Review Cats destroyate Tuggers by 72 points

[Kobe Gryant]

Tractors can be pretty useful as long as you don't try to drag race them

George will be fine if played on his own. We're effectively the
antithesis of Carlton's midfield.

They've got too many ball pig tractors, we probably lack one or two. It's all speed with Holmes, Baz, Mannagh, Miers, and Dempsey, with a sprinkling of defensive nous from Atkins.

Like Mr Meow touched on, if Bruhn, Bowes, and Clark were all in there too, then you can't play him (or rather them, if George's form isn't a flash in the pan).

 

[Strange Cat]

Tractors can be pretty useful as long as you don't try to drag race them

Don’t threaten me with a good time

 

[Spearman]

His goal was pretty good too

Anyone else notice during the celebration of the first goal Dempsey and Miers shadow sparring?

 

[Spearman]

Our % just jumped by 4.8 in the middle of the season

I'm in the States atm so watched late in the night. I made it through the 3Q before I sent myself to the bench. Woke up this morning to a disappointing 72 point win; was expecting more.

 

[Mr Meow]

catempire I believe Geelong have moved up to 3rd for defensive rating (scores conceded per game) now, while being 2nd for attack. Our draw has evened up a bit now and our backline is fairly healthy.

 

[Spearman]

Snapped my wrist on my left arm and ruptured a tendon on my right hand straight after the Sunday evening Eagles win a few weeks back and have not been able to type well over that time.

Nor was I particularly compelled to contribute over that period.

Post-bye though, it’s time to take stock as we consider mounting an assault on the 2025 flag.

All these soft wins against unserious teams like Richmond make it hard to guage just where we’re at - and it’s the same for every decent chance this year.

Regardless, I liked what I saw this evening.

George Stevens made quite an impression on debut.

Can he be more than GHS, more than Charlie Constable? Maybe. Great start, but then again I was pretty bullish on George H-S. Whatever; great game and he gave Tommy Atkins some much-needed assistance.

Brad Close’s game caught my eye tonight; I’ve seen very mixed views of his 2025 season on this board, and I don't necessarily disagree with that conjecture.

But I think he has been adapting to a post-Tom Hawkins forward line with intelligence.

Small and slight by AFL standards, Close nonetheless regularly finds himself in the role of lead-up forward conduit - it’s my contention that Close has been dilligently developing this aspect of his Forward line role.
Rarely wins an aerial contest in those outlet-contests. But I reckon he has learned to nullify them very effectively.

Tonight his game reminded me - a bit - of Paul Chapman’s pre-2007 role in Geelong’s forward line, minus the Alpha Male posturing, Great stuff.

Similarly, Zach Guthrie’s efforts in the D50 are starting to conjure comparisons to his 2000s #39 counterpart in Darren Milburn. Dasher was uglier and meaner - but who is the better contested mark, the better 1v1 player? Tight.

A Bailey Smith-less midfield only demonstrated just how much Gryan Miers generates in his role as a non-clearance-attending mid.

Miers linked up all over the ground and invariably gave those forward of the play a better than even chance of gaining possession.

4 Points.

There was a lovely bit with Close, and Blicavs. They turned it over and their player went running down the wing. The camera view from behind showed those two shifting into gear and both racing after him. He had a good lead from the start, but the sheer effort was impressive.
That's what the non-statmonsters do for the team.
Interesting analysis on his role, thanks for the insights. He does seem to be the target of long kicks a lot, even when outnumbered.

 

[Gunf]

One thing I liked was the confidence turnaround in Neale mid game

First quarter early he seemed to have cymbals for hands and I thought he was going to put in a shocker. Then that ground level snap (which he also nearly fumbled) gave him that boost of confidence and he worked into it.

A good experience for him to build on in the future when things are going against him

Comes with inexperience.

Young players can be having down games or quarters but 1 moment that gives them confidence sparks them for the rest of the game or even longer.

He is showing signs of being very good to great but still has down moments and quarters most weeks but is improving all the time.

Just need him to start clunking on a more consistent basis and we are golden.

 

[Mr Meow]

Comes with inexperience.

Young players can be having down games or quarters but 1 moment that gives them confidence sparks them for the rest of the game or even longer.

He is showing signs of being very good to great but still has down moments and quarters most weeks but is improving all the time.

Just need him to start clunking on a more consistent basis and we are golden.

Stats wise Neale's tracking along okay too. 31 combined goals/goal assists from 16 games, so almost dead on 2 per game. He's on 5.4 score involvements per game too, which is decent. He hasn't even played 40 senior games yet - in key forward terms, he's still very much learning his craft.

 

[Whiskers]

I just want to say how happy I am with Stanley atm. He is giving us far more than i expected.
Credit to him!

 

[The Casey Cat]

I don’t know what game you were watching but it wasn’t that one you just described

The Close call is debatable. Apart from that how was the description wrong? Won the second half by two goals. Guthrie and Stevens excellent. Sounds about right.

 

[Play it Sam]

We tend to give players with < 10 games low minutes anyway, perhaps with the exception being defenders. It's not a big issue given we did the same for Selwood and Dangerfield in 2022. Remember Bruhn's game time for whole seasons? Well it was lower than Stevens TOG today. Scott knows how to shuffle things around to exploit strengths and hide weaknesses.

I'd say we are looking at Stevens like a bigger bodied Bruhn. A bit slower, but let's not pretend Tanner has explosive qualities or amazing transition ability.

Scott also knows how to hone down on what George really did on the day. They certainly didn't "unearth" him, given the time and work he's done. Never mind withholding judgement, probably better to just give the accolades for a 20 year old who was emotionally aware of what it meant to his supporters, and pretty much slayed on debut.

Scott's presser:
It is rare for a very young player to come in, make his debut, play virtually as a permanent on-baller against seasoned players. You can disregard Richmond's ladder position when it comes to their midfield, you are talking Prestia, Taranto, Hopper, Nankervis is in there. They are an experienced, high quality group of players and George looked at home right from the start.

 

[Mr Meow]

Scott also knows how to hone down on what George really did on the day. They certainly didn't "unearth" him, given the time and work he's done. Never mind withholding judgement, probably better to just give the accolades for a 20 year old who was emotionally aware of what it meant to his supporters, and pretty much slayed on debut.

Scott's presser:
It is rare for a very young player to come in, make his debut, play virtually as a permanent on-baller against seasoned players. You can disregard Richmond's ladder position when it comes to their midfield, you are talking Prestia, Taranto, Hopper, Nankervis is in there. They are an experienced, high quality group of players and George looked at home right from the start.

Bingo.

I suspect there is an element of supporters not wanting to get their hopes up and then getting let down. But come on...some players debuts/early senior matches show enough to get excited without reservations. This was one of those instances. Humphries, Mannagh and COS gave similar vibes.

At the very least Stevens should get the 20-30 game apprenticeship over the next couple of seasons to see how he measures up. I wouldn't even rule him out of finals for 2025.

 

[Play it Sam]

Bingo.

I suspect there is an element of supporters not wanting to get their hopes up and then getting let down. But come on...some players debuts/early senior matches show enough to get excited without reservations. This was one of those instances. Humphries, Mannagh and COS gave similar vibes.

At the very least Stevens should get the 20-30 game apprenticeship over the next couple of seasons to see how he measures up. I wouldn't even rule him out of finals for 2025.

Understandable then, they don't want to go early, boots and all. But he's got the goods, the boffins know what they are doing, in a long season. May be squeezed to sub, at the least.

Interesting too, how Scott mentioned luck, as it stands to winning and selection. So the Irish in me was happy with previous insistence that we had none of it against Brisbane. The late withdrawals were well covered, we didn't lose too much balance, didn't need the sub who was slated to play VFL, successfully debuted an admirable young man, and slowly smashed them by twelve goals. Gotta be happy with that.

 

[GaelicCat]

Prestia no clearance and no inside 50. Mullin with two clearances and two inside 50's Prestia has averaged six clearances this season.

 

[you pick one]

Agreed. First of all I do not think he is that slow. Secondly his inside game perfectly compliments Holmes, Smith, Miers and Mannagh. Finally, the foot skills are clearly there which adds a lot of depth to the game. Reminded me a bit of Bartel the way he hit the ball.

(Ok I will chill out it was just one 20 touch game against bottom feeders)

Bottom feeder with quality mids but.

 

[Hamingja]

Bottom feeder with quality mids but.

Stevens did well but it was just about the perfect midfield mix for him to come up against. Players like Hopper and Prestia are not going to beat you on the spread which is the main issue George is going to face at AFL level, particularly on a bigger ground than KP.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

The thing with Zuthrie is you can't tell what the score is when he is playing. He gives his all whether we are 50 up or 50 down.

Yep, very even temperament for our next captain.

 

[Mr Meow]

Stevens did well but it was just about the perfect midfield mix for him to come up against. Players like Hopper and Prestia are not going to beat you on the spread which is the main issue George is going to face at AFL level, particularly on a bigger ground than KP.

Plenty of good current AFL midfields have a couple of slow players in their stoppage rotations. Brisbane, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Bulldogs, Fremantle and Gold Coast come to mind.

 

[Generalissimo]

Players like Hopper and Prestia are not going to beat you on the spread

Prestia's not going to do much with Oisin Mullin sitting on him anyway.

 

[you pick one]

Stevens did well but it was just about the perfect midfield mix for him to come up against. Players like Hopper and Prestia are not going to beat you on the spread which is the main issue George is going to face at AFL level, particularly on a bigger ground than KP.

That true but if you can lock the ball in and force a second ball up at center bounces Geelong can then set their 7 man defence our prefered field and get the intercept game going, with the 666 rule we are susceptible to the ball coming quickly from the bounce.

 

[Lana]

Stevens did well but it was just about the perfect midfield mix for him to come up against. Players like Hopper and Prestia are not going to beat you on the spread which is the main issue George is going to face at AFL level, particularly on a bigger ground than KP.

Is the concern explosiveness or transition running. There simply isn't enough explosive midfielders in the competition to fillout the rotations, lot of vanilla guys with 6 years in the gym and a tank seeing 70% inside midfield rotations. We saw that he is at the very least capable of offensive transition run (against a poor team). They won't keep him in for long if he isn't capable of doing the defensive stuff.

If the weakness is real, then teams will be quick to attempt to exploit it.

I feel like we're well equipt as a team to min-max and get away with it. Can teams afford to let Holmes or Smith play head to head against a lesser runner.

 

[Sykes_]

Did LOL when Scott said he’d rather play GWS over in Sydney instead of here…

 

[Live in hope]

Great to get to a game at KP after a long hiatus, despite a seat in the highest spot in the city. Damned breezy up there - I looked like the Michelin man with about 20 layers of jumpers, coats (and too many years indulging in the paddock!).

All been said about George - great debut- strong, imposing and assured in the midfield . Wasn’t sure where he was playing when not in the guts - did they rest him at half forward?

A comment about our flaky first quarter- I noticed the Tigers seemed to try replicate Brisbane’s tactic - pressure the transition out wide and the Tigs big defenders push hard up from half back (?) Is that what others saw? Lots of poor decisions and execution by us that Qtr but I think the Tigers tactic contributed.

 

[bulletproof]

When Clayton Oliver

13

Clayton Oliver

Age

28

Ht

189cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.8

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

18.4

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

6.3

5star

CL

6.3

5star

D

25.1

5star

K

11.1

4star

HB

14.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

5.6

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

19.2

5star

K

4.6

2star

HB

14.6

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

4.4

5star

CL

3.8

5star

was at his very best, he was so brilliant at winning the ball at the fall of the contest and getting clear with handball. I thought Stevens showed that ability last night.

Such an important game for him and Geelong next week, if he plays well in a win, he will be a huge chance to play finals from there.

 

[catempire]

Stevens is a classic case of it being better to be good than to be quick. Even if he isn’t quick, look how he gets to the right places to have an impact. Exactly the right type to complement Smith and Holmes too. Strong over the ball and feeding it out to the runners. Persist!