Tall timber

[LifeSpan-Void]

put some more meat on Lonergan's bones and put him back in there.

 

[9th Life]

TurboCat, CatEmpire & WestCat, agree with you all.

H is developing, and before he broke his jaw and lost not only confidence but a great deal of fitness he would have been in our top 10 in the B&F. I will make it my duty to find this out when the count comes around. His biggest asset this year was to present, and make more contests than his direct opponent. Since the injury, his cardio has dropped and hasn't been able to do that. For H and the Geelong forward line to work we need contributions from them all. In the second quarter against Melbourne we looked dangerous. Ottens, Playfair, Kingsley, N.Ablett had them stretched for talls. Then you had the likes of Lil Gaz and Johnno crumbing. Our forward line doesn't have a star, no doubt, and in years to come there might be a couple of father sons who turn into stars, but what our forward line did provide at the start of the year was a number of options that got under the guards of most defences. Until Big H went down, we were the best attacking side in the comp. We lost structure when H and Ottens fell over.

What could Bomber do? Get on Bigfooty and say I can't wait for N.Ablett and T.Hawkins to develop into club superstars, and in three years the problem would be solved, I think not. He put faith in our forward line having too many options. Key injuries to H,Ottens, S.Johnson and Chapman threw these plans into disarray. I would still like to see what these guys could do if they were all fit like Adelaide or Sydney have been.

Fact of the matter is:
Can we get B.Hall: NO
Tredea: NO
Brown: NO
Riewoldt: NO

If we could what would we have to give. One would think something along the lines of Lil.Gaz, Kelly, and a first rounder. Or maybe try Corey, Bartel, S.Johnson and a first rounder.

My point is do we sit and bag what we have. Or do we be realistic, give some kids like H a chance, prey for no big injuries, and beat teams with a good defence and sound midfield that gives a number of forward options plenty of supply.

05 was ruined by injuries. Anybody who thinks otherwise, needs to tune in to the right station.

Fellow Cat supporters, I have been in BigFooty exile. It is good to come back with our team in the finals and even better to come back seeing a damn good post such as this. Realistic and fair dinkum, let's not kid ourselves. Our forward line isn't a very potent one (no kidding Mr Obvious) so why act disappointed and p***ed off when they don't fire. They are still learning the craft.

Bomber Thompson has built our team from the back line up. The back line and midfield are now in place. The final piece in the jigsaw is our forward line - give them a little more time. H has shown glimpses, NA assures us we have plenty to look forward to, Ottens is in his first year with the club (it usually takes new mature recruits 1 or 2 years to "fit" or gel with a club - for example Gehrig, Hamill, Hall and Everitt), KK kicks his 3 or 4 per game and Jnr and Chappy are crumbing nicely. The only person I have with a question mark over is Charlie Gardiner. More kicking practice required.

I'd give it a year at max before everything clicks. We could perhaps do with one more tall such as Graham Polak as someone mentioned.