Scape Goat The Cam Guthrie Echo Chamber

PatrickBateman

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 8, 2008
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You don't want anyone in your bottom 6 to be a starting midfielder

Exactly. A smart club uses that spot to breed a youngster, a player without a ceiling yet.

Guthrie should be used as depth. He's shown what he can do, he's a passenger in this side. All good sides have them, I know. Doesn't mean improvement can't be made.

Does going head to head with Cotchin and clearly beating him

Please explain "clearly beating him". Stats don't suggest this.

But yeah, did they have any winners on the night? Townsend won the sniper crown.

You forgot "poor decision making" and "he's not a tagger" as well.

Guthrie isn't a tagger either, run-with at absolute best. A real tagger is physical, hard at the body - Guthrie, no and no. His decision making and reaction time is poor compared to the others too. His effectiveness moving the ball forward is poor.

whilst we would lose Guthrie’s speed

Guthrie is not fast. Who out of our other mids could you say is clearly faster than? In his role he'd be more valuable having some physicality / aggression. His horrendously poor meters gained stat suggests he doesn't use the speed people talk of anyway.. therefore even if he was fast, it's pointless.
 
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Footy Smarts

Norm Smith Medallist
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Please explain "clearly beating him". Stats don't suggest this.

Can't read the stats sheet through your anti Guthrie specs?

19 effective disposals to 9, 4 score involvements to just 1, 5 clangers to 2. That's comprehensive in a few key stats and nothing to counteract that (same clearances, neither hit the scoreboard and only 1 tackle difference). So yeah any reasonable reading of the stats suggest Guthrie clearly beat Cotchin. Personally I prefer to judge based on what I see and Cotchin did sweet FA all night so yeah Guthrie clearly beat him.
 

PatrickBateman

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Can't read the stats sheet through your anti Guthrie specs?

Wait.... does that mean Guthrie is a better player than Cotchin?

No, I just find it interesting that when the opposition star player finally gets some stats that don't look favorably V Guthrie, he now went head to head with that player.

Every other time (when we don't win by 70 points), it's the argument of - 'Guthrie was only with 'X' player on a handful of occasions. It's an unfair comparison'. Cotchin did have 6 more contested possessions than Guthrie though, in a game where we obliterated them in that department.

Guthrie was with Cotchin some of the time, not all. I do know that their midfield as a whole got more or less destroyed by ours. I'm not surprised to see Cotchin's stats look that way, they had few winners on the night. Guthrie rolls with the team, he's NEVER the player who performs best out of the mids or even one of the best when we struggle. Parsons would have looked great out there on Friday night too...

Passenger.
 
Great video this, shows guthries centre clearance work and important touches


I just watched the video online and was about to post it also

After watching the video and how Guthrie is spoken about, it should (but won't) put to rest the idea of him being dropped back to the VFL
 
Wait.... does that mean Guthrie is a better player than Cotchin?

No, I just find it interesting that when the opposition star player finally gets some stats that don't look favorably V Guthrie, he now went head to head with that player.

Every other time (when we don't win by 70 points), it's the argument of - 'Guthrie was only with 'X' player on a handful of occasions. It's an unfair comparison'. Cotchin did have 6 more contested possessions than Guthrie though, in a game where we obliterated them in that department.

Guthrie was with Cotchin some of the time, not all. I do know that their midfield as a whole got more or less destroyed by ours. I'm not surprised to see Cotchin's stats look that way, they had few winners on the night. Guthrie rolls with the team, he's NEVER the player who performs best out of the mids or even one of the best when we struggle. Parsons would have looked great out there on Friday night too...

Passenger.
The only thing that resonates with me.. Parsons certainly would have looked good, as he did the 2 weeks before.
Guthrie IS clearly in our best 22, easily.
I hope Parsons achieves that standing as well, but suspect will have to wait til next year, once several of our premiership heroes hang up the boots.
 

Warhorse

Premiership Player
Sep 23, 2017
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He is a quick, clever, creative and important player- no, make that a key player, in the team that sits 11-1.
giphy (2).gif
 

Footy Smarts

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 19, 2006
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Wait..



So Cam beat Cotchin and Martin? Wow. I am impressed.

"Quiet achiever"? :'( Poor Cam.

He was on Cotchin for every centre bounce in the first quarter and most in the second quarter (one or two on Martin and one on Prestia). In the 3rd he shifted more to Martin and then in the last quarter played outside the square more and pushed deeper in defence to give us an extra man.

So yeah while the game was up for grabs he was on Cotchin for most of it and clearly outplayed him. Considering I can't remember anything from Martin after the first quarter then yeah I'd say during their time against one another Guthrie beat him. Not bad for a "passenger".
 

PatrickBateman

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MARK BLAKE IS A GEELONG PREMIERSHIP PLAYER

As we know, every premiership team has passengers. Blake is one, Guthrie would be another.

Though I believe Blake played 99 games, they're still the worst 100 games (to round it up) I've seen an AFL player play. I've not seen a poorer general skill level before, happy to be corrected if someone want's to raise me. Indicative of just how strong we were in that period.

Mark Blake all over again. Just don't come crying Mumford over spilt creampuff in the pressure final.

How could anyone not love this thread, seriously? :D
 

PatrickBateman

Norm Smith Medallist
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Not bad for a "passenger".

Actually it's exactly what it was, a 'passenger' performance. Everyone looks great against their opponent when the margin is 70 points or so..

I more concerned about all the times (basically every other game) when he's supposed to be stopping good opposition players, and they've been much, much more productive than he has. When we're not dominating to the extent we did V Richmond.
 

PatrickBateman

Norm Smith Medallist
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The irony being thar Cam is perhaps the only player on our current list whose finals performances have been clearly better than his H&A performances.

Guthrie's last 4 finals (since 2016)
Disposals - 14, 9, 20, 22.

Doesn't speak too highly of his H&A performances then, does it?

Guthrie has never polled a Brownlow vote in a final.

Guthrie has only polled Brownlow votes in one game since the 2016 season (in 2016). Considering Geelong's winning %, for a player playing midfield, this is unheard of, surely?
 
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