Review Cats spay Demons by 39 points.

[joe444]

We should remember that the Neale - Cameron - O'Henry forward set up hasn't even played 15 games together yet.

And the rest of the team have been looking up to see Hawkins there for the better part of a decade.

The most promising sign for me was that, as the night progressed, they started to get out of each other's way.

 

[Hinkley29]

Hard to believe Ollie Henry had the same amount of touches as Clohesy.

People see what they want to see.

Clohesy = shiny new thing. Folks still in love with him. Rightly so, he looks a keeper

Ollie = easy scapegoat. Highly talented player playing a feast or famine position, so folks love to have a crack at him. he is one of our most important future players. Some players are condemned because of the talent they possess and a perceived “lack of effort”. Perception does not equal reality.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I said it all along... Play Stanley in the Ruck and play SDK in defence.. Playing SDK in defence, he plays better as a defender than then he does ruck..
Stanley was serviceable playing ruck tonight..

Agree
I thought right from the first bounce Rhys was up for the contest. A good contribution.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Footywire had him listed as 198cm

But could well have grown a little since being drafted

Pre game in the rooms, I was surprised how big he is. Towered over a few of the other chaps

 

[Warhorse]

People see what they want to see.

Clohesy = shiny new thing. Folks still in love with him. Rightly so, he looks a keeper

Ollie = easy scapegoat. Highly talented player playing a feast or famine position, so folks love to have a crack at him. he is one of our most important future players. Some players are condemned because of the talent they possess and a perceived “lack of effort”. Perception does not equal reality.

Both were non-competitive and need to be moved back to the VFL.

Really hard to defend Ollie on that performance. Who was his direct opponent?

 

[Warhorse]

Agree
I thought right from the first bounce Rhys was up for the contest. A good contribution.

Stanley's game being under-rated on here. He is cooked but was competitive

 

[winty]

Melbourne were so poor I doubt we beat most other sides buts it's April and a valuable 4 points.

Can only play as well as the opposition lets you...

 

[Johanpetro]

Polkinghorne keeps improving as he is and I think he may get a shot before Henry

Would prefer to give him a shot over Wilshire next week. More of a like for like for O Henry who needs a spell. Plus a game in his home town/state if I’m not mistaken

 

[Gavin Excell]

Hopefully the Gold Coast serve up a hot and humid day so the Crows are completely sapped off the 5 day break next week

 

[Live in hope]

Pretty unattractive, scrappy game but I’ll take the win. Unfortunately,I think the thing that stood out the most was how awful Melbourne were - that is one incredibly unhappy bunch (I can’t see how Goodwin can last, frankly).

Things I liked -

• COS - such an exciting talent. More kudos to the legendary Wells and Mackie.
• Danger - definition of warrior captain.
• Atkin’s tackle machine - go for 5 in a row!
• the calm, clever and inventive hand-balling out of contests and movement to half forward. Love watching the cleverness and vision of players like Dempsey, Mannagh.
• Special mention to MOC. Value to team is underrated and unfairly overlooked, including by me.

Things I didn’t like -

• How the Demon defenders (mainly McDonald) were allowed to grapple and blatantly hold our forwards off the contest to enable May etc uncontested marks, without any penalty. Having said that Neale, Henry are a little feeble in managing that and need to be better.
• instances of terrible passing, particularly the crucial pass into half forward, often off the end of great transition work. Half of those passes work and we win by 70 points
• Dempsey - love his brilliant talent but really needs to commit to the physical stuff. Beyond the other dimensions - footy is still a contact sport. Needs to look at vision of the many skinny, slim players over the years who have nonetheless been committed and executed the physical stuff.

 

[Frappe]

Pretty unattractive, scrappy game but I’ll take the win. Unfortunately,I think the thing that stood out the most was how awful Melbourne were - that is one incredibly unhappy bunch (I can’t see how Goodwin can last, frankly).

Things I liked -

• COS - such an exciting talent. More kudos to the legendary Wells and Mackie.
• Danger - definition of warrior captain.
• Atkin’s tackle machine - go for 5 in a row!
• the calm, clever and inventive hand-balling out of contests and movement to half forward. Love watching the cleverness and vision of players like Dempsey, Mannagh.
• Special mention to MOC. Value to team is underrated and unfairly overlooked, including by me.

Things I didn’t like -

• How the Demon defenders (mainly McDonald) were allowed to grapple and blatantly hold our forwards off the contest to enable May etc uncontested marks, without any penalty. Having said that Neale, Henry are a little feeble in managing that and need to be better.
• instances of terrible passing, particularly the crucial pass into half forward, often off the end of great transition work. Half of those passes work and we win by 70 points
• Dempsey - love his brilliant talent but really needs to commit to the physical stuff. Beyond the other dimensions - footy is still a contact sport. Needs to look at vision of the many skinny, slim players over the years who have nonetheless been committed and executed the physical stuff.

Looks like umpires are going easy on the holding and pushing in marking contests this season.

 

[Two Planks]

O Henry needs to commit to going for the ball at a marking contest instead of trying to sneak out the back or nudging his opponent under the ball.

On a positive note, I think we have our 2 key defenders set for the next 8-10. Now just leave them there every week.

Lawson Humphries is an absolute jet. Defies his age and experience, plays like a 200 game veteran.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Viney played the invisible man role to a GOAT level last night.

Almost forgot he played until I looked at the stats again.

 

[catempire]

If Connor O’Sullivan isn’t a future Geelong captain I’ve never seen one! What a draft manoeuvre . Now go and get his little mate from the Giants (Gothard) to keep him happy.

On this point I noticed when he came back on the ground later in the game he was telling Stewart and DK where to position and which opponents to take. Stewart looked up and gave him thumbs up as if to say “yes boss”.

 

[D BRIDGE]

If Connor O’Sullivan isn’t a future Geelong captain I’ve never seen one! What a draft manoeuvre . Now go and get his little mate from the Giants (Gothard) to keep him happy.

COS was also the captain of his U18's state Allies team that was flush with guns.

He is a clear leader.

 

[you pick one]

To me the best part of the night for me was to see SDK competitive again and looking confident,Joel in the house a coincidence?

 

[bombersboy]

1. Rhys Stanley - I've said it before and I'll say it again. When he finally hangs up the boots, and assuming the Cats can't cajole him into putting them on again in 2026, he's one of a rare handful of players who can boast of having left literally everything out there on the field. He's cooked. We all know it. But somehow he could still get Floggy McFlogFace Gawn second guessing himself, with a nice mark and goal in the 1st quarter and good bit of gut running early in the 4th, and that went a long way toward winning the game for us.

3. Bailey Smith - Very serviceable game in midfield and wing. He's starting to settle into the Geelong style of play. To be honest, I've had no expectations of him after the long injury layoff except to stay in one piece at least for the first month of the season and he's done that. Disposal efficiency was a lot better than last week too. He'll be a weapon for us in the second half of the season.

5. Jeremy Cameron - Faded in and out of the game, but at least he looked like he wanted to be playing. Some of his field kicking when pushing into the midfield was sublime.

7. Shaun Mannagh - There was a bit of rust early, and a few over-ambitious handballs, but Mannagh slotted back into the side pretty seamlessly. He'll be a lot better for the run.

9. Max Holmes - Not good. Everyone tags him every week now, and dealing with it has been a mixed bag so far this year, but his kicking was utterly deplorable tonight. Couldn't hit a target. He did have a few nice moments competing aerially though. This week was certainly an aberration.

12. Jack Bowes - Another player who drifted in and out of the game. His goals were nice. He's a weird case. If he's taking a difficult shot at goal under immediate tackling pressure, he's the epitome of zen-like calm. Same situation on a wing or HFB and he panics and butchers it. Complete inversion to 99.9% of other players. He was at his best when Melbourne were challenging, and only drifted out when we were well on top, so I'll give him a grudging pass mark.

14. Connor O'Sullivan - Now this kid I like. Tom Stewart earlier compared him to Blitz. I've been saying he's a ruckman-sized Tom Harley. However you want to describe him, he plays like a 150 gamer and, moreover, someone who's been an indispensable part of a premiership defensive unit for the better part of a decade. At 5 games. Listening to him talk on after-match interviews, he's intelligent and humble with a level head on his shoulders. We've got a winner here.

16. Sam De Koning - Boy, what a return to form. Splitting his time between ruck and FB he had his work cut out for him but handled both jobs with skill and dignity. He's back taking contested marks, putting in huge spoils with those Inspector Gadget arms, and even threw Max Gawn around like a ragdoll a couple of times in the ruck. It's too early to say he's back, but he played very very well tonight.

17. Lawson Humphries - This is another guy who seems like he's been around forever despite having about 20 games to his name. Hardly wastes a disposal, seldom panics, and runs very hard.

18. Tyson Stengle - It wasn't a great night for crumbing deep forward pockets, but since Stengle has been at the club he's never dropped the head when thing weren't going his way. That includes all those times in 2023-2024 when we pushed him up to a wing and dropped high floating clearing kicks onto his head against opposition ruckmen. Working his way into the game and snagging a couple of goals was a fitting reward.

28. Oliver Dempsey - Seemed to me that he was spending a bit more time in the midfield, perhaps because Mannagh was playing forward a bit. I think he had a creditable game. Just wish he'd do the basic, solid stuff a bit more than trying to make magic happen with every touch.

30. Tom Atkins - Top bloke. If you look up "tackle" in the dictionary, his fierce unblinking gaze will be looking back at you. I can't think of anyone- even in our 2007-2011 glory years- who has transcended his limitations and made the most of his strengths like Axe has.

32. Gryan Miers - The barometer of the team. When Miers plays well, the team does. And so it proved tonight. He didn't hit the scoreboard but his passing was almost faultless.

33. Shannon Neale - I don't know with this guy. I really don't. First half was atrocious. Second half better, including a really gutsy bit of running to affect a Melbournw defender's kick just enough to make him stuff it up. But it seems like every week he's promising that a breakout performance is imminent, and it just doesn't quite happen, but you get enough teasers to not put him in the Shane Kersten or Matt McCarthy "useless" basket. Best 22 for now. I continue to suspend judgment. Being a good set shot for goal helps.

34. Oisin Mullin - Another impressive game. He's starting to back himself. The last two weeks he's looked like an AFL footballer rather than a Gaelic footballer. We might have finally found Wojo 2.0. I also have to give a shoutout to an important moment when we were clinging to that 2 goal margin- in a 2-on-1 marking contest against Gawn and (I think) Fritsch, Mullin managed to get the ball to ground. Mullin is not a tall guy and turned a 5-95 into a 50-50.

35. Patrick Dangerfield - This was a pure captain's game. He took the centre squre contests that needed contesting and won them. He played forward and won the contests that needed winning there. At 35 years old the moments of explosive brilliance are still there, but you've got to manage them as precious resources, and this was for sure an example of Gondor's waning powers still besting the orc hordes when it counts.

36. Oliver Henry - Rubbish. For the first half I was prepared to acknowledge that he was at least getting the ball to our crumbers in marking contests. In the 2nd half he didn't even do that. Drop him and give Wiltshire a go. Or possibly play Blitz forward all day.

38. Jack Henry - Looked like a world-beating full back until he did his hammy. Not much to say. We looked rattled for 20 minutes or so after he departed. But after the game he looked in good spirits, boucing from one leg to the other, so let's hope he's not out too long.

39. Zach Guthrie - The quiet general of our defnsive 50. Possibly the most underrated player in the league and it's because he wins contest after contest without any sort of fanfare. Can play tall or small.

40. Ted Clohesy - You look at the stats and it says Ted gathered 9 possessions and laid two tackles and if you only look at the stats you'd be thinking, "back to the VFL". But he was far more involved in the game than that. Stats lie in this case. Far more important than his meagre statistics make him out to be. A really nice contested mark and low, flat pass to Dangerfield inside 50 when the game was still to be won gives Clohesy a lot of cred.

42. Mark O'Connor. I've got a higher opinion of Shark than a lot of the rest of the forum. For a lot of his career he's been doing a lot of vague positional running that nobody understands but himself and Chris Scott. I've often lamented that someone who regularly hits 95% disposal efficiency should be getting more of the footy. Well, coming off the sub vest tonight and after fifteen minutes of treading water his first touch was a desperate soccer off the ground that went to a teammate and you could see a light bulb turn on in his head. "Fook it, im just going to go after the ball every chance I get, back my size and strength and speed and foot skill every time." 16 touches at 100% DE in a half of footy is what I've long thought MO'C can do at his best and why I've been backing him over his detractors for two years now.

44. Tom Stewart - Welcome return after injury. He mkaes the backline look better by just being there. And I just love his after-match interviews where he deflects talk about himself and makes it all about his teammates.

45. Brad Close- Super welcome return to form for Close. I don't think there was a goal we kicked in the first half tha he didn't have a hand in. I think "Close to Cameron" is becoming as inevitable as " c. Gilchrist b. McGrath"

Great review. The one comment I have is that I think Neale is best 22 for at least a few years not just for now. We do not have another tall forward. There are none in the VFL. Perhaps one of the injured talls could be developed into a key position player but that will take years.

 

[bombersboy]

Would prefer to give him a shot over Wilshire next week. More of a like for like for O Henry who needs a spell. Plus a game in his home town/state if I’m not mistaken

Polkinghorne is a long way from being ready for AFL. Certainly promising signs at VFL but for AFL now - NO.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Great review. The one comment I have is that I think Neale is best 22 for at least a few years not just for now. We do not have another tall forward. There are none in the VFL. Perhaps one of the injured talls could be developed into a key position player but that will take years.

Agree
Neale not getting respect from some but getting a lot of respect from the opposition- gets blocked and held all the time, they don't want him running and jumping at the footy.......

 

[z547043]

Our forwards were much better at providing an option and creating a contest tonight. O Henry no goals and small numbers but he halved some contests that he'd normally not bother with. It was good to see.


Melbourne set up well behind the ball, were not easy to play against. Their midfield is still pretty good too, perhaps not that fit thoigh

Yeah, on reflection and re-watch Henry had some good moments, especially the quick handball to Bowes for a goal when Dees were coming.

It was great to see Bowes go straight to him and hopefully that will help change what appears to be the mindset that he has to take 10 marks and kick 4 goals and fly all or nothing every contest to contribute to the team.

The concerning part is the other side, see Stanley’s goal where he flies in from the side in front of Henry and instead of protecting the space for Rhys, OH is grabbling with his man and attempts to push him into the drop zone so he can take the mark/ball out the back. I just don’t know how you change that mindset.

 

[catsfootyfan89]

Just finishing watching the replay. There's a fantastic moment in the last quarter that really deserves to be mentioned. Score is 45-66, 13 minutes to go. The game is still in reach for Melbourne. The ball makes its way down the wing and Close takes it inside 50, flicks to Cameron, who has every opportunity to bang it on his left from 45 out. Given his skills from range, you could hardly blame him for having the shot. But he flicks it over the top to Mannagh, who makes it a certainty, and now the game is over. Jez only kicked one for the night. But doing team things like this will always feel more valuable for me. Well done.

 

[Warhorse]

We really defending Neale and Henry after that game? Both were unacceptable. Both very poor over the last fortnight

 

[Gavin Excell]

Great review. The one comment I have is that I think Neale is best 22 for at least a few years not just for now. We do not have another tall forward. There are none in the VFL. Perhaps one of the injured talls could be developed into a key position player but that will take years.

We have to persist with Neale

I'm confident he'll have a break out game soon

 

[MacStradbroke]

We really defending Neale and Henry after that game? Both were unacceptable. Both very poor over the last fortnight

I’m confident Neale gives us what he’s got, Ollie is a difficult watch at times and I hate saying that. The greediness (not last night), the running under the ball in marking contests and body language I’m sure are parts of his game the coaching staff would be constantly working on. Hard to believe he and Jack are brothers, they are worlds apart as footballers.

 

[Johanpetro]

We really defending Neale and Henry after that game? Both were unacceptable. Both very poor over the last fortnight

Neale had a great 4th quarter so gets a pass. 4 touches 3 marks and a goal. Could’ve easily put his head down and sulked as he had a horrible first 3 quarters but lifted when needed. Could see how much it meant to him as well when he kicked that goal. Love him

O Henry on the other hand, no comment