Autopsy Cats get belted by Suns by 50 odd

[Gee Class Loco]

MyNextMornings2BobsWorth.
Even b4 we started the season.
I had Suns are Top 5 team. Gonna be beasts at home.
Us... aiming for that wildcard spot.
We are in a transition phase, our best players have a foot out the door(retirement wise)
With a couple bad injuries we are an average team TBH.
On last nights game.
What i thought or wanted to happen.
Picked a loss first up as slippery humid conditions aren't our friend & the Suns have a better line-up
Thought a 4-5 goal loss would be a win for us. The $1.72 earlier this week was too enticing not to have a go.
Hoping to see Tanner make a great return. He was and is what i expected.
Wanting to see Worpel have an impact. Jury is out.
Wanting to see a better version of Shannon Neale. Mmm. I'll give him a pass as delivery and conditions were putrid.
Really wanted to see a Bigger Better version of Max Holmes. WTF was that. Over ran fumbled flustered way too easily.
Expected much the same from Ollie Henry. Put a line thru OllieHenry him. Stephen Reynoldson 2.0.
Wanted to see Close return to some sort of form. He's nearly done his dash.
COS and Lawson to take another step. But COS had a few moments that gave me the WTF did i just witness.
Wanted to see SDK to transition from young potential star to actually being a top tier key defender. Worrying.
Was i disappointed? Yes but i expected the loss. Did i expect it this bad? nah But it was on the cards early on.
Positives. Bruhn Dempsey Atkins. A return of Danger and Jezza and we play at home next up...
Next week vs an opponent who like the Suns are a top 6 outfit.
Gonna be a harder game than most think.
Danger Jezza Polkinhorne IN
OHenry Close & probably Knevitt OUT

Anyways i've had my rant.
On the punting side.
Bulldogs are a nice bet tonight especially with the spread take the 17 point head start.
Hawks into Dogs into the Saints all at the spread paying $6.90. A $50 turns into $350 and pays for the groceries.
Cheers & have a good weekend folks!!

 

[TomsBulgingDisc]

That's a fair argument, he isn't in that group. The unfortunate thing for Neale is that as the key forward it's probably a higher benchmark. At the moment he is taking the main key back from the opposition and is struggling to beat them, so it's just another area we are giving up ground before the siren starts.

It's always hard for a forward when the ball movement is poor, but would love to see just a couple of 50/50 contests turn into a win.

I think the way we set up i50 makes that hard for him. The other fwds sharing the space all looked to collapse on his position, bring in their defenders to the contest. In particular Knevitt and OHenry last night. That was more symptomatic of the bomb it long delivery, but you get my point. I'd have to watch again, but I don't think I saw him with an opportunity to go 1:1 with his defender without one of his own team mates either flying for the same grab, or bringing their defender into it.

 

[joe444]

Neale was pitiful last night, but I don't think it's fair to wrap him in with that group.

45 goals last year, and he's got 45 games to his name. He frustrates all of us, but he's young ...

The problem is the same thing can be said about OHenry, who is literally only four days older than Neale.

Yet people cut him no slack whatsoever, and we've already seen Ollie almost win a Prelim for us. Shannon has massive upside, but gosh he gets in the way up forward. I won't even bother with the ruck debate. And he's had five chances now to be anything except a liability in finals.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Eyes could be deceiving but Bruhn looked a lot quicker than i remembered. Makes a difference for him to be able to pick up those extra uncontested possessions.

Felt like some shades of Zach Merrett to his game last night with the rest of the side resembling the rest of essendon

100% agree. Tanner has historically played very low minutes across his career, last night he was definitely still going hard late in the game. Over 70% tog is a great improvement and good signs for the rest of this year/career.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Seeing Bruhn look and move like a genuine star makes me optimistic what Clark can become. He has moments of quality but looks a long way off it just like Tanner did at the start of his 4th season.

I actually liked Clark tonight has actual class and his attack on the footy cant be doubted. For me the mystery is the TOG. Is his tank still really that bad? I wouldnt have thought so as all the coaches said he had a great pre season. I would have thought that and his size are all that will stop him from being a really good player.

 

[BotsMaster]

Not fussed. Typical game against GC up north and was always in doubt.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

To analyse.. in these slippery humid games.. we seem to struggle to work out a balance between the arcs in transition.

We either overuse it by hand and fumble ourselves and welcome unwanted pressure, or we retreat and go the dump kick.

In dry games we seem to be able to strike a much better balance with our run and carry flow.

GCS train all year in it and it just looks second nature for them up there.

this just puts our defence in all sorts of trouble going the other way and we have zero structure

Well said thats why i like us in the cold at the mcg and I hate us on a slippery track

 

[fpm84]

But the point is he'll improve. SDK is going backwards. COS has overtaken him as a defender in a year. I'm interested to hear a single aspect of SDK game that anyone can point to which he's improved in in the last 2 years? Send him back to the twos until things change.

Sometimes I feel I’m watching SDK in an alternate universe, I don’t know what he did wrong last night. Defended well enough, had an unlucky OOF come off his toe which cost us a goal. I love COS, but he had some howlers last night which SDK would have been crucified for. Had a soft free paid against him when he was one on one with King.

Prime Matthew Scarlett wouldn’t have stopped most goals last night with the space their mids had to deliver.

We would all love SDK to be a contested marking beast who gets 25 touches a week but maybe we need to accept that he will likely play out his career as a good solid key defender who does his job most weeks.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I feel like we're way more in need of a key forward than Butters. I'd love to get him but our future midfield looks ok but our future forward line looks diabolical.

The key forwards of quality aren't there on the market to get (the fact that king is the best this year says it all with all due respect) and when they are they cost too much (see curnow).
We are better off to get butters or another A grade mid and build around a smaller forward line.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Not fussed. Typical game against GC up north and was always in doubt.

So true. Most tipped a convincing loss during the week, then we get angry when it plays out. We’ll look a different team next weekend.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I actually liked Clark tonight has actual class and his attack on the footy cant be doubted. For me the mystery is the TOG. Is his tank still really that bad? I wouldnt have thought so as all the coaches said he had a great pre season. I would have thought that and his size are all that will stop him from being a really good player.

He certainly moves like he has class, and maybe this was somewhat reflective of every one he had to kick to losing their one on ones too, but his turnover numbers were bad. Is it actually class if he looks composed and smooth when handing it directly to our opponents?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I cannot fathom why we thought knev could be a forward. Saw him playing there in preseason matches and walked away confused. Like, why?

Try him as a defender through the 2s and see if does anything for him.

Yeah I agree i personally would have put knev back and henry fwd with what we had.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Edwards has to play next week. Even if it's just for experience and to fast track his development.
The Blicavs, SDK, Neale or whoever else we roll through there who isn't a natural ruck, to no one's surprise isn't working.

Close needs a spell in the two's. His worst game in a long time and it's been coming.

Jackson will actually destroy Edwards around the ground we are better off putting blitz or sdk in there who can run with him. That said we will need to cover treaty amiss and Voss also.

I do agree on close but im not sure they drop him with stengle out.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Yeah I agree i personally would have put knev back and henry fwd with what we had.

If that was the plan pre-match then maybe they were better off playing Polkinghorne, even if he didn’t warrant selection in front of Knevitt.

 

[Play it Sam]

Well said thats why i like us in the cold at the mcg and I hate us on a slippery track

Pre game I thought Chris Scott sounded less than confident, very lavish with his praise and how they were hard to cover in every position, which turned out a portent of things to come. Almost changed my tip, not happy.
There is a lovefest with them, especially gaining Trac, but I'm afraid it was more ominous for us.
They did thrash a rabble.
In the cold light of day the loss was nothing to the last time we played (GF.) Onwards.....

 

[BotsMaster]

So true. Most tipped a convincing loss during the week, then we get angry when it plays out. We’ll look a different team next weekend.

Our face when it plays out as expected

 

[Live in hope]

basic ‘equation’ of the two sides - one has 12 first rounders, strongly conditioned team, with a dominant ruck, on their home deck, against …
was always going to be ugly.

Everything about us, already said but

- Bruhn - early days, but could be the big list success this season (Lenny is my pick, but can’t get carried away yet)

- passing. 30m. Over the head. Please…

- tackling. Hard against bigger bodies but just has to be way better.

- Neale and Ollie H - going to struggle in static marking contests. should be working up to midfield and back harder. But, please put passes in front of them, not 10 m behind, like last night (FFS!)

No injuries. Stars to come back. Some young talent to watch in VFL.

On to next week…

 

[Gavin Excell]

So true. Most tipped a convincing loss during the week, then we get angry when it plays out. We’ll look a different team next weekend.

Hope so
A loss to Freo and then meeting fellow top 4 teams in Adel and Hawks is a tough start.

Freo game becomes critical

 

[tommy2011]

The sad thing is, our best ruckman is 35 years old..
Still got no idea on why we still didn't get some kind of State League Ruckman in the draft after not landing Marshall

Mason Cox was right in front of them. At this rate SDK's career with us is done, and Blitz will be forced to put his body where it shouldn't be going to end his great career in pointless pain. BTW, Hardwick has blotted the game again with that horrible forward thrust style which has umps ignoring throw after throw after throw. (Given how insipid we were, I'm not rating GC just yet.)

 

[year of the cat]

Not too much good to be taken out of last night. The chasm in talent between our younger players and GC's is enormous. Which it should be with all the high picks they've enjoyed over the past decade.

The problem is that last night gave perhaps a little indicator as to what to expect in a team without Cameron and Dangerfield which will be the case pretty soon. Neale may have kicked 40+ goals last year but I'm unconvinced that he has the footy IQ to lead our forward 50. He's a one trick pony.

We had too many non contributers last night. A midfield of Holmes, Smith and Bruhn is something to work with but we need more midfield depth. Without a name called Worpel. Couldn't count the number of times he was on the wrong side of a stoppage and his opponent just had a clear path out with zero pressure.

Close, O Henry, Martin, Mannagh and Knevitt were terrible. Just provided zero power and physicality. Close needs a spell in the 2's. Has been garbage for 12 months. Knevitt isn't AFL standard. No where near it. That is now blatantly obvious.

Not sure there's too much cause for optimism. I just feel we are now at a stage where we will be in that 6-10 ladder position where we are a way off the top teams. The next few weeks will tell us a lot more as to whether that's true.

 

[ndduyk6]

Clark 10 touches

couldve had bailey humphrey

 

[joe444]

Mason Cox was right in front of them ...

When CS's time is done, I think my one knock on him will be his completely baffling approach to the ruck and ruck selection.

Fifteen years its been; every other team has found at least one decent ruckman during that time.

 

[Partridge]

The problem is the same thing can be said about OHenry, who is literally only four days older than Neale.

Yet people cut him no slack whatsoever, and we've already seen Ollie almost win a Prelim for us. Shannon has massive upside, but gosh he gets in the way up forward. I won't even bother with the ruck debate. And he's had five chances now to be anything except a liability in finals.

True, but Henry has also had an extra 40 games experience at senior level. That's almost two full seasons. It's a huge difference.

Not saying Neale is going to be a star or anything, and he definitely is entering that phase from games 40-60 where he must produce, but given the difference is games already Henry could and should be judged more harshly.

Both need to do far more though, no argument there.

 

[TomsBulgingDisc]

Sometimes I feel I’m watching SDK in an alternate universe, I don’t know what he did wrong last night. Defended well enough, had an unlucky OOF come off his toe which cost us a goal. I love COS, but he had some howlers last night which SDK would have been crucified for. Had a soft free paid against him when he was one on one with King.

Prime Matthew Scarlett wouldn’t have stopped most goals last night with the space their mids had to deliver.

We would all love SDK to be a contested marking beast who gets 25 touches a week but maybe we need to accept that he will likely play out his career as a good solid key defender who does his job most weeks.

Stat's don't tell a whole story, but the blurb here isn't exactly compelling...

 

[Partridge]

Tom Stewart is a gun. One of my favourite players of all time but it’s not 2022 and he’s 32 and not quite the player he was.

Man up and more importantly stop taking insane miracle options by foot every second touch. His turnovers are crippling and if he can do it why can’t everybody else.

He’d still be in our best 3 players just doing the basics.

The problem is Stewart has always been two players in one.

The good part is as an attacking rebound defender. When the game is on our terms, coming in nice and high, he's able to peel off, intercept, and create tons of drive. That's by far what he does best. What's he's brilliant at in fact.

At exactly the same time, there's the bad part. He's never been strong at one-on-one defending, because just like last night he's too quick to stay near the goals instead of actually minding his opponent. Gold Coast were smart enough to not bomb it in at all, and were hitting up targets all night. Then when the pressure is really hot at ground level he fumbles and turns it over.