Geelong - Too old, too slow?

Remove this Banner Ad

Feb 12, 2017
16,024
42,123
AFL Club
Geelong
GMHBA stadium alongside SCH hands down the weirdest ovals in the league. The former being too skinny and the latter too fat in width compared to MCG or Optus or even Adelaide Oval/ Marvel. So yes, teams like the Eagles who come to Geelong once a year are not going to change their game style so it works in that shitty ground. who cares if you have a winning record in Geelong, finals are played at The G, have a plan that stands up in the G hence why Optus dimensions are similar to the G for Eagles. And yes, GMHBA is way too thin on width which means many teams kick out of bounce on the full. Geelong rarely loses here to any team so nothing special if they win next week, they remain an average team this year. They look cooked especially against fast teams like demons and god forbid dogs will eat them alive. should have lost to lions and barely won against Hawks. I hope they get spanked this week in Geelong with both Cameron and Danger playing. How do they get two Geelong games in a row?? Geelong reminds of Lions post dynasty going after fev and Brayshaw to win more flags and it backfired big time. Could happen to Geelong. already lost their list manager.
s**t that's a read and a half.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Aug 17, 2006
23,225
21,445
AFL Club
Geelong
GMHBA stadium alongside SCH hands down the weirdest ovals in the league. The former being too skinny and the latter too fat in width compared to MCG or Optus or even Adelaide Oval/ Marvel. So yes, teams like the Eagles who come to Geelong once a year are not going to change their game style so it works in that shitty ground. who cares if you have a winning record in Geelong, finals are played at The G, have a plan that stands up in the G hence why Optus dimensions are similar to the G for Eagles. And yes, GMHBA is way too thin on width which means many teams kick out of bounce on the full. Geelong rarely loses here to any team so nothing special if they win next week, they remain an average team this year. They look cooked especially against fast teams like demons and god forbid dogs will eat them alive. should have lost to lions and barely won against Hawks. I hope they get spanked this week in Geelong with both Cameron and Danger playing. How do they get two Geelong games in a row?? Geelong reminds of Lions post dynasty going after fev and Brayshaw to win more flags and it backfired big time. Could happen to Geelong. already lost their list manager.

Geelong has played two finals against West Coast at the MCG in the last ten years. And won (comfortably) both of those matches.

I wish I had a dollar for every post on here in September 2019 about how excited West Coast was to get the Cats in the semi final at the MCG, how Geelong would be smashed and go out in straight sets ignominy. Didn't quite work out that way.

Sorry that it doesn't suit your narrative, but for 30 years, the real reason that the Eagles wouldn't have bothered changing their gamestyle was because - shock horror - Geelong's home ground dimensions (170 x 115) are actually very similar to Subiaco (175 x 122).

Interesting that I have literally never seen anyone on here post about the ridiculous shape of Subi though.
 

Karim Abdul Yeo

Cancelled
Jul 30, 2013
1,404
1,936
AFL Club
West Coast
Geelong has played two finals against West Coast at the MCG in the last ten years. And won (comfortably) both of those matches.

I wish I had a dollar for every post on here in September 2019 about how excited West Coast was to get the Cats in the semi final at the MCG, how Geelong would be smashed and go out in straight sets ignominy. Didn't quite work out that way.

Sorry that it doesn't suit your narrative, but for 30 years, the real reason that the Eagles wouldn't have bothered changing their gamestyle was because - shock horror - Geelong's home ground dimensions (170 x 115) are actually very similar to Subiaco (175 x 122).

Interesting that I have literally never seen anyone on here post about the ridiculous shape of Subi though.


Nobody plays at Subi anymore hence why Optus was designed to be a similar dimension to MCG. 2019 was a great game and you really did not win comfortably as the game was in the balance until halfway through the 4th. Goodwin by your mob, you took your chances and a better team won on the day. Rioli's suspension right before the game did not help us either but no excuses. we actually hit the front against you boys in 2019.Suit my narrative?? did you just learn that word and wanted to use it in a sentence?? It is not just the Eagles so I can make it clear for you.every team that plays at Geelong struggles, and no it is not because of the quality of your team that you win almost every time over there for the past 3 decades. Your crap oval has a big say in the outcome just the same as subi had on us. We are just a little tad smarter realizing that stupid oval dimension has no bearings come finals time and hence why we changed it to look more MCG-like. you go ahead and keep winning at your stupid home ground and feel good about yourself. How on earth you lost to freo on your first and only ever home finals over there is beyond me.
 
Apr 20, 2014
43,201
88,240
Brunch
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Aston Villa
Interesting that I have literally never seen anyone on here post about the ridiculous shape of Subi though.
Did Subi have one side squashed though? Or was it a proper oval? Because GMHBA is not a proper oval.

1618790620997.png



This is not a shot at Geelong OR the ground. But I ask this. The ground is an odd shape due to space constraints, we all get that. Since the Govt has been so generous with funds to keep developing the ground, was there ever any consideration to a new facility somewhere nearby that could a) have a bigger capacity and b) a "proper" shape?
 

BennyGan

Club Legend
Jan 15, 2019
1,638
2,529
AFL Club
Geelong
Geelong have looked fairly ordinary so far. Winning while playing badly is not a bad sign though.
tigers won a flag doing it lol. as long as you come good second half of the season its fine, just gotta get wins on the board early doesn't matter how you get them. cats have arguably been the best first half of the season team the last 3 years but didn't get us a flag. we don't look good at the moment but im not panicking yet. wanna see what the team looks like after 5 games with the actual best 22 playing together.
 

300Weatherby

Cancelled
Apr 12, 2021
331
389
AFL Club
Melbourne
Other Teams
GCS & Bianchi Cup
They still have enough talent to make the 8 and along with their great home ground advantage maybe even push into the top 4. But against the Tigers and even the Doggies this year their aging midfield will struggle in finals.
 
Aug 17, 2006
23,225
21,445
AFL Club
Geelong
Nobody plays at Subi anymore hence why Optus was designed to be a similar dimension to MCG. 2019 was a great game and you really did not win comfortably as the game was in the balance until halfway through the 4th. Goodwin by your mob, you took your chances and a better team won on the day. Rioli's suspension right before the game did not help us either but no excuses. we actually hit the front against you boys in 2019.Suit my narrative?? did you just learn that word and wanted to use it in a sentence?? It is not just the Eagles so I can make it clear for you.every team that plays at Geelong struggles, and no it is not because of the quality of your team that you win almost every time over there for the past 3 decades. Your crap oval has a big say in the outcome just the same as subi had on us. We are just a little tad smarter realizing that stupid oval dimension has no bearings come finals time and hence why we changed it to look more MCG-like. you go ahead and keep winning at your stupid home ground and feel good about yourself. How on earth you lost to freo on your first and only ever home finals over there is beyond me.

The fact that a fairly ordinary term like 'suit your narrative' seems to clean bowl you probably says a bit. I wish you'd learn the location of the enter key.

Geelong wins in Geelong because it's a home ground advantage and Geelong invariably has been a very good team for the past 15 years. For interstate teams, it's that extra inconvenience of being another hour out of Melbourne and often quite a bit colder than they're used to. It's Tassie, for Hawthorn's opponents at the height of the Hawks' powers... no-one wants to go there for a certain loss.

If Geelong gets in front by a few goals, the crowd's behind them, it's freezing, you're unlikely to win in the first place... it's easy to just lose that little bit of interest. You could borrow the old English soccer saying about a rainy night in Stoke and ask whether the great teams and players would still be able to bring it for a cold Sunday twilight graveyard game at GMHBA.

Fremantle was a very good side in 2013 and going in with no Hawkins and without a recognised ruckman against Sandliands (the former a late withdrawal having battled back issues for the entire season, the latter an example of Chris Scott perhaps trying to be a bit too clever for his own good) proved to be our undoing.

Take a look at our record down there in the early 2000s when we were crap and most of the non-Vic sides were good and we were underwhelming (to say the least) at Kardinia. The good teams would generally beat us down there and the teams that were roughly at our standard or even worse would generally lose to us there. No different to the non-Victorian clubs in that when they're strong, a home game against a travelling opposition (particularly a mediocre opponent) is an almost certain win.
 
Aug 17, 2006
23,225
21,445
AFL Club
Geelong
Did Subi have one side squashed though? Or was it a proper oval? Because GMHBA is not a proper oval.

View attachment 1106207


This is not a shot at Geelong OR the ground. But I ask this. The ground is an odd shape due to space constraints, we all get that. Since the Govt has been so generous with funds to keep developing the ground, was there ever any consideration to a new facility somewhere nearby that could a) have a bigger capacity and b) a "proper" shape?

That's a valid point, but to be honest, I really don't see why that should make things any more difficult for a visiting side.

Of course I'm biased, but I think that's a strength of football, along with cricket and - say - baseball, that you get stadiums with different dimensions and teams have to adapt. We need to do it with the MCG on exposed 2021 form or we're toast.
 
Jan 14, 2002
12,637
16,545
...
AFL Club
Richmond
Yeah, I think Richmond's start in the last two flag seasons has been underwhelming, but they've earned the respect that they'll be there when it counts. I feel like Geelong's earned the respect that they'll get to a top 4/top 6 spot, but not take that final step.

I look back at seasons like 2014, where we finished top 4, but with a poor percentage in an exhausting H&A campaign where everything seemed like a struggle and we ultimately went out in straight sets. Or 2019 where we started like a house on fire in the first half and somehow finished on top despite a three month long W/L/W/L picket fence which continued into the finals with the patented Geelong sh*t the bed QF, before a bit of redemption in the SF and then losing the PF.

We actually started in a similar fashion in 2011, looking absolutely dreadful at times before hitting our groove. Difference being, we somehow scratched out those early wins without a bad performance costing us a loss and then when things started to click, we ultimately went like 12-0 before our first loss. The 2011 Cats would have found a way to steal that Round 1 win against Adelaide.

I think we're going to beat West Coast to go to 4-2 and put pressure on the top 4 and after that I honestly don't know what to make of this crew. Nothing new but truly worrying signs at the MCG, being comprehensively dismantled by Melbourne and almost losing to a truly awful Hawthorn side, who I personally think is every bit as bad as North (admittedly from the ebb and flow of that game, we probably won by about 2-4 goals, but that isn't what the results say).
Yeah MC, you've elaborated my point really well. I was reluctant to mention the Richmond runs of 2019/20 for obvious reasons - it doesn't tend to go down too well on these boards when the tigers get brought into the conversation, but as a supporter that's just my own point of reference. I'm only speculating because of course I don't really know what's going on at Catland, but I reckon Chris Scott has gone to school on the recent flag winning formulas and might be recalibrating the Cats premiership tilt this year in favour of a more tapered approach. No team is going to jeopardise 4 points when it's up for grabs, but I'm sure that preparation and conditioning of players will be tweaked a bit to maximise Geelong's chances of being at their best in September. Playing premiership level football in April is a mug's game.
 
Last edited:

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Ricketz

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 2, 2011
7,742
9,528
Wagga Wagga
AFL Club
Geelong
Nobody plays at Subi anymore hence why Optus was designed to be a similar dimension to MCG. 2019 was a great game and you really did not win comfortably as the game was in the balance until halfway through the 4th. Goodwin by your mob, you took your chances and a better team won on the day. Rioli's suspension right before the game did not help us either but no excuses. we actually hit the front against you boys in 2019.Suit my narrative?? did you just learn that word and wanted to use it in a sentence?? It is not just the Eagles so I can make it clear for you.every team that plays at Geelong struggles, and no it is not because of the quality of your team that you win almost every time over there for the past 3 decades. Your crap oval has a big say in the outcome just the same as subi had on us. We are just a little tad smarter realizing that stupid oval dimension has no bearings come finals time and hence why we changed it to look more MCG-like. you go ahead and keep winning at your stupid home ground and feel good about yourself. How on earth you lost to freo on your first and only ever home finals over there is beyond me.
At least we don't have a strong home ground advantage because of the lopsided free kick count. (looks sideways to the west)
 

Saint

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 1, 2006
9,275
16,638
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Watching the cats play a game plan with ageing players while the rest of the league gets quicker is quite the experiment.

Geelong's defensive platform isn't what it used to be (Scarlett, Lonergan, Taylor >>> Kolodashnij, Blicavs, Stewart/Henderson). So they're trying to slow the game down after winning the ball down back, but they're not winning the ball down back as easily and they're struggling to get the ball forward.

The game plan is stuttering along but nobody realistically thinks they'll beat the Tigers, Bulldogs or Melbourne with this gameplan. As the season wears on so will the multiple 30yo in the Geelong side.

It's a bit of a shame really that some great players are being let down by trying to play yesterday's football.

(They were lucky with a shortened season and quarters last year. The Grand Final was just a taste of what happens when teams get up and about against them.
 
Apr 12, 2014
30,353
52,268
AFL Club
Melbourne
Absolute lock to win this week. Eagles hate playing at KP, they get Cameron back.

This has been the worst Geelong have looked since 2015 but they’ll still go 4-2 and no doubt play finals. Their last 3 games are in Geelong (Giants Saints Dees) they just need to go 50-50 till then and they’re a lock.
 
Aug 4, 2003
22,984
23,445
WA
AFL Club
West Coast
They’ll definitely win this weekend - WCE could start now and still lose.

If they smash the Eagles, and they definitely could, everyone will be back on their knob and it’ll be business as usual.
 

Tristan34

Club Legend
Apr 10, 2015
2,489
2,661
AFL Club
Geelong
Watching the cats play a game plan with ageing players while the rest of the league gets quicker is quite the experiment.

Geelong's defensive platform isn't what it used to be (Scarlett, Lonergan, Taylor >>> Kolodashnij, Blicavs, Stewart/Henderson). So they're trying to slow the game down after winning the ball down back, but they're not winning the ball down back as easily and they're struggling to get the ball forward.

The game plan is stuttering along but nobody realistically thinks they'll beat the Tigers, Bulldogs or Melbourne with this gameplan. As the season wears on so will the multiple 30yo in the Geelong side.

It's a bit of a shame really that some great players are being let down by trying to play yesterday's football.

(They were lucky with a shortened season and quarters last year. The Grand Final was just a taste of what happens when teams get up and about against them.

Just because the bulldogs and Melbourne are 5-0 doesn't mean they will get anywhere... How many teams start well and drop off when it matters??
 

Saint

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 1, 2006
9,275
16,638
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Just because the bulldogs and Melbourne are 5-0 doesn't mean they will get anywhere... How many teams start well and drop off when it matters??

I watched the Melbourne v Geelong game. Geelong struggled. Yes they had players out, but they're a team of 30+ year olds, they're going to have more injuries than most teams.

Those teams are playing good football. Geelong are not. Having beaten Hawthorn, Kangaroos (2nd last and last) and Brisbane at home by less than a kick. Lost to Adelaide (will finish bottom 6) and Melbourne who controlled the game.
 

BennyGan

Club Legend
Jan 15, 2019
1,638
2,529
AFL Club
Geelong
Just because the bulldogs and Melbourne are 5-0 doesn't mean they will get anywhere... How many teams start well and drop off when it matters??
exactly, doesn't matter how you look to start the year, its how you look come finals time. I think anyone is beatable this year. The dogs gave up 8/10 goals to the suns at one stage and looked genuinely awful for a 30 min stretch there. Still think the dogs have problems defensively that can be exploited by better teams, interesting to see how they look when they aren't dominating possession like they are at the moment. Tigers still easily the team to beat imo.
 

Tristan34

Club Legend
Apr 10, 2015
2,489
2,661
AFL Club
Geelong
I watched the Melbourne v Geelong game. Geelong struggled. Yes they had players out, but they're a team of 30+ year olds, they're going to have more injuries than most teams.

Those teams are playing good football. Geelong are not. Having beaten Hawthorn, Kangaroos (2nd last and last) and Brisbane at home by less than a kick. Lost to Adelaide (will finish bottom 6) and Melbourne who controlled the game.

We still have 3 wins.. Yes we are playing poorly, but cats are winning games...
Some teams including Essendon have been getting top 10 picks for close to a decade, but haven't got anywhere near a flag. Drafting kids through the draft is a lottery...
 

Freshwater

Premiership Player
Oct 30, 2014
4,123
8,070
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
We still have 3 wins.. Yes we are playing poorly, but cats are winning games...
Some teams including Essendon have been getting top 10 picks for close to a decade, but haven't got anywhere near a flag. Drafting kids through the draft is a lottery...
No way is drafting kids a ‘lottery’! It’s not an exact science, but still is a science. When cats last went ‘all in’ at the draft you won three flags and there should be a statue of Stephen Wells. Since then you have ‘topped up’ by pinching players from other clubs, which has kept you competitive but no flag. To look back all flags are built from draft, not pinching players especially ‘messiah’ type recruits.
 

Freshwater

Premiership Player
Oct 30, 2014
4,123
8,070
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Did Subi have one side squashed though? Or was it a proper oval? Because GMHBA is not a proper oval.

View attachment 1106207


This is not a shot at Geelong OR the ground. But I ask this. The ground is an odd shape due to space constraints, we all get that. Since the Govt has been so generous with funds to keep developing the ground, was there ever any consideration to a new facility somewhere nearby that could a) have a bigger capacity and b) a "proper" shape?
They chose this shape. They wanted a point of difference. I live here in Geelong, they had plenty of room to go west and widen the ground with all the new grand stands these last few years. But decided on a long narrow ground for home and away advantage. Which is too long for spectators at goal ends and terrible for cricket and doesn’t make for great football generally.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back