Autopsy Cats lose to Pies by 22 points

[UnitedWarrior93]

Injuries, lacking fitness, midfield copped a pasting…..

It’s round 1. I’m sure we’ll pick ourselves up and go again next week, and even if we go 0-2, I’m confident we’ll be thereabouts when the whips are cracking.

 

[STPer18]

Every thing went wrong....16.1 at one stage....wow

 

[catters_28]

Pies played their grand final tonight and we played our round 1 and got stiffed with injuries. Sums it up really

 

[kickazz]

Had our moments as we should as a good team.

But all game apart from moments in the second q we looked pretty listless. Injuries? Underdone? Effort?

Probably a bit of all three.

Geez it was like 80s footy. No defence. I think Collingwood ran better than us but both sides played plenty ahead of the ball.


Would not have mattered tonight but I already miss having Selwood out there in the last quarter of big games.

 

[calder_daddy]

I wonder if the posters who said they didn’t care if we lost still feel that way?
The pies are super fit, young and exciting

That was a well coached team after half time, Exploiting Hawkins in particular.

More positives in that game for us that negatives

 

[Cursed Cat]

Lid is back on; Premiership in the past, winning streak over.

There were mitigating circumstances, but it would be beneath the contest and the opposition to offer up excuses; we weren't good enough for long enough.

Kept threatening to stretch it out to that 25 point lead, which is the only time I ever start to think we're in a strong position, but we could never quite nudge in front that far, and Collingwood ran right over the top of us in the last quarter.

Disappointing and damaging to lose Tom Stewart so early; we seemed to be putting out injury spot fires all night long and it didn't help things.

Ultimately though I think our midfield was well beaten; Bruhn started ok but faded, Guthrie had some ok moments but looked a step off the pace of the game and new skipper Patrick Dangerfield reminded me of his frailities.

No one really stood up for 4 quarters apart from maybe Isaac Smith

7

Isaac Smith

Age

37

Ht

188cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.3

5star

K

13.0

5star

HB

8.4

5star

M

5.5

5star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.7

4star

D

19.4

4star

K

11.1

4star

HB

8.3

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.5

3star

CL

1.3

4star

D

19.2

5star

K

10.6

4star

HB

8.6

5star

M

7.6

5star

T

2.0

4star

CL

0.6

3star

; O'Connor was great early, Miers tried hard, Zac Guthrie and Jed Bews

24

Jed Bews

Age

32

Ht

186cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.9

3star

K

6.1

2star

HB

4.8

3star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

MG

178.2

3star

D

9.5

2star

K

7.5

3star

HB

2.0

1star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.7

3star

MG

205.8

3star

D

8.8

3star

K

3.8

2star

HB

5.0

4star

M

2.4

3star

T

3.2

5star

were reasonably solid, but it wasn't enough to win a game of football. Ollie Henry showed a lot and handled the hate pretty well for a kid.

I haven't seen Brad Close play a game that poor for some time, he lacked his usual sharpness.

Our forward line looked dangerous and converted really well but Hawkins is short of a gallop, Cameron was a touch laconic (though good) and Rohan flashed in and out of the play - which is how he plays of course, but it can be a matter of small degrees between a good Rohan game and a poor one - overall he was just ok, too.

Yes; it's only Round 1, but things can go pear-shaped very quickly. Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

49

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

and the club's other leaders need to show strength throughout the week to ensure we secure 4 points.

 

[SkittleCats]

Not worried about the result, I am worried about the midfield, we got smashed there all night, and it isn't like we are missing any through there. You gotta break even against the flogs at least. Gonna be interesting to see how we respond next week, not a long turn around either.

Still kicked over 100, which doesn't say much for Collingwood defensive structure, they are getable but you have to be fit, because they will run all night.

We will be a different team in a few weeks, the evolution of the team will be an interesting test for Scott this year.

 

[Mr Meow]

Essentially lost our 3 most important structural players to injuries, sure SDK and Hawkins ran out the game but you're kidding yourself if you think they weren't severely hampered.
Injuries, came into the game with some keys missing and against a team with a mission to win (like it changes the Finals....) and we did ok.
Clearance work was terrible all night, let their midfielders get first use time after time without any desire to change it up.
Ollie was good, aside from a boneheaded goal line brain fade, Sav was good outside a few questionable decisions early and I thought Bruhn cracked in constantly throughout the night.
We looked clinical at times with the ball, but lacked the run and injuries compounded it.
I'm not concerned that's for sure.

Stengle was not his usual athletic and agile self when he came back on too. So you had three players pretty hampered and three important defenders missing. It doesn't excuse the midfield efforts but contributed to some of Collingwood's ease of play I think.

 

[Micksy]

Well played pies.
Injuries were a horror show tonight.
Rataagalouie looks like he could come on well with a bit of mentoring.

 

[Ricky Vaughn]

Really needed Guthrie and Blicavs to stand up when thing were going badly and they didn’t.

Not sure we could have been worse in stoppage, fitness and defensive running, but our forward line still works well

 

[Baudolino]

Every thing went wrong....16.1 at one stage....wow

Sorry, just to confirm, you're attempting to suggest that a night in which Geelong lost the best defender in the comp to injury early in the game, and had multiple other top 5 players hobbled by injury throughout did not constitute a calamitous series of events for Geelong that made it significantly easier for Collingwood to win?

Literally what.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Probably worst on ground imo, SavRat's first half aside. Usually Close is our cleanest player but he was double-grabbing everything.

He's from Mt Gambier. Needs the weather cold

 

[Seeds]

Sorry, but you can't blame injuries to defenders for us letting Collingwood run unhindered through the midfield 30 times in a game. How many times did they have a free player forward of the ball?

It wasnt just injuries to defenders now was it. Stengle kept getting minor issues. Hawkins was massively underdone. Duncan, bowes and menegola all out injured from the mids. plus stewart gets in the way and stops a lot of those mids running foward. He was gone. As was j. henry and kolo. Dekonning had no run or leap. other mids had to go back to fill the gaps.

 

[Catsace]

In-game injuries are probably the worst for a side's structure, our backline general Stewart gone early, then all of DeKoning, Stengle and Hawkins all with leg issues on the pine. Pies seem to be super fast and switched at will, and of course no Selwood in the guts to bring that extra grit.

I guess the pressure is now off in terms of the winning streak, they can re-group and it's an extra long season this year, 0-1 is not the end of the world when it's 23 rounds. I sort of guessed the likes of Hill, McCreery and even whatever a McGuinness is would be dangerous as the small forwards have always given us trouble. And when the midfield pressure is not there, and we're beaten in clearances and smashed in uncontested possessions, it's always going to be a loss.

Onwards and upwards, i reckon if we can play to this standard at least next week it should be enough to challenge Carlton. And hopefully our injured cohort can recover soon.

 

[calder_daddy]

Is it just me and the umpires looked confused to who was officiating at certain times and also was fox footy not allowed to show any replays for the entire game?

 

[catters05]

For me it was the last 5 min of the third was when we lost it.

 

[CHAWKTS]

Injuries killed us, as did letting them have a spare at the stoppage. And what has happened to Close? Looks a shell of the player he was last year.

Certainly too early to be definitive but I noted that against brisbane his energy (running and pressure) was non existent. Put it down to practise game. But had same feel about it today.

He needs manic intensity to play at his best.

Let’s hope he finds that over next couple of weeks

 

[Cataholic]

Cataholic my point about Parfitt is that while we are depleted we may still rely on him. And he didn't give us anything. But it's hard to pick a winning midfielder from the side tonight and the way they got that onslaught of goals reflects that.

Pies got a huge amount from their new inclusions and sub (5 goals for starters). O.Henry had his moments and Bruhn's first quarter was good. But those two with Parfitt collectively didn't have too much influence. However the more concerning part was what the more experienced batch gave us. after Tuohy's hot start he didn't have a good game. Dangerfield, Blicavs and C.Guthrie struggled big time. Not many stood up especially late.

Agree all points.

I don't think Parfitt will get a game once we get a few of the others back though. I just don't see what he offers tbh.

Like you say, the lack of influence by the core senior players was / is concerning. I'll be interested to see how they respond on Thursday night.

 

[Interdimensional Bigfoot]

Pies looked scary, so fast and never quit. Going to be hard to beat. We need to talk about Stanley and Parfitt. Recruits were meh but they showed signs. Big Sav I thought did well looks a machine in air just needs to pick when to spoil better.

 

[Feline]

Three quarters of a good game. Pity about the last quarter when the players looked worn out. I hope the injuries are not serious don't affect us too badly in the next few weeks.

 

[catters05]

Is it just me and the umpires looked confused to who was officiating at certain times and also was fox footy not allowed to show any replays for the entire game?

What’s the whole inteference thing that the umps were yelling out? I thought that was the point of defender on forward, to interfere.

 

[kickazz]

Stengle was not his usual athletic and agile self when he came back on too. So you had three players pretty hampered and three important defenders missing. It doesn't excuse the midfield efforts but contributed to some of Collingwood's ease of play I think.

Yeah.

Before he got injured he was doing lots of good things and we were almost getting control for a bit.

Gotta make sure he is healthy

 

[CatRiot]

Injuries killed us, as did letting them have a spare at the stoppage. And what has happened to Close? Looks a shell of the player he was last year.

He had a stinker

I said this a few games ago... Close in a poor team will be below average. I'll have to admit, a decent player, but a clear downhill skier imho. Someone on here once said he'd rather have Close than Stengle. I nearly fell off my chair. Was CharacterFirst...

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

They played much better. Accuracy kept us in it.

 

[nohairandfair]

We're not going to win too many games with Sav down back. Directly responsible for a swag of Pies goals with clumsy mistakes.
Unfortunately he is not in possession of even basic footy acumen and his presence creates a nervous and static backline.