Review Cats down Doggies by 4 points to go 4-0

[CatToTheFuture]

cats_09

Last time I was watching a game on the hill, you turned to me after the final siren and asked if I thought that was our best win since the premiership.

Today I'm happy to say it's not even our best win at Adelaide Oval this year

 

[iameviljez]

cats_09

Last time I was watching a game on the hill, you turned to me after the final siren and asked if I thought that was our best win since the premiership.

Today I'm happy to say it's not even our best win at Adelaide Oval this year

This whole quote sounds like the final line in a romcom

 

[TheCattery2007]

That was some win.

5 day break after playing in heavy rain

No danger
No Guthrie
No Rohan

A bunch of kids playing a premiership midfield

A clearly sore Hawkins

Hung on for the last quarter when running on empty.

Plus some pretty bad kicking at goal.

The future in the midfield looks very bright. We might just pinch a flag this year. Bruhn looks a star.

In a month or so a midfield led by Danger, CGuthrie and Bruhn looks very very good!


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[kittypurry]

I love it when a team is mature enough to play tired against a quality opponent and squeak out a win. No Danger, 5-day break, interstate game... Love it.

Bulldogs forum is pretty funny. Lots of 'we're objectively better than them', 'I hate Geelong', 'woulda, coulda, shoulda' etc. We might not be the biggest fish in the pond anymore but I love how dangerous we've remained.

The next generation of Cats is really exciting. Bruhn, Bowes, Dempsey, Clarke, Holmes, Conway... Who knows where the ceiling is? And if the past is anything to go by, you wouldn't be surprised if a few other stars decide to jump ship and come to the cattery, AKA Dangerfield and Cameron. It's a bloody good time to be a Cats supporter.

To be fair, if I supported the Dogs I'd hate us too. We just own them every year - playing on Monday in heavy rain with a delay, followed by a five day break, flying interstate for the second time in two weeks, no Danger, a midfield which on paper pales in comparison to Libba / Bont / Treloar, Libba / Bont playing two of the best games you will ever see in your life, English on a million dollar contract up against Rhys Stanley, a lot of tired boys for us and guns like Stewart and Hawkins playing quiet games and yet we still win.

I looked at the Dogs forum and if anything they are not whinging enough! There would be steaming coming out of my ears.

Luckily though we support the Cats and so can enjoy our domination of the Doggies year after year. What bliss.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

That last quarter was not pretty but it'll do.

5 day break for a side filled with old blokes and kids. We were never going to run it out, just needed to hold enough ground

 

[Finknottle]

Tuohy is just about done. No longer in our best 22 with everyone fit. The pace of the game has now gone past him. I’d hope that his position would be used to invest in a younger player. Mannagh should have played last night in his place imo.

Not sure about that, he still plays some pretty good football. Mannagh is yet to show that.

 

[And_ROOS]

Still waiting for that damn cliff to show up, was it last year? Did we miss it?

View attachment 1952396

It says a lot about the club and our supporter base that we were able to survive those darks days of a 1 season rebuild, any longer and we would need to ask for a priority pick.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

First time Hawkins has gone goalless against the Bulldogs

I get the thinking behind him playing & how the club wanted to get off to a 4-0 win, but tonight wasn’t his most influential game - he did have the 3 score involvements, and could see himself willing to the contest but it didn’t really click for him

Do have to wonder if in hindsight the MC maybe would say that tonight was a missed opportunity to give Tommy a week off & to see how Neale would go leading from the square

Opportunity to give the old bloke a rest against North where Neale can have a crack against a side with no discernible backline

 

[Scottland2007]

I'm not sure about that. He's still a handy player, just not the same player that he used to be.

Don't underestimate, in the modern game with eleventy billion interchanges, the value of positional flexibility for a bottom-six player.

I think he’s a victim of fate. We’re shuffling players around and unfortunately Duncan’s and Holmes have been moved to the back line. (Holmes for pace and Duncan’s been pushed out of the midfield by the new brigade). That leaves Touhy trying to play wing and I don’t think he has the tank for it. Still a good player but we are stacked for talent

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Geez couldn't buy a free toward the end.

Footscray are s**t I recon, but dangerous.


We really should have put them away. That ruthlessness is a skill and it is important.

4 zip baby

I can't describe the dogs in words better than this picture does without them

 

[Generalissimo]

That last quarter was chess grandmaster stuff. It's so hard to keep a level head when your body's sore and tired, but all 22 players played their role to perfection. I reckon when Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

48

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

hangs up the coaching boots he'll look back on this game as one of the best he ever coached.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Mannagh needs to play a full game this week. I imagine we will probably give Hawkins a rest. Not sure who else might - Stewart looked a bit sore at times during the game so they may consider giving him the week off too. Good opportunity to give Neale a go.

I agree id bring mannagh in for tuohy this week and id bring mullin in for someone-hes not best 22 yet but these are the games we can give him education in without risking the role.
Also they clearly rate clark and think hes best 22 but given his injuries last year after 4 games might be the ideal time to preventatively rest him this week.
I agree that id rest hawkins too.
Just a matter of whether you want to bring neale in or play both of conway and stanley instead.
Be interesting to see if we experiment with atkins hbf again-parfitt probably deserves another MF game but i think you would have to play atkims back to accomodate it.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Amazing win considering the tough conditions last week with a 5 day break.

Impressed with Stanley’s efforts all night. I wish he could have kicked that goal to top off a good night.

Dempsey is a star. He could be one the cats best players in a few years.

Solid from patfitt again.

The bulldogs did a Ross Lyon flood for much of the night but the cats still managed to find holes and generate shots.

Stengle and Henry are firing in the forward line.

Umpiring not too bad. They missed a few of the usual throws, but at least the dogs didn’t dive like the hawks. I think weightman is much better player when he doesn’t duck for the frees.

Yeah I've built up a bit of respect for Cody the last few years

 

[Finknottle]

You misspelt fatigued

There was pretty clear signs multiple times throughout the match that Hawkins wasn't necessarily 100% last night, and even when willing himself to marking contests & ruck contests, that he just wasn't able to influence them in the manner he wanted to

That's some serious fatigue when you cannot lift an arm to affect a contest and cannot compete for a mark when it is almost on top of your head. Whatever you call it Hawkins was insipid and it had a negative effect on the team. I love Tomahawk but I did not like his efforts last night. No player should be beyond criticism when they put in a poor effort.

 

[iameviljez]

That's some serious fatigue when you cannot lift an arm to affect a contest and cannot compete for a mark when it is almost on top of your head. Whatever you call it Hawkins was insipid and it had a negative effect on the team. I love Tomahawk but I did not like his efforts last night. No player should be beyond criticism when they put in a poor effort.

Were you the guy/girl confidently shutting people down a few days ago when they said O'Connor might be the sub?

 

[patience]

That's gold

A bit of Dangerfield type cheek there.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Tommy would pass Joel's games record down in Geelong if he plays the next 5 games. If he gets rested he would be doing it up at the Gold Coast. I know the coaches won't care cause they do what's best for the team but would be cool him getting to 356 at home.

We have a real tough run after North. Give him a week off and get him back to work

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Double header - two great games with contrasting game styles.
Loved being there live for a change instead of relying on TV.

We would be chuffed , Dogs played well and won’t lose many games when Bont , Libba and Treloar get >100 touches.
No doubt the wet , delayed game from last week and the 5 day break affected us in the last 1/4.
I won’t repeat earlier comments but a few observations

Miers - wow, ground coverage was amazing and his vision and decision making is elite- who cares if he hasn’t got a left side

Clark- gets his hands on it regularly in stoppages and hasn’t got the pace yet so gets tackled a lot but looks a keeper - cracks in very hard

Dempsey- he’s absolute quality , what a find.

Jezza- what a versatile tall he is , should have had 4 even though he played up the field most of the night.

Ball movement- when we go we hit Mach 3 and look unstoppable and score.
Teams that allow us the corridor or an overlap will get torched.
Defending kick ins - we allow width and as such loose men get it to the wing easily, this is a concern as conceding 80 m with every kick in will bite us.
Expect we will look at that at some stage.

We are in good nick personnel and game style wise - great start to the season.

 

[cats_09]

Were you the guy/girl confidently shutting people down a few days ago when they said O'Connor might be the sub?

 

[Lethal09]

That was some win.

5 day break after playing in heavy rain

No danger
No Guthrie
No Rohan

A bunch of kids playing a premiership midfield

A clearly sore Hawkins

Hung on for the last quarter when running on empty.

Plus some pretty bad kicking at goal.

The future in the midfield looks very bright. We might just pinch a flag this year. Bruhn looks a star.

In a month or so a midfield led by Danger, CGuthrie and Bruhn looks very very good!


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Imagine if we win a second flag in three years and a total of five since 2007.

 

[Hamingja]

I agree id bring mannagh in for tuohy this week and id bring mullin in for someone-hes not best 22 yet but these are the games we can give him education in without risking the role.
Also they clearly rate clark and think hes best 22 but given his injuries last year after 4 games might be the ideal time to preventatively rest him this week.
I agree that id rest hawkins too.
Just a matter of whether you want to bring neale in or play both of conway and stanley instead.
Be interesting to see if we experiment with atkins hbf again-parfitt probably deserves another MF game but i think you would have to play atkims back to accomodate it.

I find it near on impossible to see Mannagh playing next week. Needs a full game in the VFL for match fitness at this point. I didn't like seeing Stewart on the bench having his hammy worked on at one point in the match, unless they manage him hard to see a way in for Mullin either.

Clark and Hawkins could both be managed but you can also flip that and say that both would benefit from an easy kill after a tough game last night.

Conway will play for sure and we will go with two rucks. He got the "managed" treatment plus Stanley actually played forward a bit late in the game for the first time in 3 years. Cards on the table there, just a matter of who comes out.

Entry for meat tray for me would just be Conway in, Clark out (managed) at this point. We carried an extra contested mid than we needed last night and Conway will play. Other changes will just depend how people pull up.

 

[iameviljez]

Conway will play for sure and we will go with two rucks. He got the "managed" treatment plus Stanley actually played forward a bit late in the game for the first time in 3 years.

I agree with that. I think Stanley was a great match up for English though - Conway would have been gassed halfway through the third.

 

[Baudolino]

Although on merit Clark probably should go out of the team, having thought about it again I feel like we should keep him in against North next week just to pump another AFL game into him, as he's probably going to be out of the AFL side for multiple weeks after that assuming everyone in the midfield stays fit. He's the first person out of the side once Danger comes back.

 

[Lana]

I don't think I've ever seen the lid fly away faster on this board

 

[year of the cat]

I agree id bring mannagh in for tuohy this week and id bring mullin in for someone-hes not best 22 yet but these are the games we can give him education in without risking the role.
Also they clearly rate clark and think hes best 22 but given his injuries last year after 4 games might be the ideal time to preventatively rest him this week.
I agree that id rest hawkins too.
Just a matter of whether you want to bring neale in or play both of conway and stanley instead.
Be interesting to see if we experiment with atkins hbf again-parfitt probably deserves another MF game but i think you would have to play atkims back to accomodate it.

Gets even more complicated when Paddy is available which could be as early as this week.