Autopsy Cats lose to Lions by 9 points.

[BigCat1]

Four games after the Prelim of '24, and we had seven different players in the team. Only 3 players with over 150 games under their belt. Brisbane? 10.

Brisbane had 19 uncontested marks in the first half. Forty in the third quarter alone.

That's alarming.

it also stopped raining.

It’s hard to defend uncontested marks when you have to give up a spare to help defend as your mids are getting flogged along with rolling up your high half fwds.

The uncontested marks are a symptom of a different issue. It was the same last week. Getting dated early at the contest and conceding huge inside 50 numbers which allows teams to chip it around when we inevitably cough it back up. The HFs need to find away to half those contests. When we break even our pressure and shape look terrific. Dominated the Freo game, absolutely dominated last half last week and first half this week.

 

[Gee Class Loco]

We are missing Mannagh. I just hope he's not underdone

Yep... and so do i.

 

[STPer18]

Our tall forwards need to look at how a 35 year old Dangerfield attacks the aerial balls. No one's outmarking him when he bashes into marking contests the way he does - he was fearless last night.

 

[PzBlinky]

Clark reminds me of bartel at the same stage of their careers. If memory serves me correct, jimmy was close to being traded after first couple of years. However, there is many differences, Clark is at best a c grade afl footballer. He is too small for the midfield prototype, has poor skills and lets be honest in marginally better than parfitt. Put him back in the reserves for the rest of the year and if we cannot make finals by the last 3-4 rounds, play him in the seniors and hope like hell he plays well and trade him. De Koning in the ruck is not working, bring in Stanley next week against gawn and put de koning on ice for a week. Ins mannagh, Stanley, Stewart out de Koning, Clark, knevitt

I'm not as bear-ish on Clark as that - he could still make it, and he needs at least another 30-40 games before a verdict can be made. I'm hoping 2026 will be his breakout year.

That said, his one wood (and only wood) is his attack on the ball and contest. Someone else mentioned he should model his game on Atkins, which is a good idea...Atkins had 14 tackles last night, Clark had 4. (Hell, we can complain about Smith's DE - and he wasn't great - but even he had 11 tackles.)

What worried me last night (seeing it live) was his defensive positioning outside the contest. It felt like he was in no-man's land too often, which meant there was an extra Lions player in a potentially dangerous position.

So in short, he's got a lot to work on. I'm not a huge fan of him working on those things in the seniors but the cupboard's pretty bare for mids right now with TB out and not a whole lot in the VFL.

Stanley kicked a couple against the Bullants yesterday - not sure how we went in the ruck but the oppo wasn't much chop. I wouldn't be against it to give SDK a spell.

Agree I'd bring in Mannagh next week and fingers crossed Stewart gets up (who knows how far away he is - this week's "late out" could just have been mind games). I'd give Knevitt a full run though - he might not be much better than Clark, but he's more flexible position-wise and has more endurance, which is useful.

 

[PzBlinky]

One last point - I don't think the weak midfield is a new problem, it's just that we were able to paper over the cracks better last year.

Bruhn is a reasonable loss if just from a clearance point of view (and doubly so if you compare him to Clark). Stewart's been ripped out of our back-line more times than not to stiffen the mids. And despite the coaches being "Yep, Danger's going to be playing a lot forward this year" he spent an awful lot of time in the middle last night (btw, he was one of the other few who had a good game).

I don't see any quick fix to this other than having a Rowell or Butters fall into our laps. People are saying Mannagh to play more mid time and I'm not opposed to this, but it's just another band-aid fix. We need good, genuine mids!

All right, I'll stop there.

 

[iameviljez]

Are we ignoring one critical factor - that the Lions' ball movement in the third quarter clearly went up several gears, and we could just not go with it?

In the first half, it kept raining and the inability of either side to be clean clearly favoured us in the scrap.

In the second, it dried right up, and it felt as though the better ball handlers in Brisbane's midfield took full advantage.

 

[iameviljez]

I don't see any quick fix to this other than having a Rowell or Butters fall into our laps. People are saying Mannagh to play more mid time and I'm not opposed to this, but it's just another band-aid fix. We need good, genuine mids!

It takes time.

Some of Knevitt, Clark, Clohesy etc will come good - but it takes time.

 

[you pick one]

After 12 pages of autopsy I've come to the conclusion that there is not much that can't be fixed at the Cats by mid season with the big exception of the midfield we are going to have to be creative there at least for this year.
Last night we went down to the reigning premiers on there home deck in taxing conditions after showing them a clean pair of heels in the first half, the consensus he favors the opinion the Cats were on the shitier end of the stick when it came to the umpires more so non calls than bad calls in my opinion and to only fall short by 9 points is a positive on to next week keep the faith.

 

[thegerman]

I disagree with this, in so far as that he is working as well as any other ruck option we have at the moment.

It may not have shown on screen, but Brisbane copped a heap of rain over the previous 48 hours and now feels like a sauna.

He's still doing a fair bit around the ground, and is better than Stanley looked almost all of last year.

I live here. You don’t need to tell me about the rain. He missed several uncontested marks; his field kicks were mostly average with some poor.

At the ground you can see his positioning is off and he’s not going for marks like he was in 22.

I get it that we have to support players and give them opportunities to grow, however, I’m not the only person to say he’s gone backwards for the last 2-3 seasons

 

[Strange Cat]

After 12 pages of autopsy I've come to the conclusion that there is not much that can't be fixed at the Cats by mid season with the big exception of the midfield we are going to have to be creative there at least for this year.
Last night we went down to the reigning premiers on there home deck in taxing conditions after showing them a clean pair of heels in the first half, the consensus he favors the opinion the Cats were on the shitier end of the stick when it came to the umpires more so non calls than bad calls in my opinion and to only fall short by 9 points is a positive on to next week keep the faith.

I still very much believe the club is developing in the right direction despite the drop off for a whole qtr or half if you view the saints game .

The midfield is a big weakness but if Stewart comes back in that’ll give another big body around the contest…it’s not that bleak but there’s work to be done

 

[thegerman]

I'm not as bear-ish on Clark as that - he could still make it, and he needs at least another 30-40 games before a verdict can be made. I'm hoping 2026 will be his breakout year.

That said, his one wood (and only wood) is his attack on the ball and contest. Someone else mentioned he should model his game on Atkins, which is a good idea...Atkins had 14 tackles last night, Clark had 4. (Hell, we can complain about Smith's DE - and he wasn't great - but even he had 11 tackles.)

What worried me last night (seeing it live) was his defensive positioning outside the contest. It felt like he was in no-man's land too often, which meant there was an extra Lions player in a potentially dangerous position.

So in short, he's got a lot to work on. I'm not a huge fan of him working on those things in the seniors but the cupboard's pretty bare for mids right now with TB out and not a whole lot in the VFL.

Stanley kicked a couple against the Bullants yesterday - not sure how we went in the ruck but the oppo wasn't much chop. I wouldn't be against it to give SDK a spell.

Agree I'd bring in Mannagh next week and fingers crossed Stewart gets up (who knows how far away he is - this week's "late out" could just have been mind games). I'd give Knevitt a full run though - he might not be much better than Clark, but he's more flexible position-wise and has more endurance, which is useful.

What Clark needs is bulk. He’s not a fast player, so needs strength in and under. He needs to bulk at least 8-10kg.

 

[mcwilrob]

Very hard loss, but…

Mullin - wow, the improvement over the space of a week. A majority on this board wanted his axed. I don’t know how this club does it but it happens repeatedly for our young players. A bad game followed by a very good one. The development team is outstanding.

Zac G - two one armed marks. Seriously underrated player in the competition.

COS - he’s going to be an absolute star.

SDK - I’m a bit worried about him. Doesn’t seem to enjoy the ruck and physical contact. Perhaps we find a different role for him? Not sure what that is?

Humphrey - another star in the making.

B. Smith - obviously a very good player but really needs to learn/ follow the game plan a little. Some very strange decisions in the second half. That kick across the ground, wtf?

Good to get a game into Clark, Closehy and Knevitt, against the reigning premier - upside is definitely there.

We were a young team without Stewart and missing a lot of experience.

If that was a final (injuries aside), we probably play - Stanley, Stewart, Kolo, Mannah, Duncan (yes, I would have him In - his experience is underrated).



Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Yep - surprised Lawson's name hasn't been mentioned more often amongst the positives from tonight - clean, smart and quick decision-making, etc. He's a good one!!

 

[cats_09]

Wiltshire maybe but I would not be picking George

I know George is unlikely, just using his name as an example as not sure we'll see many changes outside the obvious of Mannagh, Stewart & Kolodjashnij being the key returns over the coming weeks - and most likely at the expense of a Clohesy, Clark, Knevitt or maybe O'Connor

We'll likely see Duncan & Stanley at times, but not sure they're exactly long term answers and not sure their selections would really be seen as shaking things up

 

[PzBlinky]

It takes time.

Some of Knevitt, Clark, Clohesy etc will come good - but it takes time.

I agree - I actually like Clohesy (who also didn't have a great night) - but time is something us fans don't like to burn!

Still, it'd be nice to stay that in that "always in contention" phase we've been able to maintain for 20 odd years, and I'm not ruling us out this season based on 2 games, but I'm hoping the coaches have some ideas to mix up the midfield over the next few weeks.

 

[Gee Class Loco]

What Clark needs is bulk. He’s not a fast player, so needs strength in and under. He needs to bulk at least 8-10kg.

I've heard that he was told this same thing 2 years ago.
In his defence i think he's put on about 4kgs of muscle but the tank isn't anywhere where it should be.
FWIW IMO if Mannagh and Bruhn were available he would be playing in the magoos.

 

[fpm84]

Interesting CBAs last night.

Smith attended just eight, similar to round 1 when he attended nine, but in round 1 we had Knevitt (19 CBA) and Stewart (17 CBA) who were absent last night (aside from 20 mins from Knev).

Wonder if this is fitness related or a belief that he is best utilised starting on the wing or HF?

Even more interesting was Clark attending 11 CBA v St Kilda in 66% game time compared to just one CBA last night in virtually identical game time (65%). I thought Jhye was one of our best in the first half last week when the team was getting smashed so such a big reduction in CBA the following week is odd.

 

[joe444]

Interesting CBAs last night.

Best source for these sort of numbers?

 

[cats_09]

CUT THE CRAP

IF YOU DISAGREE WITH A POST OR HAVE QUESTIONS OVER ITS CONTENT - REPORT IT AND ALLOW THE MOD TEAM TO TAKE ACTION

DO NOT REPLY AND ENGAGE AS THAT JUST CREATES A MESS 10Xs BIGGER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE - if you can't help but engage, use the ignore function to take away the temptation

As an example, instead of dealing with 1 post from overnight there's now over a dozen posts and chains to follow to clean up the mess, and with that is locking the thread which negatively impacted those trying to comment on last night's game, and they don't deserve to deal with that


No one's got their heads in the sand about what's happening off field, but this board isn't the place to discuss it and it's getting pretty tiring having to post the following warning every second thread because folks can't act like adults -
--

Direct quote from the boss and this is the approach we'll continue to take on this board until further notice:

"People just have to be careful they don't get themselves in trouble posting stuff publicly. Honestly I would keep it off the public boards."

Think before you post.

You are the publisher of your words. You could be held personally liable for what you post here or on any other platform. Details here >>

And if people want to discuss it, the following thread would be more appropriate (for now)

Rumour - Rumors of cat player in big trouble

Surprised there is no thread (and its not the one that names a player). Been told he may never play again once the story breaks. Lots of strange stuff going on at the moment.

www.bigfooty.com

 

[cats_09]

Was there - it wasn't booing.

I thought they were screaming "Bruuuce" or similar for Bruce Reville, as it was definitely loud on TV the few times he was in possession after coming on

Sounded like the same weird scream as Hawthorn fans when Breust

 

[fpm84]

Best source for these sort of numbers?

AFL app, click on player stats then advanced and you can filter from there. Here are all our players with CBA last night - surprised to see Clark and Clohesy with just one each given conditions in the first half suited them.

 

[cats_09]

Doesn't anyone remember 07.

We were shit in the first 5 or 6 games, troubled player/s. Maybe we are just finding our way with the kids but Scott could look at doing something similar to what the club did back then to get us on track.

I think Cameron, Henry and Stengle need a rocket at least.

Over the past fortnight, those 3 are frustrating me a hell of a lot more than Neale, yet I've seen more calls to drop Neale and that he's not going to make it etc

No doubt Neale hasn't been at his best the past fortnight, dropped a couple of marks he should have taken against St Kilda and I wouldn't be surprised if that early ankle roll played on his mind for most of last night

But where things haven't quite clicked from an attacking perspective past fortnight, you can see he's still trying to bring the pressure and find other ways to get involved:

• against St Kilda he had 5 tackles, only 3 teammates had more: Atkins (11), Stengle & Knevitt (7)
• against Brisbane he had 4 tackles, with only 4 teammates having more: Atkins (14), Smith (11), Miers (7) & Dangerfield (5)

At the same time, Cameron & Henry had a single tackle each against St Kilda but neither recorded a tackle last night

I'd rather put the blowtorch on those with more experience under their belts and where we should rightly have higher expectations of their return, than the developing players being the regular scapegoats when they don't have perfect games

 

[thegerman]

I've heard that he was told this same thing 2 years ago.
In his defence i think he's put on about 4kgs of muscle but the tank isn't anywhere where it should be.
FWIW IMO if Mannagh and Bruhn were available he would be playing in the magoos.

Bruhn won’t play for us again I’d say. So he needs to get to that level quickly

 

[thegerman]

Over the past fortnight, those 3 are frustrating me a hell of a lot more than Neale, yet I've seen more calls to drop Neale and that he's not going to make it etc

No doubt Neale hasn't been at his best the past fortnight, dropped a couple of marks he should have taken against St Kilda and I wouldn't be surprised if that early ankle roll played on his mind for most of last night

But where things haven't quite clicked from an attacking perspective past fortnight, you can see he's still trying to bring the pressure and find other ways to get involved:

• against St Kilda he had 5 tackles, only 3 teammates had more: Atkins (11), Stengle & Knevitt (7)
• against Brisbane he had 4 tackles, with only 4 teammates having more: Atkins (14), Smith (11), Miers (7) & Dangerfield (5)

At the same time, Cameron & Henry had a single tackle each against St Kilda but neither recorded a tackle last night

I'd rather put the blowtorch on those with more experience under their belts and where we should rightly have higher expectations of their return, than the developing players being the regular scapegoats when they don't have perfect games

What annoyed my most watching it live was Cameron’s man would often leave and then block Neale from jumping at it. Happened more times than I could count it.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I think everyone understands he is a confidence player, the problem is he has played with none for two (and its looking like three) seasons.

No intensity and limited impact.

For how he looked in 2022 he is nowhere near it, he's had enough time to turn it around and he just hasn't.

Not sure how much longer we are supposed to dance around the issue. It's a big problem, not kicking on and gone backwards.

We have no other options in the ruck so we are going to keep persisting-I don't think there's another choice. It's a list management issue.

 

[Munich]

Over the past fortnight, those 3 are frustrating me a hell of a lot more than Neale, yet I've seen more calls to drop Neale and that he's not going to make it etc

No doubt Neale hasn't been at his best the past fortnight, dropped a couple of marks he should have taken against St Kilda and I wouldn't be surprised if that early ankle roll played on his mind for most of last night

But where things haven't quite clicked from an attacking perspective past fortnight, you can see he's still trying to bring the pressure and find other ways to get involved:

• against St Kilda he had 5 tackles, only 3 teammates had more: Atkins (11), Stengle & Knevitt (7)
• against Brisbane he had 4 tackles, with only 4 teammates having more: Atkins (14), Smith (11), Miers (7) & Dangerfield (5)

At the same time, Cameron & Henry had a single tackle each against St Kilda but neither recorded a tackle last night

I'd rather put the blowtorch on those with more experience under their belts and where we should rightly have higher expectations of their return, than the developing players being the regular scapegoats when they don't have perfect games

Yes absolutely.

I know another poster said Cameron has been like this his entire career but he can absolutely put more effort in and I think that will help the younger ones around him.