Review 2016.

[Mahlepi]

Mentally weak. We were primed, playing an injured team with injuries during the game. Just needed to match their intensity, and apply.
Rolled the dice and lost

 

[TheWoodenSlug]

As others have already mentioned, I said at the start of the year that I would consider one finals win in 2016 as par - anything less and questions should be asked of Scott. So we made par; but missed a very gettable putt for birdie.

A bit revisionist on my behalf given my start of year expectations, but right now I still think questions should be asked of Scott, and the coaching department in general. There have been common issues throughout Scott's tenure that still exist, a lot of which seem to be a player mindset thing rather than an ability thing.

Our record after byes/weeks off; our record in finals; our forward structure; our inability to halt opposition momentum and wrestle the game back on our terms etc. It seems, to me at least, that these issues have plagued us for most of Scott's reign as coach and either he hasn't addressed them, or he is unable to fix them.

Anyway, I'm still sulky as **** right now so emotion is certainly clouding my thoughts - it isn't all Scott's fault and we shouldn't ignore the positives from 2016; and there have been plenty. But right now I'm going to wallow in my misery.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Been a really enjoyable year.
Last night was preety depressing though. Knowing we lost 20mins into the game, then seeing Boris at the end of the game.
Still 2 wins against the Hawks was great.
The Port game at the AO was probably my fave win for the year

 

[hokee]

We shouldn't had played Henderson. Even if we played, should be Taylor up forward rather than him. Scott had it all wrong last night.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

I think our second tier midfielder's all went backwards this year, which meant all too often it was up to Paddy & Joel. I think there's a psychology in these players that played as juniors with our last great team, that if things are going bad let the senior players get the job done. Well now they're the senior players and they have to shed this mentality. Personally, I think we need to trade a few out and get some fresh blood in.

I also think the team overall is too tall, and this makes us slow. Add the veterans to this, whom are still being relied on too much and we look pedestrian compared to other teams. If you don't have fast outside run, then you need fast ball movement, and it appears we have neither sometimes.

I also think the gameplan is flawed. Too much zoning and roles. Players don't actually hunt the ball anymore, they don't outnumber, and often allow opposition to get the loose ball thinking it's better to tackle or corrall him than win the ball themselves. The zone defence let us down last night because while our guys were trying to man space, the swans were able to get a loose man to lead for the ball. That brings me to the forward line - too much bombing and no leading forwards. I'm a fan of Tbone, but his wrestle style won't work in finals if our other forwards don't lead up the field to give him a one-on-one contest. I do give the club a pat on the back for improving a lot in stoppages, clearances, and contested ball though.

Overall, the team does kind of work when everything gels, and we've seen it at times. We won 17 games with a soft draw, but our flaws were exploited in the finals and we lost. If nothing changes, we'll be in the finals next year too, but we won't win a flag.

Pass

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Better recruit well?? With what. We did all our recruiting last year and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that. We have nothing left to recruit with. When are going to start drafting players again?

Our drafting has been fine even last year. Menegola had one poor night (not alone there) but has been outstanding this year and ruggles looks like a late draft find. Parsons would go in the main draft if it was re done now and hayball looks a real player. And the guys we traded in have all been very good this year. After trading some guys out this year we will probably have a heap of 30-40 picks and will nail most of them. Recruiting is not the issue. For me the big issues are:

1. Group is mentally soft outside of a few of the stars-no other way to explain how over the last 3-4 years we are so good in H&A and so poor in finals. I imagine this is the hardest part of drafting-much harder to judge the mental state of players you only meet a few times before you draft them than to judge their football ability. Too many of our players drop their bundles and go into their shells when they make mistakes.

2. Tactically poor-coaches are too stubborn at selection and wont drop name players when in poor form. They are reactive on gameday its obv the only way sydney could win was an initisl blitz and yet they didnt put numbers behind the ball early and didnt tell the players to stop overhandballing.

3. Chf-we have never solved this issue since 2013 moving on pods bc we thought vardy would star was a fail and kersten the jury is out on,and stanley is a decent ruck who is inconsistent as a fwd. We have never replaced the structure pods provided and when hawk is illegally held off the ball we lack avenues to goal. We have no fwd structure and when the ball hits the deck it runs out too easily.

4. Skills-i bag collingwood for being a team full of the worst kicks you will see and they are but we are not far off. Is it the mental stuff maybe? As a lot of our guys are good technical kicks but in finals do the opposite.

The good news is apart from chf which might require a big trade the other problems have obvious fixes which if we do we can be better. But i think our recruiting pound for pound has been good its not the major issue.

 

[Hoooops]

Nah. Swans finished on top for a reason.

They lost five games (same as us) but three of them were lost in the last minute of games (v Rich, Bulldogs, Hawthorn) showing they were in it to the death.

When they played terribly against bottom 8 sides (Brisbane at the GABBA and Carlton at the SCG spring to mind) they found ways to grind out unconvincing wins whereas we lost to Collingwood and Carlton.

Their key mids all had consistent year, aside from Danger & Sel ours were up and down.

And yet, after all that, we were favourites to beat them.

 

[romeohwho]

Happy enough with the year-exceeded my expectations-thought we'd finish 5-6 and win 1 final. Prelim is pretty good. To say anything but winning the GF after finishing 10th last year is a fail-well you are dreaming. Swans are a seriously good team and played a terrific game, especially the first half. Too many elite mids for us. (starting to feel glad Mitchell is going to Hawks!) Paddy will win the Brownlow. Terribly impressed with Selwood's season after no pre season. Got a couple of finals at the G -good to get them. Beat the Hawks twice,and in a great final. Harry's run a great effort!
I expect the team to improve as they play together more but also would like another quick, gun midfielder and another forward. Like Menengola, McCarthy, Hendo, Paddy, Smith, Scooter, Bews/Ruggles, Cowan. Get Thurlow in, Cockatoo and Lang in, retire a couple.(Mackie, Jimmy) Trade a couple.(Kersten, GHS?) Duncan to work on his much heralded disposal! Caddy to find ways to get more of the ball in more games. Keep working. Need to find consistency and play that good football week in, week out. Need to find ways to break fast from stoppages, and quickly into forward line-consistently.
Looking forward to 2017 already.
ps . no excuses but AFL need to review the pre final bye and shepherding man on the mark-it was lol last night.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

While dissappointed we lost - i move on pretty quickly - 3 flags -anything else is bonus - thats how i look at it - maybe in 6 or 7 years i might/probably have a different mindset

What im happy about - is Geelong did the competition a massive favour - by beating Hawthorn in that qual final ( no one to that point could handle the Hawks at an Mcg final ) - if that hadnt have happened ( Hawks have got a great record against the Swans) then there is a very good chance Hawthorn would be lining up for their 4th in row

We beat them in a pivotal final and feucked up their chance at glory - that gets a very big tick from me .

 

[cynical]

was flag or bust imo, i'd have been happy with a close prelim loss or gf loss

losing a prelim as the team coming off a break and by quarter times shows we are way off it

we had a very easy draw in an even competition and added a lot of new players to a pretty solid team already

we added 8 best 22 players, 4 from other clubs and had an additional 3 from the injured bunch (cowan,mccarthy,menzel) and even had a ready made menegola come into the team, if you add 8 best 22 players to most teams you'd expect to win the flag (especially when one is a top 5 player)

10th to a prelim would be great if we had just gone to the draft

 

[RegHickeyStand]

Waiting for the GWS-Bulldogs game to finish before I have an opinion.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Our drafting has been fine even last year. Menegola had one poor night (not alone there) but has been outstanding this year and ruggles looks like a late draft find. Parsons would go in the main draft if it was re done now and hayball looks a real player. And the guys we traded in have all been very good this year. After trading some guys out this year we will probably have a heap of 30-40 picks and will nail most of them. Recruiting is not the issue. For me the big issues are:

1. Group is mentally soft outside of a few of the stars-no other way to explain how over the last 3-4 years we are so good in H&A and so poor in finals. I imagine this is the hardest part of drafting-much harder to judge the mental state of players you only meet a few times before you draft them than to judge their football ability. Too many of our players drop their bundles and go into their shells when they make mistakes.

2. Tactically poor-coaches are too stubborn at selection and wont drop name players when in poor form. They are reactive on gameday its obv the only way sydney could win was an initisl blitz and yet they didnt put numbers behind the ball early and didnt tell the players to stop overhandballing.

3. Chf-we have never solved this issue since 2013 moving on pods bc we thought vardy would star was a fail and kersten the jury is out on,and stanley is a decent ruck who is inconsistent as a fwd. We have never replaced the structure pods provided and when hawk is illegally held off the ball we lack avenues to goal. We have no fwd structure and when the ball hits the deck it runs out too easily.

4. Skills-i bag collingwood for being a team full of the worst kicks you will see and they are but we are not far off. Is it the mental stuff maybe? As a lot of our guys are good technical kicks but in finals do the opposite.

The good news is apart from chf which might require a big trade the other problems have obvious fixes which if we do we can be better. But i think our recruiting pound for pound has been good its not the major issue.

Agree with all your points, particularly the bolded; skills and making smart decisions with the ball in hand are a bigger problem than we tend to acknowledge.
The team has plenty of marking targets but regularly we fail to kick the ball to advantage in the contests.
And we're behind teams like the Bulldogs, Hawks, Giants and Swans when it comes to moving the ball by hand/short passes through the corridor. I reckon our last quarter against Richmond showed the kind of level we can attain and should be aiming to replicate more consistently; we moved the ball with fluency and precision to bridge the gap in that quarter, but we don't see it anywhere near enough.

 

[hbk_aus]

Weird year. Better than I initially thought we would do but disappointing in some respects. The failure of the "next level" of our list to move forward in their development is worrying and must be addressed by the club. The likes of Lang, Gregson, Cockatoo, Caddy, Duncan, Blicavs, Motlop, Vardy and Smedts either plateaued or actually went backwards.

I mentioned very early on that I was concerned with our forward structure and how we brought the ball forward and this is also something that needs to be seriously looked at.

As far as what we need personnel-wise, I think the Swans, Dogs and Giants have shown that you need pacy runners who are good in close. Don't care how small they are - if they can play, get them.

Overall, it's a bitter end to a decent year. Needs improvement going forward, as do some "supporters".

 

[iameviljez]

I thought we'd manage to climb to fifth or sixth, so to finish third is above expectations for me.

This board is far too used to success and has forgotten just how hard it is to win finals and flags.

 

[kickazz]

Many scoffed at the start of the year when someone at the cats mentioned we were aiming for top 4.
Finished third, with many players still getting used to each other.
Mau have been lucky to win a final, but we did win a final.
Overall, at the start of the season i would have taken that.

 

[BotsMaster]

It was better than 2015 that's for sure.

 

[Daniel McL]

Re-watching my favourite quarter of the year to feel better, 3rd quarter vs North Melbourne.

 

[Sttew]

A return to the finals in 2016 after a 10th place finish in 2015 was all but expected by most Cats fans after the recruitment of Patrick Dangerfield, Lachie Henderson, Zac Smith and Scott Selwood in the off-season.

This buy-now-pay-later list management approach is becoming more accepted in the free agency age, but we saw how it worked out for Michael Voss at Brisbane just a few years ago when a club decides to mortgage it's draft selections (and in Geelong's case, future draft selections) in the hope of chasing a quick flag. You'd wanna actually snag that flag within a pretty short period.

After a string of lacklustre finals performances under Chris Scott post-2011, merely returning to the finals after missing in 2015 wouldn't be quite enough.

Personally, I always had the expectation that the club would win at least one final in 2016, and seriously challenge in 2017, with the entire approach to be reviewed post-2017 in the absence of a flag.
I still hold by that, and so to me 2016 was a pass mark. Just.

We won a final of course, and against Hawthorn no less, but despite the talents of a few individuals we only gelled as a team periodically, despite good results in this diluted competition.
The issues that were on display all year long didn't magically go away come finals time; and in the Preliminary Final those issues and weaknesses were magnified and exploited.

Issue number one, all season long, was getting bang for our buck with our forward entries - this is no new problem; we've seen this club struggle with fluency in and around the forward 50 for years now.
In the past this was generally an effect of having employed a hard press; we'd clog up our own half of the ground, lock it in, and then struggle to work through the congestion to actually score.

This year there was more of the same, but if anything we regressed; even when we were counter-attacking or had forced a turnover, and had opposition team's defenses at our mercy, we regularly chose poor options when moving the ball forward.

The whole team has to take responsibility with this problem we have moving the ball into the forward 50; it often starts with the glacial ball movement out of the defensive 50.

Our midfield is good enough to generate sufficient forward entries to win plenty of games of football, but the actually delivery is not that of a premiership team. Joel Selwood is exempt from this; his use of the ball is measured when he has a half-chance to set up.
Unfortunately, Patrick Dangerfield was one of the worst offenders when it came to delivering into the forward 50 with anything like precision.

Apart from the haphazard delivery into the forward 50, the movement and plain effectiveness of the forwards themselves was most often disorganized and lacking in both cleanness and creativity.
Hawkins only ever had makeshift key position support, and had to contend with his own form issues during long stretches of 2016.
Sometimes Stanley would stand up. Occasionally Smith. Shane Kersten had a stab at it for a while, sort of. Even Mitch Clark was speculatively trialed for one game.
Lachie Henderson and Harry Taylor were both thrown forward in desperation in the 2nd half of the year.

As for the other forwards; Lincoln McCarthy made great and somewhat unexpected strides this year, but he needs to link up more by leading hard into space Chappy-style. Dan Menzel doesn't do this quite enough either.
Shane Kersten needed to do it way more.
Nakia Cockatoo and Darcy Lang are probably the only players already listed that can potentially add something to that forward mix. Maybe Murdoch Billie Smedts remains the great unknown as a forward .

The defensive end lost Jackson Thurlow before the season began; his clean footskills and run would be missed season-long; we had no adequate replacement for what we expected him to provide.
Expect him to be somewhat rusty in 2017, anything more is a bonus. He is a class player though and I look forward to seeing him back in action.

The much-debated height of the backline was routinely queried but regularly stood up to scrutiny from a purely defensive perspective. Lonergan, Henderson and Taylor all had solid-to-good years.
But there was little run and sharp ball movement from the back half in 2016.

Andrew Mackie's ability to counter-attack and use the ball well by foot largely dried up; he still gets a bit of the ball, but it is more often than not rushed.
Corey Enright was resolute and had a ridiculous mid/late season patch of strong form; his rebound, if not exactly dashing, still represented Geelong's best bet of unlocking opposition set-ups

Tom Ruggles and Jed Bews fought a nil-all draw; neither is established as the defacto small defender, and yet both should be able to take positives from the year. Ruggles played plenty of football and got a real idea of what is needed to be effective. Bews was in and out of the team despite showing improvement.

Jake Kolodjashnij is the invisible man of the backline despite playing 20 games in 2016. I like him; he defends. He needs to make more of his athleticism and once he gets more confidence in his role I think his foot skills are a bit better than some might think.

Ruckmen Zac Smith and Rhys Stanley were an improvement on the combos of the past few years, and yet their efforts were sometimes frustrating.
Smith showed flashes of intensity, clearing the ball from stoppages with vigour, taking the odd awkward mark, kicking the odd awkward goal and laying the odd oddly effective tackle.
But just as often he went quiet, jogging around when he might have been throwing his weight around.
Still; we got a lot more out of him than I would have suspected when we acquired him.
Rhys Stanley is probably more frustrating than Smith because he has undeniable talent and athletic gifts.
He did impose himself on games at times, to be fair. But his decision-making and execution need to improve if he is to maximize his opportunities. Both are only fair tap-ruckmen. This might sound stupid, but Blicavs actually palms the ball more cleanly than either of them.
Paidrag Lucey continues to bide his time, looking for a four-leafed clover. There was that other skinny tall bloke who had some kinda glandular-fever thingy, but he's fallen off the radar Cunico-style.

The much-talked about '2nd tier' of mid/forwards were far too inconsistent.

After the round 1 win against Hawthorn it looked as though Josh Caddy, Mitch Duncan, Cam Guthrie, Mark Blicavs, Steven Motlop - hell, maybe even Jordan Murdoch - would thrive with the addition of Patrick Dangerfield to the midfield rotations.
But as a group, they made little progress, if any.

Mitch Duncan played every game, had a career-high in tackles and matched his career-high average disposals per game. His goalkicking output was down, although he generally seemed to play off the back of the square.
I thought his finals series was good, apart from a couple of pretty bad mistakes.
But overall, he just didn't show much improvement on what we'd seen in the past. I'm not sure he has much in him. At best, he may have slightly reduced the gap between his best and worst games in 2016. But the highs were less frequent.

Mark Blicavs' stats were similar to last year when he won the B&F in a side which finished 10th, but in 2016 he too often played hesitant football with ball in hand.
His tackling remains an asset, but after a year as a back-up ruckman and a year as a genuine midfielder, his best position is still up in the air.
I see him staying on the list pretty comfortably, but the club needs to be smart with his continued development. How well could he play back on a consistent basis?

Josh Caddy doesn't get quite enough of the ball to be a mid, nor does he kick quite enough goals to be a forward. He just never seems to get to enough contests for the type of player he is. I'm not sure where he's at.

Cam Guthrie's first half of the season has largely been forgotten in the light of a patchy second half of the year, but he has shown he can step up a level. His finals series was ok.
I have no worries with his career trajectory to this point, I reckon he's the best of that mid tier.

Steven Motlop; bloody hell.
He's had a fall from grace. After signing a healthy contract in 2015 his lack of fitness coming into the season was a talking point. His output was all over the place.
He did produce some good form here and there. But a lot of his efforts were panicked, he rarely gets a break on his opponent through pure leg speed anymore. Nor does he win one-on-one contests with creative play. He's 112 games into his career and going backwards. Played every game in 2016 and came behind only Hawkins in goals kicked for the year. His banana goal from the boundary after the siren against lowly Essendon was one of the season highlights for me; pure skill. Would now trade though.

Lastly, 'Dangerwood'.

Patrick Dangerfield brought his talents to the club Lebron-style, and he'll probably add a Brownlow to his MVP award.
You can't ask much more from him.
And yet I do. A player of his ability shouldn't shank and burn the ball as much as he does. I don't want to denigrate his efforts, because he was a beast this year and was a huge reason as to why Geelong reached the top 4. But he has room for improvement with his disposal and decision-making.
1 goal per game is good, but from a player with his gifts and attacking instincts he should be kicking a few more. Gotta mark the champs hard.

Joel Selwood will come runner up, maybe third, to Dangerfield this year, but his contribution was huge.
Despite an injury-hampered pre-season he played every game and averaged a career-high disposals.
And Selwood's disposals count. Massively underrated for just how effective he is at finding a team mate by hand or foot. His finals series was huge despite the ambiguous results.


TL; DR summary:

2016 a bare pass mark; 2017 is judgement day for the Chris Scott tenure.

The Age on-line summary of last night's game aptly described Geelong of 2016. - For the 2nd time this year the Swans were able to strip back the wallpaper from Geelong's patchy team and reveal a good team reliant on too few.

I genuinely believe we overachieved by getting to the PF so therefore consider 3rd position a good result

 

[Sttew]

I thought we'd manage to climb to fifth or sixth, so to finish third is above expectations for me.

This board is far too used to success and has forgotten just how hard it is to win finals and flags.

So true

 

[RegHickeyStand]

Yep, a few weeks ago when I was having an enforced break from the board I said this to veedubs in a message.

"I think we are ready to go.
I still doubt we can play well for 3 consecutive games."

We've just been too inconsistent.
But overall, 2016 was a good year.

Same here. After watching a wobbly GWS trying to find it's feet all day (I agree they could beat the Bullies by 3 or 4 normally) the Prelim is not the game to judge us on. Two games: when we belted the Bulldogs, and when we got pumped by the Swans during the H&A. Inconsistent, that was us.

 

[jezza1435]

menzel is our most important forward for 2017 and we missed him last night.

God help us

 

[romeohwho]

We weren't the best team in the comp this year so we have finished in about the right place. We can play wonderful footy but need to do it a bit more consistently. Need that middle bunch to do more but Dangerfield and Selwood also made some costly errors in that crucial 1st quarter on Friday night, so its not all perfect. We are not yet good enough that we can cope with too much adversity. And Buddy did the damage for mine-he wants to erase the Swans 2014 GF embarrassment for sure.
We were't playing our best footy in the finals but we worked very hard against the Hawks and were not mentally weak in that game. Have no doubt the bye impacted on Friday night and for our draw next year-do not play the good teams after a bye. Swans funnily enough were helped by the kick up the behind in the GWS final and it sorted their resolve to show they are the best team in the comp and their next 2 games -very impressive.
Doggies were great yesterday but GWS were not as spritely as usual so think it impacted them too. So the bye did us no favours ( which it is intended to do, so AFL needs to look at it) but Swans best is too good for us atm. They have made us look 2nd rate too many times now, and I am over it. They and the Doggies are playing their best footy at the right time of the year-its a fitting GF. We aren't. We have work to do but we are on the road.
Go Doggies.

 

[SJ]

Pretty strange year when you jump from tenth to third but most of your players either go sideways or backwards.

 

[iameviljez]

Pretty strange year when you jump from tenth to third but most of your players either go sideways or backwards.

Hawkins, McCarthy, Kolo, Stanley (just) and Selwood probably the only real improvers from last year's standards. Mind you, what list turnover we had...

 

[Cronin]

Pretty strange year when you jump from tenth to third but most of your players either go sideways or backwards.

Speaks volumes of how much we relied on Dangerfield and Selwood to carry this team but in the end they can only do so much.