Changes v Eagles

[catempire]

Don't get me wrong. What Byrnes did was very poor. Missing the shot shouldn't happen, but I think we've all seen that stuff before while the holding the ball cut, cut deep. Maybe lack of experience? The pure reason I think Thompson has kept him in is that he read the paper sunday morning and saw he had the pill 19 times. I wasn't there Saturday and I watched the game on tv while listening to the live radio at the same time so it didn't get my full concentration to be honest. I'm not going to say he should have been dropped or not, but I think a few posters (mostly Cats Claw) are overeacting. You were generous compared to some

No worries Sammy. I think you've hit the nail on the head though in saying that we've all seen it before. That's what gets to me - we've seen it before where a player has obviously underperformed but hasn't been held accountable for it. It is made worse by the fact that in this case Tenace has been sacrificed when there's an obviously more worthy 'lamb' in Byrnes.

 

[linga_is_no1]

Tenace would deadset spank Shannon in a sprint.

No one at the club can get near Kane.

There was an article in the The Geelong Abletiser. Saying Byrnes was faster then Tenace, anyone remember it?

 

[JUBJUB]

There was an article in the The Geelong Abletiser. Saying Byrnes was faster then Tenace, anyone remember it?

I thought it was Tenace fastest and Blake was 2nd.

 

[GeeCat]

There was an article in the The Geelong Abletiser. Saying Byrnes was faster then Tenace, anyone remember it?

If you're referring to the results for those 15m dashes, they're hardly an indicator of the speed.

For one, they tend to measure the player's speed off the mark. For some players (possibly Kane), they may not reach their top gear until 25+ metres. For others like Blake, they may tend to cover the distance with ease due to their obvious size advantage; yet no one would back them against the midfielders of our team.

 

[catempire]

Looks like Shannon was fastest over 20m but I'd say Kane would have few challengers at 100m.

Fit and fast
12:25:43 PM Fri 4 February, 2005
Jay Clark
Geelong Advertiser
Shannon Byrnes fired a warning shot at his rival Geelong midfielders yesterday with blazing times in the club's final fitness test.

The pocket rocket topped the 20-metre sprint test in a personal best 2.77 seconds, which was .05 seconds ahead of his nearest rival in new recruit Nick Batchelor.

The 20-year-old was just as impressive in the following beep test, notching the third highest number of timed shuttle runs with a score of 14.13.

He fell just short of Jarad Rooke with 15.3 and Cameron Ling on 15.4.

According to Byrnes, it is a timely reminder to the coaching staff that he is the fittest he has ever been.

"Obviously I want to be right up there in speed because being short and slow doesn't really cut it these days,'' Byrnes said.


"This stuff isn't make or break, but it is nice to have something like this in the back of the coaches minds when they are tossing your name up against someone else.''

VFL ruckman Mark Blake was next best in the sprint session with 2.82sec.

Tim Callan was a fraction behind in 2.83sec. Byrnes said his personal best time was also a satisfying win in his battle with fellow speedster and room-mate Kane Tenace, who had previously had the wood over Byrnes with a best time of 2.8sec.

"I just wanted to beat Kane because he has been getting into me about it all year,'' he said.

Byrnes played four games last year and said he was desperate for more senior action after being promoted from the rookie list last year in place of the injured James Kelly.

An injury free pre-season and plenty of touches in the Cats' opening intra-club game on Monday has Byrnes fully primed for the Wizard Cup and hopeful of a round one guernsey.

That's despite the red-hot competition in an overflowing Geelong midfield.

"This pre-season I've done everything. I'm definitely hungry for it,'' he said.

Strength and conditioning coach Chris Dennis said he was delighted with yesterday afternoon's results, particularly considering most of the players had spent the day on their feet touring schools and a hospitals in cold conditions.

He said the performances of Byrnes and Ling were standouts but also commended a number of major improvements in beep test times by Jarad Rooke, who set a personal best, as well as Tom Harley and Corey Enright with 14.7.

In the speed test Brenton Sanderson cracked three seconds for the first time after recovering from an ankle injury while James Rahilly, Joel Corey and Jarrod Garth all set personal bests.

"I'm very happy with the results considering we've spent the past two days on a bus,'' Dennis said.

We're loooking alright.''

 

[Embers]

Byrnes is playing because last time we played you guys he carved us up. I dont think all of those players will be playing. In a wet game, Harley playing would be stupid. Id expect him out and Tenace in.

Wirra is a big loss, but Hansen is a bigger in IMO. Itll be a close game ,looking forward to it.

 

[Copernicus]

Not sure about those ins - I reckon King and Harley will be far too underdone and have a hard time keeping up with their opponents. Having Unco in sure helps but I wonder whether he's going to be a little bit lacking in fitness as well. Either way Cox is probably going to smash us so we'll just have to make the best of it and try and get as many clearances as we can. Wouldn't mind having Tenace in. I have a bad feeling about this game, but certainly losing Wirra helps, he's their backline spark.

 

[nananana catman]

In: King
Out: Ottens

 

[Sammy D]

Must be extremely confident in King & Chambers fitness wise as Blake didn't even make the emergs

 

[jmain14]

would of thought mackie was worthy of a guernsey this week, perhaps he still will play.

 

[tusk]

Just wondering, why the preference for Tenace? Byrnes uses the pill much better.

Agreed. Tenace has no football brain at all. You can see steam coming out of his ears everytime he's got the ball, as apposed to just freakin running and kicking.

 

[Unwritten_Law]

In a wet game, Harley playing would be stupid. Id expect him out and Tenace in.

I wouldn't expect anything with the Geelong match committee.

You can just see a limited Tom Harley who has played half a game of football in 10 weeks play the entire game while Egan, who played his best game on the weekend, ride the pine.

 

[finrod]

Does anyone else not like the fact that N.Ablett has been named to start the game at FF? It puts a huge burden on him and could seriously damage his confidence if he doesn't play well... thoughts?

 

[LongBomb]

I don't mind him being named him at FF.
It is going to be his spot in the future. Might as well put his name on it now.

Expectations should be pretty low for Nathan. He is really playing as a bit of a decoy for Kingsley.
If he kicks another 2, that would be a great result.

 

[ecleftic]

Does anyone else not like the fact that N.Ablett has been named to start the game at FF? It puts a huge burden on him and could seriously damage his confidence if he doesn't play well... thoughts?

Didn't he start in that position on the ground last week? Don't think it'll worry him anyway as he seemed to enjoy the experience last week.



Go CATS!!

 

[JUBJUB]

Didn't he start in that position on the ground last week?

Yep,he started at FF.

 

[WestCat]

Wirra is a big loss, but Hansen is a bigger in IMO. Itll be a close game ,looking forward to it.

I disagree, Wirrapunda is a huge part of the Eagles structure and is one of the eagles line-breakers (Judd and Sampi would be the others), who have extreme pace. With a wet day forecast, this makes Wirrapunda even more important as he is one of only a few players on the Eagles list who can handle the ball cleanly in the wet (Judd and Kerr being the others). I'm much happier having a guy like Hansen who relies on strong hands to play well (will be harder in the wet) than a guys who would be continually chopping off our forward entries and using his sublime skills to rebound the ball.

 

[Henry 11]

They must have 100% confidence in King's fitness to be playing him. Sure he's our captain but is he really going to make that much difference.