Review Cats keep season alive with 12 point win

[CHAWKTS]

AFLCA votes:

10 - Zak Butters (PORT)
7 - Gryan Miers (GEEL)
4 - Esava Ratugolea (GEEL)
3 - Connor Rozee (PORT)
3 - Jason Horne-Francis (PORT)
2 - Oliver Henry (GEEL)
1 - Patrick Dangerfield (GEEL)

So does that mean Chris scott saw Sav as our best player?

butters 5
Sav 4
miers 3
rozee 2
henry 1


kens would be

butter 5
miers 4
horne Francis 3
rosee 2
danger 1

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Prime dickhead. Bazballed our GF, should have stuck to cricket and polo.

I posted here on GF day that it was so clear BT & JB wanted Collingwood in the Grand Final. You could just tell by their lack of excitement and tone.

Their minds are still stuck in the eighties, and the supposed 'Big 4' clubs.

Sydney are still a plastic football club and Geelong are the country blokes from down the road, completely forgetting that they've been two of the best Australian sporting clubs of the 21st century.

Prime example is this year. The Pies have been really good, but nothing extraordinary...but they get comments from JB like "How can you knock off this champion team?"

Excuse me? Don't you have to actually win something before you're a champion team?

Even if they're just going by this season's results, the Pies are far closer to Geelong 2019 than they are Geelong 2007/8 which were an actual champion team.

Nobody's going to be looking back in the history books at Geelong 2019, and it'll be same with Collingwood this year.

It's unbelievably premature to anoint them this early, and it just reeks of boys club, VFL era bias.

It's not going to change until the next generation comes into the media, who only know Carlton & Essendon as basketcase football clubs, and see Geelong, West Coast, Hawthorn and even Richmond as the real measuring stick of success.

People are set in their ways, and the commentary is a good 30 years off what's actually happening.

 

[Play it Sam]

I wanted to give Port posters moaning on their forum the benefit of the doubt, looking for excuses in the heat of the moment.
Even then a few of them with some brain cells, pointed to their inability to capitalise, and the dumb behaviour of Horne F, Wines and Houston etc.
Now it's validating those bogans if it's true Kenny has entered the fray. Anything to stop the rabid masses calling for his demise.
FWIW from where i was sitting, several bad calls on us .

 

[TheCatStevensExperience]

So does that mean Chris scott saw Sav as our best player?

butters 5
Sav 4
miers 3
rozee 2
henry 1


kens would be

butter 5
miers 4
horne Francis 3
rosee 2
danger 1

I'd give Horne-Francis 5 votes just for being a dill and giving away a 50 after a clear free kick

 

[standupand]

So does that mean Chris scott saw Sav as our best player?

butters 5
Sav 4
miers 3
Henry 2
Horne-Francis 1


kens would be

butters 5
miers 4
Rozee 3
Horne-Francis 2
danger 1

Think it should be more like this.

 

[goyoucatters]

Someone call the wahmbulance!

That is a golden article, for sure. Basically amounts to Bucks telling Kane to get over it and move on, like any adult would.

And then this gem to close the piece as well...

Port Adelaide currently have a -62 free kick differential as well as having given up 430 frees against, both statistics they rank worst in across the AFL.

So let me get this straight. A team that has been the worst all season at conceding free kicks also conceded a bunch of them in their last game?

#staggeringoutcome
#whowouldhavethought
#vicbiasliveson

 

[Play it Sam]

So does that mean Chris scott saw Sav as our best player?

butters 5
Sav 4
miers 3
rozee 2
henry 1


kens would be

butter 5
miers 4
horne Francis 3
rosee 2
danger 1

Yeah Scott loves him. or does he? Here's a dumb and probably irrelevant analogy. Reminds me of the dirty kid in the bath rolling up bits of wet tissue and throwing it up to stick on the ceiling. He still got a lot of love and three votes for actually being in the bath.

 

[Cataholic]

That is a golden article, for sure. Basically amounts to Bucks telling Kane to get over it and move on, like any adult would.

And then this gem to close the piece as well...



So let me get this straight. A team that has been the worst all season at conceding free kicks also conceded a bunch of them in their last game?

#staggeringoutcome
#whowouldhavethought
#vicbiasliveson

Oh, the conspiracy!!!

 

[cats_09]

So does that mean Chris scott saw Sav as our best player?

butters 5
Sav 4
miers 3
rozee 2
henry 1


kens would be

butter 5
miers 4
horne Francis 3
rosee 2
danger 1

Other way - I reckon Kenny gave Ratugolea the 4

It's always fun though to try and guess how the coaches viewed the game

 

[And_ROOS]

AFLCA votes:

10 - Zak Butters (PORT)
7 - Gryan Miers (GEEL)
4 - Esava Ratugolea (GEEL)
3 - Connor Rozee (PORT)
3 - Jason Horne-Francis (PORT)
2 - Oliver Henry (GEEL)
1 - Patrick Dangerfield (GEEL)

Oh **** off. Butters has 6 more disposals yet Miers has more marks, more goals, more goal assists, less clangers, less turnovers, more score involvements, was cleaner with the ball and had a higher disposal efficiency by quite a bit.

 

[And_ROOS]

That is a golden article, for sure. Basically amounts to Bucks telling Kane to get over it and move on, like any adult would.

And then this gem to close the piece as well...



So let me get this straight. A team that has been the worst all season at conceding free kicks also conceded a bunch of them in their last game?

#staggeringoutcome
#whowouldhavethought
#vicbiasliveson

Away from home Adelaide are the worst at giving away free kicks, and Port are the next worse, must be something about those dirty dirty South Australian teams...

And Port have won the free kick count 6 times and lost it 14 times, thats still better than Richmond who have won it 5 times and lost it 15 times, and Norhf who have won the free kick count 4 times, had an even free kick count with opposition twice, and lost the free kick count 14 times.

Sneaky edit: Port have been given 368 free kicks this year, we have only been given 355, so over the course of the year what are they bitching about?

 

[catempire]

No conspiracy theories from opposition fans either, funny that. It's like it only gets mentioned when we win at home...

At the ground it certainly felt like we went harder and lower at the ball in the last quarter than Port and when that occurs, you usually win a few frees as a result.

I’m all for scrutinising particular incidents and critiquing the calls made in each case.

But pointing to the free kick count as prima facie evidence of conspiracy is pure nuff nuff stuff.

Which calls were wrong? I can think of one: the Dangerfield HTB. So let’s take one from the Port ledger and put it in ours.

Any others?

 

[TheCatStevensExperience]

Good of Port to keep themselves distracted by a past event rather than focusing on their loosened grip on the Top 4 and next week's game

 

[Warhorse]

Dangerfield was matched up on JHF for majority of the game, who was butters playing on?

 

[00VicWard001]

excellent observation, thanks

wish the fricken footy shows would do more of that instead of the obvious stuff

I agree, it's so interesting to see it happen (I dont often go to live games), and you wonder how the coaches adjust this mid-game.

Often we were sucked into the ball as it was leaving our F50 and we congregated on a wing (near the interchange) and Port just held their mids and small backs just behind the ball along the 50m line. The second that their the plus one advantage midfield was able to clear the ball out, they had players streaming forward directly at their F50; while our players were sprinting to chase the ball from the wing (and will always lose that race as the ball is flying forwards). It meant that their forwards were able to run towards goal, and then double back for a very easy chest mark at 45m directly in front.

I thought Hinkley used the length of the ground to his advantage; and rarely tried to make it a game about the width of the ground - which most teams do, and then they get crowded or kick out on the full (they did very few from memory).

I also think that Blicavs big body and defensive utility was sorely missed as 1) he would be able to run into defensive positions where the ball was going (if it got out as a clearance) and just block space - so that Port would have slowed down or gone sideways. 2) And if it was a contest on the wing, his general size and baskeball defensive handspeed would often prevent a clearance just flying out like they were on Saturday night. 3) Getting it out of our D50 became near impossible at some stages without him there as a marking player. We had to move Esava out so he could run at the ball carrier to try and get the get out of jail mark. For a while, it was reminding me of 2020 and 2021 where we were so methodical bringing it out of the D50, and it was our undoing as all teams had to do was pressure us and the ball went straight back into the F50.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Who did a number on Houston Sat night? Didn’t pay attention, but did see he had 6 touches at 3/4 time. He has been in unbelievable form so well played whoever was responsible.

 

[allrighty]

I posted here on GF day that it was so clear BT & JB wanted Collingwood in the Grand Final. You could just tell by their lack of excitement and tone.

Their minds are still stuck in the eighties, and the supposed 'Big 4' clubs.

Sydney are still a plastic football club and Geelong are the country blokes from down the road, completely forgetting that they've been two of the best Australian sporting clubs of the 21st century.

Prime example is this year. The Pies have been really good, but nothing extraordinary...but they get comments from JB like "How can you knock off this champion team?"

Excuse me? Don't you have to actually win something before you're a champion team?

Even if they're just going by this season's results, the Pies are far closer to Geelong 2019 than they are Geelong 2007/8 which were an actual champion team.

Nobody's going to be looking back in the history books at Geelong 2019, and it'll be same with Collingwood this year.

It's unbelievably premature to anoint them this early, and it just reeks of boys club, VFL era bias.

It's not going to change until the next generation comes into the media, who only know Carlton & Essendon as basketcase football clubs, and see Geelong, West Coast, Hawthorn and even Richmond as the real measuring stick of success.

People are set in their ways, and the commentary is a good 30 years off what's actually happening.

It's simply media clickbait. If Geelong had as many members and media hits it would be us that they pushed.

I'm glad we aren't.

 

[00VicWard001]

Just got around to watching the game and had some interesting takeaways from it with some examples.

First of all, I thought Esava played one of his best games for the Cats. He seems to be developing some natural football poise that many of us doubted he'd ever possess. This would have to be one of his best moments in the hoops. Calm, composed, gets to his feet instantly to effect the next contest and clear away:



Secondly, I couldn't help but notice how low the standards of adjudication have become this year. So many inconsistencies and rules that just can't be effectively enforced. The whole 'dissent' thing is a prime example. Have a look at a handful of these demonstrable incidents throughout the game, which weren't penalised:



Now, I'm not a fan of the dissent rule in general but the thing that bothers me about this is that whenever the umpires just decide to pay them, you can bet that nobody sees it coming. If it was ten minutes to go in a final and Tom Hawkins did this stuff, what do you think the umpires would 'choose' to do? We all know the answer.

Furthermore on the umpiring front, this incident here would have to be one of the worst adjudications I've ever seen:



Dangerfield tries to get to the ball, then tries to handball it away but it gets blocked in. Wines grabs it and reels it in, Danger adjusts and lays the tackle, then gets pinged. Now I know umpires pay some howlers, and that's fine. But they paid FIFTY free kicks in this game. There's too much over-zealous umpiring and too many rules that can't be effectively enforced. It's degrading the game far more than anything else in my opinion.

All of that said, I thought the Cats played pretty well, apart from some pretty bad Stanley turnovers and a horrible first quarter from Stewart. Next week will be a very interesting one.

That was so cool how you got these gifs for us to see! That Dangerfield one was ridiculous. Imagine if Fanger got up and just walked away and Wines was still laying there - would Danger still have the penalty as he was the initial one who dove on the ball? Why was the umpire unable to adapt and see that the situation changed?

 

[And_ROOS]

Who did a number on Houston Sat night? Didn’t pay attention, but did see he had 6 touches at 3/4 time. He has been in unbelievable form so well played whoever was responsible.

Houston at times was on OHenry, probably didn't have time to get the ball because he was too busy chasing his shadow.

 

[Pollywaffle]

Dangerfield was matched up on JHF for majority of the game, who was butters playing on?

Bruhn, Atkins were the ones I noticed on occasions.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Interestingly, 24 players from Saturday night's game had more turnovers than Stewart. Given only 4 players has more disposals than Stewart then I think his effective disposal to turnover ratio was pretty good. I guess 91.3% disposal efficiency backs that up too.

Stewart is getting a lot of criticism lately. Yes he hasn’t been great, but neither has most of the team.
One poster even suggested that we would have beaten Freo if he hadn’t played.
Laughable.

 

[bombersboy]

Stewart is getting a lot of criticism lately. Yes he hasn’t been great, but neither has most of the team.
One poster even suggested that we would have beaten Freo if he hadn’t played.
Laughable.

Stewart is obviously a great player but he is soundly out of form/ Amazed me that people on this site were giving him votes on the weekend. He played well in the last quarter but in the first half I had him as Port's best.

 

[Finknottle]

I don't remember who the guest commentator was a year or two ago but they were talking about forwards leading lanes and leading patterns and how the 3 forwards in this match were alternating making it hard for the defense and BT was ******* mute for like 4 minutes trying to process what those words mean.

Lingy and Dewyane Russell are the worst. However I do like Ling and Meghan McDonald on the pidcast.

 

[Seeds]

No he isn't. Zoning off is one thing, actually defending is another. And he's not the best at it.

Thats just a semantic argument. Im referring to the end of ground he plays at. Not the role of stopping an opponent. Two different definitions.

 

[Seeds]

Stewart is obviously a great player but he is soundly out of form/ Amazed me that people on this site were giving him votes on the weekend. He played well in the last quarter but in the first half I had him as Port's best.

And yet is geelongs Leading player in the coaches award this year. Note he had a slow start to the coaches award this season. Most of his votes have been in the latter part of the season. This is what you call out of form? I guess that just shows how great he is. Dominating our coaches award despite being out of form.

Was also geelongs leading coaches award vote getter in the game last week.