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AFL 2025 Second Preliminary Final - Cats v Hawks Fri Sept 19th 7:40pm EST (MCG)

Who will win and by how much?

  • Cats by a goal or less

    Votes: 9 3.4%
  • Cats by 7 - 20

    Votes: 72 27.6%
  • Cats by a lot

    Votes: 54 20.7%
  • Hawks by a goal or less

    Votes: 36 13.8%
  • Hawks by 7 - 20

    Votes: 70 26.8%
  • Hawks by a lot

    Votes: 13 5.0%
  • Draw

    Votes: 7 2.7%

  • Total voters
    261
  • Poll closed .

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Thought Meek would be better against the SDK Blicavs combo. Him not giving the hawks first use was a big reason their midfield didn't look close
He was very disappointing and wasn’t alone.

Need to finish top 4 and get that week off to take the next step.

I think Geelong are better wirh Blicavs in ruck than Stanley never rated him.
 

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Thought Meek would be better against the SDK Blicavs combo. Him not giving the hawks first use was a big reason their midfield didn't look close

Have to be honest, I was always critical of Blicavs as the sole ruckman but with a sidekick who is nearly as agile as himself in De Koning, Geelong concede key ruck statistics but on the flip-side, gain added mobility across the ground.
It's really allowing us to run out games. I can't see it changing next week against Darcy Cameron. Blicavs is still just as aerobically savvy as he was 5-7 years ago.
 
Thought Meek would be better against the SDK Blicavs combo. Him not giving the hawks first use was a big reason their midfield didn't look close

Statistically, Meek was decent. Won the hitouts in 51.6% of his contests compared to 38.7% for Blicavs, and 28.6% to SDK. Chol won slightly more hitouts as a percentage of ruck contests, but had less than half as many hits to advantage. We shared the ruck a bit more than Geelong did, so Blicavs had a few more ruck contests, but I'm not sure he was massively more effective, although they did tie for hits to advantage, although obviously not all against eachother (SDK got no hits to advantage!). It is not necessarily Meeks fault our mids couldn't get their hands on the ball, Geelong's mids clearly dominated us. We probably didn't get as much from Meek as we'd hoped when he went forward, and I don't remember him marking too many down the line either, so I think Meek was actually ok in the ruck, but less effective than he has been around the ground (not that this is ever his strength).
 
That was probably the biggest capitulation in Preliminary final history. Dominating the first quarter with two of the best players of the Cats off the ground injured. Then just giving nothing for the last half.
Yeah I guess it's got nothing on being an unbackable premiership favourite and shitting the bed against a $5 underdog

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Statistically, Meek was decent. Won the hitouts in 51.6% of his contests compared to 38.7% for Blicavs, and 28.6% to SDK. Chol won slightly more hitouts as a percentage of ruck contests, but had less than half as many hits to advantage. We shared the ruck a bit more than Geelong did, so Blicavs had a few more ruck contests, but I'm not sure he was massively more effective, although they did tie for hits to advantage, although obviously not all against eachother (SDK got no hits to advantage!). It is not necessarily Meeks fault our mids couldn't get their hands on the ball, Geelong's mids clearly dominated us. We probably didn't get as much from Meek as we'd hoped when he went forward, and I don't remember him marking too many down the line either, so I think Meek was actually ok in the ruck, but less effective than he has been around the ground (not that this is ever his strength).

It's more I thought he had the capacity to really dominate there and I don't think he did. Do agree he was fine
 
The disapointing thing is that Mitchell never gave you a realistic chance to win

Mitchell at his peak would have certainly been handy in the midfield tonight, but he's looking a little portly these days to put on the boots, and I think that is what it would have taken.

Who we throw forward or back isn't what killed us. Centre clearance dominance is what killed us, and Mitchell just doesn't have the magnets available to fix that problem at the moment. As I mentioned, there is a reason why he was out hunting new magnets during the finals series. Hopefully we get at least one more to throw in the middle next season.
 

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Mitchell at his peak would have certainly been handy in the midfield tonight, but he's looking a little portly these days to put on the boots, and I think that is what it would have taken.

Who we throw forward or back isn't what killed us. Centre clearance dominance is what killed us, and Mitchell just doesn't have the magnets available to fix that problem at the moment. As I mentioned, there is a reason why he was out hunting new magnets during the finals series. Hopefully we get at least one more to throw in the middle next season.
You need a genuine contested marking forward like Curnow.
 
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Calm down Baz, i'm sure you'll get on the lines over the weekend.
 
That was probably the biggest capitulation in Preliminary final history.

You not been supporting Bombers for long? Back when Essendon were still good you came from 42 points down at half time to beat Adelaide by nearly two goals in a prelim back in 93, I think that was a bigger capitulation that what we saw from Hawks today.

Geelong did look very shaky at quarter time, but don't think we capitulated, they just stepped it up.
 

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AFL 2025 Second Preliminary Final - Cats v Hawks Fri Sept 19th 7:40pm EST (MCG)

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