Review Good slain by Evil, 61 def by 85

[Cattery]

I must say that the game day thread and to a certain extent this one have a disturbingly high number of fair weather posters. Some of the emotional crap and over reaction is truly cringeworthy.

In terms of the review we got schooled by the best coach in the business who took away our strengths and we failed to adjust. We all knew Clarkson would show us something different and it's now up to us to park that and learn from it.
All the Flag fancies have lost more games than us and some by much bigger margins so calm heads are needed as we're still in with a huge chance.

In terms of improvements there's a bit to focus on :
> Forwards - we can't have 3 forwards who don't hit the scoreboard regularly enough - Atkins/Rohan and Dal. I rate Atkins but we'd be better off with a pressure type forward who can score. Can Narkle do this? My preference would be an agile tall like Kreuger who is also another marking option, but that ship has sailed unfortunately.
> Ball movement - play tempo but pull the trigger ffs when it's on - and don't turn it over between the arcs !!
> D50 stoppages - need to protect goal side , we leave too much space and have done so all year
> Cohesion - we are poor in congestion and flip it around to players under pressure , we don't set up wider options or a safety at the back of the stoppage to use as a bail out. As a result we exit under pressure or bottle it up and create another stoppage.......
> Ruck - Stanley tries and can be great but too often his opponent is in the coaches votes , getting late in the season to try other options though.

The sky isn't falling yet and the optimist in me says the next 2 weeks on the road together might be what's required to get us back on track.
Above all keep the faith and Go Catters

Nope but it's looking ominously dark.

Do agree to an extent though that not all is lost, just five weeks ago we were 11/1, two games clear on top of the ladder and clearly the best team in it, "if" we can recapture that form then who knows, especially as this is arguably the weakest bunch of teams vying for a flag in quite some time.

 

[Scottland2007]

Haha, take the kids. I am. One of them anyway. Only reason I'm going really.

Nah, the 5:30 start at work kills me. Was ok in my 20’s, could deal with it in my 30’s, like the walking dead in my 40’s!

 

[Spazz Cat]

Nah, the 5:30 start at work kills me. Was ok in my 20’s, could deal with it in my 30’s, like the walking dead in my 40’s!

Fairy nuts. I'm lucky I don't have to actually get up till 5.30 these days.
Still whinge about being tired when I get home though.

 

[fpm84]

Weekly reminder:

Last year West Coast was 11-1 (sound familiar?).

They then 'slipped' to 14-4, two losses against teams that didn't make the finals (sound familiar?).

They went barely above 50-50 from there, going 3-2 in the run home to finish on a 16-6 record.

Despite losing 5 games in the second half of the season, they never looked like slipping out of the top 2.

They beat the likes of Richmond and Collingwood throughout the season and I'm sure they regarded losses to the likes of Essendon and Adelaide as being almost irrelevant.

By the time September came around, they were primed and ready to win three games in a row for the first time in two months.

This is not to say that our story will end with the same result, but that to throw the toys out of the pram at round 18 is completely ignoring the path last year's premiers took.

 

[Turbocat]

I went to the game yesterday. It was painful to watch, particularly the 1st half. We had no fluency, no run and no dare. We refused to take the chance and go through the corridor. The slow build up and kick the ball around the boundary allowing the Hawks to get numbers back inside our 50 was just painful to watch. Although they way the Hawks set-up was impressive, they knew what we were trying to do and just stopped us in our tracks. Clarkson is just a freak of a coach. I think we've been worked out a bit, and teams in recent times have been able to nullify our strengths.

We have come back to the pack in a big way. But really, were we ever that far ahead of it in the first place? I'm not so sure. I was as impressed as anyone when we went to 11-1. Really impressed. But I had to agree with Malthouse's assessment that we weren't really an 11-1 team. It annoyed many on here and came across as sour grapes, but he had a point and has since been vindicated. We could have easily lost 3 of those games, making us an 8-4 team. Our incredible forward efficiency won us games we probably shouldn't have won, and games we wouldn't have won last year, combined with other teams kicking badly and not taking their chances. This masked some issues. We overachieved a fair bit imo.

We're still a good side and much better than what we served up yesterday, but I've said all along I'm not sure we're a genuine contender. I've been criticised for being a bit negative in that regard, and that's fair enough, but sometimes you have to look a bit closer and deeper than a win/loss ratio. I think we will make the top 4, possibly the top 2, but I'm not sure we have enough quality to go all the way. When the opposition team nullifies our strengths, we just become a middle of the road team. Scott has to be accountable for this as much as anyone. Clarko had a field day with him yesterday. That's pretty obvious to me anyway.

A few thoughts from yesterday's game

Positives:

I thought Guthrie, although not perfect, tried his guts out and had a genuine crack.

Hawkins battled really hard and impressed me. It wasn't an easy day to be a Cats forward given our slow entries inside 50 and the Hawks getting big numbers back. I thought he was outstanding.

I liked how Clark just wanted to run and take the game on at any opportunity. It's the Geelong way and it's when we look our best and most dangerous.

Tom Stewart was really good, he's just so composed and reads the play so well.

Negatives:

Stanley - what more can be said that hasn't already been said? I know we don't have anyone better, but can Smith actually be any worse? Time to make a statement and drop him. I've had enough. Time to go hard at Goldstein or another ruck from another club that's third in-line. You can get those guys on the cheap.

Atkins - I love his attitude and pressure, but for mine, he's probably Tom Ruggles MK11. Tries his heart out but I've never been convinced his up to AFL standard. I could be wrong, but to me he's just a good VFL player.

Rohan - We all love his pressure but it's not enough. 7-disposals, 1-mark and just 2-tackles isn't good enough. If Murdoch or Parsons served up that, imagine the comments on here? I'm not saying we drop him yet, as he can certainly re-capture that good form, but if he doesn't before the finals, he shouldn't be taken into the QF IMO. That's passenger stuff.

Sorry for the long rant.

Not a rant at all... want to look for a few handles of the axes go and look at my post ...

I vented..now im trying to look thru it now ... there is a lot of info we dont know ... has the club been double downing on the heavy training? Or has the intense preseason training caught up with them .. the club were very up front about having to win early and set themselves to do it..
What id also like to know is just how much of the way the players are playing is instructed? Or have they been tuned to play a certain way ..so that their first style selection is to go the snail ... like someone who is cold that puts on a jumper..who is still cold and puts on a jacket ..is still cold and puts on the heater ..and pretty soon you are cooked. The players may have just taken the wrong option in response to pressure. It make me a bit sick to hear all the sycophantic haw drivel this morning .. the great Clarkson etc... Geelong's game plan just played into his hands.

The question is can they redress the balance. Three clubs have change their coaches and amazing turned the form tap on.. we will not be getting a new coach... but CS can back off the airbag and the seatbelt a bit. This week V is not the right game to do it probably ... then Freo.. these easy kills now are looking a lot more difficult than they were 6 games ago.

That performance was so dire it was like a horror movie.. where you could see the freak in the hockey mask was going to stab the good looking blonde.. is was all there to see very early. Id dont encourage me to run out and chain chairs to the fence for GF tickets but as our Teflon coach said.. there are still weeks of footy to go yet.

The key to Rohans game is his marking. He is not doing that now... he seems to drop his head a bit in game.. does he doubt his own talent? but he was kick a lot of goals earlier in the year and now not much at all...

 

[winty]

The key to Rohans game is his marking. He is not doing that now... he seems to drop his head a bit in game.. does he doubt his own talent? but he was kick a lot of goals earlier in the year and now not much at all...

I wonder what would've happened if he plucked that mark on the first forward 50 entry of the game and went back and put it straight over the goal umpire's hat.

He would've plucked it earlier in the season.

 

[Frappe]

I wonder what would've happened if he plucked that mark on the first forward 50 entry of the game and went back and put it straight over the goal umpire's hat.

He would've plucked it earlier in the season.

Much harder finding space in our F50 to take a mark. Opposition now flooding back to slow down our scoring.

 

[Seeds]

Dangers defensive running any better today?

It was awful save for that good tackle late in the second. His defensive running is deplorable.

 

[Seeds]

I wonder what would've happened if he plucked that mark on the first forward 50 entry of the game and went back and put it straight over the goal umpire's hat.

He would've plucked it earlier in the season.

Rohan was dropping everything in his first 4 weeks of this season. It was embarrasing. He aint droping them now. He just isnt getting the ball kicked to him.

 

[Seeds]

You always need a big ruckman against hawthorn. Dont play one and you are a 6 goals worse a side. There is a reason why we started beating them again back in 2017. We had zac smith. Now we give mcevoy a free run at it.

 

[BotsMaster]

If I was a Geelong fan I wouldn’t be panicking

I think you've pulled the reins a little over the last month in preparation for a flag assault, I expect in your last month you will ramp it up and try peak at the right time for finals, If you guys look lackluster in 2-3 weeks time then I'd worry but for now steady as she goes for me.

Reported for being rational.

 

[Drunkcat]

I would have hated to pay money to see the game 8 goals is just not good enough....I am just pi--ed that I watched a hole game for 8 goals that is under 12s footy just crap...give them 10 lashes and I will be happy lol

 

[DangerHere]

am just pi--ed that I watched a hole game for 8 goals that is under 12s footy just crap...give them 10 lashes and I will be happy lol

And no Play Station or XBox for a month

 

[And_ROOS]

Weekly reminder:

Last year West Coast was 11-1 (sound familiar?).

They then 'slipped' to 14-4, two losses against teams that didn't make the finals (sound familiar?).

They went barely above 50-50 from there, going 3-2 in the run home to finish on a 16-6 record.

Despite losing 5 games in the second half of the season, they never looked like slipping out of the top 2.

They beat the likes of Richmond and Collingwood throughout the season and I'm sure they regarded losses to the likes of Essendon and Adelaide as being almost irrelevant.

By the time September came around, they were primed and ready to win three games in a row for the first time in two months.

This is not to say that our story will end with the same result, but that to throw the toys out of the pram at round 18 is completely ignoring the path last year's premiers took.

But WCE getting a top 2 finish gives them a clear advantage in a home final. We can finish first and end up with a Collingwood or Richmond at the MCG. Or we could end up with that in a Prelim final.

 

[fpm84]

But WCE getting a top 2 finish gives them a clear advantage in a home final. We can finish first and end up with a Collingwood or Richmond at the MCG. Or we could end up with that in a Prelim final.

That might be true but by the same token WCE were most disadvantaged playing the GF at the MCG (against an MCG tenant no less) than we would be having only played there twice during the season to our six times.

Anyway, my point is that we've shown this season our best is good enough to beat anybody at the MCG. We absolutely need to recapture that form if we are a chance in September. But as WCE showed last year, losses in July when you've got a break on the competition are not fatal...

 

[Willo_]

Random thought... Could there be something in us trying to prime players for September with heavy training.. I know Hawk has had a lethargic month, yesterday he was good but i also thought he looked carved from stone, looks in ripping shape.

I felt in 2009 we had a flat patch and also a stack of injuries but late in the year the players looked super big ans strong and that we'd deliberately set them up physically where we could (Scarlo in particular looked ripped as)

I obviously could be wrong, i think we are also playing pretty poorly but who knows, there might be more than meets the eye to it all

 

[Grimoz]

Rohan - We all love his pressure but it's not enough. 7-disposals, 1-mark and just 2-tackles isn't good enough. If Murdoch or Parsons served up that, imagine the comments on here? I'm not saying we drop him yet, as he can certainly re-capture that good form, but if he doesn't before the finals, he shouldn't be taken into the QF IMO. That's passenger stuff.

Sorry for the long rant.

He doesn't look happy and seems like he is lacking interest, the flair and happiness in his game is gone and he just overall looks to be struggling, not sure whats up with him, have those 2 head knocks caused some sort of issue or is he just not enjoying the club like he was at the beginning.

 

[Biased99]

Random thought... Could there be something in us trying to prime players for September with heavy training.. I know Hawk has had a lethargic month, yesterday he was good but i also thought he looked carved from stone, looks in ripping shape.

I felt in 2009 we had a flat patch and also a stack of injuries but late in the year the players looked super big ans strong and that we'd deliberately set them up physically where we could (Scarlo in particular looked ripped as)

I obviously could be wrong, i think we are also playing pretty poorly but who knows, there might be more than meets the eye to it all

I once had someone remark that I, too, looked carved from stone when we were playing Touch footy...I believe, however, that the remark was more about my pace, as opposed to my physique...

 

[Chinacats]

Yeah. All he does is run around chasing the player with the ball, and rarely actually landing a tackle. He is adding nothing to the team anymore.

On SM-G955F using BigFooty.com mobile app

Very true

 

[cats_09]

Random thought... Could there be something in us trying to prime players for September with heavy training.. I know Hawk has had a lethargic month, yesterday he was good but i also thought he looked carved from stone, looks in ripping shape.

I felt in 2009 we had a flat patch and also a stack of injuries but late in the year the players looked super big ans strong and that we'd deliberately set them up physically where we could (Scarlo in particular looked ripped as)

I obviously could be wrong, i think we are also playing pretty poorly but who knows, there might be more than meets the eye to it all

I'm pretty sure I've seen that's been mentioned in the media, but when it gets mentioned around here it's met with a level of scepticism. Might also explain why Menegola returned to the VFL later than original anticipated - maybe could the played 2 or 3 weeks ago, but instead was put through an additional pre-season style training to ensure he was primed for the back half of the season, rather than hitting a wall 6-weeks after returning.

There's got to be more to our recent drop off then the idea that "Scott's coaching has turned to s**t compared with prior to the bye".

We seem to be trying different things during games compared with earlier in the season - so maybe actually looking at plans D, E & F; so we have options available come September.

 

[winty]

I'm pretty sure I've seen that's been mentioned in the media, but when it gets mentioned around here it's met with a level of scepticism. Might also explain why Menegola returned to the VFL later than original anticipated - maybe could the played 2 or 3 weeks ago, but instead was put through an additional pre-season style training to ensure he was primed for the back half of the season, rather than hitting a wall 6-weeks after returning.

There's got to be more to our recent drop off then the idea that "Scott's coaching has turned to s**t compared with prior to the bye".

We seem to be trying different things during games compared with earlier in the season - so maybe actually looking at plans D, E & F; so we have options available come September.

Maybe we're doing the same things at this stage of the season as we did in 2011, but it's resulting in more losses this time around as the league is more even.

Guess time will tell on that though. After all, it was Round 19 in 2011 where we won by 186...

 

[Willo_]

I'm pretty sure I've seen that's been mentioned in the media, but when it gets mentioned around here it's met with a level of scepticism. Might also explain why Menegola returned to the VFL later than original anticipated - maybe could the played 2 or 3 weeks ago, but instead was put through an additional pre-season style training to ensure he was primed for the back half of the season, rather than hitting a wall 6-weeks after returning.

There's got to be more to our recent drop off then the idea that "Scott's coaching has turned to s**t compared with prior to the bye".

We seem to be trying different things during games compared with earlier in the season - so maybe actually looking at plans D, E & F; so we have options available come September.

I don't want to fall back on it as an excuse fwiw, but you hear players say it's the hardest time of the year, talk of loading in media and of course as an excuse, Lingy even mentioned on the podcast the other day training changes up ready to taper off later in the year (while being scoffed at by Gullan)
We had loads of games in the bank so to speak, for all we know the plan has changed and we are planning for peak fitness in September.. Potentially why we have moved the ball so slow the last few weeks as heavy legs AND to also try protect us on the counter from it.

I 100% am just guessing, people will rightly disageee.. All i am suggesting is maybe it is what is going on.



We could also have massively over achieved early and have just regressed to the norm now

 

[Scottland2007]

Fairy nuts. I'm lucky I don't have to actually get up till 5.30 these days.
Still whinge about being tired when I get home though.

I am going to see Marty Friedman in December. Friday night (not a school night). If you haven’t heard his solo work, it’s mental

 

[Vdubs]

Weekly reminder:

Last year West Coast was 11-1 (sound familiar?).

They then 'slipped' to 14-4, two losses against teams that didn't make the finals (sound familiar?).

They went barely above 50-50 from there, going 3-2 in the run home to finish on a 16-6 record.

Despite losing 5 games in the second half of the season, they never looked like slipping out of the top 2.

They beat the likes of Richmond and Collingwood throughout the season and I'm sure they regarded losses to the likes of Essendon and Adelaide as being almost irrelevant.

By the time September came around, they were primed and ready to win three games in a row for the first time in two months.

This is not to say that our story will end with the same result, but that to throw the toys out of the pram at round 18 is completely ignoring the path last year's premiers took.

Massive HGA in finals
Excellent all season form from Darling, ably assisted by Kennedy

 

[Spazz Cat]

I am going to see Marty Friedman in December. Friday night (not a school night). If you haven’t heard his solo work, it’s mental

That's preety cool. Yeah I have. He's awesome.