Autopsy Cats lose to Freo by 29 in Perth.

[CatToTheFuture]

Let's not go all doomsday. We're not lacking talent, we're lacking experience.

I have full faith that our young midfield will be fine in the long term, but they're just not ready to be 1a and 1b right now. They're all used to being in the second rotation and not copping attention.

We're another first round midfielder away, but the the bones of it are there.

If it can happen to Tim Kelly after a near Brownlow season, then it can happen to kids. It's experience, not talent.

I would say early first round midfielder away. Preferably one taken a few drafts ago. No one specific in mind

 

[And_ROOS]

Thought Scott's press conference was really insightful

Any bits worth noting?

 

[ShaunWDT]

Tanner had 3 effective kicks for the game and 9 clangers. And some on this board gave him votes

Hes only a kid so shouldnt really be the scapegoat but his kicking is killing us, amount of times he completely butchers it out of a stoppage only for the opposition to burn us on turnover for a goal is ridiculous, just don't get away with it in the modern game.

 

[And_ROOS]

Hes only a kid so shouldnt really be the scapegoat but his kicking is killing us, amount of times he completely butchers it out of a stoppage only for the opposition to burn us on turnover for a goal is ridiculous, just don't get away with it in the modern game.

The skills on some of our kids are barely VFL standard. Bruhn is butchering clearances. Knevitt and Dempsey are woeful shots at goal.

 

[ShaunWDT]

The skills on some of our kids are barely VFL standard. Bruhn is butchering clearances. Knevitt and Dempsey are woeful shots at goal.

Not sure about Knevitt yet personally, seemingly unable to be criticised on this board but I think a winger going at 50-60% consistently is a bit of a problem, just absolutely destroys you on transition when the bloke you are extracting the footy to is turning the ball over, think we miss the class ball use of Duncan and Bowes more than people would like to admit and will be a better side when they come back in for some of these kids, Tuohy completely falling off a cliff the last couple weeks isn't helping either.

Little concerned we've drafted/recruited alot of kids that can't kick the footy, gets exposed more without experience but alot of these core fundamentals you either have or you don't.

 

[_Game_]

Could be blind optimism, BUT, if we can stay in the 8 with a relatively full list to choose from come end of year, we can definitely win 4 finals in a row. Everything would have to go right, but you need things to go your way to win it anyways, so why not. Half the team will be rested as they haven't played all year.

 

[standupand]

I would say early first round midfielder away. Preferably one taken a few drafts ago. No one specific in mind

Will Ashcroft would be nice. Cats fan growing up and his dad Marcus apparently still close friends with Nigel Lappin. We can dream.

 

[moond0g]

I know he kicked 2 goals, but I just think J Henry much better in defence.

Once O Henry, Rohan and SDK are back it’ll be interesting where they play him, and who they potentially leave out

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Will Ashcroft would be nice. Cats fan growing up and his dad Marcus apparently still close friends with Nigel Lappin. We can dream.

You're right, that's a nice dream.

I wonder what is achievable

 

[Mr_Cat_Man01]

Watching yesterday we have become really easy to score against and we just aren’t defending the ground very well. I think having so many changes every week through injury hasn’t helped this. Over the last two weeks the opposition half backs have been able to rebound and set up easily.

Kind of remarkable to think we had so much less of the ball in hand that we were able to stay in the game. I think there have been some positives out of the young guys but when you have guys like Bruhn, Knevitt and Holmes in there with Atkins and blitz it will become tough. Being such an experienced team has been a big strength so inexperience will hurt for a while. I think these games will be very beneficial in the long term for this midfield group.

We have a tough run coming up and through the back half of the year to get into the 8 and challenge we will earn it. Maybe top 4 is shaky but I think that if we come through this and push up to the edge of the top 4 the belief is there. When you look at who we play in our next 4 it’s daunting but exciting because there opportunity there take some scalps. Fingers crossed the injuries slow up and we can build up.

 

[cats_09]

 

[Pollywaffle]

Could be blind optimism, BUT, if we can stay in the 8 with a relatively full list to choose from come end of year, we can definitely win 4 finals in a row. Everything would have to go right, but you need things to go your way to win it anyways, so why not. Half the team will be rested as they haven't played all year.

A big hurdle will probably be travel to play interstate finals
( if we get that far)

 

[Kyuss]

Didnt get to see the game, but I did tip us to lose this one. So not that shocked.
Missing too many key players mainly from the midfield. Looks like Serong and Brayshaw had a field day.
One positive is we are getting key experience for our younger players. They will be better in the long run for it.
We are still in the 8. Just need to keep hanging in there, get some players back and hit the 2nd half of the year hard.

 

[catstorm]

He's simply not Afl standard at this point

I am a bit surprised that this is the point you highlight out a game where we were beaten all over the ground. The “older” players I understand some critics but they youNiger ones are not why wer are losing…

If you watch AFL closely every good player looks “gased” a lot after every play. For a goal or out of bounds they have hands one hips or knees as they are stuffed. Every play is full on. What the fit ones do is look stuffed again and again. In first qtr and last.

I thought Dempsey fit that bill. Yes he looked tired but he worked massively hard each play. Just look at stats on the game in terms of average speed.

Overally Dempsey had nothing to do with win or loss so your comments seemed strange. and a bit naive in terms of how players look after each play phase. Fitness isnt about whether you are tired…but whether you can be tired multiple times in a row. From what I saw is Dempsey is the screen lots of time…

You disproved something I never said, at no point did i say he was the reason we lost. How could he be when he came on with 10 minutes to go.

What I said is he came on late in the 4th and offered no run or defensive pressure, so I'm not sure what those stats were showing because he wasn't expending his energy where it was needed.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

What's our next 4 games? GWS, Dogs, Port and Dees? We're going to find out just where we sit after that block.

 

[Wojcinski]

looking at our injury list almost all are either short term or test for last week meaning we could potentially get back everyone missing. Reality is we won't but none are LTI

 

[CHAWKTS]

You disproved something I never said, at no point did i say he was the reason we lost. How could he be when he came on with 10 minutes to go.

What I said is he came on late in the 4th and offered no run or defensive pressure, so I'm not sure what those stats were showing because he wasn't expending his energy where it was needed.

I just listened to the coach who specifically said the team in the last quarter switched to try and win the game (explaining why it blew out a bit and looked disjointed). So I assume the sub and others were expending energy in the way the coaches asked them to? and I disagree as to no defensive pressure. he was in the screen a lot which suggests lots of two way running (in addition to being top for work rate and second for average speed in attack he also was 5th on ground for speed in defence). I am just saying he ran his guts out. No argument he is not in best 22 when all fit but can’t say he didn’t do all the effort that was asked of him. And that is why he looked gassed each time as he was…

Below is the stat I left off the last post

i suppose I objected to a kid who had 10m of clock time being singled out. But I do apologise for putting in words you didn’t say (I had shared a nice couple of bottles before I posted! Surprised it made any sense at all)

anyway I feel protective of young kids in these situation as they are still getting used to the pace of the game. The only way that can happen is being played and often before they are ready

 

[CHAWKTS]

looking at our injury list almost all are either short term or test for last week meaning we could potentially get back everyone missing. Reality is we won't but none are LTI

true. And last year post bye we basically had no injuries. Frankly that is what every team needs to win a flag. We could still have that happem

issue is we are still getting them. I think we will find we have another medium term from last night

 

[kittypurry]

Just read the thread. Apparently it is head in the sand stuff to point out our injury toll is impacting the team lol. Did I read that correctly because that's a silly opinion. Injured players = not our best team = not our best footy. It seems pretty logical to me. Personally I want to thank people keeping cool heads and pointing out we're missing a lot of players. The negative nancy stuff over an injured team is a bit much. We've not even had the bye yet.

The only other team with our level of injuries is West Coast and they are second last on the ladder. The fact we have this amount of injured players and are still sitting pretty in 7th is damn impressive imo. We could have snatched several of those games despite our injuries too.

Fully fit we can beat anyone, anywhere. I don't care where we finish. Just make the eight. It'll be a nightmare for other teams having Geelong finish in 5th to 8th because we're spiritually a Top Four team. Whoever lost the QF would have to play us in the semi, which means they're essentially playing two Top Four teams in a row. You can't tell me teams like Brisbane wouldn't be dreading something like that, even if we would play them at the Gabba. We've beaten them there before in a big final. It cracks me up honestly.

Personally I am just going to sit back and enjoy the ride. See what mayhem we can cause.

 

[rgauci]

As a Freo fan sitting in the crowd:

Your midfield aside from Atkins was mediocre. That bloke is a beast. Blicavs caused some headaches but he’s not a full time onballer. He should be a cameo not a regular centre square clearance mid. I’m guessing the fact your best onballers are injured largely contributed to Blicavs onball for so long.

As good as Esava looked taking intercept marks, his defensive running is very low. He looked good taking intercepts when your zone was in place, but when we switched play or cut diagonally across the ground he doesn’t move to the drop zone. He looked unfit and was blowing a gale end of the first quarter. I was surprised he was 88% TOG, it felt like less watching the game. As a comparison Alex Pearce

25

Alex Pearce

Age

28

Ht

201cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.6

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.4

3star

T

1.8

4star

MG

106.3

2star

No current season stats available

D

11.0

3star

K

5.0

2star

HB

6.0

4star

M

4.4

4star

T

0.8

3star

MG

103.2

2star

was 100% TOG.

Zac Tuohy very much still has it. Our small / medium forwards put a huge amount of time into him (I don’t mean physically off the ball), I mean they chased and corralled him all the time. They were very focused shutting him down and Tom Stewart. You could see from the grandstands we focused on quelling those 2 a lot which stagnated your rebound.

Jack Henry

38

Jack Henry

Age

25

Ht

192cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.3

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

MG

142.6

2star

D

8.6

2star

K

6.7

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.1

3star

MG

142.6

3star

D

9.6

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

2.6

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

4star

is a star. If he had more ball directed to him forward of centre he would kick a lot of goals. When Hawkins retires he might be a better bet as key forward than Esava.

Jeremy Cameron

5

Jeremy Cameron

Age

31

Ht

196cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.5

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

5.4

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.6

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

2.9

2star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

G

1.9

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.2

3star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.4

4star

G

2.0

5star

had an almost day. 2 posters, 4 shots at goal for 4 points was very lucky for us.

Congrats on the flag last year, hopefully we can pinch our first in the window you rebuild 2024-26.

 

[Chinacats]

You take Oliver and Petracca out of Melbourne, degoey and Mitchell out of collingwood, butters and Rosie out of port.. throw in the injury list we have also on those teams they’d be cooked. It ain’t nothing like dangerwood areas

Essendon had no parish , Shiels & setterfield from the midfield along with other injuries… power were missing Dixon, Rioli , Todd Marshall, fantasia & georgiadis from forward line along with other outs…. Should I mention st.kilda’s or Collingwood’s injuries this year too? Geelong have one or two injuries and some fringe players not available to play. They’re not all best 22…. Geelong have been a squad mentality team for a few years now and rest players so danger, Duncan and the likes were never going to play 23 H & A games anyway…. Geelong haven’t been good enough this year… plain & simple! Can it turn ?? Yeah possibly but not to the extent that some are suggesting…

 

[FredLeDeux]

As a Freo fan sitting in the crowd:


Zac Tuohy very much still has it. Our small / medium forwards put a huge amount of time into him (I don’t mean physically off the ball), I mean they chased and corralled him all the time. They were very focused shutting him down and Tom Stewart. You could see from the grandstands we focused on quelling those 2 a lot which stagnated your rebound.

Jack Henry is a star. If he had more ball directed to him forward of centre he would kick a lot of goals. When Hawkins retires he might be a better bet as key forward than Esava.

Jeremy Cameron had an almost day. 2 posters, 4 shots at goal for 4 points was very lucky for us.

Congrats on the flag last year, hopefully we can pinch our first in the window you rebuild 2024-26.

Get with the Board zeitgeist.
Tuohy = Bad. Always. Even when he's among our best.
He turns it over ALL THE TIME. Even when he's our best for effective disposals.

 

[Chinacats]

Not that unexpected though, their list has no one under 50 games where ours is half sub-50 gamers.

Freo had more players sub 100 games than Geelong I believe???

 

[Turbocat]

They are tired..i have no doubt we have one or two older guys who are playing injured or needing a rest (tuohy is definitely one of those) who are putting their hand up because we have so many injuries. Once danger and the others are back and those guys can have a week or two's rest i think we will see much better team performance particularly in 4th qtrs. And we have been in every game up until the 4th qtr.

Holmes and Blitz are the ones I thought look tired. We have asked a lot of Blitz for a long time.

 

[Chinacats]

Could be blind optimism, BUT, if we can stay in the 8 with a relatively full list to choose from come end of year, we can definitely win 4 finals in a row. Everything would have to go right, but you need things to go your way to win it anyways, so why not. Half the team will be rested as they haven't played all year.

Won’t win 4 finals in a row! Have a look at the ladder … we are equal with essendon, Freo & Adelaide… that’s our grouping at the moment… does anyone think those 3 will win the cup? Top 4? Four finals in a row? Of course not! We have potential but we are not that good and only Danger is our star out.. the others are either past it or fringe not best 22 players…