Round 22 Preview: Brisbane v Geelong
Date: Saturday 17th August
Time: 2:10pm AEST
Location: The Gabba
Last Time on The Orville
On a cold Saturday afternoon, the boys traveled down to Kardinia Park for an expected loss. Although the young cubs were very competitive against the mature bodied Cats for the majority of the first half, it was a 5 goal burst with 10 in game minutes either side of the half time buzzer that decided the result. Hawkins absolutely molested poor Harris – who was fresh off rehab from the infamous Jeremy Cameron incident – to the tune of 7 goals. Additionally, GAJ had arguably his best game of 2018 with 38 disposals, whilst providing plenty of run and carry in the midfield, along with Mitch Duncan delivering lace out deliveries to the forwards.
In the Lions corner, it was former Captain Dayne Beams who was clearly our best contributor, working hard to accumulate his 37 disposals and a solitary goal. All the while Lewis Taylor and Dayne Zorko provided solid midfield support, with 23 touches and 1 goal a piece, Mcstay was the best performed forward with 14 disp & 2 goals, whilst Darcy Gardiner tried to hold down the fort down back. In the end it was a textbook performance by the finals bound Cats, doing what they needed to in order to take home the chocolates, a largely unmemorable game.
A Tale of 2 Halves:
Oh my how time flies.
In the first half of the season, Geelong were the clear undisputed premiership favorites, going at 11 wins & 1 loss, with a percentage of 146. The Cats looks nigh unbeatable, ranking top 2 in both defense and offense. With names like Dangerfield, Duncan & Kelly, dominating the clearances in the midfield, and Stewart, Blicavs & O'connor providing rebound out of defense, their Forward line was allowed to feast. This was buoyed by the inclusion of some new blood debutantes in round 1, which made the ageing cats outfit look rejuvenated and once more primed for a premiership push. However, since the bye the Cats have fallen, their midfield looks slow, the once potent defense has had trouble rebounding, and their forward line stalled hard. Last week they show their best form post bye, but they struggled to dominate for 4 quarters, luckily for them the Kangaroos couldn't kick straight in front of the big stick during the first half.
In contrast, Brisbane were 8 wins & 5 loss, running at a respectable 108%. The Lions looked to have taken the next step naturally from their almost good enough form of 2018, but they still lacked the defensive cohesion as a team to limit opposing teams from getting a run of of 4-6 unanswered goals during periods of the match. The truly frustrating element was our propensity to play at least 10-15 minutes of completely unaccountable, bottom 4 quality football that would prevent us from putting teams away. But even with that flaw, we were able to get the wins ticking over at a finals bound pace.
There are only 2 words I can use to accurately describe the difference between our pre-bye & post-bye form: HOLY s**t!
The biggest difference in play style has been our ability to play long down the wing and have the tall timber contest, and bring the ball to ground for the crumbers to contest, instead of the contents high risk/high reward down the corridor style that typified the first 2 season of Fagan's rule. Furthermore, the young cubs have shown a degree of maturity normally reserved for premiership contenders, recognizing when the opposition has momentum and slow the tempo down, utilizing short kicks to pick apart opposition defenses. Lastly, since round 10, our defense has greatly matured, conceding no more than 80 points in 11 matches played. In this wonderful stretch, we've beaten team positioned all over the ladder, except for the very top, and this week will provide our first true test as to whether premiership hopes are genuine or a mere pipe dream.
Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics:
The Game:
After watching both Brisbane & Geelong's games last week, this match has me worried. It might just be the restrictive dimensions of Kardinia Park, but the Cats were able to completely choke the North Melbourne attack, to the point where North only scored 3 behinds in the second half. The Cat's ball movement was sloppy early on, but as the match progressed they started hitting short targets regularly with precision. Narkle & Miers provided some much needed dash in the FWD half, Ablett looked back to his pre-bye best setting up scoring chains, and Tim Kelly produced a solid performance in the midfield. But it was Patrick Dangerfield that was clearly BOG, with a damaging 33 disposal, 1 goal effort, he was moving better than he had in weeks. If the Cats can replicate this form, and continue to move the ball quickly before opposition defenses can adjust, we probably will be staring down the barrel of our 2nd home loss of the season.
The Lions on the other hand clinically demolished a battle depleted Gold Coast outfit with a heavy injury list, marching onto victory to the tune of 91 points, the Lion's highest margin of victory for the decade. It was truly a complete team effort, whilst the Suns were able to match our tackling intensity early on, it was the superior ball use of our midfield that let us gain the ascendancy. IMO Lyons was BOG - despite Charlie Cameron winning the Marcus Ashcroft Medal - with 34 disposals, 20 contested, and booting 2 goals. Zorko proved the injury skeptics wrong with an equally commanding effort, whilst Andrews & Adams dominated the intercepting marking, and Witherden played his best game of the season rebounding off the Half back with deadly precision by foot. Last week also happened to be the first game (in what seems like years) that we actually won all 4 quarters, a dominate performance worthy of the surprise packet contender.
One area I will nit pick at though is there were periods in the 1st half of the match were we played like millionaires with our Inside 50 entries, too many wasted opportunities when the margin was well within 3 goals, a top team will not be so forgiving with such sloppy ball use. With the talent Geelong possesses with ball use by foot across the field, they would not hesitate to punish us on the counter-attack, they did it all last week to North. Throughout the season Geelong have had 1 major weakness: they live and die by contested possession, beat them at the coal face and you virtually win the match, unfortunately this will be no easy task. They have no shortage of contested ball beasts, and Narkle looks to have come at just the right time to captilise of some of that service. The one big question mark I have about the Cats is whether or not they will persist with Blicavs in the ruck, this could potentially be disastrous for them, and I would back Big Stef in to get the better of that matchup.
There are so many variable at play here: can the Lions continue their winning ways? Has Geelong truly stabilized their season just in time for finials? Will the Best Offense beat the Best Defense? At the end of the day I feel that the senior leadership in place at Brisbane will hold us in good stead in order to continue this win streak.
Lions by 7 points.
Date: Saturday 17th August
Time: 2:10pm AEST
Location: The Gabba
Last Time on The Orville
On a cold Saturday afternoon, the boys traveled down to Kardinia Park for an expected loss. Although the young cubs were very competitive against the mature bodied Cats for the majority of the first half, it was a 5 goal burst with 10 in game minutes either side of the half time buzzer that decided the result. Hawkins absolutely molested poor Harris – who was fresh off rehab from the infamous Jeremy Cameron incident – to the tune of 7 goals. Additionally, GAJ had arguably his best game of 2018 with 38 disposals, whilst providing plenty of run and carry in the midfield, along with Mitch Duncan delivering lace out deliveries to the forwards.
In the Lions corner, it was former Captain Dayne Beams who was clearly our best contributor, working hard to accumulate his 37 disposals and a solitary goal. All the while Lewis Taylor and Dayne Zorko provided solid midfield support, with 23 touches and 1 goal a piece, Mcstay was the best performed forward with 14 disp & 2 goals, whilst Darcy Gardiner tried to hold down the fort down back. In the end it was a textbook performance by the finals bound Cats, doing what they needed to in order to take home the chocolates, a largely unmemorable game.
A Tale of 2 Halves:
Oh my how time flies.
In the first half of the season, Geelong were the clear undisputed premiership favorites, going at 11 wins & 1 loss, with a percentage of 146. The Cats looks nigh unbeatable, ranking top 2 in both defense and offense. With names like Dangerfield, Duncan & Kelly, dominating the clearances in the midfield, and Stewart, Blicavs & O'connor providing rebound out of defense, their Forward line was allowed to feast. This was buoyed by the inclusion of some new blood debutantes in round 1, which made the ageing cats outfit look rejuvenated and once more primed for a premiership push. However, since the bye the Cats have fallen, their midfield looks slow, the once potent defense has had trouble rebounding, and their forward line stalled hard. Last week they show their best form post bye, but they struggled to dominate for 4 quarters, luckily for them the Kangaroos couldn't kick straight in front of the big stick during the first half.
In contrast, Brisbane were 8 wins & 5 loss, running at a respectable 108%. The Lions looked to have taken the next step naturally from their almost good enough form of 2018, but they still lacked the defensive cohesion as a team to limit opposing teams from getting a run of of 4-6 unanswered goals during periods of the match. The truly frustrating element was our propensity to play at least 10-15 minutes of completely unaccountable, bottom 4 quality football that would prevent us from putting teams away. But even with that flaw, we were able to get the wins ticking over at a finals bound pace.
There are only 2 words I can use to accurately describe the difference between our pre-bye & post-bye form: HOLY s**t!
The biggest difference in play style has been our ability to play long down the wing and have the tall timber contest, and bring the ball to ground for the crumbers to contest, instead of the contents high risk/high reward down the corridor style that typified the first 2 season of Fagan's rule. Furthermore, the young cubs have shown a degree of maturity normally reserved for premiership contenders, recognizing when the opposition has momentum and slow the tempo down, utilizing short kicks to pick apart opposition defenses. Lastly, since round 10, our defense has greatly matured, conceding no more than 80 points in 11 matches played. In this wonderful stretch, we've beaten team positioned all over the ladder, except for the very top, and this week will provide our first true test as to whether premiership hopes are genuine or a mere pipe dream.
Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics:
The Game:
After watching both Brisbane & Geelong's games last week, this match has me worried. It might just be the restrictive dimensions of Kardinia Park, but the Cats were able to completely choke the North Melbourne attack, to the point where North only scored 3 behinds in the second half. The Cat's ball movement was sloppy early on, but as the match progressed they started hitting short targets regularly with precision. Narkle & Miers provided some much needed dash in the FWD half, Ablett looked back to his pre-bye best setting up scoring chains, and Tim Kelly produced a solid performance in the midfield. But it was Patrick Dangerfield that was clearly BOG, with a damaging 33 disposal, 1 goal effort, he was moving better than he had in weeks. If the Cats can replicate this form, and continue to move the ball quickly before opposition defenses can adjust, we probably will be staring down the barrel of our 2nd home loss of the season.
The Lions on the other hand clinically demolished a battle depleted Gold Coast outfit with a heavy injury list, marching onto victory to the tune of 91 points, the Lion's highest margin of victory for the decade. It was truly a complete team effort, whilst the Suns were able to match our tackling intensity early on, it was the superior ball use of our midfield that let us gain the ascendancy. IMO Lyons was BOG - despite Charlie Cameron winning the Marcus Ashcroft Medal - with 34 disposals, 20 contested, and booting 2 goals. Zorko proved the injury skeptics wrong with an equally commanding effort, whilst Andrews & Adams dominated the intercepting marking, and Witherden played his best game of the season rebounding off the Half back with deadly precision by foot. Last week also happened to be the first game (in what seems like years) that we actually won all 4 quarters, a dominate performance worthy of the surprise packet contender.
One area I will nit pick at though is there were periods in the 1st half of the match were we played like millionaires with our Inside 50 entries, too many wasted opportunities when the margin was well within 3 goals, a top team will not be so forgiving with such sloppy ball use. With the talent Geelong possesses with ball use by foot across the field, they would not hesitate to punish us on the counter-attack, they did it all last week to North. Throughout the season Geelong have had 1 major weakness: they live and die by contested possession, beat them at the coal face and you virtually win the match, unfortunately this will be no easy task. They have no shortage of contested ball beasts, and Narkle looks to have come at just the right time to captilise of some of that service. The one big question mark I have about the Cats is whether or not they will persist with Blicavs in the ruck, this could potentially be disastrous for them, and I would back Big Stef in to get the better of that matchup.
There are so many variable at play here: can the Lions continue their winning ways? Has Geelong truly stabilized their season just in time for finials? Will the Best Offense beat the Best Defense? At the end of the day I feel that the senior leadership in place at Brisbane will hold us in good stead in order to continue this win streak.
Lions by 7 points.
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