 

[cats_09]

 

[Pure_Ownage]

A very fit Menners could be an important role player... But he would wanna be fit (very fit) and in form.

Any drop off and the answer is probably no.

At his best we can use him but knees at his age tend to be degenerative. He will be a real pro with his rehab though will give himself every chance.