Autopsy Cats lose to Port by 6 points after being down by 10 goals

[CatToTheFuture]

Bews the obvious one followed by rhys.

Don't see us retiring Rhys though

 

[Heckler]

Cats! ...we STILL have a problem.
It feels like deja vu...
I've seen this crap before.
Last week I said :-
Stanley is a liability
Hawkins needs help
Cats have a mental problem
Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

48

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

is in denial.
Now everyone sees it.

It was sad to watch Friday night.
Cats defenders need functioning Mids.
Midfield pressure enables intercepting.
Unopposed D50 entries impossible to defend.

Stanley is sadly out of form
Worried about both his man and ball
Caught in between doing neither.
Needs a spell in VFL to sort it out

Hawkins has slowed to a walk
Cant jump. Won't chase
Relying solely on his strength
Struggling to kick goals
A terminal slum, called age.

Parfitt, is merely a fringe players.
He gives his all every game.
What he gives is not good enough.
Poor mark' Short, high, floating kick.
Not strong enough or fast enough.
Enough! Enough! Enough! already.

Atkins, gets ball, gets caught.
Takes too long to dispose of ball.
He is not going to get faster.
Must learn to kick of three steps.
Learn to handball instinctively.
Develop a jink to buy time.

The big questions have arrived.
Do Cats keep faith in failures?
Do Cats try something new?
Do Cats chase a final flag?
Do Cats switch to rebuild?
Does Scott have the balls?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Stewie in the midfield would be insane, as long as we can find the ideal guy to replace him backline!!!..What a thought!

Zuth to play the role and Humphries to debut in that case

 

[rapidfire7]

We should have gone after another mature ruckman like Grundy, Soldo, Goldstein, or a bunch of others (who were floating around in the off season) for a season or 2 at least, until guys like Conway and Edwards can step up as regulars.

Most would have been dirt cheap too, and anyone would be a improvement on the rubbish Stanley is dishing up.

As good as our list management team has been for so long, they are seemingly inept when it comes to addressing the needs of our ruck department.

Feels like it could be the year where a decent ruckman could be the difference between us winning a flag or not. Cannot believe we persisted with Stanley this year to lead our ruck division. Coming back to bite already.

 

[SpryCorpse]

We just need an experienced consistent midfielder who can get the ball and make sensible decisions. Sure I would take a Gary Ablett jnr but a Joel Corey would also do the trick.


How is Atkins off his best? This is what he is, a super plucky defensive midfielder who is too good for VFL but not good enough for AFL. Obviously you can point to quarters he played in games years ago and say "if he played like that he would be a champion", but at this point we have to realize it's just not going to happen. Same with Parfitt.

Atkins not good enough for the AFL? Since when?
What rubbish.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Mullin did some nice things in the midfield after he was subbed on but I am wondering whether we need to put Holmes back in the middle and try Mullin at half back with the instructions to just take off every time he gets the ball.

Mullin looks more a natural contested mid to me. I want Holmes to take more mid rotations but I'd want to try Mullin there

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Why not both in there?
Mullin as a tagger as it’s a great way to expose him to the midfield while building his game, and Holmes as a line-breaking mid who can rotate to the half back line.

We'd have a lot more speed there that's for sure

 

[feelinfeline]

Might be an interesting interesting few weeks coming up.

Hawkins rested - can Neale perform?

Duncan surely rested for Suns. I think he’s cooked anyway. Becoming a liability - it’s a young man’s game (his role) and he’s getting burnt for leg speed.

Cameron - very good chance he’s got concussion. Club will be fined - he refused to come off when the doctor grabbed him to go to the bench for assessment. Vision is damning

Holmes looked very sore at the end of the game

How will the playing group perform after attending Stanley’s memorial service during the week and scattering his ashes?

Bruhn was passed fit to play but they managed him - Bowes managed - and we were coming up against a very good midfield. Match committee can take some heat for last night - it was either arrogant or misguided. Either way, it was absurd considering both are younger players and we were already missing Dangerfield, and Guthrie is starting a long way back.


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Great summary.

 

[Catsace]

All the off season angst about extending Hawkins' contract- pretty sure they were hoping he would retire, as many of us did, but Demons started sniffing around, forcing us to give him this contract. I doubt that Hawkins will pull the pin now during this season, even if he is cooked, which is how it appears. He is facing the biggest hurdle of his career, one which does not have a solution- AGE. Happens to all and the best. Equalling Selwood's tally would be a nice gesture- retire now- but that will not happen. We can only hope that we are expert at managing him , and that he can get out of this rut often enough to be of value.

Wonder if there's any Mark Taylor nod to Bradman in retiring with the same game tally as his fellow draftee and great team mate over the years? Probably wouldn't expect he will, I'm sure he wants to prove he has a bit more left to give.

 

[CHAWKTS]

All the off season angst about extending Hawkins' contract- pretty sure they were hoping he would retire, as many of us did, but Demons started sniffing around, forcing us to give him this contract. I doubt that Hawkins will pull the pin now during this season, even if he is cooked, which is how it appears. He is facing the biggest hurdle of his career, one which does not have a solution- AGE. Happens to all and the best. Equalling Selwood's tally would be a nice gesture- retire now- but that will not happen. We can only hope that we are expert at managing him , and that he can get out of this rut often enough to be of value.

And I think the other point for the club is that we need to see whether Neale is the replacement. if he isn’t we need to focus our trade efforts. Can’t tell without giving him a string of games in the AFL - this year.

But to do that we can’t drop O Henry nor it seems Rohan I dont think. So the only spot we have for Neale is Hawkins.

But I don’t see them dropping Hawkins permanently nor for an extended period. I don’t know how they manage this

 

[feelinfeline]

We should have gone after another mature ruckman like Grundy, Soldo, Goldstein, or a bunch of others (who were floating around in the off season) for a season or 2 at least, until guys like Conway and Edwards can step up as regulars.

As good as our list management team has been for so long, they are seemingly inept when it comes to addressing the needs of our ruck department.

Feels like it could be the year where a decent ruckman could be the difference between us winning a flag or not. Cannot believe we persisted with Stanley this year to lead our ruck division. Coming back to bite already.

We currently have four ruckmen on our list, including Furphy, who hasn't played yet. So if they were all fit and we'd recruited another ruck, we'd have four rucks running around in the VFL each week. That's not counting Neale, who can also play ruck. I know Edwards can play forwards, but that would be a very top-heavy team!

It was never going to happen. They bit the bullet and chose another young ruckman, Edwards, as a long-term strategy after years of recruiting more mature ruckmen, which hasn't worked once.

 

[Taper]

That game felt like a movie I've seen before from the 2012-2021 era.

• Not turning up from the first bounce.
• Opposition jump us and get out to a huge lead.
• Chris Scott makes coaching adjustments.
• We come storming back only to fall short.

No idea why we persist with Stanley, I understand we won a premiership with him in the ruck but he needs to be dropped to the VFL and retire at the end of the year.
Also not sure why we rested Bowes? Not like he's in an age bracket where he needs to be rested/managed and we really could have used him in the middle last night, especially with the absences of Dangerfield and Bruhn leaving us vulnerable in the midfield as it was.

Suns in Darwin and Giants at Kardinia Park are no easy beats, lose one or both of those and we're suddenly back in the pack chasing top 4 after being 7-0 and a game clear on top.

 

[you pick one]

I’m honestly down for this.

Zach Guthrie can play Stewy’s role down back and we need someone who can win footy in there.
Outside Bruhn, Bowes and Danger when he comes back

I'd roll the dice on a Debutant this week at the expense of Cam Guthrie 50+%game time this week with no influence on the game you can't keep carrying that with an already mid field scrambling to keep up.

 

[witsend]

If you could design a mid-field to expose our current deficiencies, you’d probably get GCS!
Miller, Rowell, Anderson, Swallow etc. and Witts in the ruck.
We’re gonna have to play a game based on accepting us getting towelled up inside and starting our scoring chains from D50 most of the time.
You’d think Bruhn and Bowes straight back in.
Conway for Stanley IF he’s fit.
VFL bye do no way for Mitch Hardie to restate his case this week.
It just feels like we simply don’t have an A+ midfielder with Danger out like a lot of other teams do. Equalisation has sorted that out.
Is the long game a Bailey Smith

6

Bailey Smith

Age

23

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

8.5

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

19.8

5star

K

9.6

4star

HB

10.2

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

3.2

4star

D

14.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.4

5star

CL

1.6

4star

led group?
With Clark, Holmes, Bowes and Bruhn? Conway in the ruck once/if he gets resilience and a tank.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pure_Ownage]

We currently have four ruckmen on our list, including Furphy, who hasn't played yet. So if they were all fit and we'd recruited another ruck, we'd have four rucks running around in the VFL each week. That's not counting Neale, who can also play ruck. I know Edwards can play forwards, but that would be a very top-heavy team!

It was never going to happen. They bit the bullet and chose another young ruckman, Edwards, as a long-term strategy after years of recruiting more mature ruckmen, which hasn't worked once.

The mature ruck strategy never works because they only ever do it with late late picks.
If you want a really good ruck you need to invest capital in it.
As far as this year we knee stanley was almost cooked, we knew conway couldnt play every week, we knew blitz was 33.
Furphy hadnt played footy in years, edwards was a beanpole.
Neale is supposed to be filling FF.

None of that screams adequate coverage. They needed to get rid of one of the above and get in someone ready to play now.
And they should have done it last offseason.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

We went out last night, so I didn't catch the game. But what the hell happened?

 

[you pick one]

Bews still may return to the seniors this year. We need a small back with his skill set. Still 14 weeks left.
Duncan misses goals he usually would have got with eyes shut; maybe he also can turn it around, but when al these oldies are stagnant at the same time- Stanley, Hawkins, Duncan- it's adding up.

We might even see Bews this week.

 

[CHAWKTS]

I agree managing bowes when bruhn was out was stupid. Both of them will come back as might tuohy.

Duncan hawkins and stanley will all go out.
Ill be interested to see if we pick neale-if its hot in darwin id be tempted to just pick cameron rohan and ollie plus a fleet of smalls-mannagh is bashing on the door.

We have to try hardie this week surely. Parfitt is not the answer and cuthrie doesnt look right.

Plus our ruck issue.

I would think Dempsey gets his week off too - I am suprised they haven’t done it yet as he is getting into rare territory in terms of number of games in a row ever..including junior…

But it may depend on how many are out before him and how much change do they really want to do game to game without it looking like a panic? Above you mention 3 ins (Bowes, tanner and 2e) plus they will bring in Neale (despite the hot mess) - otherwise it shatters his confidence? - and probably Toby for Stanley. So that is 5 potential ins from the “core squad”. (Outs hawk, Stanley, Duncan, dempsey and maybe another sore player).

I would like a mannagh or Hardie also in but that would mean 6 changes - most of them managed - very rare for what is now a must win game

 

[CHAWKTS]

We went out last night, so I didn't catch the game. But what the hell happened?

Just watch the second half - and then your question will be unanswered!

 

[Cataholic]

We went out last night, so I didn't catch the game. But what the hell happened?

The boys got the start time wrong, and didn't turn up until the 3rd quarter.

 

[The_Koulouriotis_Fan]

We just need an experienced consistent midfielder who can get the ball and make sensible decisions. Sure I would take a Gary Ablett jnr but a Joel Corey would also do the trick.


How is Atkins off his best? This is what he is, a super plucky defensive midfielder who is too good for VFL but not good enough for AFL. Obviously you can point to quarters he played in games years ago and say "if he played like that he would be a champion", but at this point we have to realize it's just not going to happen. Same with Parfitt.

That is a flat out wrong call on Atkins and Parfitt. Atkins is an exceptional hard nosed no nonsense midfielder, he was loved and lauded and a key player in our premiership year.

It’s about team balance and a player can live and die by the players around them. Look how much better Wines looked last night without Rozee.

People tend to write off players for not doing what they think they should be doing, rather than accepting what they are. Which is how people seem to analyze (unfairly) Rhys Stanley, who also was a key in our premiership year, just think his eyes have stuffed him and it is affecting his playing.

Short memories on this forum.

 

[D BRIDGE]

It’s obvious Clark will be a star but he’s not up to AFL standard just yet. Hardie, Knevitt, even Clohesy would contribute much more.

I hope so. The fact that CS is pumping games into him right now shows that the club really rates him.

I'm far from convinced that he will be anything more than a solid footballer.

I couldn't be sure he will be a star or A grade on what I'm seeing him do right now.

The hope would be that in a couple of years, when his body is big enough, it'll all click.

 

[you pick one]

Guthrie was fine last night. One of our better mids with 16 disposals, 5 tackles and 7 clearances in just over 50% TOG.

He had a little bit of a dig in the last quarter the only other time I noticed him all game was giving lip to Rioli.

 

[CHAWKTS]

Guthrie was fine last night. One of our better mids with 16 disposals, 5 tackles and 7 clearances in just over 50% TOG.

Agree. But that is the sign he is still building back to his best. We need him to be playing 70% and getting 25+ with 10 clearances. But I do have hope - watched him specifically in the replay - that he will drive our improvement in back half of the year with continued development of Tanner and Bowes and hopefully Danger back fit…

 

[The_Koulouriotis_Fan]

I hope so. The fact that CS is pumping games into him right now shows that the club really rates him.

I'm far from convinced that he will be anything more than a solid footballer.

I couldn't be sure he will be a star or A grade on what I'm seeing him do right now.

The hope would be that in a couple of years, when his body is big enough, it'll all click.

Barring injury, Kid will be a star, bookmark it.

In a couple of years - Conway, Dempsey, Holmes, Bruhn, Clark, Mullin are going to be deadly