Autopsy Geelong defeated by Port by 16 points.

[Overhang]

But where were those shots? How many set shots did we have tonight 30 out on a slight angle? Not many. Their defenders out worked us and pushed us wide. Yah we took the mark but the shot was a low percentage chance. That's on our set up through the midfield and taking low risk options moving the ball inside 50. And fundamentally poor forward line structures.

Two of Hawkins were 30-35 out on a 45º angle, bread and butter. Stanley's was more like a 30º angle 40m out and was bread and butter. Kolo directly in front from 45 but he is a defender so forgivable. As far as the boundary shot's go, for the modern player they are very gettable, low % but not crazy low.

 

[Spazz Cat]

I’d prefer to see him in the centre square over the likes of Atkins or Dahlhaus.


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Yeah if you have a look at Selwood tonight that is what's required. Nothing special.
Just be strong, hard get it going and make your f**k ups where they don't hurt.
Yeah have your pressure players and your fancy outside players but not as your main guys.

 

[MotlopMagic]

Wow, looking back over the thread now that I've written my bullshit and I am surprised at just how vitriolic this place is; maybe I am more surprised that I am less disappointed...

Like I said, I thought we played a Finals brand of footy, but unfortunately we absolutely muffed our chances - more scoring shots than Port and we were on top for all but a brief (and admittedly decisive) period in the 3rd quarter.
I expected we'd lose, but I am oddly at peace with the way in which we lost; gave a good account of ourselves imo.

The last 9 years have taken their toll. Time after time after time after time.


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[Footy Smarts]

The worst bit is that we were clearly good enough to win that game. First half wasn't perfect but we were the better team by a long way except for finishing. If not for poor finishing and a seriously unlucky goal to concede on half time we're 3+ goals up at half time and the second half is completely different.

There's clearly mental scars with finals now. Even when we play well we find a way to keep opponents in the game and put ourselves under extra pressure. This team is good enough to win 3 in a row to go the whole way based on that first half but we just seem destined to find new creative ways to **** it up.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

I dont work Fridays.
Have to listen how sh*t we are in finals.


Sad but true.

Wanna work for me tomorrow?
I'll walk your dog along the beach, furiously throwing stones in the ocean out of anger at tonight.

 

[feelinfeline]

Port have much more top-end talent from being near the bottom more often. We rely on our top five or so to drag us over the line. Hawk couldn't kick straight. Joel tried his best. Patty was a bit down.

Duncan, Guthrie and Menegola look a million dollars during the H&A but, sadly, when the whips are cracking too often they go missing.

Rohan and Miers, what can you say.

 

[jezza1435]

Always been a better coach than Scott. Always will be.

How on earth would you know this? It can’t be by there coaching record and it can’t be on tonight’s performance. If Kenny got the job at Geelong maybe you would hate him more than you hate Scott. It’s all a “maybe” you can’t say he is a better coach from this side of the fence in my book I’m afraid

 

[Cezz The Catter]

Changes I’d like to see next week:

Out:
Taylor
Henry
Miers

In:
Clark
Close
Steven


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For the record I haven't smiled since the 3rd quarter but this made me crack up.

That is one of the most ludicrous suggestions. You're fundamentally asking to remove two of our best defenders, and in my opinion our most mercurial forward. Only to replace them with a first year player, a second player whose barely played seniors and Jack Steven who has quickly become the new whipping boy.

If we won the ball in the midfield more often and gave our forwards advantageous entries, we would have kicked more goals and it would have relieved a lot of pressure our backs had on them all night.

The engine room was the problem tonight.

 

[catters05]

13, 16, 17 and 19 we've gone L, W, L in Finals.


Can't wait to add 2020 to the list.

which years were the straight sets?

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

What a ridiculous comment, the majority of his shots were hard on the angle and about 30% chance of kicking. Our only other dangerous fwd looks like danger. Our second tier players are found out against the better teams, our form seems to drop away after 13 or 14 games for the last few years.

Where is our youth? Port have butters, rozee, duursma, Marshall, Amon, Burton all 23 or younger plus Farrell and woodcock not in the side. Yet all we do I grab another 26 year old from another club. You need to have a blend of youth and experience.

Why do we continue to play Harry and Hendo in the same team.
Surely Duncan, Guthrie and menegola will be trading for first rounders we need to be bold instead of just getting players from other clubs

Bullshit. Hawkins has nailed those goals all year like I stated in a previous comment. Why should a final be any different? Being on that side of the pocket that he took them from suits his kicking style.
So yes, Hawkins is a huge reason why we lost.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Taylor has dropped off an absolute cliff the past few weeks. Yeah he's been a champion but seriously

He's at the end of his career and may only have 1 game left.
I thought he beat Dixon again tonight though, despite being half the player he was 5 years ago.
I only hope Henry and maybe Kolodjashnij are ready to step up into his role after he has gone.

 

[Two Planks]

Miers can do 1 thing and that is kick goals, yet he plays permanently up the ground where he is a liability.

Rohan and Stanley fly for marks and drop most of them.

Play Blicavs back next week and pick Ratagolea or Jenkins to help Hawkins.

In : Jenkins Close Narkle Clark
Out : Kolo Henry Atkins Dalhaus

O'Connor Taylor Henderson
Stewart Blicavs Bews
Menegola C Guthrie Duncan
Ablett Jenkins Close
Dangerfield Hawkins Miers
Stanley Selwood Parfitt
Clark Rohan
Narkle Touhy

 

[juzcat]

Or kolo after motlop murdered him

Is that no coaching, why on earth put a ponderous tall on a small. Motlop karma big time

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[catstorm]

Where else would you play it? Port earned a home final. Matches can be played in Adelaide. Therefore they earned a home final. Why would they be forced to play in QLD?

If the roles were reversed and WA and SA were locked down, and Port got a "home" final against us at the MCG how is that fair?

You know it’s funny, no one has presented a single argument against what I have said. You all just keep going Port earned it Port earned it.

Then counter my arguments, if they earned a home final fair and square argue how they haven’t been advantaged by Covid, because I’ve proven they did receive unjust advantages.

As to where it should be played a fair and neutral cite, literally anywhere but their home ground or our home ground would have been more fair.

 

[My Tilly]

We have to play him high because he's got a tank and there are others who need to play deeper than him. I said in the lead up there's no room for him in the side with Ablett in the team. I think maybe the best solution we currently have is to bring Fogarty in and rotate Menegola through the high half forward role

Fogarty would be eaten alive in a final.
He's not ready.

Still staggers me how Gary Rohan avoids criticism. He's an absolute dud of a footballer. When the lights are shining brightest, some guys just don't have the ticker to cope with it.
He couldn't even work up the ground and get the ball or push himself into the contests.
Ratugolea at least hits the packs and busts it open.

 

[SkittleCats]

Two of Hawkins were 30-35 out on a 45º angle, bread and butter. Stanley's was more like a 30º angle 40m out and was bread and butter. Kolo directly in front from 45 but he is a defender so forgivable. As far as the boundary shot's go, for the modern player they are very gettable, low % but not crazy low.

Nah, you're asking a lot of a player to kick a goal from 45 out on the fence. It's grasping at straws. Yes we took the mark but it was in a fundamentally bad spot for the shot. We need to have composure moving the ball forward and find the leading forward in a better spot.

 

[maryjames]

Could had should had...


Anyway. Port Cats Grand Final coming up.....

 

[Vivy]

Steven would turn it over with our current game plan of precision kicking. If we have any hope we need to revert to a more chaotic, riskier game plan like the Tigers. Steven would be better suited to playing in the middle and just thumping it forward.

I would agree but we weren't nearly brave enough with the ball tonight as we were in the H&A season. If that's the case then I see no harm in letting Steven loose to win the ball at the contest and hack it forward.

Counterintuitive as we don't play that way. But if we're not going to attempt to execute the game plan and be brave with our short kicks through the zone out of the back half then I see no harm in playing Steven anyway.

 

[Overhang]

Duncan was meh. Had a few good moments here and there but overall didn't offer enough. I really hope that pass off to Hawkins was due to not knowing how much time there was on the clock (which is bad enough) instead of just abdicating responsibility because he *knew* how much time there was on the clock and didn't want the pressure of an after the siren kick before a booing crowd.

He would have been kicking from 57-60m, he was no chance to get that distance and made the right call trying to pass off in time, it was only 2 secs away from coming off.

 

[Seeds]

As soon as Hawkins missed the first few you just KNEW that was going to be the story of his game. I actually got up and said "oh ffs, not THIS" when he missed the second set shot. You could just tell what was going to happen.

Hawkins failing this hard reminded me so much of the 2012 elimination final vs Freo. Similar story where he came in to the game as the most hyped KPF ("omg, who can possibly stop Hawkins, he's a beast!") and then he failed to deliver.

Love Hawk and at least with him you can say he HAS stood up in finals for us in the past, but since 2012 he's been well below his Home and Away level in finals.

His first two shots were on the boundary.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

For the record I haven't smiled since the 3rd quarter but this made me crack up.

That is one of the most ludicrous suggestions. You're fundamentally asking to remove two of our best defenders, and in my opinion our most mercurial forward. Only to replace them with a first year player, a second player whose barely played seniors and Jack Steven who has quickly become the new whipping boy.

If we won the ball in the midfield more often and gave our forwards advantageous entries, we would have kicked more goals and it would have relieved a lot of pressure our backs had on them all night.

The engine room was the problem tonight.

Henry is no where near a “top 2 defender”
He’s horrific under the pump.

 

[SkittleCats]

Krock making the point that if we need to take height out of our backline it might be Taylor that goes. Has the feeling of Mooney in 2011.

 

[Reppie]

Could had should had...


Anyway. Port Cats Grand Final coming up.....

Would like that.

 

[ibuprofen]

Its fine to say who was on Motlop etc but ultimately we are just too big in defence. We effectively run with 4 guys who are immobile (Taylor, Henderson, Kolo and Henry) plus a Stewart who can play smaller but speed isn't his strength. The only guy who can properly play small is O'Connor and when that isn't going well we are screwed and get cut up small forwards as always. Then we play Tuohy out of position because our backline is deficient and we can't move anyone out.

The problem is even when Taylor retires we're screwed as we will get exposed by big forwards as the others struggle on the bigger, more powerful forwards. Hence, it will fix one problem but create another.

 

[thecatattack]

Krock making the point that if we need to take height out of our backline it might be Taylor that goes. Has the feeling of Mooney in 2011.

I 100% agree with Taylor being dropped.