Autopsy Cats lose to Pies by 22 points

[Cursed Cat]

Thought Oconnor looked better than he has in a while. Beaten by the better team on the day, hopefully the injuries ain't long termers.

Since the GF!

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Found it hard to get a read on Stanley's game tbh - overall I think he was ... ok? Had a dip, not a lot ran his way, made his own (bad) luck at times. Tried.

As to dropping non performers, all depends on whats waiting in the wings, innit - Henry, Duncan, Kolodjashnij, Stewart, maybe De Koning too - that's already stretching things.
Bowes sounds as though he is a possibility, not sure where young Clark is at though.

I'm not opposed to having a look at Dempsey again; although the really interesting one would be Knevitt - the club is obviously best placed to gauge how ready he is for more senior action but he could be a real boon if he could make a leap this year; big kid who can run. Might not be tough enough though. Might also do a Sam De Koning and make a quantum leap in 2024 if we are patient though.

Leadership will absolutely be scrutinized if we lose next week don't you worry about that - I've been a hard marker on Dangerfield over the years but of course all was forgiven and forgotten after his masterful Finals series last year. And yes of course he has given his heart and soul to the club.

But he is a funny player in that his sheer scope of influence on a game can determine Geelong's fortunes for good or bad. I.e. if he gets enough rushed/haphazard/sloppy possessions and disposals in tight, his influence can actually become detrimental to the team.
Post-2011 Steve Johnson is the only other Geelong player in my pretty-long-time supporting the Cats who fits that description.
Yes he kicked an awesome goal early in the match, and of course he tried his guts out. But he's never quite learned to play the percentages when its appropriate. All of that will be irrelevant though if he able to inspire, encourage and impose himself upon the 2023 Cats.

The captaincy will be a really hard one to judge, and I personally don't think you can do it off results.

If we are to have a 'down' year - Which for us is 5th-8th - I don't think you can immediately pin that on leadership. In Joel's first year, we weren't bad by anymeans, but didn't have the year one might have hoped for as a reigning premier. What was the case now was still the case then, Joel is one of - if not the - greatest leader this game has ever seen....but was anyone saying he's not as good as Lingy or Harley after the 2012 season? Memory say's no, but I could be wrong.

My point is as we have seen in the past, captaincy doesn't always determine results. If we have a down year, it doesn't mean Danger is a dud leader. By the same token, if we somehow have an even better year than last year, it doesn't make him a better leader than Joel. It'll all come down to management, motivation, coaching, unity etc.

Unfortunately, we probably won't know for a while, and I'm talking rumours out of the club and/or player autobiography while. We very rarely hear about uproar as it's happening, particularly out of a good club like ours.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Problem with Sav is his mares directly result in goals, wasn't alone tonight but had 3 or 4 absolute howlers and that ended up the difference on the night.

Yep; his mistakes directly led to goals. Not good, but also only his 2nd game as a KD at AFL level.

He was close to taking an awesome mark when Cox took the honors early in the match; yes he should have punched. But it would've been an awesome mark.

The 2nd one where McStay out-bodied/out-positioned him was instructional - I don't think I can recall De Koning falling for those kind of shennanigans once last year. The commentators got it right at the time; Esava would have been better off not engaging with his opponent so that he could get a run and jump at the incoming ball. The tripping free; well we were in a tight spot at any rate - yes, he conceded the free, but also, the writing was on the wall.
He did some good things, not just aerially too.
Something to work with and it looks as though he will probably get more opportunities in the near future at least.

 

[Cursed Cat]

The captaincy will be a really hard one to judge, and I personally don't think you can do it off results.

If we are to have a 'down' year - Which for us is 5th-8th - I don't think you can immediately pin that on leadership. In Joel's first year, we weren't bad by anymeans, but didn't have the year one might have hoped for as a reigning premier. What was the case now was still the case then, Joel is one of - if not the - greatest leader this game has ever seen....but was anyone saying he's not as good as Lingy or Harley after the 2012 season? Memory say's no, but I could be wrong.

My point is as we have seen in the past, captaincy doesn't always determine results. If we have a down year, it doesn't mean Danger is a dud leader. By the same token, if we somehow have an even better year than last year, it doesn't make him a better leader than Joel. It'll all come down to management, motivation, coaching, unity etc.

Unfortunately, we probably won't know for a while, and I'm talking rumours out of the club and/or player autobiography while. We very rarely hear about uproar as it's happening, particularly out of a good club like ours.

Yeah that is a really good post.
It is always hard to really get a read on what is happening behind the scenes.
What isn't in doubt is that Dangerfield's voice will be a rallying point this week - will he strike the right tone? I dunno.

Dangerfield is a tricky one; his game is fairly mercurial; he is still a match-winner no doubt, but he can spray it about, and worst of all imo get to contests that he really has no hope of impacting positively. He could corral, pressure, but he tries to gain possession where, yes, he is quick and powerful enough to get there, but it just doesn't work out.
At his best when he is grabbing around-the-ground contested marks, but those days have become less frequent since he was in his pomp. Liked his goal tonight a lot, and he wasn't bad overall - his first half was actually perfect imo; but as the game wore on and he got more desperate, he got more ragged.

 

[thecatattack]

I have 0 concerns about this game other than the potential injuries.

A long-term Stewart injury could kill our season, especially if Jack Henry

38

Jack Henry

Age

27

Ht

192cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.3

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

MG

142.6

2star

D

8.6

2star

K

6.7

3star

HB

1.9

1star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.1

3star

MG

142.6

3star

D

9.6

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

2.6

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

4star

is out for months. SDK didn't look good after he came back on from injury also.

 

[CatRiot]

Yep; his mistakes directly led to goals. Not good, but also only his 2nd game as a KD at AFL level.

He was close to taking an awesome mark when Cox took the honors early in the match; yes he should have punched. But it would've been an awesome mark.

The 2nd one where McStay out-bodied/out-positioned him was instructional - I don't think I can recall De Koning falling for those kind of shennanigans once last year. The commentators got it right at the time; Esava would have been better off not engaging with his opponent so that he could get a run and jump at the incoming ball. The tripping free; well we were in a tight spot at any rate - yes, he conceded the free, but also, the writing was on the wall.
He did some good things, not just aerially too.
Something to work with and it looks as though he will probably get more opportunities in the near future at least.

I also worry with Esava sometimes because he sort of lacks spatial awareness, and when he flies for the marks, he really crashes the packs... I'm worried he will take out our own players in the process, eg collateral damage type stuff

 

[Tristan34]

Sav will get better as the season progresses.. He is playing a new role. He had a presence and did some good things.. He just did some rookie mistakes, like not punch the ball to the boundary and going for marks when he should be spoiling.. He will get better.

 

[Cursed Cat]

I also worry with Esava sometimes because he sort of lacks spatial awareness, and when he flies for the marks, he really crashes the packs... I'm worried he will take out our own players in the process, eg collateral damage type stuff

yikes you're right

 

[PorcelainBus]

Winners are grinners, losers can do as they please. We will be even better with some of our guys back too, Lipinski, Ginnivan, Johnson, so bring i on later in the season.

w***er??

 

[The 747]

Thought Sav showed some real promise. Had a couple of bad moments, but showed a lot as well. He'll never be Matthew Scarlett, but we could do far worse.

Some posters have elevated expectations about how someone wil go in a key defensive post in a big game first up. Against a side who don't tend to bomb it much.

Short memories, Harry Taylor was heart in mouth stuff early in his career and so was Tom Stewart. Not saying Sav will be that level but give him some time.

 

[catters05]

IMO Probably be some good learnings for Danger as well.

Pies were unreal, and everyone will write us off which might be good anyway.

Scott and co got quite the work to do with our defence.

 

[catsfootyfan89]

Winners are grinners, losers can do as they please. We will be even better with some of our guys back too, Lipinski, Ginnivan, Johnson, so bring i on later in the season.

Disingenuous post. The three you listed just don't stack up against Stewart, Henry, Kolodjashnij, De Koning, Stengle, Hawkins and Duncan. All out or playing on one leg.

All teams have to deal with injuries, but to wave away our outs because 'Lipinski, Ginnivan and Johnson' were out is pretty dumb. Kinda like a slave-master arguing he has it tough because he stubbed his toe in the fields.

 

[The 747]

Winners are grinners, losers can do as they please. We will be even better with some of our guys back too, Lipinski, Ginnivan, Johnson, so bring i on later in the season.

You on the right board mate?

 

[calder_daddy]

Anyone else think that was one of O’Connors best games?
Thought he was extremely good

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

No excuses, Pies were better.

Sav isn't the answer anywhere in this side.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Tanner Bruhn super impressive as an inside mid.
Tanner Bruhn as a wing non existent, similar to his role as a forward for GWS. Has little or no tank or spread.

 

[BigCat1]

Lots of positives and a few negatives. One thing the loss hopefully does is not give us a false sense that you can coast on talent or structure. The hangover probably isn’t on hunger for the contest but in the hunger or ability to run. We looked just fine in our attack on the ball

I’m 2020 Melbourne were so far and away the fittest team in the comp. They just powered away from every other team in last quarters. Last year they started well but that wasn’t there from very early in the year and ultimately they got overtaken by us. They won a lot of games on talent early.

Last night the most stark thing at the ground by some distance was Collingwoods shear running power. They looked like they had more men on the field as some have said as they simply out ran us. It was extremely noticeable at the end of quarters and in the lst quarter which is logically. You can’t go back in time and do a better preseason so hopefully the early loss allows us enough time in season to fix it. We won’t be the premiers unless that can be fixed regardless of talent.

As i said there were a lot of positives outside of that in the way we actually played. Usually in losses we have a lot of really good players and then 7-8 extremely poor players. Last night we had very few poor players but very few real winners either.

 

[The 747]

Tanner Bruhn super impressive as an inside mid.
Tanner Bruhn as a wing non existent, similar to his role as a forward for GWS. Has little or no tank or spread.

He's a weird player. He's there and in everything and then suddenly he's nowhere.

 

[year of the cat]

With Henry out long term and Stewart potentially out for a few weeks our defence is in a bit of trouble. Henry’s absence cannot be underestimated.

 

[MacStradbroke]

He's a weird player. He's there and in everything and then suddenly he's nowhere.

His time on ground sounds like a poor tank to me. Down to three on the bench and he still had low tog.

 

[MacStradbroke]

With Henry out long term and Stewart potentially out for a few weeks our defence is in a bit of trouble. Henry’s absence cannot be underestimated.

Curnow McKay next week too, not ideal.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

I know it’s round 1 but that was a pretty disappointing start.
If not for our accuracy they win by 10 goals.

Need to be better next week.

 

[Strange Cat]

I know it’s round 1 but that was a pretty disappointing start.
If not for our accuracy they win by 10 goals.

Need to be better next week.

Fitness and injuries were the main culprit for that loss , at least we know our supporters don’t act like imbeciles let alone the players with their behaviour last night

Disgraceful

 

[foxdog50]

I'm so ******* sick and tired of playing these games at the MCG. It was their home game tonight, the inequality makes me want to give up on AFL like I've done with the A league since the Victory fans ruined it for me. Not using it as an excuse, just blows me away how ******* bush league the AFL is having teams from a different city having to host home games at the opposition stadium.

Having worked at a smaller Premier League club for some time while growing up a United fan, there's nothing better than having the small but vocal away support of a bigger club when playing at a smaller away stadium. The home fans get their chance to be the big boys for a night and the lucky few away fans that get a ticket make it absolutely electric.

Tonight was just toxic bogans swearing and making the 'noise of affirmation' for the pies.

Rant over.

Which Premier League club you work for? #YNWA

 

[DangerHere]

It all went pair shaped from the last 6 mins of the 3rd through to the end.

Midfield smashed.