Autopsy Cats lose to Suns by 64 points.

[Mr Meow]

With no Danger, we lack a midfield general. Someone who can put their stamp on a game. And he’s a 33yr old, injury prone player who clearly showing signs of slowing down.
The better teams have 2, even 3.

Holmes will become one. I still have hopes for Bruhn, but he had a stinker tonight.

Smith or LDU are the best options out there in the short term.

Conway-Bruhn-Holmes
Dempsey-Smith-Bowes

As our main midfield/wing line up 2025/2026 onwards, with Clark and Knevitt as the main rotations, is probably the best we can hope for. We just need all of those players to keep improving or to find their best form.

 

[Heckler]

Lot to learn from this Darwin game.
The heat exposed all Cats flaws.
Despite Conway's decent game
Rest of the mid's struggled to clear
Suns were able to waltz the ball out.
Cats undersized defenders were besieged.
Scott sent reinforcement by flooding back
Cats applied pressure at the contest.
Suns got the ball to loose player out wide.
Given time and space they perforated D50
Cats gained possession in congestion
Rushed kicks to a contest was only option.
Poor Mids's + Lost of structure = No Contest.

Lets not put this game behind and move on
Hopefully we learnt lots from this debacle
Most glaring was the obvious player divide
Those at AFL standard and those at VFL level.
Those that gave all and those that gave up.
Compare Dempsey with Parfitt in Q3
Dempsey gathers ball on wing 60M out
Sidesteps, runs to 50m and pass to O'Henry? GA
Parfitt balks man 60m out and has time to spare.
Takes one step and lobs high ball... Suns rebound.
One you love with ball in hand, other, hold breath.
I stopped defending Parfitt last year.... fringe.
It's what you do with disposals that matter.
Holmes Q4 gathers ball, runs, kicks directly to Sun's
Regains the inbound D50 ball and repeats above
Suns player marks, runs, passes for mark and GA.
Double clanger. reminiscent of Kolo stuff-up's
His clangers undid a lot of his great work tonight,

Neal showed enough to play next week... probably won't.
KPF target should expect some kicks to advantage
Hawkins would have struggled with the crap delivery.
Kicked 2Goals, Double Hawkins goals in past 4 weeks.
Deserved another mark... punched from his hands.
Played better than Stanley in his ruck stints.
Gather ball from ground and had 7 effective handballs
One for goal Assist and a couple for centre clearance.
Neal is the future Cats will need him come September.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Neale is an athlete first and a footballer second.

....And for all he's done wrong, he's kicked 5 goals in two games. That's more than the big Hawk has managed in his last 5 combined.

Seriously, let's have some patience, hey?

I seriously can't imagine Hawkins or Cameron faring much better tonight, or any other young key forward in the league.

He had some poor moments, had some good moments too, and put a fair few of his older mates to shame.

It's like some in here want him to fail. Young key forwards take time, even more so when they're playing behind a midfield who's getting smashed.

 

[Strange Cat]

....And for all he's done wrong, he's kicked 5 goals in two games. That's more than the big Hawk has managed in his last 5 combined.

Seriously, let's have some patience, hey?

I seriously can't imagine Hawkins or Cameron faring much better tonight, or any other young key forward in the league.

He had some poor moments, had some good moments too, and put a fair few of his older mates to shame.

It's like some in here want him to fail. Young key forwards take time, even more so when they're playing behind a midfield who's getting smashed.

Kids are inconsistent…who knew

 

[rocker_oz33]

We have the worst midfield in the comp at some stage it was going to come unstuck.
I don't know what Mullin was not used to tag again this week..
Can't let 3 OPP mids get 100 touches agaisted you.

Chilli Conway had a crack all night liked his game .

 

[CatRiot]

Embrace it y'all

 

[geelong_crazy26]

I cant look past out midfield of letting 3 playerw eack up 42,37,35 possessions who played around the ball...

When i look at our midfield, we have starting in it;

2x senior players who have spent large chunks of time at VFL level the past 3 season in parfitt and bowes.

2x 21yo in holmes and bruhn.

Atkins who is just a solid C grader.

Blicavs and Guthrie are in decline.

Dangerfield is an A grader but cant stay on the park at all or play 4qtrs.

It is a shocking midfield group and on par with north melbournes. At least they have ldu who is a gun

 

[rocker_oz33]

Mullin I like to see used as a tagger .
Would fast track him on running pattens ..etc .

 

[David the Cat]

a Geelong Board "luminary" said exactly that about Blicavs.

It didn't go well for him.

That said Neale was frankly woeful today despite his 2 goals. The missed mark any decent AFL player should stick was the beginning of the end.

 

[David the Cat]

Me when Dave the Kitty tells me off in the MVP thread for commentary.

I need to have some fun doing that task!!

Where's that 5 point infraction button..never here when i need it.

 

[Footy Smarts]

I cant look past out midfield of letting 3 playerw eack up 42,37,35 possessions who played around the ball...

When i look at our midfield, we have starting in it;

2x senior players who have spent large chunks of time at VFL level the past 3 season in parfitt and bowes.

2x 21yo in holmes and bruhn.

Atkins who is just a solid C grader.

Blicavs and Guthrie are in decline.

Dangerfield is an A grader but cant stay on the park at all or play 4qtrs.

It is a shocking midfield group and on par with north melbournes. At least they have ldu who is a gun

It's poor. But it's obvious why. Look at the teams we've played in the last 4 weeks.

What do Cerra, Walsh, Cripps, Petracca, Viney, Oliver, Rozee, Wines, Butters, JHF, Anderson, Rowell and Flanders have in common?

They were all taken before Geelong had a pick at those drafts. This is equalization in action and the fact we're not deep in the bottom 4 and actually have some very talented midfielders coming through is a miracle.

 

[juzcat]

I was also looking at going to this game and was trying to work out how to maximize my time if I did go, such as flying on to another destination afterwards like Singapore ($300 from Darwin seemed a good price), but opted against it

After tonight I'm quite happy to have watched from home

was gonna a fly doen from Singapore but thankfully could not shift a meeting.

Cmon Cats

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

 

[Finknottle]

Rowell is the type of player you need to slam into the ground when you tackle him. However you risk giving away a free kick for a rough tackle. I say rough because that's how umpires are enforcing it now. Swinging him around won't stop him getting the ball away and trying to get him in a bear hug is hard due to his low center of gravity and big head. He gets a lot of free kicks and he gets away with all sorts of flickpasses and dodgy handballs. He's going to burn out at some stage but the dangerous tackle rule has given him a new lease on life. He plays like a mini Clayton Oliver

13

Clayton Oliver

Age

26

Ht

189cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.8

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

18.4

5star

M

3.2

3star

T

6.3

5star

CL

6.3

5star

D

25.1

5star

K

11.1

4star

HB

14.0

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

5.6

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

19.2

5star

K

4.6

2star

HB

14.6

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

4.4

5star

CL

3.8

5star

but Oliver isn't protected by the umpires.

While I'm talking about free kicks, the umpires saw every free kick possible for Gold Coast, even ones that weren't there, but ignored several illegal disposals including some flat out throws as well as ignoring GC infringements against Geelong players in marking contests. Most of this occurred in the first half when Gold Coast was on a role. It was 9 frees kicks to 1 in the first quarter and 17 to 3 around half time or into the 3rd quarter. I've never seen such an imbalance. The chances of an imbalance such as that would place it way out on the bell curve. I hope Geelong asks for an umpire review of the game because the umpiring definitely affected the game. Gold Coast didn't need any help but they got plenty.

 

[Mr Meow]

Rowell is the type of player you need to slam into the ground when you tackle him. However you risk giving away a free kick for a rough tackle. I say rough because that's how umpires are enforcing it now. Swinging him around won't stop him getting the ball away and trying to get him in a bear hug is hard due to his low center of gravity and big head. He gets a lot of free kicks and he gets away with all sorts of flickpasses and dodgy handballs. He's going to burn out at some stage but the dangerous tackle rule has given him a new lease on life. He plays like a mini Clayton Oliver but Oliver isn't protected by the umpires.

While I'm talking about free kicks, the umpires saw every free kick possible for Gold Coast, even ones that weren't there, but ignored several illegal disposals including some flat out throws as well as ignoring GC infringements against Geelong players in marking contests. Most of this occurred in the first half when Gold Coast was on a role. It was 9 frees kicks to 1 in the first quarter and 17 to 3 around half time or into the 3rd quarter. I've never seen such an imbalance. The chances of an imbalance such as that would place it way out on the bell curve. I hope Geelong asks for an umpire review of the game because the umpiring definitely affected the game. Gold Coast didn't need any help but they got plenty.

We have a big issue with our tackling that has gotten worse the past 3 weeks.

The big midfield stars/bulls do not get paid HTB against them unless they do something truly mad like run 5m, try to take someone on and then get tackled with the ball falling out.

What we are settling on lately are these prolonged bear hug tackles where we hope we get a decision or ball up within 2 seconds. Players like Rowell ride the tackle until they shovel it out, usually to a free player who gets the clean possession which kills us.

Although the harsh sling tackle rules make it hard to say "tackle to kill", we need to be getting players to ground, trapping the ball on their chest (so I mean physically holding the ball with your hands if you are "bear tackling") or pinning the arm(s) to make a release handball impossible. There needs to be training focus on technique because what is happening right now is we are laying 50-60 odd tackles but very few of them are effective.

Yes we're getting reamed by the umpires this season as far as not rewarding tackles, and turning a blind eye to throws/dropping the ball/prior opportunity. But we have to adapt or we will keep getting destroyed. The sides with big bulls who have quick reflexes in getting hands to the ball first have a free pass, so you must find a way to influence or negate the play with your pressure.

"Pressure that's not really pressure" is how I'd describe our harassing and tackling over the past 3 weeks, in comparison to the first 7. Really good players and lenient umpires are a deadly combination, as they will simply keep rolling through until they get the ball to a free man.

The other issue right now is we are getting stuck flat footed around congestion, players either waiting for a HTB or a ball up. Opposition midfielders sense this and keep moving so that these "almost ball ups/HTBs" can be scooped up by the next man. Are we just too slow/tired to keep up? Is it a mindset thing? Do we need more proactive players in there who get hands to the ball first? It must be addressed.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

41 less kicks.
42 less handballs.
43 less marks.
96 less effective possessions.
15 less tackles.
7 less hit outs
10 less frees.
9 less scoring shots.
15 less inside 50s.

Pretty much says it all.

As a one off we didn't adapt to the conditions.

 

[Mr Meow]

41 less kicks.
42 less handballs.
43 less marks.
96 less effective possessions.
15 less tackles.
7 less hit outs
10 less frees.
9 less scoring shots.
15 less inside 50s.

Pretty much says it all.

We were absolutely destroyed on the outside, with all those marks and release to free players meaning we were chasing tail. Then simply too tired to compete.

 

[TheEscapeClub]

I have no issues playing a game in Darwin. Same with Hobart or Launceston etc.
Everyone should be able to play everywhere.

Bullshit, this time of the year Darwin is a million miles different to any other location that is used by the AFL.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I can’t remember the last time we conceded such a high score. In the game where Sydney smashed us by 110 points in 2014, they only scored 148. We’d probably have to go back 20+ years to find our last time conceding 164+ points?

The humidity is a killer

Hopefully we have had out turn and don't have to play Darwin for years

 

[calder_daddy]

Henry was ordinary, but never look at fantasy points to determine who are the best players on the ground.
Possibly the worst system for determining that. Rewards accumulation over all other facets.
That’s coming from someone who plays fantasy sports.

Fair enough
I mainly pointed it out due to people always using that when players are the highest rated players on the ground
Wanted to show if it meant anything just how bad he was. But I think you know I don’t play fantasy sports

 

[calder_daddy]

I agree
Out: Tuohy (cooked)
Guthrie (injured)
Parfitt (not good enough)
Henry (doesnt look right)
Neale (not ready)
dempsey (managed)

In:
Hawkins
Cameron
Duncan
SDK
Mannagh
Hardie

Put atkins in the backline and put holmes in the freaking midfield.
Mannagh is needed for class and its a joke if hardie doesnt play over guthrie.
blitz looks tired but we have no structural replacement.

Blitz almost has to come out
Bloke looks tired

 

[standupand]

Surely we all knew he'd be asked

The wry smile when he says "we were beaten in every area" says it all.

 

[Live in hope]

No beating around the bush. This midfield is not good enough and we're increasingly looking like being a lame duck in September given we cannot fix it in 2024. Bruhn, Bowes, Atkins, Parfitt look like being nothing better than support cast mids. We need to find some gun mids from somewhere. No excuses for ToG, or trying to spread the responsibility. Simply not good enough to carry us forward. Don't win enough ball, and our opposition midfielders completely dominate.

Conway put in a good shift tonight. Looks promising. Once he can play 20+ weeks we'll have a good ruck on our hands. Holmes would be our best, albeit he butchered the footy a lot. Not alone there.

Atkins, Bowes, J.Henry, Stewart, Blicavs, C.Guthrie, Neale, Rohan, Bruhn, Kolo all especially poor tonight.
Blicavs and Rohan joining the list of older players increasingly looking past it. Not sure how to make a tough call on Blitz, has a few roles to replace.

Neale can jog on back to the VFL for a few weeks. Does not even remotely look AFL capable at this moment. Has a lot of improvement he needs to make before he'll look like a future forward for us.

Called it pre-game after the late out. SDK made us very undermanned down back and the undersized backs of Kolo, Henry, Stewart and Zuthrie looked lost. COS is the one to pump games into. Form that relationship with SDK and get FB and CHB sorted. No surprise that with an undersized back 6 that their 3 big forwards kick 5, 4 and 3 goals.

Add the complete midfield dominance with their guys getting 41, 35, 37 and 32 touches and the loss of this magnitude cannot be unexpected. Spanked in the middle and incapable of handling the heat (pun intended) once they got it inside 50.
Got to seriously consider looking at Hardie and Mannagh. They can't do worse than this ensemble of midfielders, surely.

This.
Except perhaps Neale - he dropped heaps of marks (unfortunately many in good goal scoring spots) but used his athleticism and led out/presented really well and persisted in greasy conditions against a good backline. Liked the assured nature of his two goals and was encouraged also by his ruck efforts - looked like a viable second ruck option. Was almost a positive for me (albeit with a low bar on a trying night).

 

[Live in hope]

The wry smile when he says "we were beaten in every area" says it all.

It wasn’t the worst umpiring - the disparity was due to the quality of their pressure and tackling. There were, however, (again) two or three blatant HTB decisions not paid to us. A 360 on Rowell who then missed the ball with his attempted kick had me yelling at the Telly. Also, the ‘block’ on Dempsey in Q1 which amounted to an easily brushed aside elbow was technically there but there were a number of infinitely more blatant blocking against our forwards. (Hawk routinely gets that treatment every match, with little help from umps).

 

[supahoops]

Absolutely they won’t. I will be ok not to see Neale again for a fair while to be honest.

Not sure Hawkins would’ve fared any better the way that ball came in.

 

[Warhorse]

Not sure why we are celebrating Conway tbh. There mids got absolute silver service from Moyle. Yes promising but still beaten