A pretty deplorable effort overall, not much to take from this game. Most players should feel pretty embarrassed with the effort and mindset they took into the game and rightfully so - they were embarrassing. The short-lived fightback after the Cats got about 10 goals up only highlights how poor our start to the game was. There was a clear change in mindset and application after half time. Maybe that's the most disappointing thing: we're clearly capable of the effort required, as we showed after half time. But the first half was summarily a failure across all lines, and every party to it - players and coaching staff - need to cop it on the chin and own up to what was the worst half of football the black and white has played under Bucks' tenure.
As a damning statistic, despite the fact Geelong had possession for pretty much the entirety of the game, they still won the tackle count by a landslide - 83 to 66. That's an indictment on the boys. It's... ugh... Carlton-esque. Sorry lads.
From the top down - the coaching staff. I've been a Nathan fan this year, and have loved the emerging gameplan that's been evident the last few weeks - relentless pressure on the ball carrier coupled with lightning fast transition. But tonight, Bucks made a lot of mistakes that ultimately cost us the game. Most glaringly, starting Frost on Hawkins seemed an error at the outset and was proven so within 10 minutes, with Hawkins directly assisting the first five goals of the match with one-on-one wins over Frost. Bad matchup, five lost contests, and boom - we're thirty points down in the blink of an eye.
The lack of effort and intensity absolutely fried the gameplan in the first half, to the point where it was non-existent. The ludicrous number of weak, broken tackles and half-hearted attempts at pressure allowed the Cats to dominate contested possession, then ping it out to a free Geelong player at almost every contest. From there, we ran off our direct opponent in many stupid attempts to pressure the ball carrier, but again, without the honest effort and application from most of our boys, this didn't really put them under any pressure at all. As a result, they were able to hit the free man with accurate kicks time and time again, creating a plus one in the forward fifty and capitalising.
So, the gameplan fell to pieces, thanks largely to the lack of application from the players. Hard to know exactly who to pin the blame on there - the players for lacking motivation, or the coaching team for failing to provide sufficient motivation. Until after half time at least. We heard from Nick Maxwell at the start of the game that Bucks prefers to present a calm demeanour and leaves it up to the players to motivate themselves. This never sat well with me in the past and I'm disappointed to hear that this is still his philosophy. I think it's a fundamentally flawed approach and can lead to the sort of self-centred and unmotivated performance we saw for the first two quarters tonight. I'd love Bucks to fire them up before a game. I think he'd be great at it. But all we hear from the club is this talk of self-motivation for the players... I just really don't think it's the right approach. Anyway, enough on this point.
The centre clearance setups were absolutely diabolical tonight and I don't think we won a meaningful centre break all evening. On the stats sheet, the Catters doubled our centre work with 16 clearances to 8, but I can remember at least 3 of our clearances which were marked by Corey Enright, and another few of them which skewed pointlessly off the side of the boot and out towards the boundary on the wing. To add confusion to the mix, we dominated the hitouts, 46 to 21. But the strategy both offensively and defensively was completely ineffectual in stopping Geelong doing exactly as they pleased out of the middle, with multiple clean, running centre breaks leading to dangerous, long entries from the bounce. It was really painful to watch.
Selection was certainly a surprise with Armstrong coming in, and it's safe to say he didn't cover himself in glory tonight. But I don't think it's entirely fair to ask him to step up from being an injured VFL player at the drop of a hat. When he was pinged for holding the ball in the last it just screamed of a player who was a step behind the pace of the game. Honestly he's a player who shouldn't have been there in the first place. It was a cute selection. I think we'd have been much better served by playing one of our form VFL mids, like De Goey or Kennedy.
Long story short - many mistakes by the coaching staff put us behind the eightball from the outset. Now as for the players...
THE VOTES
5: Nathan Brown
4: Jack Crisp
3: Scott Pendlebury
2: Tom Langdon
1: Adam Oxley, Trav Varcoe
Nathan Brown: Fantastic game. He completely shut down Hawkins, who was directly responsible for their first five goals, and playing like a God. Frosty got towelled up by a hot forward and Browny just dominated him. He even took a few contested grabs and rebounded the other way. More of these please - you're better than just a see-ball-punch-ball defender.
Jack Crisp: On a night where most looked like they were going at about 50% effort for the first half, Crispo Steak Knives was the one who was still hitting the man and the ball at full throttle. He's hard as a cat's head and runs all day, and his disposal is actually quite good so far this season. Looking like a real steal, and didn't lower his colours at all tonight.
Scott Pendlebury: He started really, really slowly like most of our team, barely had a possession in the first twenty minutes, and even missed an easy set shot when we desperately needed a goal. But he also dragged us back into it with some great efforts when nobody around him was standing up to help him out, in that typical Pendles manner. He also laid 7 tackles so the effort was there. Very much a mixed bag from the captain today, and not a great game by any stretch of the imagination - but still better than most.
Tom Langdon: We were forced to push him up into the midfield thanks to the complete lack of support by our other running mids and flankers, like Dwyer, Elliott, Armstrong, Karnezis et al... and he didn't disappoint. He wasn't amazing, but he was solid on the ball and won his fair share of contests where the aforementioned couldn't seem to win a 50/50 ball. Kept his usual composure and cool headedness and looks very much at home as a big-bodied mid should the need arise in future.
Adam Oxley: I really wasn't a fan of one of his efforts when he was chasing a loose ball with the Cats ruckman behind him, looked over his shoulder, fumbled, lost his feet and lost the contest. But there's no doubting he offers good rebound and uses it generally quite well. Made himself serviceable in the second half after a poor start, much like most of his teammates, and his clean disposal was a highlight in the 3rd and 4th quarters. I'm still not sold on his contested work, which was shown up a bit tonight.
Trav Varcoe: He had the cleanest hands and disposal for a player in black and white and he applied himself diligently all night. Not a lot went right for him up front, but when he moved behind the ball he showed poise and a level of cleanness that many others lacked. His tackling was really strong again with 7, and a few of his teammates would do well to follow his lead.
Dane Swan: He had a really strange night, bagging a great couple of goals but then putting in some really, really poor efforts to let the Cats in for shots on goal going the other way. He had a passage of play in the last, right when we were pushing hard, where he executed three absolutely terrible clangers by foot inside 60 seconds. This passage of play took us from having possession on the forward flank to conceding a set shot on goal at the other end. I still love you Dane, you just had a weird, mixed night.
Travis Cloke: He cost us any chance at the game in the last by missing from 15 metres out directly in front. Based on that alone, his night is a failure. We all knew his kicking would haunt us at stages this year, this is likely just the first of a few nights spend wondering "what if...". It's such a team killer. If I were him, I would literally walk back beyond the fifty metre arc regardless of where he marks it. He could do no worse than at present. He's really got the yips right now does Travis.
Jesse White: He had the yips just as bad as Clokey and cost us every tiny bit of momentum we worked so hard to gain in the first half. Then he goes back and slots through a couple in the second half under immense pressure to leave us all just as bemused as ever with him. He had some deplorable efforts where he waited for the ball to bounce rather than attacking it, and then he plucked a few great grabs on the lead and bombed through a 55 metre drop punt to keep us alive. I don't know what to make of it. I'm so confused. The reality, though, is he is still sadly a better option than Gault at this stage, frustrating though it is.
Taylor Adams: He struggled a bit to get his hands on it early, but overall was solid if unremarkable. His ball use was decent all night and he certainly seems to have improved that side of his game considerably, so fair play to the lad. Disappointingly, he didn't do too much defensively, with zero tackles for the evening. He'd be dirty on himself for that.
Brodie Grundy: A decent game. Dominated the hitouts, but this had no impact on the clearances, where Geelong roundly smashed us all night, especially from the middle. Didn't shirk a contest but wasn't the amazing performer he's been over the past month. It would have been handy if he could have converted that set shot, but he's got plenty of mates in that regard. I like him, just not his best performance tonight.
Jarrod Witts: I thought he started really strongly with clean hands, good disposal and a couple of great contested grabs... and then it all sort of fell apart from there. He started fumbling a bit and then he dropped that mark on the last line of defence and it was all over for him. He was a non-factor from that point onwards. He had a similar output to Gault in previous weeks, maybe a little better, but we just can't seem to get that third forward role going at all. As a side note, he and Gault are the same age, so all those cutting Corey some slack for his performances would do well to give Jarrod the same leeway.
Patty K: He really struggled with the contested, pressured nature of the first half, and he was another who didn't do much to stem the tide when the Cats were getting on top at the contest - only four contested possessions and one tackle. That said, he was solid on the outside, used it well, but got the ball a bit too far back in defence for my liking. I much prefer him in and around the forward fifty where he looks a natural goal kicker. Not the worst though and I think he should be retained.
Tony Armstrong: As I mentioned above, it's a huge ask for him to come in off the back of injury interrupted VFL form and then jump straight into the pressure of the MCG on Friday night. He used it OK on the outside but often just looked a step behind the game, which is to be expected. His lack of awareness getting caught holding the ball in the last really switched momentum which was a shame. He's a depth player, and you'd suspect he'll be straight back out once Ramsay and Seedsman return next week, as he doesn't have the contested side to his game that both these boys do. I like Tony, I do, but I don't think he's done enough to hold his position, and I think it was a bit unfair on him to select him off such scratchy form.
Alan Toovey: Battled manfully in defence and there wasn't a lot he could do when they had the plus-one in their forward half. He kept Stevie J reasonably quiet all night and laid some inspirational tackles, but was certainly a shade quieter and less effective than he has been in recent times. 7 tackles shows that the application was there.
Marley Williams: A similar game to Tooves. Was solid without starring. He put a great spoil on Selwood in the last to keep our slim chances alive, and he always attacks the ball with a crazy level of ferocity. Used it okay tonight as well. Just a little quiet overall.
Jamie Elliott: One of the worst games I can remember Jamie playing, sadly. He tried but nothing came off for him. He was being worn like a glove by whichever Cats defender was on him and though he tried hard to break the tag, he didn't get any love whatsoever, either from the umpires or his teammates' disposal. He even missed a set shot to cap off his worst night in the black and white. He'll bounce back. He's quality.
Jarryd Blair: He looked like our most dangerous forward early, but then drifted out of it as the game wore on. It was a performance more from the 2014 Jarryd Blair playbook than the 2015 model we've become used to. He just couldn't really get into the play at all, and though he tried hard his contested work and tackling was usually just broken by the bigger Cats bodies. Hoping he can bounce back next week against the Tigers. Isn't that one now a must-win?
Tim Broomhead: I thought he definitely added something when he came on. He has pace, clean hands in traffic and great disposal, and his twelve touches in half a game were all quality. The only knock on him would be his lack of tackling pressure - another player who registed zero for the evening. That said, I don't think he was soft in the contest, which is the most important thing. He won his fair share of hard ball.
Tyson Goldsack: He didn't really get into the play tonight. I honestly don't recall seeing much of him or his opponent all night long - it just seemed like the ball was avoiding him. He certainly wasn't at the level he has been at the last few weeks, with no noteworthy intercept marks or long range goals. Nothing bad, nothing great, just a bit of a nothing game.
Sam Dwyer: Probably the worst on ground, sadly. I'm not sure if he was injured, but even if not, the sub was definitely justified. He was uncharacteristically fumbly and - most notably - weak in the contest. He only had one kick and one tackle and was just worried out of it when the pressure was on. The most disappointing game I've seen him play.
Jack Frost: He was belted by Hawkins early, but he should never have been on him. Frosty excels when he can play on those fast, mobile talls who get the bulk of their ball on the lead - because he's faster and more mobile than all of them. Tomahawk is a treacle-slow mountain who takes contested grabs with the sheer size of his frame. As we saw, Brown is the perfect matchup. Frosty was thrown to the wolves with that one. It really seemed to hurt his confidence too, as he punched away a couple he should have marked from that point on.
Bring on the Tigers, absolute must win now. You'd hope we don't serve up that sort of performance two weeks in a row.
As a damning statistic, despite the fact Geelong had possession for pretty much the entirety of the game, they still won the tackle count by a landslide - 83 to 66. That's an indictment on the boys. It's... ugh... Carlton-esque. Sorry lads.
From the top down - the coaching staff. I've been a Nathan fan this year, and have loved the emerging gameplan that's been evident the last few weeks - relentless pressure on the ball carrier coupled with lightning fast transition. But tonight, Bucks made a lot of mistakes that ultimately cost us the game. Most glaringly, starting Frost on Hawkins seemed an error at the outset and was proven so within 10 minutes, with Hawkins directly assisting the first five goals of the match with one-on-one wins over Frost. Bad matchup, five lost contests, and boom - we're thirty points down in the blink of an eye.
The lack of effort and intensity absolutely fried the gameplan in the first half, to the point where it was non-existent. The ludicrous number of weak, broken tackles and half-hearted attempts at pressure allowed the Cats to dominate contested possession, then ping it out to a free Geelong player at almost every contest. From there, we ran off our direct opponent in many stupid attempts to pressure the ball carrier, but again, without the honest effort and application from most of our boys, this didn't really put them under any pressure at all. As a result, they were able to hit the free man with accurate kicks time and time again, creating a plus one in the forward fifty and capitalising.
So, the gameplan fell to pieces, thanks largely to the lack of application from the players. Hard to know exactly who to pin the blame on there - the players for lacking motivation, or the coaching team for failing to provide sufficient motivation. Until after half time at least. We heard from Nick Maxwell at the start of the game that Bucks prefers to present a calm demeanour and leaves it up to the players to motivate themselves. This never sat well with me in the past and I'm disappointed to hear that this is still his philosophy. I think it's a fundamentally flawed approach and can lead to the sort of self-centred and unmotivated performance we saw for the first two quarters tonight. I'd love Bucks to fire them up before a game. I think he'd be great at it. But all we hear from the club is this talk of self-motivation for the players... I just really don't think it's the right approach. Anyway, enough on this point.
The centre clearance setups were absolutely diabolical tonight and I don't think we won a meaningful centre break all evening. On the stats sheet, the Catters doubled our centre work with 16 clearances to 8, but I can remember at least 3 of our clearances which were marked by Corey Enright, and another few of them which skewed pointlessly off the side of the boot and out towards the boundary on the wing. To add confusion to the mix, we dominated the hitouts, 46 to 21. But the strategy both offensively and defensively was completely ineffectual in stopping Geelong doing exactly as they pleased out of the middle, with multiple clean, running centre breaks leading to dangerous, long entries from the bounce. It was really painful to watch.
Selection was certainly a surprise with Armstrong coming in, and it's safe to say he didn't cover himself in glory tonight. But I don't think it's entirely fair to ask him to step up from being an injured VFL player at the drop of a hat. When he was pinged for holding the ball in the last it just screamed of a player who was a step behind the pace of the game. Honestly he's a player who shouldn't have been there in the first place. It was a cute selection. I think we'd have been much better served by playing one of our form VFL mids, like De Goey or Kennedy.
Long story short - many mistakes by the coaching staff put us behind the eightball from the outset. Now as for the players...
THE VOTES
5: Nathan Brown
4: Jack Crisp
3: Scott Pendlebury
2: Tom Langdon
1: Adam Oxley, Trav Varcoe
Nathan Brown: Fantastic game. He completely shut down Hawkins, who was directly responsible for their first five goals, and playing like a God. Frosty got towelled up by a hot forward and Browny just dominated him. He even took a few contested grabs and rebounded the other way. More of these please - you're better than just a see-ball-punch-ball defender.
Jack Crisp: On a night where most looked like they were going at about 50% effort for the first half, Crispo Steak Knives was the one who was still hitting the man and the ball at full throttle. He's hard as a cat's head and runs all day, and his disposal is actually quite good so far this season. Looking like a real steal, and didn't lower his colours at all tonight.
Scott Pendlebury: He started really, really slowly like most of our team, barely had a possession in the first twenty minutes, and even missed an easy set shot when we desperately needed a goal. But he also dragged us back into it with some great efforts when nobody around him was standing up to help him out, in that typical Pendles manner. He also laid 7 tackles so the effort was there. Very much a mixed bag from the captain today, and not a great game by any stretch of the imagination - but still better than most.
Tom Langdon: We were forced to push him up into the midfield thanks to the complete lack of support by our other running mids and flankers, like Dwyer, Elliott, Armstrong, Karnezis et al... and he didn't disappoint. He wasn't amazing, but he was solid on the ball and won his fair share of contests where the aforementioned couldn't seem to win a 50/50 ball. Kept his usual composure and cool headedness and looks very much at home as a big-bodied mid should the need arise in future.
Adam Oxley: I really wasn't a fan of one of his efforts when he was chasing a loose ball with the Cats ruckman behind him, looked over his shoulder, fumbled, lost his feet and lost the contest. But there's no doubting he offers good rebound and uses it generally quite well. Made himself serviceable in the second half after a poor start, much like most of his teammates, and his clean disposal was a highlight in the 3rd and 4th quarters. I'm still not sold on his contested work, which was shown up a bit tonight.
Trav Varcoe: He had the cleanest hands and disposal for a player in black and white and he applied himself diligently all night. Not a lot went right for him up front, but when he moved behind the ball he showed poise and a level of cleanness that many others lacked. His tackling was really strong again with 7, and a few of his teammates would do well to follow his lead.
Dane Swan: He had a really strange night, bagging a great couple of goals but then putting in some really, really poor efforts to let the Cats in for shots on goal going the other way. He had a passage of play in the last, right when we were pushing hard, where he executed three absolutely terrible clangers by foot inside 60 seconds. This passage of play took us from having possession on the forward flank to conceding a set shot on goal at the other end. I still love you Dane, you just had a weird, mixed night.
Travis Cloke: He cost us any chance at the game in the last by missing from 15 metres out directly in front. Based on that alone, his night is a failure. We all knew his kicking would haunt us at stages this year, this is likely just the first of a few nights spend wondering "what if...". It's such a team killer. If I were him, I would literally walk back beyond the fifty metre arc regardless of where he marks it. He could do no worse than at present. He's really got the yips right now does Travis.
Jesse White: He had the yips just as bad as Clokey and cost us every tiny bit of momentum we worked so hard to gain in the first half. Then he goes back and slots through a couple in the second half under immense pressure to leave us all just as bemused as ever with him. He had some deplorable efforts where he waited for the ball to bounce rather than attacking it, and then he plucked a few great grabs on the lead and bombed through a 55 metre drop punt to keep us alive. I don't know what to make of it. I'm so confused. The reality, though, is he is still sadly a better option than Gault at this stage, frustrating though it is.
Taylor Adams: He struggled a bit to get his hands on it early, but overall was solid if unremarkable. His ball use was decent all night and he certainly seems to have improved that side of his game considerably, so fair play to the lad. Disappointingly, he didn't do too much defensively, with zero tackles for the evening. He'd be dirty on himself for that.
Brodie Grundy: A decent game. Dominated the hitouts, but this had no impact on the clearances, where Geelong roundly smashed us all night, especially from the middle. Didn't shirk a contest but wasn't the amazing performer he's been over the past month. It would have been handy if he could have converted that set shot, but he's got plenty of mates in that regard. I like him, just not his best performance tonight.
Jarrod Witts: I thought he started really strongly with clean hands, good disposal and a couple of great contested grabs... and then it all sort of fell apart from there. He started fumbling a bit and then he dropped that mark on the last line of defence and it was all over for him. He was a non-factor from that point onwards. He had a similar output to Gault in previous weeks, maybe a little better, but we just can't seem to get that third forward role going at all. As a side note, he and Gault are the same age, so all those cutting Corey some slack for his performances would do well to give Jarrod the same leeway.
Patty K: He really struggled with the contested, pressured nature of the first half, and he was another who didn't do much to stem the tide when the Cats were getting on top at the contest - only four contested possessions and one tackle. That said, he was solid on the outside, used it well, but got the ball a bit too far back in defence for my liking. I much prefer him in and around the forward fifty where he looks a natural goal kicker. Not the worst though and I think he should be retained.
Tony Armstrong: As I mentioned above, it's a huge ask for him to come in off the back of injury interrupted VFL form and then jump straight into the pressure of the MCG on Friday night. He used it OK on the outside but often just looked a step behind the game, which is to be expected. His lack of awareness getting caught holding the ball in the last really switched momentum which was a shame. He's a depth player, and you'd suspect he'll be straight back out once Ramsay and Seedsman return next week, as he doesn't have the contested side to his game that both these boys do. I like Tony, I do, but I don't think he's done enough to hold his position, and I think it was a bit unfair on him to select him off such scratchy form.
Alan Toovey: Battled manfully in defence and there wasn't a lot he could do when they had the plus-one in their forward half. He kept Stevie J reasonably quiet all night and laid some inspirational tackles, but was certainly a shade quieter and less effective than he has been in recent times. 7 tackles shows that the application was there.
Marley Williams: A similar game to Tooves. Was solid without starring. He put a great spoil on Selwood in the last to keep our slim chances alive, and he always attacks the ball with a crazy level of ferocity. Used it okay tonight as well. Just a little quiet overall.
Jamie Elliott: One of the worst games I can remember Jamie playing, sadly. He tried but nothing came off for him. He was being worn like a glove by whichever Cats defender was on him and though he tried hard to break the tag, he didn't get any love whatsoever, either from the umpires or his teammates' disposal. He even missed a set shot to cap off his worst night in the black and white. He'll bounce back. He's quality.
Jarryd Blair: He looked like our most dangerous forward early, but then drifted out of it as the game wore on. It was a performance more from the 2014 Jarryd Blair playbook than the 2015 model we've become used to. He just couldn't really get into the play at all, and though he tried hard his contested work and tackling was usually just broken by the bigger Cats bodies. Hoping he can bounce back next week against the Tigers. Isn't that one now a must-win?
Tim Broomhead: I thought he definitely added something when he came on. He has pace, clean hands in traffic and great disposal, and his twelve touches in half a game were all quality. The only knock on him would be his lack of tackling pressure - another player who registed zero for the evening. That said, I don't think he was soft in the contest, which is the most important thing. He won his fair share of hard ball.
Tyson Goldsack: He didn't really get into the play tonight. I honestly don't recall seeing much of him or his opponent all night long - it just seemed like the ball was avoiding him. He certainly wasn't at the level he has been at the last few weeks, with no noteworthy intercept marks or long range goals. Nothing bad, nothing great, just a bit of a nothing game.
Sam Dwyer: Probably the worst on ground, sadly. I'm not sure if he was injured, but even if not, the sub was definitely justified. He was uncharacteristically fumbly and - most notably - weak in the contest. He only had one kick and one tackle and was just worried out of it when the pressure was on. The most disappointing game I've seen him play.
Jack Frost: He was belted by Hawkins early, but he should never have been on him. Frosty excels when he can play on those fast, mobile talls who get the bulk of their ball on the lead - because he's faster and more mobile than all of them. Tomahawk is a treacle-slow mountain who takes contested grabs with the sheer size of his frame. As we saw, Brown is the perfect matchup. Frosty was thrown to the wolves with that one. It really seemed to hurt his confidence too, as he punched away a couple he should have marked from that point on.
Bring on the Tigers, absolute must win now. You'd hope we don't serve up that sort of performance two weeks in a row.
