Autopsy Geelong defeated by Port by 16 points.

[Seeds]

Narkle and Sav in for me.

Seeds fully endorses this post

 

[Ray Donovan]

Nailed it - Scott's unwillingess to accept *any* kind of responsibility is a key reason why nothing is changing year after year. He needs to go - he has had so many opportunities and failed every time other than his first year when the team was primed by the previous regime...

I mean I still hold a glimmer of hope for 2020 but that's just the one eyed supporter in me I assume. History suggests we win next week then get knocked. It's an emotional rollercoaster used to be nothing better as a supporter your team finishing in the top 4 now I just live in hope and fear Haha. I mean if you win week one then we dread the bye. If you lose week win big bounce back the next week we kick a good score then we dread the first half of prelim.

It's just so hard to work out I'm just confused now how they can play so well early home and away then finals come around and you have no idea what will get served up.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Narkle and Sav in for me.

Old argument I know, but why would Sav come in? Structure worked perfectly fine the other night. Hawkins and Stanley were the only forwards on the ground who took multiple marks.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Old argument I know, but why would Sav come in? Structure worked perfectly fine the other night. Hawkins and Stanley were the only forwards on the ground who took multiple marks.

I'd say that was due to ports horrendous tall backs, whereas from here we are going to face quality intercept/3rd man up defenses AND quality ruckman that will require Stanleys full attention.
I'd advocate another tall forward, for a small actually, since the teams left also have multiple tall forward options and we'll likely need all of our backs, although I'm ok if a Henry or whatever misses out.

 

[STPer18]

Old argument I know, but why would Sav come in? Structure worked perfectly fine the other night. Hawkins and Stanley were the only forwards on the ground who took multiple marks.

Just my opinion but WCE live for intercept marks. Hawkins only really shines in 1v1s and Rohan is too flaky to be relied on - Sav at the very least provides a contest and gives us far more options if things aren't going our way. Also in the corresponding game last year he took four contested marks and booted the three goals.

 

[STPer18]

I'd say that was due to ports horrendous tall backs, whereas from here we are going to face quality intercept/3rd man up defenses AND quality ruckman that will require Stanleys full attention.
I'd advocate another tall forward, for a small actually, since the teams left also have multiple tall forward options and we'll likely need all of our backs, although I'm ok if a Henry or whatever misses out.

Yep, we're not going to be so lucky to have a Trent Mackenzie as the key defender if we face WCE next week. McGovern, Barass and Hurn need to be made accountable or else they'll have a field day.

 

[cats_09]

I think on the Cats twitter. At any rate is was near the club website on a search

I found it in this article - watching the incident, I thought it was a free kick or 50m penalty for holding onto a player after they have disposed of the ball and you stop them running to the next contest

Hawkins disposes the ball, tries to run on and Rockliff grabs him & doesn't let go - why no free kick for holding/impeding the player?

Tom Hawkins slapped with striking charge after horror finals showing

Star Cat slapped with striking charge after horror finals showing

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[Down at K Park]

So narkle dominated two weeks in a row now. Exactly what we need. Some energy And spark.

I wouldn’t mind him in.

Probably get zuthrie though. Can never have too many defenders in a chris scott team.

 

[Vdubs]

Apparently Jenkins was great in the scratch match as well, kicked 3 goals, took some good grabs and created a contest for the smalls, we could have used him Thursday night.

Hawkins prob\ably would have had 7 in that game

 

[Mr Meow]

This season is more compromised though. Port and Brisbane more home games, so are they really top 2? Then you factor in finals experience against port and Brisbane if we make a prelim then I think cats should be doing better than 1-2.

It's a reasonable point. Geelong in reality have been on about par with the rest of the top 4, but this means Port and Brisbane home games give them the slight edge. Still, with good goal kicking we were clearly good enough to beat Port. I think if we kicked straight against Brisbane in a prelim we would be a good chance. Still, we are just as likely to lose the SF next week.

 

[Landgraft]

How so? What has CS to do with Hawkins missing every shot on goal in a final? Because he was sitting there watching him?

Are you actually going to say the coach has no accountability to the performance of the team?

Obviously there's plenty going on that cannot be personally directed at Scott there, but to somehow detach him from it requires absurd mental gymnastics. They are still his players, it is still his team. And his job is to be involved in setting the events in motion that will help them to be better than they were or have been.

 

[afl genius]

I think he just genuinely doesn't know what to do. He's tried and tried, but there's just something about this group and his coaching that isn't conducive to winning finals, and he's failed to identify what it is. He's out of ideas and at this point, he's just hoping for the best.

Which is the staggering thing about all of it. You don't need to be a head coach to realise the easy fixes let alone the more in depth stuff. Even more staggering is he's the head coach and can't work this out... what hope do we really have

 

[Vdubs]

Are you actually going to say the coach has no accountability to the performance of the team?

Obviously there's plenty going on that cannot be personally directed at Scott there, but to somehow detach him from it requires absurd mental gymnastics. They are still his players, it is still his team. And his job is to be involved in setting the events in motion that will help them to be better than they were or have been.

Specifically, 100% the coach has nothing to do with Hawkins' errant kicking for goal, and the errors made by Parfitt and Duncan and Henry, which were all very costly. Had Hawkins kicked even 2 goals, it leads to a centre bounce, not a possession play on scene for Port.

 

[tielgaz]

Hawkins prob\ably would have had 7 in that game

That’s 10 goals then, better than 7, we need another target. No use having 4 defensive forwards. All the other small forwards in the final teams are kick goals ours are chasing tails. Time for a few pack Marks haven’t seen any of late!

 

[ATSAM]

I found it in this article - watching the incident, I thought it was a free kick or 50m penalty for holding onto a player after they have disposed of the ball and you stop them running to the next contest

Hawkins disposes the ball, tries to run on and Rockliff grabs him & doesn't let go - why no free kick for holding/impeding the player?

Tom Hawkins slapped with striking charge after horror finals showing

Star Cat slapped with striking charge after horror finals showing

www.foxsports.com.au

Tommy never seems to get the best of the Umpiring.

 

[cats_09]

So um, it's not so much that we are slow to start the match (that's the old bad habit) but now rather it's that we're slow to switch back in after halftime

 

[Vdubs]

So um, it's not so much that we are slow to start the match but rather it's that we're slow to switch back in after halftime

View attachment 977596

First quarters the majority, 4/7.
But even when a team wins, it's rare to win 4 quarters.

 

[cats_09]

First quarters the majority, 4/7.
But even when a team wins, it's rare to win 4 quarters.

After the Collingwood final last year we seemed to have actually addressed the slow starts/first quarter issues as we haven't been blown out of the water by quarter time

Problem is the issues transferred to our 3rd quarters and we've lost that in our last 3 finals:
WCE won the 3rd quarter by 14 points
Richmond won the 3rd quarter by 25 points
Port won the 3rd quarter by 13 points

Hopefully our halftime routine is being reviewed and reassessed as we're not as switched on after halftime

 

[God Mode]

So um, it's not so much that we are slow to start the match (that's the old bad habit) but now rather it's that we're slow to switch back in after halftime

View attachment 977596

At least the amounts we are conceding in these periods of lapses are lessening. That's a positive!

 

[And_ROOS]

Hawkins prob\ably would have had 7 in that game

7 behinds...

 

[Seeds]

Miers is a poor tackler.

Miers tackle count is nearly as low as atkins as a foward this year. So yes poor.

but miers can be a multiple goal kicker. Close isnt. Whats more important. Goals or tackles?

 

[someday-somehow]

Yup I agree, it was kinda both really, our intent was certainly there so you could almost say the bye was irrelevant, but like you said the outcome followed the same pattern of the last several years.
IMO the primary problem, and I've discussed this with a mate, is like what Nick Rei.....woldt..., whatever, said, in that our system requires perfection to win finals, whereas the Port/Lions/Tigers/WCE method doesn't, that they can lose key areas or be outplayed and still win finals. IMO that comes down to 1 simple difference between home and away and finals, intensity. We play a system that does not correlate to an increase in intensity, you can't "hold the ball and control the tempo" with any more intensity and expect a better result, whereas those 4 teams above DO have systems that intensity has a marked effect on, both ways. Essentially, we simply don't have players who play finals football nor a system that's conducive to finals success.

I also mentioned this earlier in this thread as well. What are the chances of playing 3 "perfect" games in a row against desparate opposition? So if we can't do that with the most experienced list in the competition then we should all agree we are just treading water.

I remember Sheedy nearing the end of his tenure at Essendon kept topping up with older players going for "one more shot" and it didn't work and eventually they tumbled down the ladder as a result. Paying overs for a great player like Judd didn't help carlton - it just gave WCE a gun in Kennedy, another example of a fail.

What do this years top teams have in common? - most of their talent has been developed, not traded for with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions per side. What do we do?, play mercenaries instead of blooding home grown talent.

 

[Footy Smarts]

After the Collingwood final last year we seemed to have actually addressed the slow starts/first quarter issues as we haven't been blown out of the water by quarter time

Problem is the issues transferred to our 3rd quarters and we've lost that in our last 3 finals:
WCE won the 3rd quarter by 14 points
Richmond won the 3rd quarter by 25 points
Port won the 3rd quarter by 13 points

Hopefully our halftime routine is being reviewed and reassessed as we're not as switched on after halftime

Previously it was first quarters and the issues were entirely being defensively unaccountable and being fumbly and mistake riddled with the ball. It gave really easy clearances to our opponents and the few times we won the ball (eg first 10 minutes in the final against Melbourne) we didn't do damage with the ball. Scott deserves significant criticism around the defensive issues but not fumbling and butchering the ball can't really be blamed on the coach. Guthrie and Parfitt playing more midfield from the semi last year has really helped our defensive game and also helped our composure as they're normally pretty clean with their hands under pressure.

The biggest worry is we now seem to get nervy and make mistakes when we get time to think about it with set shots and simple kicks out of defence after marks. There's going to be times during a match where you get beaten around the ball and both against Richmond and Port when that happened we butchered it out of the back half. Danger letting Cotchin free to nail Stanley which led to an immediate goal in the 3rd against Richmond to give them momentum and Hawkins missing so many chances against Port put us under way more pressure too. It tends to be our best players make mistakes putting the whole team under extra pressure and collectively we don't stand up to it and the panic spreads through the entire team.

I watched the replay of Thursday again and it's pretty remarkable how many fewer individual mistakes they made than us. Not many teams can win in finals when they waste chances and then turn the ball over with bad kicks so many times. The coaches would've been tearing their hair out because we were the better side in defence, midfield and attack except for probably 10 bad individual errors and 3-4 moments of bad luck basically all in the 2nd quarter where the fall/bounce of the ball cost us.

 

[STPer18]

Parfitt our best according to the coaches. Tried hard all night.

PORT ADELAIDE v GEELONG

9 Ollie Wines (PORT)
5 Sam Powell-Pepper (PORT)
4 Tom Rockliff (PORT)
4 Hamish Hartlett (PORT)
3 Brad Ebert (PORT)
2 Steven Motlop (PORT)
2 Brandan Parfitt (GEEL)
1 Rhys Stanley (GEEL)

 

[My Tilly]

Parfitt our best according to the coaches. Tried hard all night.

PORT ADELAIDE v GEELONG

9 Ollie Wines (PORT)
5 Sam Powell-Pepper (PORT)
4 Tom Rockliff (PORT)
4 Hamish Hartlett (PORT)
3 Brad Ebert (PORT)
2 Steven Motlop (PORT)
2 Brandan Parfitt (GEEL)
1 Rhys Stanley (GEEL)

And we have nuffies who want him traded. lol, at least he's showing some heart. Not even guys in their late 20's can give us that much.
Sure' he has deficiencies but he puts his head over the ball and has developed with each passing season to date.