Review Geelong defeats Saints by 8 points

[Kobe Gryant]

Thoughts:

- Dempsey should get a rising star nom after tonight, was the difference in the game

- Holmes was absolutely electric, and is doing better at not fading out of games

- Hawkins was the worst I've seen him in years. Looked slow, annoyed, fumbly, and was often beaten to the ball by his man. Definitely think this is his last year

- Mannagh had 3 moments in that last quarter that literally made me jump out of my seat. Cleared the ball from a contested situation near their forward 50 Dangerfield style, got tackled by Steele and craftily toe poked it right to Dempsey who centered it to Tuohy, and nearly kicked the sealer in another contested situation. Definitely needs to be in the 22 next week

- Ross Lyon football makes me want to break things. They're extraordinarily fit and well drilled, and as a result they ALL flood back and make it impossible to move the ball into your forward line. Then they slingshot it back out with their good kickers. Was an awful spectacle

- My god we couldn't kick straight tonight. Neither could they, but it felt like we had a lot more easy opportunities that we would usually nail

- Jhye Clark is an absolute animal. Will get better with disposal as the season wears on, but can never fault his endeavour

- Bruhn played like he belonged tonight. Spent a lot of the first quarter off the ground, yet still racked up 20 disposals and 8 tackles. Best game I've seen from him, and has definitely gone to another level

- Stanley just kept giving away free kicks to Marshall, and wasn't in his league. The sooner we get Conway ready and persist with him, the sooner we can move on from Stanley

- Danger very solid, and had that burst of speed that we all love back

- Jez is just a freak and that goal of the year contender was just pure bliss

- Zuthrie is now the mini Tom Stewart, and just makes so many good decisions with ball in hand/intercepts well

- Kolo was surprisingly very good, and didn't have one brain fart. Best game I've seen from him since the 2022 Finals series

- Tuohy and O'Connor with some ok moments, but ultimately, I think our depth pushes them out

- Looking to next week:

OUT: Stengle (sore)

IN: Bowes

B: Zuthrie, SDK, J. Henry
HB: Stewart, Kolo, Holmes
C: Blics, Bowes, Miers
FO: Stanley, Danger, Bruhn
HF: O'Henry, J. Cameron, Mannagh
F: Close, Hawkins, Dempsey
INT: Duncan, J. Clark, T. Atkins, O'Connor, Tuohy

We can't obviously, but it feels fairer to assess Bruhn's game like he got 25 touches and just pen that into the statsheet.

With how he played tonight, those 20 minutes robbed him of being the most productive player on the ground.

 

[cats_09]

I must be having a stroke because I nearly gave Kolo votes. Was his best game in ages.

Quoted here as too keep discussion out of the votes thread...

I was throwing a few names around to get the 1 vote tonight, including Kolodjashnij - thought he played a really good game tonight and if he does receive any votes they'll be well earned

 

[Frank Bunn]

I wasnt around back then so dont remember that game. 1993 was the biggest i seen since tonight. And the crowd sounded loud on the tv.

There were quite a lot of Saints fans behind the goals at the south end. At one point they started up a decent chant. Cats fans responded and drowned them out. After one of the Geelong goals a song came on the PA. People were singing along but I didn't know it.

Strangely, one of the few areas with empty seats was in the Geelong cheer squad section.

 

[catempire]

SDK will be fine.

Put me in the worried camp. He’s got all the tools but his lack of attack on the ball at the moment worries me significantly. Praying he comes good.

 

[catempire]

I think we can agree that Ross Lyon football is just awful to watch.

He is going to grind the fun right out of football

When I saw them trying the clog-up, cheat out the back on the fast break, I knew we’d win. It’s such a gimmick.

 

[thecatattack]

 

[crocsta]

Good win but nothing tonight indicated we’re anywhere near 2022 level of excellence.

8 point win at home feels like a loss to be honest.

We still feel a 7th to 10th ladder team

 

[catempire]

Not sure what to make of Stanley’s game? He was ok at times and tried to compete well but dropped some gettable marks. Obviously he’s considered to be ahead of Conway but the gap can’t be too wide now.

Edit - Marshall 19 possessions and 36 hit outs
Stanley 8 and 25

I really liked Stanley in the ruck contests. I thought he nullified Marshall (who I rate) pretty well.

 

[Walter H White]

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I thought De Koning was even WORSE than people are talking about. He needs to have a good, hard look at Sam Taylor

15

Sam Taylor

Age

26

Ht

198cm

Wt

95kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.0

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

5.4

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.1

4star

MG

130.5

2star

D

8.0

2star

K

2.5

1star

HB

5.5

3star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.5

3star

MG

60.8

1star

D

8.6

3star

K

3.0

1star

HB

5.6

4star

M

1.2

2star

T

2.8

5star

MG

110.8

2star

and see that that is the intensity and mindset needed at this level.

Dempsey fantastic. Mannagh exciting. Jezza entertaining. Dangerfield legendary.

 

[petrolium]

Great to have the footy back! Loved how everyone embraced the new stand, it’s a game changer. Kardinia park is virtually unrecognisable compared to what it was like in the 90s/early 00s.. it’s a truly world class stadium now. Important to bank wins early as our play can always improve as the season progresses but it’s difficult to catch up in the win/loss tally. It was awesome seeing a few young players really step up; namely Holmes, Bruhn and Dempsey. Clark was also very impressive at times. We had 6 players in our team tonight who were 23 yrs old or younger. The exciting thing is that there are a few others who didn’t get a game tonight who could also have impressive careers. Mannagh has to start next week, either to replace Stengle (if he can’t recover in time) or Close (who has been very ordinary for the last 12 months and should no longer be considered an automatic selection). It will be very interesting to see how we go against a youthful yet rising team in Adelaide next week.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

When I saw them trying the clog-up, cheat out the back on the fast break, I knew we’d win. It’s such a gimmick.

A gimmick that grinds out some of the most unwatchable wins in footy

 

[Strange Cat]

Good win but nothing tonight indicated we’re anywhere near 2022 level of excellence.

8 point win at home feels like a loss to be honest.

We still feel a 7th to 10th ladder team

Tbf it’s just round one still plenty to get it right but much better to build up the form over the season than be a bull right out of the gate

It’s a long year the club is experienced enough to know how to build the form and game plan up towards the end of the year

 

[catempire]

Won’t be bothering to watch a replay of that one but we did what was needed.

As others have mentioned the game of Dempsey was probably the highlight. Just a classy, dangerous performance. Should have kicked 4 (actually missing from 25m out directly in front annoys me more than almost anything else). I have been sceptical about him but the games this preseason and tonight where he pushes up the ground to the wing and is more involved deal with the key issue I had which was him going missing. If he gets enough of it, things happen.

Dangerfield was fantastic and probably the difference. You just worry whether he can treat his body like that for another six months and still perform at the level.

I will also call out Kolo who is one of my whipping boys but who played really well and the best he has for ages. Still a couple of moments but far more good than bad. I hope he puts my doubts to rest.

Holmes, Bruhn and Clark give cause for optimism about the midfield’s future. All cracked in hard at every opportunity. Bruhn showed a bit of speed and agility I wasn’t previously confident he has.

I think the forward line’s dysfunction tonight will be a bump in the road and we will fix that but the backs still worry me. We cover a lot of our weaknesses with Stewart’s brilliance. We are still getting opened up with defenders way out of position way too often. The coverage we had in 2022 still looks miles off. If we don’t fix this, I can’t see us troubling the top 4 this year.

Obviously we’ll need to play better than that to do much this year but you can’t complain too much.

 

[Frank Bunn]

I’m more worried about the defense , the midfield and forwards will be fine once they start clicking …the defense still looks shaky

Were we playing a high risk game? Applying numbers for contested ball in the forward half.

It wasn't quite clicking which left us exposed at the back when we didn't gain possession. If the mids and forwards start to click then we score more goals and have less pressure on the defence.

 

[DanA]

Some definate positives:

• A relatively healthy list
• Got it done with Hawkins in rare bad form
• The intensity of Bruhn, Clark, Atkins tackling was inpressive
• Cameron, Danger, Stewart were in peak form.
• Dempsey…wow
• Backline was pretty solid
• Holmes looks brilliant

Some negatives:

• Clark butchers it
• Hawkins played a bad game
• O.Henry looked underdone
• O’Connor is great defensively but a liability moving the ball forward.
• Stanley lacks grit for the 1 millionth time.

In the next game I’d love to see us get the ball in Miers hands more and while I’d be in favour of Knevitt and Bruhn coming in for Touhy and O’Connor, I doubt that happens. I also would like Mannagh starting.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Me right now to CE.
My boy Jake

 

[Catastrophe!]

Good win but nothing tonight indicated we’re anywhere near 2022 level of excellence.

8 point win at home feels like a loss to be honest.

We still feel a 7th to 10th ladder team

We weren't anywhere near 2022 excellence at the start of 2022 either. We were 4-5 before it all clicked and we went on our 16 game streak.

Start of season means nothing compared to the end of it.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Here's an open question: how many more games like that can Hawkins play before being "rested" and bringing Neale in?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Put me in the worried camp. He’s got all the tools but his lack of attack on the ball at the moment worries me significantly. Praying he comes good.

Confidence hasnt been the same since his face was smashed in. Hope it returns.

Here's an open question: how many more games like that can Hawkins play before being "rested" and bringing Neale in?

Hes 35. If we are smart he will be rested every month or so regardless of performance anyway.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

We weren't anywhere near 2022 excellence at the start of 2022 either. We were 4-5 before it all clicked and we went on our 16 game streak.

Start of season means nothing compared to the end of it.

We had a pretty good round 1

 

[Catastrophe!]

Here's an open question: how many more games like that can Hawkins play before being "rested" and bringing Neale in?

Honestly, I'd be giving him a few - he's earned it. With that said, if he plays like tonight a few weeks in a row, it'll be impossible not to rest him. Was almost a liability tonight.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Confidence hasnt been the same since his face was smashed in. Hope it returns.


Hes 35. If we are smart he will be rested every month or so regardless of performance anyway.

So 3 games?

 

[Mr Meow]

It is.

On Twitter you can at least build your own community of who you follow and interact with. I've built a good community of Cats fans to interact with.

I thought at least we could be friends.

 

[Catastrophe!]

We had a pretty good round 1

We had a better Round 26

 

[Strange Cat]

Here's an open question: how many more games like that can Hawkins play before being "rested" and bringing Neale in?

Hard one to answer really , the club tends to play him out rather than rest him as he tends to improve with more game time