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

[Seeds]

I can’t remember the last time we had a mid fielder apart from Lingy who was a left footer, Isaac Smith last night kept turning to go onto his left as did Cameron but a Geelong player was always in the road.
Definitely something we will get better at

Good observation

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Barely noticed him. Needs to do more with the 10 he has.

Also should be noted he played at the end when a lot of the others would have been knackered in their first real hitout.
Did little to impress me either.

 

[calder_daddy]

Sorry guys haven’t been on here for donkeys but can you tell me if Atkins played that good, I saw his highlights on Twitter and he looked pretty bloody good.

Never liked Atkins in our side until his move to the backline
He was outstanding

 

[cats_09]

Sorry guys haven’t been on here for donkeys but can you tell me if Atkins played that good, I saw his highlights on Twitter and he looked pretty bloody good.

Don't think he was ever fully suited as a small forward, but rather the coaches liked aspects of his game and wanted to find a spot for him

Last night in playing in defence he just seemed more comfortable and that it's a better fit for what he can offer

Excluding his disposal count, what I really noticed about his game and what he can offer playing from defence was he's willingness to take the game on, trying to create from the backline and he was still running as hard at the end of the match as he was at the start.

The way he went about things last night, can see what the coaches have seen in him and why they've stuck with him - now for him to maintain that effort, and that's not necessarily the disposal count but other things such as his 4 quarters of gut running

 

[Pollywaffle]

Hard to get a take on that game.
Looked like a bit of the old same old chip it around stuff and bomb it in to the forward line that annoyed everyone last season. Hopefully we are going to change things a little, but geez a couple of points over an undermanned Essendon?
Anyway, just a practice match so let's keep the powder dry.
Going to be some good players finding it hard to force their way into the team this year.

 

[fpm84]

Sorry guys haven’t been on here for donkeys but can you tell me if Atkins played that good, I saw his highlights on Twitter and he looked pretty bloody good.

I was at the game, haven’t seen any replays but live I thought Atkins was clearly our best over all four quarters. Simply outstanding. He and Clark were the biggest positives of the night IMO.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Never liked Atkins in our side until his move to the backline
He was outstanding

We generally only show glimpses of our game plan in the preseason.
There was bugger all of that v Bombers IMO but I think we saw it a few passages v the Pies.
We tried very quick movement out of D50 v the Pies for a few passages - we played on , ran from behind and moved it with quick handball and run ending in precise kicks.
I think that will be our one wood this season and why wouldn’t you with two guns like Tom and Cameron to cap off the good work?
Players like Atkins , Stewart , Clark , Bews and Smith will be Vital for that.
With Blitz and Henderson taking care of the gorillas I see Henry and Kolo being very vulnerable unless they can support that speedy movement - doubtful based on past performance.
Interesting season coming up

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Who would have thought w out Stanley *possibly vs Adelaide that we would be saying that the crows Obrien will smash us in the ruck. Only have to look at Obrien's progress, since the crows bit the bullet with his development over the decline of club and fan's favourite in Jacobs

They didn't have a choice in biting that bullet. Sauce was on the long term injury list and came back cooked. Can't argue we haven't given our rucks a go either.

 

[TheYid]

Just watched the replay. Should have lost that one by a lot. Bombers really trying to play the Richmond game.

Positives- Atkins, Clark and the forward line. Midfield was disappointing. Really missed Stanley and Duncan. Also wondering if Jenkins is better as a 2nd ruck than Rato.

Don't see Evans starring for another year, but might be ok in the forward pocket for a few games this year. Output doesn't match much of the hype just yet. Same with SDK- a year or two away.

 

[james95]

Hi all,

Just curious on Jordan Clark

6

Jordan Clark

Age

23

Ht

185cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.7

4star

K

9.4

4star

HB

4.3

3star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.6

4star

MG

172.0

3star

D

12.5

3star

K

8.5

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

1.5

2star

MG

172.0

3star

D

12.2

3star

K

10.4

4star

HB

1.8

2star

M

3.4

4star

T

2.4

4star

, was everywhere on Saturday night and looked great. Is he a lock for best 22? Mainly asking as I want him in my AFL Fantasy side if he’s got that jive role all year haha

 

[Live in hope]

Just watched the replay. Should have lost that one by a lot. Bombers really trying to play the Richmond game.

Positives- Atkins, Clark and the forward line. Midfield was disappointing. Really missed Stanley and Duncan. Also wondering if Jenkins is better as a 2nd ruck than Rato.

Don't see Evans starring for another year, but might be ok in the forward pocket for a few games this year. Output doesn't match much of the hype just yet. Same with SDK- a year or two away.

Agree with this, perhaps other than should have lost by a bit rather than a lot.Pretty entertaining game, even for a pre season.

Them - Lots to like about Essendon with heaps of quick A grade midfield talent and some very promising youngsters. Definitely a Richmond game style.

Us - Mids struggled at times in match with Don’s style and dominant ruck. Think Danger and Selwood a little behind off hampered pre season but still good. Think we could do with another good mid who can run with if necessary - a fit Simpson would help.

mix JJ (with his smarts and footskills) and Rat (with his size,leap and marking) and you’d have a very good ruck/forward. Think Rat is more a game breaker (think West Coast final and games with 5 plus contested marks on good opponents) but go with JJ until he is fit and ready. Pray that Stanley is fit for games against West Coast !

Cameron looks great. Love the mobility and tank. If Tom and Jeremy stay fit will be a dangerous combo - important for getting up the ground to break through the ‘Wall’ zones (that Tigers and some others are very good at setting up across mid ground). The tactic of the mark and chip to fast runners (Rohan and Clark) running into open forward for goals worked well and is going to be important.
Otherwise getting consistent goals from crumbers and small forwards is going to be the challenge.

Evans and SDK - agree a year in VFL with cameos.

Atkins and Clark are in on that form. I’d be dropping Kolo (looked rusty and a bit lost - could do with full VFL games) but they’ll keep him for third talls. Not sure who goes out.

 

[calder_daddy]

We generally only show glimpses of our game plan in the preseason.
There was bugger all of that v Bombers IMO but I think we saw it a few passages v the Pies.
We tried very quick movement out of D50 v the Pies for a few passages - we played on , ran from behind and moved it with quick handball and run ending in precise kicks.
I think that will be our one wood this season and why wouldn’t you with two guns like Tom and Cameron to cap off the good work?
Players like Atkins , Stewart , Clark , Bews and Smith will be Vital for that.
With Blitz and Henderson taking care of the gorillas I see Henry and Kolo being very vulnerable unless they can support that speedy movement - doubtful based on past performance.
Interesting season coming up

I actually thought being at the game we looked much more settled down back when Kolo came on

 

[patience]

I was at the game, haven’t seen any replays but live I thought Atkins was clearly our best over all four quarters. Simply outstanding. He and Clark were the biggest positives of the night IMO.

Yes, that is the impression we had watching it live too.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Never liked Atkins in our side until his move to the backline
He was outstanding

Great game from him - really liked his contested work in close , managed to evade the tackle and give off to a good option most of the time.
His run and carry adds a different dimension to our defence.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Difficult to gauge performance in dead games.
Played bruise free footy / just get some game fitness.
Kittens pushed for notice / Old Cats went through the motions.

Backline : The usual suspects slowing play too often
Needs run and urgency in ball movement.
Adkins looked lively will be a back-line fixture
Players went forward and kicked goals
Midfield : Playing too wide too often / not presenting options down the guts
Allowed opposition to control square
Lack of midfield pressure put pressure on defenders
Linked effectively with key forwards
Fowards : Looked dangerous
Took advantage of limited opportunity
Will improve cohesion with familiarity
General : New guys looked good
Kittens looked promising
Players in unfamiliar roles need more work
Improved player depth will allow player management
Kittens will push for opportunity
Same Game Plan as last season

I agree with your point on midfield to an extent but I also think that Essendon could see our long kicks going there a mile away. They had a heap of tall players chopping off the long kick down the middle. I thinking we need to take that initial kick in short and wide and once we hit half back we can target options in the corridor. It just seemed really predictable and defendable when we went corridor from deep inside d50.

 

[Partridge]

This. His 10 stats were nothing possessions mostly. He’s GHS mark 2. He’ll play 6 games this year. The same numptys who whines about GHS not playing will whine about constable, and will then tell us how much he’ll embarrass us at StKilda in 2022. And the. They’ll go real quiet when he is delisted after a year.

With luck he'll be delisted sooner and save time.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Hi all,

Just curious on Jordan Clark, was everywhere on Saturday night and looked great. Is he a lock for best 22? Mainly asking as I want him in my AFL Fantasy side if he’s got that jive role all year haha

Duncan will probably still be on ice come round 1 so he should be in the side what happens when Duncan gets back is anyone guess

 

[Catman]

I think we better get used to seeing plenty of the keepings off style this year. With reduced rotations and longer quarters, clubs are going to be wary of the fatigue factor, and what better way to exploit tiring sides than forcing them to defend? Can't expect to be all guns blazing for four quarters, as it isn't sustainable both physically and from a tactical point of view.

Obviously we'll move it quickly when the opportunity arises, but get used to more conservative ball movement.

 

[Moggy]

I agree but we have good enough depth in the 22-30 spots thar we should be able to rest them here and there so they are fresh..say only 17 games then hit finals full of steam.

I totally agree, but I don’t trust the coaches to actually rest them, based on historical evidence.

 

[PzBlinky]

I think we better get used to seeing plenty of the keepings off style this year. With reduced rotations and longer quarters, clubs are going to be wary of the fatigue factor, and what better way to exploit tiring sides than forcing them to defend? Can't expect to be all guns blazing for four quarters, as it isn't sustainable both physically and from a tactical point of view.

Obviously we'll move it quickly when the opportunity arises, but get used to more conservative ball movement.

If this becomes reality, we could actually be well placed considering we've been practicing that kind of "off/on" style for the past few years.

As to how successful we've been with it, I'll leave that up to other people... but if more teams start emulating this style, I'd like to think we'd have an advantage towards nullifying it.

 

[And_ROOS]

If this becomes reality, we could actually be well placed considering we've been practicing that kind of "off/on" style for the past few years.

As to how successful we've been with it, I'll leave that up to other people... but if more teams start emulating this style, I'd like to think we'd have an advantage towards nullifying it.

Except our gameplan doesn't stack up to Richmonds. And Richmond have already shown their gameplan is effective whether its short quarters or long quarters.

We should have altered our gamestyle especially now we have Cameron up forward and pace in the team, so to see the keepings off stay is disheartening. Essendon look to have ripped off Richmonds game plan, and if they didn't have potato forwards they would have put us to the sword the other night.

 

[Trent the flight Steward]

To beat the tigers you need fast ball movement, their defenders one on one aren't great, however there's a great risk involved as the tigers will score on the rebound, but they score fast on the rebound if you go slow or fast, they're alot harder to score when you allow their defense to fold right back and really slingshot forward

Except our gameplan doesn't stack up to Richmonds. And Richmond have already shown their gameplan is effective whether its short quarters or long quarters.

We should have altered our gamestyle especially now we have Cameron up forward and pace in the team, so to see the keepings off stay is disheartening. Essendon look to have ripped off Richmonds game plan, and if they didn't have potato forwards they would have put us to the sword the other night.

 

[Cataholic]

Except our gameplan doesn't stack up to Richmonds. And Richmond have already shown their gameplan is effective whether its short quarters or long quarters.

We should have altered our gamestyle especially now we have Cameron up forward and pace in the team, so to see the keepings off stay is disheartening. Essendon look to have ripped off Richmonds game plan, and if they didn't have potato forwards they would have put us to the sword the other night.

This.

Our 'keepings off' gameplan has fallen well short of Richmond on each occasion, and our persistence with it has barely impeded their march to GF wins.

It will be disappointing if we persist with it this year, but I expect we will. Scott seems to be stubbornly welded to this style.

 

[Big little cat]

With luck he'll be delisted sooner and save time.

That's rather harsh!

 

[Vdubs]

Hard to get a take on that game.
Looked like a bit of the old same old chip it around stuff and bomb it in to the forward line that annoyed everyone last season. Hopefully we are going to change things a little, but geez a couple of points over an undermanned Essendon?
Anyway, just a practice match so let's keep the powder dry.
Going to be some good players finding it hard to force their way into the team this year.

I thought we were outstanding most of last season. Outstanding. Brilliant wins against Pies and Lions in finals, and those wins against Saints, Port and lions earlier on were only soured by that performance against Tigers. Given how good they are, 3 in 4 years is top shelf, we did so well to make a GF and head them at half time.
Practice matches are so irrelevant- look at Colac 12m ago, we were dismal.
What worries me this year is that we have a 22 week season again, with normal match duration, and whereas our senior players thrived on last season's times, venues, and 17 games, how will we handle the real thing again?