Review Geelong defeats WB at Kp by 44 points

Ive never been a rap - and im still not a rap

2 ways of looking at Geelongs season to date -(a) Outstanding effort to be 8-1 and on top of the ladder ( bearing in mind the difficult opening fixtures ) and no one had Geel in flag contention - $30 on offer with the bookies etc (b) Now the Cats are 8-1 and on top - what are the concerns - and my big worry is still that midfield - which gets beaten far too often - theve fixed the forward line that is now much improved - but that midfield and centre clearances is a massive worry
Speak for yourself on that one GOB.
 

Play it Sam

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As usual, we couldn't watch the game, as it was "Foxtel only" (thanks anti-siphoning laws)...so, sitting here at the Chinchilla Showgrounds, I paired up the laptop with the Mrs' 'phone, and listened to the K-ROCK broadcast again.

Agree with a few of the sentiments expressed here, in that we can get scored against easily with fast hands/fast transition footy (not enough pressure through midfield?), but are doing enough at both ends defensively to limit the damage.

From the sounds of it, Abbott and Fort probably make a decent, solid ruck/forward...between them. Good on Fort for presenting and getting on the end of a few though.

I watched some highlights on the AFL site this morning. Rohan looks quite quick, doesn't he? 😉
He took one mark he had no right to get near, and clearly is bringing some serious referred heat to the forward line.

Stewart seemed to enjoy his mark (and why wouldn't he?)

As others have mentioned, the mark of a good team is winning when not playing well. Must admit, though, that even the (biased) K-ROCK callers seemed taken aback with some of the umpiring calls in the last quarter.

On to next week, then...

Congrats on your determination to see the game up in no man's land, we've all been in that predicament. Hope you can make it to Metricon. At the ground, I was seriously taken aback with Rohan's closing speed in real time. Heading for the boundary and hunting a Dog's player intent on the incoming ball, his footspeed off a standing start was phenomenal. Oppo's must think they're in the way of a speeding train. Good. There might be something in the theory that he was underutilised at Sydney, I remember him playing on a wing there at one stage, and always had the goods, but at the moment he is literally flying.
 

Ricketz

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When you win by 8 goals playing that badly you’re travelling pretty well.

What troubles me is Dogs played the blueprint game to beat us and others will copy it and be better at it.

Loved Duncan, Selwood, Rohan, Hawkins, Fort.

Thought the back six had a shocker.

We had our arse handed to us in the midfield. Dangerfield invisible and Kelly only got going late.

Overall, a familiar refrain: bank the 4 points and move on.
I don't think a possession game is the blue print to beat us. Our pressure game breaks it down by half time. The only team to do it successfully had a blinder and only beat us by 4 points. And they are a lot better quality side than the dogs.

If you want to beat Geelong, you have to take risks and attack. Going slow just gives us opportunity to apply pressure and set our defence.
 

Ricketz

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Back in the 07-08 days - we had a 22 that would get out on teams and then keep them at arms length and then have a blistering 7 mins and put them away properly.

This is not that team - however we have been able to keep the at arms length and then do enough to stay in front.
We have a LONG way to go and need to improve considerably IMO to do this against the better sides - ( i doubt right now the form last night applied to the Pies would get us home for example) but what it is doing is building belief. And thats important.

I want to see it done against a stronger side and for a full game - not asking much huh - but there is a foundation building there that yet yield fruits later in the season.

I want to see what happens when we are 4 goals down at 1/4 time - what happens when the kicking % drops and scoring is harder to do.

We need to IMO keep building on what we have - which is good but needs to be better

GO Catters
I get what you are saying, but will be entirely comfortable if we are never four goals down at quarter time this year.
 

Play it Sam

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I don't think a possession game is the blue print to beat us. Our pressure game breaks it down by half time. The only team to do it successfully had a blinder and only beat us by 4 points. And they are a lot better quality side than the dogs.

If you want to beat Geelong, you have to take risks and attack. Going slow just gives us opportunity to apply pressure and set our defence.

You're right. They had very,very fast hands. Got close. As they tired, started playing to our talls advantage by lobbing it in. I think this is the game opposition coaches will be most interested in.
 

Farmer2Goggin

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i was talking to someone at 1/2 time and saying how I loved Clarks attitude to go for the footy.
Jumping at balls most first year players wouldn't etc.

Then I heard his stats.....

I still want him in though.

Unsurprisingly the interrupted preseason is catching up with him and we are also playing him in a role he hasn’t played.
Won’t surprise me if he’s not in our best 22 come finals but feel sure he will be next season
Those who have called him timid didn’t see him play WAFL and his leg is so good he’ll one of our best kicks soon if he’s not there already.
 
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Congrats on your determination to see the game up in no man's land, we've all been in that predicament. Hope you can make it to Metricon. At the ground, I was seriously taken aback with Rohan's closing speed in real time. Heading for the boundary and hunting a Dog's player intent on the incoming ball, his footspeed off a standing start was phenomenal. Oppo's must think they're in the way of a speeding train. Good. There might be something in the theory that he was underutilised at Sydney, I remember him playing on a wing there at one stage, and always had the goods, but at the moment he is literally flying.
Quite amazing to watch. Matched by determination to impact such as the mark in the last is a joy to all of us real Cat fans. So good to see him revelling in his role.
 

Farmer2Goggin

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Sportsbet has us as faves at the moment. What could be wrong with that? :drunk:

It’s a very tight season as evidenced by the very low percentages even by teams with a positive win to loss ratio
Us and Collingwood the exceptions.

Pies had a similar game to us , a struggle but pulled away in the last to win comfortably.
Can’t understand those who call yesterday boring , watching us concede the midfield and our defence under pressure yet we still win comfortably with clinical forward efficiency is a new look and intriguing:thumbsu:
 
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It’s a very tight season as evidenced by the very low percentages even by teams with a positive win to loss ratio
Us and Collingwood the exceptions.

Pies had a similar game to us , a struggle but pulled away in the last to win comfortably.
Can’t understand those who call yesterday boring , watching us concede the midfield and our defence under pressure yet we still win comfortably with clinical forward efficiency is a new look and intriguing:thumbsu:
Agree, but Sporstbet has got recent favourite odds way off the mark.
 

Spearman

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Back in the 07-08 days - we had a 22 that would get out on teams and then keep them at arms length and then have a blistering 7 mins and put them away properly.

This is not that team - however we have been able to keep the at arms length and then do enough to stay in front.
We have a LONG way to go and need to improve considerably IMO to do this against the better sides - ( i doubt right now the form last night applied to the Pies would get us home for example) but what it is doing is building belief. And thats important.

I want to see it done against a stronger side and for a full game - not asking much huh - but there is a foundation building there that yet yield fruits later in the season.

I want to see what happens when we are 4 goals down at 1/4 time - what happens when the kicking % drops and scoring is harder to do.

We need to IMO keep building on what we have - which is good but needs to be better

GO Catters

quoted to add more 'like', mirrors a lot of what I'm thinking.

I hope the coaches are keeping the boys real despite the record. I really hope nobody is drinking their own bathwater but also, paradoxically, building their confidences. Worse case for me would be that some will be thinking that a some other teammate will always pull them forward and he himself will mentally just be along for the ride. "Skip will get us back in it", "Paddy's got this". They all have to have that desperation to give them that extra step and a half. Those potential spectators need to be leaders. They had that at the start of the season. Need to get it back for last half.
There is talent throughout the squad. Let's see their mental toughness and physical durability now.
PS. nice speech by Coach at 3/4 time. Like.
 

Spearman

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What is it with football supporters that no matter how well the team is playing, someone must be in the gun? I am struggling to think of a player in the Geelong line up who hasn't been pulling his weight this season, remembering that most predicted us to be bottom half of the 8 at absolute best. Now we are judging them compared to our very best teams of the 07-11 era. Very enjoyable stuff this year.
that's what I find funny about Clark; he was on the wing a lot right? The wing, where Cats go to be in the doghouse? :D
 

Spearman

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Found it funny how some of the posters most critical of the umpiring in the game day thread on the main board are Eagles supporters, especially after they got an armchair ride in the last quarter to get them to come over the top of the Dees on Friday night.
had a read through some of it after the game, sad. it shows the mentality of Australians the way Newman's Street Talk did. Aside from a scarce few thoughtful posters, just a distillation of mindless, knee-jerk, sloganeering, childish spitting. Not even funny, just depressing.
 

Spearman

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Stanley wasnt good at that until we gave him an extended run in the ruck. Im not saying we should pick Abbott over Stanley but its hard for rucks and mids to develop sync when they dont regularly play together. I thought Abbotts ground level 2nd efforts were really good considering he is less athletic than Stanley.
I though Abbot did what he was supposed to do, that was to compete. His first match at top level and he worked his way into game as it went. He may not be first pick, but he is a reliable backup IMO.
 

Spearman

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But the number of times their knockons and punches landed in a team mate's path was ridiculous.
they prototyped it back in 16, Tigers perfected it. Will see more and more of it as pressure increases. Ugly but the choice may be that or rugby scrums and endless ball ups.
 

Catsace

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You're right. They had very,very fast hands. Got close. As they tired, started playing to our talls advantage by lobbing it in. I think this is the game opposition coaches will be most interested in.

I reckon the 'fast hands' is the way that Geelong gets exposed, and someone made an important observation earlier in the thread, where just 4% of our tackles are rewarded with a free kick. So often players from opposition clubs...and the Dogs, Eagles, Tigers and GSW are pretty good at this, they have this frustrating ability to hoick or somehow extricate a ball from our tackles, sometimes even when we have a swarm of tackles...to find the ball to some unmanned bloke on the outside who then switches and the ball comes downfield for a scoring foray.

The Dogs were quite amazing in how they did that, particularly in the 2nd and 3rd quarters even with their defensive spoiling. I think it was in the last quarter, the Dog's first goal where a kick to a Cat forward was punched or spoiled about 25 metres back towards the middle of the ground, and then they swooped upon it to set up the goal that saw them get to within 9 points. And another spoil in the 3rd where a punch from a contest landed smack bang to a unmarked Dog, and it wound up in the hands of one of Bont's huge kicks for goal. By contrast that Blicavs sort of half volleyball spoil rather sadly went behind him and it was swooped on by a Dog who ran into an open goal in the 2nd quarter.

That sort of stuff annoys me, but it's quite often what gets on top of Geelong. Thankfully after that opening 4th quarter goal, and the fact that Geelong had about 3-4 intercept kicks land in the arm of a Dog defender early on...they lowered the eyes and started to find our forwards better. The fact that we wrested control and ultimately careened away to a 44 point with with 21.7 was heartening, as i do think it showed a sort of Plan B, where for example the Eagles were stifled by defence and could hardly score, the Dogs brought an open high-risk game-style that was high scoring, and we were able to answer that in spades. That ability to pour on the score is needed when playing sides like the Tigers and Pies, and GWS too, although i am quite peed off at how they could bring it so well against Geelong at KP a few weeks ago but simply turn the toes up meekly against the Hawks.

I think some of our blokes might need a bit of a rest, Danger particularly. Maybe this year the bye might be a good thing. But at 8-1 with the best percentage we are in the sweet spot on the ladder and are able to perhaps rest a few players here and there this season.
 

Warhorse

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It's our lack of two way running that's a major concern. We look much better wheb defensive midfielders are in the centre rather than just Dangerfield selwood Duncan and Kelly.
 

Play it Sam

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had a read through some of it after the game, sad. it shows the mentality of Australians the way Newman's Street Talk did. Aside from a scarce few thoughtful posters, just a distillation of mindless, knee-jerk, sloganeering, childish spitting. Not even funny, just depressing.

More confusing is the consistent (now more so than ever) cheats ground/bowling alley/ sleepy bogan hollow diatribe from just about everyone we play. And the snickering that we don't play finals there. As if the team attached to these brain dead forum dwellers had no advantage at their own often interstate, mcg or docklands home. Unoriginal, lame excuses.
 
I thought the Dogs played well, their midfield goes well and that move the ball forward by hand or any means at all costs stuff they can do is bloody hard to stop when they get going.
Good signs i feel that we still put that gap on without really playing well.. We may do a serious number on teams back half of the year.

We seem to have that ability to burst goals when we need again.. Overall can't really complain, things to work on but time to work on them
 

Tony Barber

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Feel sorry for the dogs.
44 pt loss.
Labor loses.
Shorten steps down.

Lol. Oh what a great day to be alive.
Although my seat is still 63% bloody labor.


*note: I'm a swinging voter. I just don't like living in a one sided electorate.
Political rant over :)
 

Play it Sam

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The dewey conditions led to a lot of missed tackles, fumbles and dropped marks. Perseverance got us through, and Selwood was great at the times when others weren't doing enough hard stuff.

Bullies could say the same, and they did. Along the lines of "not fair, they train there." Hahaha, we have a giant fog machine hidden under the Peroni lounge don't we?
 
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