Review Cats down North by 49 points

[bruce lindner]

Edwards was well beaten today but his second efforts and desperation are elite for his size. Put on a massive shepherd to protect Holmes running towards goal with about 7 or 8 minutes left in the third which personified his willingness to put his body on the line.

 

[catstorm]

Anyone able to pinpoint what changed mid way through the third? Im at a bit of a loss - Holmes lifted, but he was already our best to half time.

Pressure came back, but was also good early I thought. Is it that simple?

I have a theory, not sure how accurate it is.

We seem to struggle against teams that have some pace.

Fast teams slow down in the second half, hence why we seem to always run over the top of teams.

Our second half’s in particular 4th quarters seem to be our best.

 

[Mr Meow]

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Wild watching a game sometimes and then looking at the stats afterwards. Quarter by quarter I suppose would be more telling. We would have annihilated them from the middle of Q3.

I forget the exact difference, but NM were destroying us in clearance numbers in the first half. We turned that around massively.

 

[Hamingja]

Speaking of O. Henry, some of his gathers and handballs in traffic were kinda elite. Makes you wonder if he has a future playing further up the ground?

He was a lot sharper today. Most of the time recently it is decision making that it is his biggest issue.

 

[Klink2]

Great effort to fight back and win convincingly. We clearly ramped up the pressure and our turnovers reduced. Credit to us but North clearly fatigued which I think helped. A fair bit of hatred directed to us on the North board, understandable given we've won 15 straight. They're also turning on Clarko.

Our skill execution is a big issue and we will get found out against the best teams if we do that for decent portions of the game.

I thought Close was great today, really clean and fast hands and was involved in lots of scoring chains.

OHenry (I'm not his biggest fan) but credit where credit is due, you can see him working hard and trying to address his deficiencies. Credit to him.

COS is a star in the making, what a great trade we did with Essendon picking this guy up and getting Mannagh in the deal we did with the pick swap. Speaking of Mannagh, clearly back to his best today and very influential.

Bruhn was a bit off with his ball use but that's just an off day for him. Holmes was brilliant and I thought Smith worked his way into the game nicely.

Neale quiet at times, but the sign of a good player is still hitting the scoreboard with 3 goals whilst not getting everything his way.

Atkins and Wopel, agree with Art that you can only play one. I was a big fan of getting Worpel in (great goal) but he has been underwhelming..we all understand his weak areas, but I thought his strengths would outweigh those. Not best 23 IMO. At least not right now.

We have many problems but I still anticipate us giving Pies a very good run. We will be up for that no doubt.

 

[you pick one]

Never have I seen a more protected species than Tristan Xerri, 8 frees he got with some of them being absolutely baffling.

If he stopped ducking into tackles he could dispence with the head gear.

 

[ChrisLOA]

Just me or does Harry Sheezel look like a ventriloquist's dummy?

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Or a young Neil Finn... (showing my age here)

 

[IMCat]

 

[Seeds]

+

SdK, Kolo and COS. Held their talks well. Darling kicked 3 and one was a flop.

Close. Played quite well.

Mannagh. Found some form.

Nearly halving the clearances despite Xerri doing as he pleased.

-

Edwards. Completely thrashed in the ruck and ragdolled by one of the best. Something to learn from.

Stewart. Anonymous.

Bruhn. Shocking ball use.

Dangerfield and Henry. We can only play one imo.

Worpel and Atkins. We can only play one imo.

Kicking 4 goals and being second best on ground is not finding some form. Mannagh is a gun. Nothing changed this year.

And its atkins who plays. Worpel is a slow hesitant dud. Get rid of him.

 

[Seeds]

Bruhn seems to have reverted to 2024 form after such a break out start to the season. What happened?

Holmes is our best player. Can they stop focussing on smith so much. Holmes is clearly better.

 

[winty]

Unfortunately we need a Holmes clone. He's required for all of that run and dash from half back, even when he's doing it as a midfielder. It leaves less room for him to charge inside 50, because Smith does that and Atkins is way too slow to defend transition.

I'd like to still see Holmes forward more to punish teams like today, but it should be noted that his goal assist numbers have been excellent from his kicks that come from further back.

He's had a couple of poor games but at least 4 dominant ones in 2026.

 

[Mr Meow]

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I know we bag Max's kicking (with some justification), but if Hunter could somehow get his close to that level it would give us a big boost in the future.

Overall I think Holmes' kicking has been alright this season. There's plenty of good ones amongst the bad.

 

[allrighty]

More needs to be said about Neale's set shot kicking too. What a beast. It's like the reverse Kent Kingsley.

Best (Geelong) kicking action I've seen for years.

 

[winty]

Makes you wonder what game the writers on the AFL website were watching. No way Bruhn or Worpel were in our best players today.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

The bottom line is as bad as we are playing we will probably be top 6 after tomorrow which shows the upside if we play better. The next 2 weeks against good opponents will tell us where we are really at.

The downside for me is that dangerfield looks cooked (doesnt have the explosiveness anymore) and stewart looks as unsure of himself as I've ever seen-lets hope old stewart returns. Edwards will be very good long term but hes not ready-xerri destroyed us today. Im not looking forward to cameron and Grundy rucking against us.
The upside is Holmes is becoming elite and osullivan and humphries and bruhn (despite the turnovers today hes had a really good year) so the young core is there. We really need blicavs back pronto-structurally him out really hurts us-you can see why we wanted marshall.
Credit to Ollie henry hes been working hard for weeks it came off more today. And I can acknowledge credit where its due to close-better role player when he decides to pressure defensively well like today. Shows he actually can put the effort in when he feels like it.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Edwards was well beaten today but his second efforts and desperation are elite for his size. Put on a massive shepherd to protect Holmes running towards goal with about 7 or 8 minutes left in the third which personified his willingness to put his body on the line.

Not having a proper ruck is going to cost us multiple games this year (and has already) but in 4 or 5 years Edwards is going to be really good. Best ruck we have drafted in a long time.

 

[Mr Meow]

The bottom line is as bad as we are playing we will probably be top 6 after tomorrow which shows the upside if we play better. The next 2 weeks against good opponents will tell us where we are really at.

The downside for me is that dangerfield looks cooked (doesnt have the explosiveness anymore) and stewart looks as unsure of himself as I've ever seen-lets hope old stewart returns. Edwards will be very good long term but hes not ready-xerri destroyed us today. Im not looking forward to cameron and Grundy rucking against us.
The upside is Holmes is becoming elite and osullivan and humphries and bruhn (despite the turnovers today hes had a really good year) so the young core is there. We really need blicavs back pronto-structurally him out really hurts us-you can see why we wanted marshall.
Credit to Ollie henry hes been working hard for weeks it came off more today. And I can acknowledge credit where its due to close-better role player when he decides to pressure defensively well like today. Shows he actually can put the effort in when he feels like it.

How do you know for certain that Close's issues have been mental rather than physical, given that he's been managed twice this season and was moving very poorly in a couple of games? He's always struggled first game back after being out.

 

[winty]

Crazy to think that most people see Geelong as an aging side, and North as a young up and coming side, yet the side they fielded today wasn't much younger or less experienced than the side we fielded....

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Kicking 4 goals and being second best on ground is not finding some form. Mannagh is a gun. Nothing changed this year.

And its atkins who plays. Worpel is a slow hesitant dud. Get rid of him.

Agree on mannagh 100 %

Atkins despite the defensive efforts is fumbly and out of form. That said i expect they likely pick him ahead of worpel.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

How do you know for certain that Close's issues have been mental rather than physical, given that he's been managed twice this season and was moving very poorly in a couple of games? He's always struggled first game back after being out.

Because unlike dangerfield it doesnt look like his legs are slow (granted danger is old) which is what i would expect if he had body issues. He looks quick offensively when we have the ball and slow defensively when we dont have it which to me is often a sign of a lack of effort or not being switched on. Today he switched on (finally).

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I thought the same thing. Some pick ups were absolutely insane.

On the other end on the spectrum; Danger looks absolutely cooked.

The Hard thing is i dont think structurally that you can fit danger and henry in the forward line together. And danger is playing the worse of the 2. Tough conversations coming.

 

[Lana]

Holmes really willed us to victory in the third quarter. Crazy accuracy in the second half made us look better then we were.

 

[Vdubs]

+

SdK, Kolo and COS. Held their talks well. Darling kicked 3 and one was a flop.

Close. Played quite well.

Mannagh. Found some form.

Nearly halving the clearances despite Xerri doing as he pleased.

-

Edwards. Completely thrashed in the ruck and ragdolled by one of the best. Something to learn from.

Stewart. Anonymous.

Bruhn. Shocking ball use.

Dangerfield and Henry. We can only play one imo.

Worpel and Atkins. We can only play one imo.

That's easy- Danger is managed for 2 of every 3 weeks anyway.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

That went pretty much how the GF did. 36-35 our way at HT, skipped out to a 17pt 3QT lead late, then piled on goals and put on a clinic in the last.

Plenty to work on, we have issues that must be addressed for our next 3 games, they’re 3 massive ones.

 

[Vdubs]

The Hard thing is i dont think structurally that you can fit danger and henry in the forward line together. And danger is playing the worse of the 2. Tough conversations coming.

OH is part of our future.
Danger has been stunning and brilliant, but is now a mere shadow of that, which is sad.
He can't chase once he's missed a mark, so that's what oppositions are acting on.