Preview Geelong Cats v Essendon, AAMI Community Series, Sat 6 Mar 7:10pm @ GMHBA Stadium

[CatRiot]

Menegola is the first picked on the wing for mine. He was arguably the best in that position in the entire league last season.

Menegola is a good player. Solid player. But you are dead set wrong. On the wing he gets blown away against the pacey types. We are left flat footed a lot.

He is 100% an Inside Mid or a High Half Forward. Wing is not his best position at all.

I tell you why and its simple, he isn't fast, but he has a strong core in the contest to get the ball above his shoulders and dish out handballs in the contest... and he can mark overhead very good and can lead and lace up a pass or dob goals at 55m. He ain't a winger. You have A-class wingers with Duncan, I Smith, and an emerging Clark. Don't waste his best attributes out there on the Wing. You watch him against fast opponents, he gets burnt away. Put him on the Half Forward, or in the guts, and we will be best served that way. Imho.

 

[CatRiot]

Menegola is one of our best 2 way runners thats why he plays wing to push back to cover our lack of legspeed in defence. Hes too selfish around goals but he is not defensively lazy he outworks 3/4 of our team. Hes also a very good player as last year showed he is the least of our problems.

I Smith will be a better 2 way runner, and faster.

 

[roz1812]

If we play chip chip arounD the backline + kicking long down the line 90% like tonight we will struggle regardless of the talent on our list. With the new rule most teams are going to play more fast and the tempo is going to be more like 10 years ago. We can’t rely on individual brilliance to win us games we need to play quicker and use the corridor more, heck it won us 3 flags in 5 years. Plus we have 2 of the best forwards in the game get it in quick while they are 1 on 1 and stop mucking around with it or Cameron will just end up being a waste of coin.

 

[Ratcat]

Constable 10 disposals in a quarter

Best player for us was Clark

You're joking, seriously that guy's a freak!
After bench warming for 3/4's.

And Frank Evans will be a star book it!

 

[Ratcat]

Have some leg speed and endurance

Lol!!!

 

[Gogeelong]

GREAT SIGNS
Clark was the best player. most disposals, most metres gained. great game.
Atkins was the next best in the backline. 28 disposals
Constable needs time in the guts
Evans immediate impact with a timely goal
Zac from limited game time had an impact
Jenkins rusty but you know he will be valuable

only negative--- Selwood appears to be slowing down.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

GREAT SIGNS
Clark was the best player. most disposals, most metres gained. great game.
Atkins was the next best in the backline. 28 disposals
Constable needs time in the guts
Evans immediate impact with a timely goal
Zac from limited game time had an impact
Jenkins rusty but you know he will be valuable

only negative--- Selwood appears to be slowing down.

Selwood has been slowing down and in decline for a few years now. 2021 could be his last.

 

[Cataholic]

Nice win. Let's take the 4 points and move onto next week...

Did we win, or did the Bombers blow it?

If they'd kicked straight we would've lost......

 

[Scottland2007]

My Boy Miers’ tackle ♥♥

 

[CatToTheFuture]

This is actually a pretty good tap by Jenkins to Higgins

Amazing that only 18 months ago none of them played for us

 

[Gavin Excell]

I know he is 34 and all but Higgins has some class

 

[Cataholic]

Positives for me were higgins cameron and smith none were perfect but all added a lot and you can see how much they will give us.
Also clark was fantastic and atkins showed real promise in the back half and i liked some of the things miers zuthrie and evans did in limited minutes.

Negatives for me were the rucks-jenkins was really good around the ground but his centre square jump technique is awful-obrien will smash us if stanley isnt fit.
And our slow ball movement from the back half..we were efficient in the front half but we wont give them enough chances if we move the ball that slow. We need better kicks in the back half and the guys to move it with better intent (ie what clark did).

All in all ok but underwhelming.

It seems like some familiar problems still plague us.

It's exciting to have Cameron up front with Hawkins and the likes of Miers and Evans, but they'll wither like dehydrated flowers if we can't supply them.

The slow, stilted ball movement from our defense has been an issue for a while, and it beggars belief that apparently nothing has been done to eradicate this from our game.

Listening to commentary seems to suggest many believe Essendon kicked themselves out of it, rather than us clearly winning it.

 

[Cataholic]

what's the old saying Kolo could not hit a barn door

He hears it though

 

[Cataholic]

cos they dont need to. Perfect accuracy is redundant. As long as you get 90 per cent there everyone knows what you are saying.

Is that the definition of mediocrity?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

how fan you not play a 3rd tall forward who can chop out in the ruck? Logic would say it’s a necessity. Stanley can’t ruck all day. Limited interchange means you can’t carry a second ruckman on the bench. Blicavs is a key defender. He won’t be able to leave his man for extended periods. So you need someone who can contribute in another position when not in the ruck. Backup ruckman capable are fort, esava or maybe Jenkins. All forwards. So realistically they play one of them as a third forward. OST flexible and mobile? Esava.

Because you lose another defensive forward/mid option. Our f50 is already at risk of leaking rebounding exits like a sieve. When you do everyone is out of position and it gets overlap run straight to our d50. Fewer talls in our backline also means conceding more marks in the backline.

I'm just hoping that Blitz and Hawk can share enough of the ruck that Stanley can see or a full game. He'll need to take midfield ball ups and just hang around the centre square protecting the corridor I think.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

If we play chip chip arounD the backline + kicking long down the line 90% like tonight we will struggle regardless of the talent on our list. With the new rule most teams are going to play more fast and the tempo is going to be more like 10 years ago. We can’t rely on individual brilliance to win us games we need to play quicker and use the corridor more, heck it won us 3 flags in 5 years. Plus we have 2 of the best forwards in the game get it in quick while they are 1 on 1 and stop mucking around with it or Cameron will just end up being a waste of coin.

It's amazing how quick a team looks when they have good foot skills and retain possession.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I know he is 34 and all but Higgins has some class

Grass is green, rain is wet.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

It seems like some familiar problems still plague us.

It's exciting to have Cameron up front with Hawkins and the likes of Miers and Evans, but they'll wither like dehydrated flowers if we can't supply them.

The slow, stilted ball movement from our defense has been an issue for a while, and it beggars belief that apparently nothing has been done to eradicate this from our game.

Listening to commentary seems to suggest many believe Essendon kicked themselves out of it, rather than us clearly winning it.

The harsh truth is the slow stifled ball movement was brought in to protect a backline that lost Boris, Mackie, Lonergan to retirement then lost Harry and Hendo to injury in very quick succession. Now to take advantage of the new attacking players we have to roll back the strategy that protects our backline. There's a strong chance that they're not as good as we hope they are. It'll be fun finding out

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I know he is 34 and all but Higgins has some class

Boy does he ever.

 

[BennyGan]

Menegola is a good player. Solid player. But you are dead set wrong. On the wing he gets blown away against the pacey types. We are left flat footed a lot.

He is 100% an Inside Mid or a High Half Forward. Wing is not his best position at all.

I tell you why and its simple, he isn't fast, but he has a strong core in the contest to get the ball above his shoulders and dish out handballs in the contest... and he can mark overhead very good and can lead and lace up a pass or dob goals at 55m. He ain't a winger. You have A-class wingers with Duncan, I Smith, and an emerging Clark. Don't waste his best attributes out there on the Wing. You watch him against fast opponents, he gets burnt away. Put him on the Half Forward, or in the guts, and we will be best served that way. Imho.

He might not be that fast but what sets him apart from nearly all the wingers in the comp is his Defensive running. Very few wingers run back.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

how fan you not play a 3rd tall forward who can chop out in the ruck? Logic would say it’s a necessity. Stanley can’t ruck all day. Limited interchange means you can’t carry a second ruckman on the bench. Blicavs is a key defender. He won’t be able to leave his man for extended periods. So you need someone who can contribute in another position when not in the ruck. Backup ruckman capable are fort, esava or maybe Jenkins. All forwards. So realistically they play one of them as a third forward. OST flexible and mobile? Esava.

Because with the new rules i believe teams will slingshot goals from half back if our forward pressure isnt good enough and we have enough marking power in our front half not to need it. Wrecking the forward structure for the 10% of the game stanley needs a break isnt justified blitz can ruck 5 mins a qtr.

 

[allrighty]

Which word/s?

It's ok I've put the lid back on the wine bottle now

 

[BennyGan]

Hard to take away a lot from the midfield from the game because of how dominate they were in the ruck because we weren’t playing a ruckman. 3 things I liked the most from game were Atkins down back, looks a natural defender and fills a void that we have for small def depth. SDK while he was clearly monstered in the ruck cause he was giving up 20kgs his skills look so clean for a ruckman. And the star of the night Jordy Clark. Turned over a few but takes the game on and gives us the speed we need, feel like he should benefit the most from the new man on the mark rule.

 

[foxdog50]

O'Connor Blicavs Kolo
Henry Henderson Stewart

Bews, Atkins & Tuohy to roll through.

Do you want to go another step further and give me your starting 22

 

[catempire]

Get the bad out of the way first: that was an atrocious team performance. The inside midfield was non-existent and highlights the big concern for post Danger and Selwood (who each looked to be going at 25% last night). Merrett and Parish had 69 possessions between them and Caldwell had 24. Our best midfielder was Smith with 25. Most of our possession was in D50. There was no pressure on Essendon as they handballed through the midfield. They looked like a million bucks at times. Having said all of that, I place no weight on the result or the effort levels for this game. Given we only got one match at this standard it was entirely reasonable just to get the game under the belt.

To the individuals of note for me:

- Higgins good again I thought. Just really clean and smart. I don’t regret saying we now have two Mitch Duncans.

- Cameron had an almost game but he just has so much impact and presence even when it doesn’t come off. He’s also much more of a footballer when the ball hits the ground. He can work through traffic and find a teammate unlike a resting ruckman.

- Clark showed us both why we should be excited but also somewhat worried. He does some excellent stuff but at times his decision making and disposal sucks. Hopefully with experience he irons it out. He was heavily involved in the game which was at least a great sign.

- Smith was prolific and will be a big beneficiary of the stationary man on the mark rule, providing nice overlap down the left wing.

- Jenkins I thought was OK in an unsuitable role. He will only ever play there as a last resort.

- Atkins has a lot to like as a back pocket. He has an intensity that has been missing back there for a while. Persist!

- SDK is very exciting. You can see that he grew up as a smaller player given the way he moves and gathers the ball on the ground. I’m not as down on him as a ruckman as others. He will never be a wrestle-sized ruck but there’s no reason he can’t pinch hit there.

- Evans had an immediate impact when he came on. Disappointing that they left it so late. He should have had a better chance to stake his claim for round one. I’ll be annoyed if he’s an emergency.

Overall, it’s a bloody strong 22 and if we don’t finish top 4 given a good run with injuries it will be a big failure.