Autopsy AFL 2024 Round 1 - Cats v Saints Sat March 16th 7:30pm AEDT (GMHBA)

Who will win and by how much?

  • Cats by a goal or less

    Votes: 5 7.7%
  • Saints by a goal or less

    Votes: 2 3.1%
  • Cats by 7 - 20

    Votes: 22 33.8%
  • Saints by 7 - 20

    Votes: 21 32.3%
  • Cats by a lot

    Votes: 11 16.9%
  • Saints by a lot

    Votes: 3 4.6%
  • Draw

    Votes: 1 1.5%

  • Total voters
    65
  • Poll closed .

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Can anyone help me out with the smother stats for this game?

I don't think I've ever seen so many smothers. It felt like Geelong smothered every third kick.

Is this a new tactic for Chris Scott or do Geelong always smother a lot more than other teams?
 
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It hurts to say but I tend to agree.

Reckon it was an awful loss for the Saints.

We are still prioritizing “effort” over skill execution as a footy club. Have signed Ross for years now when the game is heading in another direction to what he offers as a coach with his skill set.

That Geelong, playing so poorly, can still beat us, says where each club is at unfortunately.

I agree.
Cats booted 10.16 and about half of those were gettable. Had a number of players down in form including Hawkins, Henry x 2, Stengle, De Koning and Close but still found a way to win. It's a great win.
 
Can anyone help me out with the another stats for this game?

I don't think I've ever seen so many smothers. It felt like Geelong smothered every third kick.

Is this a new tactic for Chris Scott or do Geelong always smother a lot more than other teams?
Our pressure on the ball carrier was much more aggressive. That meant plenty of smothers but also that when St Kilda got out the back they had acres of space with running players

Hard to say who edged the tactical battle. Both sides were wasteful in front of goal. Geelong just about put them away but then oddly left the door open for a late scare.
 

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Weird assertion. I have a stack of respect for the Cats and everything they’ve achieved. Was merely commenting on what I saw watching the game tonight that I would predict the Saints to do better over the course of the season than Geelong. I’m no expert and there’s every chance I’ll be proven wrong.
Reasonable assumption to say Geelong have a 3 goal advantage at GMHBA when compared to a neutral ground.
 
Have signed Ross for years now when the game is heading in another direction to what he offers as a coach with his skill set.

That Geelong, playing so poorly, can still beat us, says where each club is at unfortunately.

If you don’t make Boris Enright your coach we’ll be poaching him to come back in a year or so to take Scotty’s job.
I’d get onto that.
 
Can anyone help me out with the smother stats for this game?

I don't think I've ever seen so many smothers. It felt like Geelong smothered every third kick.

Is this a new tactic for Chris Scott or do Geelong always smother a lot more than other teams?
Just Ross Lyon cramming all 18 of his players into d50

The man is cancer for footy’s entertainment value
 
Do the cats players understand the term lower your eyes. They just kept bombing every entry up to half way into the last quarter
They were trying to kick over the zone?

Ross was doing his usual bullshit flood a teams forward line and make the game scrappy, basically impossible to lower the eyes and hit inside if 40 blokes are standing in your forward line at one time.
 
They were trying to kick over the zone?

Ross was doing his usual bullshit flood a teams forward line and make the game scrappy, basically impossible to lower the eyes and hit inside if 40 blokes are standing in your forward line at one time.
That’s where the players get on the carousel. Go in and out
 
If you don’t make Boris Enright your coach we’ll be poaching him to come back in a year or so to take Scotty’s job.
I’d get onto that.
It’s interesting mate: we had Adam Kingsley for years as our assistant under some dreadful coaches.

Kingsley and the way he has his teams moving the ball and the way he coaches patterns of movement show he is the real deal.

Could easily be the same situation with Enright.

We have zero clue as a club when it comes to looking at the future direction of the sport tactically.

Our coaching selection has been appalling for a long time (ironically, Lyon easily the best one in my lifetime, and I’m mid 40s).

Locking up a yesterday’s man like Lyon could be our worst decision yet.
 
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You're making me hate him more.

I hated playing West Brom under Pulis.
Big Sam was crap to watch.

And I hated Jose coaching my club, albeit he doesn't deserve to be in the same sentence as these lot as he's winner.

I get he extracts every drop of juice from the lemon. But football where the richest win and less wealthy are happy just to stay in the division it makes sense.

AFL has an equalised draft, cap and fixture system that should see cyclical rotation from bottom to top.
And what we've seen at St.K (first time) and Fremantle is wasting elite key forward talent in Riewoldt and Pavlich playing a brand that doesn't stack up in finals. And to me it looks like St.K are happy to repeat the dose with Max King.

I just don't get it.
45% of the league makes finals each season. That isn't the bar to be set.
Top 4, Prelim and Grand Finals are the benchmarks and then the ultimate goal.
I know we are gonna go off topic but here it goes....

One of my best mates is a crows fans but also supports stoke city in English football. My Stoke supporitng mate has enjoyed Tony Pulis and his management era of 2006-13.

I didnt mind Tony Pulis in his one season at Crystal Palace in that 2013-4 season. Pulis went to Crystal palace with 1 win, 1 draw and 8 losses from their opening 10 games. He takes over the last 28 games of the season. 12 wins, 5 draws and 11 losses.

That was 13 wins, 6 draws and 19 defeats: 45 points and 11th spot.

Sam Allardyce is another manager that uses certain tactics thats also dour and defensive. He worked well in Bolton, Blackburn and west ham.

Pulis and Allardyce played dour footy. But when you are a side thats in the bottom 3 in the EPL and you need someone to get you out of the relegation zone, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce are 2 blokes as managers you want to avoid the drop or relegation.
 
It’s interesting mate: we had Adam Kingsley for years as our assistant under some dreadful coaches.

Kingsley and the way he has his teams moving the ball and the way he coaches patterns of movement show he is the real deal.

Could easily be the same situation with Enright.

We have zero clue as a club when it comes to looking at the future direction of the sport tactically.

Our coaching section has been appalling for a long time (ironically, Lyon easily the best one in my lifetime, and I’m mid 40s).

Locking up a yesterday’s man like Lyon could be our worst decision yet.
Embarrassing
 

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Ah well, we normally lose by 40ish points in Geelong so i guess thats a win in some sense. 25 years and counting since we have won in Geelong, funnily enough its the same year Collingwood last played there.
 
The way Lyon just floods back lines is just such a bad spectacle for our game.

Yeah it's good defence, and negates the weapons of attacking sides, but if your game plan is to just completely clog a backline and then use your good kicking players to rebound it out and slingshot, then that's not a style that will hold up in Finals. We kick straight in the first half, and it's game over - especially in the second quarter. It's also extremely irritating to watch 18 saints players all flood back and not maintain some attacking shape - preferring the Ross 'clog it up' method.

This is why he wants such fit players with speed, because it makes it easier to execute this game plan. Time after time it happened tonight, and nearly every scoring chain in the first 3 quarters happened from the back half. It's just ultra defensive and doesn't take a whole lot of skill to execute, and relies more on good kickers like NWM, Bonner, Sinclair (when he returns), quickly rebounding it and putting into space for a leg race between the forwards and the defenders. When it doesn't work, run back into D50 and clog it up again and try again. Rinse and repeat over and over again until you get the desired result.

Wish Ross Lyon would just fade into history, honestly. He can't help himself, and it's at the detriment of the game. At least seasoned coaches like Clarkson, Hardwick, Scott and Longmire can constantly reinvent themselves and understand the changing game. Not Ross though. It's all about defence, and attacking is just a by product of that team defence.

Go away Ross.
 
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I'm under no illusion my opinion is representative. In my defence may I say that I was an early follower of radio birdman and the fall?

Once the Saints start meshing better going forward and Ross starts winning the opinions will change. They ran Cats quite close away, their defense was very good apart from first part of q4. The foundation is there, plenty of upside to come. All the commentatoes talking about a slinghot, I assume they were referencing David, very brave of them given Gaza. I expected more of a backlash. For I didn't see much electric counterpunching, apart from the first goal. It was mostly defence and attrition. I think Membrey and King will work well together, a couple of the young blokes need games. Marshall and Steele pretty good. Some injured to return who will help movement Ross will double down on his system.

Candy rots your teeth. Sometimes you want some cilli, some vinegar. Ross plays Balsamic Ball. Not everyone can handle it.
 
It’s interesting mate: we had Adam Kingsley for years as our assistant under some dreadful coaches.

Kingsley and the way he has his teams moving the ball and the way he coaches patterns of movement show he is the real deal.

Could easily be the same situation with Enright.

We have zero clue as a club when it comes to looking at the future direction of the sport tactically.

Our coaching section has been appalling for a long time (ironically, Lyon easily the best one in my lifetime, and I’m mid 40s).

Locking up a yesterday’s man like Lyon could be our worst decision yet.

Round 1 mate.

Chill.
 
Respect where it is due, Ross lyon is an incredibly humble and respectful person. Gave geelong a lot of credit in his presser and was very well spoken despite coming across very frustrated and clearly didn’t want to be doing his presser last night from his overall language.

There are some colossal flogs in our coaching ranks like bevo and hardwick who would have sulked it up in his shoes, but Ross is all class and respect
 
Do the cats players understand the term lower your eyes. They just kept bombing every entry up to half way into the last quarter
There were plenty of shallow entry chip-ins, the Gryan Miers sort of stuff, but they weren't really working. Shallow entries, especially at Geelong can kill you if they get cut off. Compounding that, no-one in our forward line besides Dempsey was really playing well and giving us a reliable target to kick goals.

Geelong could have lost, they could also have won by 5-6 goals. Both teams kicked poorly. Both teams had good performances from new recruits. Both teams had a few players, who looked off the boil (including both subs). Both teams had a few players who'd be expected to walk back into their side and make an improvement. Round 1, I'll just give a big sigh of relief and take the four points.

Of the Cats' outs, I'd almost say Gary Rohan could have had the most impact. The way the game flowed and the way that Geelong's forwards just weren't clicking was tailor-made for a trademark Rohan, 7 disposal, 2 goal, 2 momentum-swinging tackles performance that could have busted the game open when Geelong was threatening.
 
Respect where it is due, Ross lyon is an incredibly humble and respectful person. Gave geelong a lot of credit in his presser and was very well spoken despite coming across very frustrated and clearly didn’t want to be doing his presser last night from his overall language.

There are some colossal flogs in our coaching ranks like bevo and hardwick who would have sulked it up in his shoes, but Ross is all class and respect
Can't say that I love all aspects of The Ross Lyon Experience, but I think he's always been good and worth listening to in a post-match press conference.
 
Very low level footy IQ by Dangerfield at the end of the game. Despite kicking the goal, all he had to do was hit a 20m pass inside 50m to his team-mate (that was wide open) who then would have chewed up the remaining 30secs. Afl players simply don't have any idea how to use their brains the same way basketball players do who think, strategise and fight for each millisecond.
 
Very low level footy IQ by Dangerfield at the end of the game. Despite kicking the goal, all he had to do was hit a 20m pass inside 50m to his team-mate (that was wide open) who then would have chewed up the remaining 30secs. Afl players simply don't have any idea how to use their brains the same way basketball players do who think, strategise and fight for each millisecond.
WOW! “Despite kicking the goal all he had to do...”. He did what he had to do - HE KICKED THE ******* GOAL
 
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