Autopsy Blue beat Cats by 18 points.

[bulletproof]

Enamoured wouldn't be the right terminology but Neale and Mullin will play plenty of footy for Geelong. Clark is a huge bust.

I remember when Darren Milburn had the ball, my blood pressure immediately lowered because he was so reliable and predictable with ball in hand. Clark gives me the exact opposite feeling, bad stuff just keeps happening when he is in the area. Sometimes it is not even his fault but the slipping over definitely is…..

 

[iameviljez]

End of the day, Geelong's weakness is at the coalface. Whenever we split the coalface 50/50, we tend to win - but we can get absolutely mauled in there.

 

[bulletproof]

End of the day, Geelong's weakness is at the coalface. Whenever we split the coalface 50/50, we tend to win - but we can get absolutely mauled in there.

Exactly right.

 

[D BRIDGE]

With Clark, is it that he can "only" play in that 60% to 65% TOG range, or is it that the coaches are somewhat holding him back & restricting his TOG?

In his 2 VFL matches this year he's had 31 & 26 disposals, clearly playing 75%+ TOG - so that would suggest his tank isn't necessarily holding him back as much as his limited AFL minutes would suggest

If we want to see what he's truly capably of in his natural position then let's take the reins off, throw him in the guts and see what he can do

He is a weaker player, so you have him on the ground less than others.

Not big enough, strong enough or good enough to go up against seasoned AFL midfielders.

I'm sure he could have a bigger tank... but besides Smith, everyone could.

Size/talent is a far bigger issue than fitness IMO, because It's not like he is flying when he starts the game and is fresh or comes onto the ground after a rest.

 

[standupand]

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

end of the press conference after discussing Stanley's game - "Yeah Tom (ie DK), he's a good player. I can see why clubs would be interested in having him on their list... He'd be fine down at Torquay I reckon.". Lol

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Too small.

Recruiting staff really should have been onto that.

The recruiting staff should have been onto a teenager being teenager sized?

 

[catempire]

I feel like this needs a bit of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

The good - O'Sullivan and Humphries were superb. O'Sullivan lost a few contests today but also backed himself relentlessly and took some nice grabs. His athleticism is something else. Humphries adds more strings to his bow each week. Last week he was locking down and this week he was intercepting. Love them both and without either today we would have lost by 10 goals.

The bad - plenty to choose from here but I'm going to go with our ball movement in the front half. I suspect much of this is lost on the TV but we very rarely gave our forwards a good look today. We took too long, we kicked it over their heads and we chose bad options. The holy trinity of loser football.

The ugly - giving up 117 marks and losing uncontested possession by 75-ish is really poor football. It means you were outworked, plain and simple. At no stage did we try to knuckled down on this. We continued to invite them to hit the targets in space with guarding grass and it just kept not working. I'd love us to flick the switch in the games where this happens. It is 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

's blind spot.

Honourable mentions to Jezza for the worst four goal game I've ever seen and Jhye Clark for condemning himself to a GFL career within two years.

 

[catempire]

Neale will have to do until we find a better option. But I can’t see him being a part of our long term future. Similarly Mullin. To play AFL with no background is admirable but he’s not up to the grade. Physically he has the attributes. But his skill level isn’t where previous Irish players have been. There were a few what should have been easy possessions that he cocked up that was costly.

Interesting stat: Mullin, last week, led the league for retained possession disposals. Thought he was far from our worst today.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Size/talent is a far bigger issue than fitness IMO, because It's not like he is flying when he starts the game and is fresh or comes onto the ground after a rest.

That's the biggest thing for mine, reckon people are looking at what he does when fresh with rose tinted glasses.

When he's not gassed, he's not doing anything that Clohesy wouldn't do, or GHS, Constable, or Murdoch before him...but somehow that's meant to be this massive positive.

You know the bar is low when it's basically "Well, he's not awful when he's got some energy".

You could apply the same logic to any fringe player on the list, or the hundreds of whipping boys in years gone by. It's not fair to them IMO.

I don't know why we're so enamoured with him needing to come good.

It was poor draft, and we got the pick for free off a flag. It went wrong, who gives a shit?

We don't need to keep trying to justify it. It doesn't mean anything, and it hasn't hurt us in any great way.

 

[year of the cat]

Interesting stat: Mullin, last week, led the league for retained possession disposals. Thought he was far from our worst today.

Mullin didn’t play last week. That’s why

 

[catempire]

Scott: it's as bad as I've seen us play for a long time. Love the honesty. No sugar coating!

 

[year of the cat]

Scott: it's as bad as I've seen us play for a long time. Love the honesty. No sugar coating!

Hopefully there is a response in 6 days time.

 

[Finknottle]

I've got a bad feeling Wiltshire could do a Ben Jarvis and be a one and done type. Just wasn't ready.

When your VFL team is poor as Geelong's is, it's not hard for a player like Wiltshire to sometimes catch the eye for doing something flashy. However we have our quota of flashy players, we don't need any more. We need hard working players who can get plenty of ball. 6 or 7 disposals just isn't going to hack it.

 

[MisterMarcus]

Going into this season, I expected it might be a bit of a transitional year. Old blokes either already left or fading out, new guys establishing themselves, a few new roles for existing players, etc.

So I was prepared to take a bit of the good with the bad. There'll be games where we experiment and it doesn't come off, or young players are pushed into it and get beaten by the more experienced guy on the day. And to some extent, that is indeed happening.

Our forward line is clearly a bit out of sorts, trying to deal with Dangerfield down there and the new Cameron-Neale combination being permanent. O'Sullivan is almost certainly going to get toweled up at some point by a rampaging experienced KPF. Blokes like Clark or Mannagh or SDK might get thrown around a bit and not be allowed to settle in one spot, and it might impact their performance.

But I accepted all this going into 2025. It's not the end of the world if we have a loss because our kids got beaten, or because we tried something different and it didn't pay off, or because we're trying to find the right position for different guys. Maybe some of the Debbie Downers need to accept that too.

 

[Warhorse]

When your VFL team is poor as Geelong's is, it's not hard for a player like Wiltshire to sometimes catch the eye for doing something flashy. However we have our quota of flashy players, we don't need any more. We need hard working players who can get plenty of ball. 6 or 7 disposals just isn't going to hack it.

His first game and he was a late pick. Not sure what you are expecting. Clark was far more dissappointing

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I do too - come to think of it.

Reminds me a bit of Charlie Constable - can get his hands on it but too slow and a tank the size of a coke can

I think Clark is a fair bit quicker off the mark than chook was, and does better with it when he gets it.

Coke can tank might generous though. I think i could run more kms than him

 

[Seeds]

it’s so frustrating getting no reward for tackling.

Especially when the opponents get rubbish holding the balls against us where there is either no prior or when our handball in the tackle is simply scrappy.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

When your VFL team is poor as Geelong's is, it's not hard for a player like Wiltshire to sometimes catch the eye for doing something flashy. However we have our quota of flashy players, we don't need any more. We need hard working players who can get plenty of ball. 6 or 7 disposals just isn't going to hack it.

You're really overdoing this.

He'd played well at VFL level, and they gave him a game as a reward, and maybe he'd show some of that form. That's where it starts and ends.

Sure, he's not the contested beast we need...but if you're only playing players who directly plug the holes in the team, then you're never going to turn over the list.

Connor O'Sullivan's position isn't particularly a desperate "need" either. Pretty happy having him in the side.

 

[catempire]

The ugly - giving up 117 marks and losing uncontested possession by 75-ish is really poor football. It means you were outworked, plain and simple. At no stage did we try to knuckled down on this. We continued to invite them to hit the targets in space with guarding grass and it just kept not working. I'd love us to flick the switch in the games where this happens. It is Chris Scott 's blind spot.

To reinforce this Scott says in his presser he didn't think it was a big factor in the game.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

So are most teams in the comp. 4-3 from these fixtures so far is about par.

I don't think losing to Carlton feels like par.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Lost to them coming off a bye last year, lost to them coming off a tough Hawthorn game with 3 days less recovery.

Too many players who looked fatigued trying to cheat and look for easy options, only to turn the ball over and we got sliced up on the rebound where we couldn't keep up with them. The poor old defenders don't generally have that luxury, that just have to deal with it when it comes.

Is it just me or does Cameron seem to look for the hero play all the time?

I see Mannagh got votes off a lot of people for the second week in a row. I dunno, he seems to get caught a lot trying to do too much.

A very fumbly game from the Cats, whereas Carlton were one grabbing which had us chasing a lot.

Another tough one again next week against the number 1 rated team who would have had a couple of extra days to recover.

Mannagh is trying to create because half the time tries not to create and the forwards won't lead at him to give him and easy out kick (despite this he hit Cameron with the great kick today and kept another one in to create a goal). At least if he turns it over he tackles like a maniac to try and turn it back over-when half the team didn't pressure today. Give me 22 mannaghs and we would be better.

 

[catempire]

Especially when the opponents get rubbish holding the balls against us where there is either no prior or when our handball in the tackle is simply scrappy.

The one against Mullin was one of the worst I've ever seen.

 

[Seeds]

Interesting stat: Mullin, last week, led the league for retained possession disposals. Thought he was far from our worst today.

What a pointless stat. All it shows is a player who doesnt take risks and goes short and safe. Ironical given one post earlier you were complaining about our lack of fast ball movement into the foward half

 

[fpm84]

I don't think losing to Carlton feels like par.

You're really underrating Carlton. They're far from a perfect side but they're capable of beating anybody on their day, and have the weapons we are most susceptible to like a gun ruckman, contested ball beasts and two strong marking KPFs.

 

[catters_28]

I was just reading Jhye Clark's draft profile:

"The Geelong Falcons skipper is just one of those players you can lock in for 250 games without a second thought".

Huh?