Autopsy Geelong loses to PA in QF2 by about 6 goals.

[cats_09]

This exposes another issue in that if Allir was chopping off everything why weren’t Hawkins, Cameron or Stanley competing down the line and ensuring the ball comes to ground.

At times it seemed they were and against their direct opponent

In the first quarter Aliir was matched up against Rohan, Miers & Dangerfield - not sure if was necessarily our coaches trying to set that up, or Aliir intentionally looking to create those mismatches who he then worked off of to be that spare man going up & competing when we bombed it in long

At one stage when he was opposed to Dangerfield, we tried to get the ball in long to Hawkins and they commented that Dangerfield checked his run to not actually go to the contest and to try & keep Aliir out of it. Instead, Aliir didn't give a shit about Dangerfield and did want he wanted to do which was go third man up

With Aliir wanting to play in that fashion where he's focus wasn't on his opponent but rather on the contests involving Cameron & Hawkins, we needed to lower our eyes and look for where Aliir's opponent was, especially if his direct opponent was staying out of the contest and free. If his opponent started working off him and became an option, that's how we would have made Aliir accountable and him needing to respect his opponent rather than playing his own game

 

[Partridge]

Haven't watched the 2nd half replay yet. Don't think I can TBH.

Watching the first half replay now.

The vision of Higgins warming up on the boundary line was pretty funny. It was the closest he got to a contest all night, and we got to hear Brayshaw tell us he won a Best and Fairest at North. That's like being the most courageous French soldier of May 1940 - not exactly massive standards to meet.

 

[And_ROOS]

Our forward smalls
Dahlhaus, Close, Miers & Simpson
their forward smalls
Gray, Fantasia, Butters & Rozee

Close out performed all their players besides Fantasia who hit the scoreboard. And if Close had kicked 2 he would have been on par with him (less goals but would have more disposals and tackles).

Miers was poor. Simpson was very poor. Dahlhaus should retire.
Next week we should be going in with Close, Evans, Narkle and Higgins as our small/medium forwards. Simpson and Dahlhaus need to be dropped.

 

[TheWoodenSlug]

This exposes another issue in that if Allir was chopping off everything why weren’t Hawkins, Cameron or Stanley competing down the line and ensuring the ball comes to ground.

I was just about to mention this as well.

I'm not as hot on Sav as a lot of this board, but if our game plan involves constantly bombing the ball long down the line and/or inside 50 then he needs to come in. For all his faults, he's the only bloke we have that has consistently shown that he's willing and able to jump at any high ball and at least make a contest. In fact, it's his one wood.

Rohan either out of the side or into the backline - where he was actually quite good and provided some much needed pace and kicking skills coming out of defence - and Sav in.

 

[Footy Smarts]

I just watched the first quarter and a bit again and the worst bit is that we were the better team in general play and should've been 2-3 goals up. Instead through a mix of missed shots (Hawkins and Parfitt), bad ball use going forward, a horrendous moment from Henderson (with a bit of Guthrie assistance) and a bit of real class from Gray we went in 10 points down. Then the second quarter was a shit show of basic errors.

Genuine question we should be asking. Was Henderson checked for concussion this week after his collision with Cameron late last week? I can't remember a worse individual performance from any player in any match. His 3 worst mistakes that all led to goals in the first half were just bizarre.

 

[And_ROOS]

Watching the first half replay now.

The vision of Higgins warming up on the boundary line was pretty funny. It was the closest he got to a contest all night, and we got to hear Brayshaw tell us he won a Best and Fairest at North. That's like being the most courageous French soldier of May 1940 - not exactly massive standards to meet.

My commiserations.

 

[Partridge]

Thank god we have brave people like you willing to stand against the tidal wave of pro-Scott sentiment in this thread and call our coach out for what he is.

Or alternatively have a contrary view.

Back to Scott, I think he's an arrogant ********. Living in a fantasyland that the club, players, and a good chunk of this board share.

 

[Partridge]

I was hoping for Fat Bastard but thank you.

 

[Sire of Claude]

Gee Class Loco. our home ground advantage is significant - we rarely lose there or hadn't you noticed. Glass half full? Cliched bullshit. I'd say after our finals history the glass is more than half empty. Who suggested trading out Blicavs or whoever; i'm talking about trading players in. And not even danger has achieved the ultimate for us.

Radical change: why not? orr are you happy gettignflogge din September every year? What do you suggest?

I'm not your buddy.

 

[And_ROOS]

I was just about to mention this as well.

I'm not as hot on Sav as a lot of this board, but if our game plan involves constantly bombing the ball long down the line and/or inside 50 then he needs to come in. For all his faults, he's the only bloke we have that has consistently shown that he's willing and able to jump at any high ball and at least make a contest. In fact, it's his one wood.

Rohan either out of the side or into the backline - where he was actually quite good and provided some much needed pace and kicking skills coming out of defence - and Sav in.

We genuinely lack both pace and skill and intelligence off the half back line. We had Duncan there last night, but how often do we see ball butchers in Henderson, Kolo, Atkins and Bews bringing the ball slowly and poorly off HB.
Put Rohan and Duncan at HB. Direct the scrub defenders to give it to them.

Earlier this season Rohan drifted back and frequently would switch play with quick long kicks from one wing to the other.

If you do that, bring Esava in as the 3rd tall forward and have him leap at everything.

We have no Stewart and no Tuohy. This is just like 2018 and 2019 where our defense at times is using poor ball users to rebound out of the d50 and it costs us. So often Kolo and Hendo in the 1st kicked it straight to Aliir. They are low iq footballers.

 

[My Tilly]

Of course they did. Too many are terrified to face reality, or acknowledge Scott is not the super genius they think he is.

Scott is a genius at manipulation.

He is brilliant at turning a bad situation into a positive. Sometimes he will change the topic of conversation such as the reality of life & covid's effect on everyday Aussie's. This tactic immediately emphasizes with people.
Will often turn a question around and focus on his pride of players instead of simply answering the bloody question. Again, pulls at the heart strings to suck you in.
These millionaires who live in a bubble need to stick to what is transpiring on the football field.

Rarely does he get asked the difficult questions by journalists. Why do we have a 39% finals record under his tenure and more importantly, why are we 6-14 post premiership year in finals. And why the hell have we found ourselves;

Down 48 points 2nd quarter v Fremantle
Down 32 points 3rd quarter v North Melbourne
Down 55 points 3rd quarter v Sydney
Down 46 points 4th quarter v Richmond
Down 50 points 2nd quarter v Adelaide
Down 34 points 2nd quarter v Melbourne
Down 36 points 2nd quarter v Collingwood
And down by 41 points 3rd quarter v Port Adelaide last night.

 

[Spazz Cat]

A strange moment I saw was Motlop giving Isaac Smith

7

Isaac Smith

Age

37

Ht

188cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.3

5star

K

13.0

5star

HB

8.4

5star

M

5.5

5star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.7

4star

D

19.4

4star

K

11.1

4star

HB

8.3

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.5

3star

CL

1.3

4star

D

19.2

5star

K

10.6

4star

HB

8.6

5star

M

7.6

5star

T

2.0

4star

CL

0.6

3star

shit.
Then Smith gave it back in his usual fashion with that cheeky smile of his.
But then Motlop just laughed at him and it seemed it dawned on Smith what jumper he was now wearing.
Then he was really flat for about the next 10 mins. Barely ran. Had really bad body language.
Kind of sad cause it's us but kind of funny cause I hate Smith.

 

[Leeds17]

Close out performed all their players besides Fantasia who hit the scoreboard. And if Close had kicked 2 he would have been on par with him (less goals but would have more disposals and tackles).

Miers was poor. Simpson was very poor. Dahlhaus should retire.
Next week we should be going in with Close, Evans, Narkle and Higgins as our small/medium forwards. Simpson and Dahlhaus need to be dropped.

Close was good no doubt but as a whole they were far better when the ball hit the deck in their F50 they were extremely likely to score, when the ball hit the deck in our F50 it disappeared up the other end.

 

[Play it Sam]

We seemed to kick to Aliir a lot more in the first quarter and stopped bombing it long in the air in such fashion after quarter time - guessing based on the coaches instructions

When Dangerfield tried switching the ball in the second quarter & Henderson dropped the mark leading to another Port goal, a key reason for switching was Aliir down the line and thus the long kick wasn't on

But as for kicking it long in Aliir's direction in the first quarter, the players need to take some responsibility for that and especially our apparent on field leaders for repeatedly doing the same thing without talking amongst themselves to change things up. It's not like Scott could call a time-out in the middle of the quarter to talk about things and that's where the players need to take responsibility for adjusting their approach & not just bombing the ball long

That's where the wise heads of Stewart and Tuohey would have been handy.
That's not excuse making either, obvious gaping holes left and the personnel can't fill.
Later made worse, although the horse had bolted by then, by the loss of MOC
Definition of insanity though.

 

[Partridge]

Sold.

He was woeful, as usual - but his drop-off is nothing compared to Gary Rohan or Patrick Dangerfield's.

To be fair, Rohan hasn't dropped off, he's just producing the same shit he always has. Dangerfield really has dropped off, and alarmingly.

 

[maxy87]

I’m too incredulous and despondent to post anything comprehensive, but in a nutshell:
- this is now a decade long data set with an established pattern of underperformance in finals. It is very difficult to argue otherwise. I’m not saying that the Cats should have won last night but it’s not unreasonable to expect a performance that meets the required intensity of a final.
- the game style is unsuitable for high intensity, dynamic finals matches. We have 2 Coleman medallists in the team that barely fired a shot. Unacceptable.
- the game style is furnished by a large group of mentally weak, soft and limited footballers that are rewarded for their defensive running patterns and work rate rather than their footballing nous (Menegola, Miers, Blicavs, Kolo immediately come to mind). Meanwhile the team is screaming out for leg speed and creativity and more dynamic players like Clark and Narkle are banished to the VFL for not being defensive robots. Genuine ball winners like Constable are left to rot in the VFL.
- the team is being carried by a very talented top end that are nearing the end of their careers and are nowhere near the players they once were (e.g. Selwood). Many of the others would struggle to get a game in other top 8 sides.
- recruiting old and cooked players (Smith being the exception - he has had a good year) needs to be reconsidered, as does the burning of decent picks on speculative flops.
- Patrick Dangerfield might be a gun player but he is a huge flog and a negative influence on the team. My crows supporting mates agree. There I said it. Sue me.
- where is the mongrel in this team? Our coach was one of the biggest mongrels in the league when he played and never took a backward step.

Irrespective of what plays out from here change is needed if the club is going to elevate itself once again from being “pretty good” to “great”. The current approach will only get you so far.

 

[TheWoodenSlug]

We genuinely lack both pace and skill and intelligence off the half back line. We had Duncan there last night, but how often do we see ball butchers in Henderson, Kolo, Atkins and Bews bringing the ball slowly and poorly off HB.
Put Rohan and Duncan at HB. Direct the scrub defenders to give it to them.

Earlier this season Rohan drifted back and frequently would switch play with quick long kicks from one wing to the other.

If you do that, bring Esava in as the 3rd tall forward and have him leap at everything.

We have no Stewart and no Tuohy. This is just like 2018 and 2019 where our defense at times is using poor ball users to rebound out of the d50 and it costs us. So often Kolo and Hendo in the 1st kicked it straight to Aliir. They are low iq footballers.

Agree with all that except labelling Henderson a butcher. As bad as he was last night - and I agree with those that have said it was the worst finals performance by a Geelong player, at least that I've seen - he's usually one of our safest ball users. Even last night, it wasn't his kicking that was the problem. Dropping simple marks and looking slower and less agile than even Dahlhaus was the issue.

 

[Partridge]

I just watched the first quarter and a bit again and the worst bit is that we were the better team in general play and should've been 2-3 goals up. Instead through a mix of missed shots (Hawkins and Parfitt), bad ball use going forward, a horrendous moment from Henderson (with a bit of Guthrie assistance) and a bit of real class from Gray we went in 10 points down. Then the second quarter was a sh*t show of basic errors.

Genuine question we should be asking. Was Henderson checked for concussion this week after his collision with Cameron late last week? I can't remember a worse individual performance from any player in any match. His 3 worst mistakes that all led to goals in the first half were just bizarre.

Just about every final from Rohan or Blicavs would match up pretty well.

Henderson was horrific, but he's been slowing down for a fair while and turns 32 in December. Pretty straightforward explanation I reckon.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Our forward smalls
Dahlhaus, Close, Miers & Simpson
their forward smalls
Gray, Fantasia, Butters & Rozee

It's certainly an issue.
Simpson is a midfielder so is being played out of position, Miers is a genuine small forward, Dahl is crap and Close would be a perfect foil for a quick and smart small forward (eg a Betts or Cameron type). But right now they are all a bit too slow and a bit too vanilla and lack creativity/threat of hitting the scoreboard.
If we had say Close, Miers, Fantasia and Rozee as our contingent it would be perfect.

 

[Cursed Cat]

I honestly don't think it's the gameplan. It seems more to do with preparation. Our workrate last night just seemed way off our usual level. And when that happens, doesn't matter what the gameplan is, it's going to be impossible to execute. Scott noted a key stat post game - we had 3 tackles in our forwardline for the whole game. Port also had both more of the ball and a whole lot more tackles overall. That tells me we were low output all-round, either because just not fit, not conditioned, ill-prepared, not working hard enough.

can't agree with you on that SU& ... my personal take is that the game plan is good enough to beat the also-rans in H&A season but does not stand up to Finals intensity against quality opposition.

I mentioned earlier Kolodjashnij's lack of dare in the 1st quarter - not to single him out, but it was a stark example of a safety-first approach that has been deeply ingrained in our team.

Our ball movement from defense has been inviting opposition in all year long; we're just good enough to pull it off throughout the H&A season, but a good quick team like Port are on high-alert to pick those predictable, slow switch kicks off come finals - then once we start going ultra-short out of defense (e.g. Guthrie's near-grubber to Henderson I think it was early on) we put ourselves under pressure by not kicking the required distance, or with enough accuracy.

I will concede not having Tom Stewart and Zac Tuohy hurts us in this regard, but you can't carry such poor users by foot as Kolodjashnij, Blicavs & Bews and then try to enact a precision-kicking defensive style.

I think that once the gameplan starts to unravel we panic, which I can understand but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

 

[Gee Class Loco]

Gee Class Loco. our home ground advantage is significant - we rarely lose there or hadn't you noticed. Glass half full? Cliched bullshit. I'd say after our finals history the glass is more than half empty. Who suggested trading out Blicavs or whoever; i'm talking about trading players in. And not even danger has achieved the ultimate for us.

Radical change: why not? orr are you happy gettignflogge din September every year? What do you suggest?

I'm not your buddy.

Is that you Blighty ?? hahahaha...
Bitter about what your club dishes up?? Use your feet and ya wallet.
Pretty Radical... But... Pretty Simple.
Cheers Buddy! Oops... Sorry Cheers Champ!

 

[Partridge]

I’m too incredulous and despondent to post anything comprehensive, but in a nutshell:
- this is now a decade long data set with an established pattern of underperformance in finals. It is very difficult to argue otherwise. I’m not saying that the Cats should have won last night but it’s not unreasonable to expect a performance that meets the required intensity of a final.
- the game style is unsuitable for high intensity, dynamic finals matches. We have 2 Coleman medallists in the team that barely fired a shot. Unacceptable.
- the game style is furnished by a large group of mentally weak, soft and limited footballers that are rewarded for their defensive running patterns and work rate rather than their footballing nous (Menegola, Miers, Blicavs, Kolo immediately come to mind). Meanwhile the team is screaming out for leg speed and creativity and more dynamic players like Clark and Narkle are banished to the VFL for not being defensive robots. Genuine ball winners like Constable are left to rot in the VFL.
- the team is being carried by a very talented top end that are nearing the end of their careers and are nowhere near the players they once were (e.g. Selwood). Many of the others would struggle to get a game in other top 8 sides.
- recruiting old and cooked players (Smith being the exception - he has had a good year) needs to be reconsidered, as does the burning of decent picks on speculative flops.
- Patrick Dangerfield might be a gun player but he is a huge flog and a negative influence on the team. My crows supporting mates agree. There I said it. Sue me.
- where is the mongrel in this team? Our coach was one of the biggest mongrels in the league when he played and never took a backward step.

Irrespective of what plays out from here change is needed if the club is going to elevate itself once again from being “pretty good” to “great”. The current approach will only get you so far.

Disagree on Dangerfield. He was a gun player. He's becoming just another midfielder now, and worse in finals.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Hawkins missed one from the pocket with a set shot when for the last 4 matches from that pocket he is kicking goals with a snap shot.

Good post, sorry to snip it but wanted to focus on the little bit that I've quoted - that set shot worried me early on (as did Hawkins miss from directly in front before that), and I thought the same thing you did - Hawkins has been snapping those for weeks on end, then suddenly under pressure he seemingly forgets his approach and goes for a drop punt. It was a tough shot; but the miss didn't bother me so much as the method.

 

[Cataholic]

I've slept on it, to soothe the anger, and today I just feel numb, hollow.

I'm still angry, but it's directed at myself for being lulled into a sense of hope and yet again having it cruelly betrayed.

I can deal with defeat if it happens after every shred of effort and courage is left on the field. But to lose without a whimper on the back of panic, and a lazy attitude, is infuriating.

This group of players and coaches clearly don't have the ability, synergy and chemistry to win finals. The last 10 years has provided clear evidence that they are unable to devise and execute a gameplan capable of winning finals. Nor do they have the grit or hunger for finals footy.

Trading away picks and selecting older guys has gotten us no closer to being succesful in finals. We gave up 3 picks for Cameron, only to prove incapable of getting quality ball to him when the heat is on.

It hurts to watch, BELIEVE, as they hit finals only yo watch them collapse without a yelp every damn time.

I need a full season of cricket now to repair and regenerate my interest and hope for the side next year, even though I know deep down we're just going to roll out the same thing.

Sigh.

 

[Cataholic]

Sold.

He was woeful, as usual - but his drop-off is nothing compared to Gary Rohan or Patrick Dangerfield's.

I'd keep Danger, but would put all of Rohan, Dahl, Higgins, and Kolo on the nature strip for free pick-up.

Edit: Hendo too