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Hmmmmmmm?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gocats
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For starters, we defended very, very poorly in the first term, and never recovered from that.

You can't afford to give away that much space, especially in your defensive 50, and expect the opposition not to score as many easy goals as the Bulldogs got in the first term.

We gave the ball away too easily, gave them too much space, and the opposition capitalised on it. Simple as that.

And by consequence, we didn't see much of the ball-- and by the time we did get much of the possession, we had to chase the game.

Most impressive players (top five) for Geelong, nonetheless, in my opinion were James Kelly, Charlie Gardiner, Paul Chapman, Kent Kingsley, and Peter Riccardi.

Ben Graham and Cameron Mooney had been doing OK, until their relatively minor injuries. But speaking of injuries, and that of the opposition, my heart goes out to Chris Grant... bad knee injury, and that's a shame for him.
 
I only saw the last quarter (fortunately, it turned out), and all I saw was a pretty incompetent display of football by the Cats. How many times did they turn it over simply due to sheer ineptitude? We can only hope it was round-one nerves or some other reasonable explanation, because if that's the standard they're going to play at for the year, then there may not be much joy until Rd 11.

That said, I don't think today was indicative of the way the Cats played (not even in their loss to Collingwood were they that bad). I think the pre-season showed a pretty good team on the way up, and barring today, that still holds. For Cats fans, I guess season 2003 starts next week.
 
Ah! Catters!

I hold you in very high regard! I tipped you to finish 5th with a good chance of top 4 I tip you this week and you let me down.

I see Geelong this year as the Collingwood of 2002. After an up and down the previous year, they are ready to hit their straps.

Don't make me look stupid! :D
 

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Originally posted by NICK THE PIE MAN
I see Geelong this year as the Collingwood of 2002. After an up and down the previous year, they are ready to hit their straps.

Don't make me look stupid! :D
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Nick, since you and I share the same prediction-- 5th spot, with an outside chance at 4th-- I would look stupid, too. :eek:

No worries, things will get better. Can only go in one direction from here, and that is up.
 
Originally posted by gocats
What the hell happened out there today?
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Geelong played very poorly and deserved to lose, and we got exactly what we deserved. I don't know if it was because it was our first game at Telstra Dome during the day with an open roof, but our field kicking and basic skills were embarassingly woeful for some reason.

Hopefully, we can put it down to "one of those days" and move forward next week against the Kangaroos.
 
Pretty dismal performance to say the least.

Silly mistakes and poor kicking killed us right from the start. Bulldogs seemed to have 2 more guys at every contest, their midfield was extremely impressive.
For us... it hurt that Tom Harley was a late withdrawl, which meant Grgic got a shot down back, anyone who's seen Grgic play knows what he's like. Jarrod Rooke made too many basic errors down back also.
 
Originally posted by Renegade
For us... it hurt that Tom Harley was a late withdrawl, which meant Grgic got a shot down back, anyone who's seen Grgic play knows what he's like.
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I thought Brent Grgic did quite well in defence when he came onto the field, taking some good marks and keeping his opponent honest.

Tom Harley was a big loss though, stuffed up our match-ups in defence.
 
Originally posted by ScouseCat
I thought Brent Grgic did quite well in defence when he came onto the field, taking some good marks and keeping his opponent honest.

Tom Harley was a big loss though, stuffed up our match-ups in defence.
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True, Grgic-- if anything-- was one of our brighter spots in our defence today. But about Harley, losing him at the last minute (relatively speaking) really put a burden on the entire defensive gameplan.

At this early stage of the season, anytime there's a late withdrawl, it's going to impact a team more negatively than at later times in the season.
 
First reguslar season match I've seen in over 2 years and not a great one. Would have thought Grigc was one of our better players going on today, he actually did all right.

Costly and totally unnecessary turnover by Rooke in the centre resulted in a Bulldogs goal. Likewise Scarlett when he backed himself. Thompson should have dragged both of them, does he drag players? Is bomber too nice?

Typical today was Chapman's goal, which was both a highlight and a lowlight. Fantastic run, but got the feeling that he just didn't have enough confidence in the forward set up to actually do the team thing, and who could blame him?

What's even worse was that I thought we had the better of the umpires today.
 
Originally posted by you_idiot
True, Grgic-- if anything-- was one of our brighter spots in our defence today. But about Harley, losing him at the last minute (relatively speaking) really put a burden on the entire defensive gameplan.

At this early stage of the season, anytime there's a late withdrawl, it's going to impact a team more negatively than at later times in the season.
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Was Grgic 25? Did very well on Brown whoever he was.
 
Post-match feature, from the gfc.com.au site, where Mark Thompson cites his players' perceived over-exhuberance as a reason for their defeat against the Western Bulldogs...

http://gfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=81791

We were too eager: Thompson
Kevin Diggerson
afl.com.au
6:55:54 PM Sun 30 March, 2003

Geelong coach Mark Thompson said his players may have been too eager to impress in the club�s opening round loss to the Western Bulldogs. Thompson said his players� desire to start the season well could have been a reason for the loss.

�I think the players wanted to start well, and in that your thoughts are on yourself and how you are going,� Thompson said after the game.

�I wanted them to really focus on the opposition as well and it didn�t happen today. It�s concentration. It�s what you do when you haven�t got the ball. Our guys were intent on focusing on how they were going to get the ball rather than curbing their opponent�s effectiveness on the game.

�Young people in the first game of the year want to start well. They want to get their hands on the footy. It�s okay to do that, but if it�s at the expense of letting your opponent get it twice as many as you then you will be in strife.�

Thompson was quick to credit the Bulldogs, but believes the Cats will be better for the run.

�We were a bit rusty and a bit underdone,� he said.

�We got outworked and outplayed. There was nothing to suggest to me that we would play like that and start like that. It was from the top down to the bottom. It was the whole group and they looked a lot slower than our opposition today, and that is not the case, I am sure.�

Thompson lamented missed opportunities, saying he felt the Cats were on the verge of getting back into the contest only to fail to capitalise.

�We didn�t play well, but in the second quarter we kicked 2.5 and hit the post five times (overall),� he said.

�I constantly thought there were patches in the game where we came back and had our opportunities but we weren�t good enough to take them. It�s not all lost today. It�s not the end of the world at all. It is disappointing that we played that way today.�
 

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Pretty average performance. I only heard updates of the game from the radio but that was enough. How did we go down back without Harley? The lack of tall backman is a worry. If Scarlett, Harley or Graham go down for any of length of time we are screwed. Come draft time that has to be a priority, we aren't going anywhere if Foster and Grgic are our back up key position defenders :o

Congrats to the bullies. Too good on the day.

ps Don't open the official site if there are kiddies about. Very scary picture of Cameron Ling.
 
Originally posted by jim440
Was Grgic 25? Did very well on Brown whoever he was.
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If Brown had have kicked straight would you still think GRgic did a good job? What happened to Grgic, he had one good year at Melbourne, now he's a shocker
 
Originally posted by Jim Boy
does he drag players? Is bomber too nice?
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He does drag players, the same ones. Ablett, Gardiner, all the kids. The experienced players rarely get dragged despite many of them making just as many mistakes, and to me that is not how you should coach.
 
Originally posted by you_idiot
Thompson was quick to credit the Bulldogs, but believes the Cats will be better for the run.
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Geelong will learn from this experience and be a much better side as a result of this game. It will be very interesting to see how we respond this week against the Kangaroos.
 

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Chapman was easilly your best I thought.

I also think you should give the doggies midfield some credit for learning the lesson you gave us a month earlier. I thought the game was almost a reverse of the praccie at shell stadium -- our midfield dominated takeaways and the pressure on your ball carrier created turnovers and resulted in poor delivery to your forward line. Out backline was absolutely knocked up getting kicks.
 
Originally posted by JUBJUB
and the one kid that should've been dragged wasn't,Rooke.
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I was happy for Rooke to remain on the ground.

He always contested, and always chased. Sure, he was out of his depth, but at least he gave it 100%.

Plenty of others refused to chase, and often dogged it when hard work was needed.
 

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