Roast The Loose Zone

[you pick one]

People always trot this out after games like this. Fact is, teams look really slow when their ball movement is slow. Our ball movement was glacial.

We also looked slow because our players simply never played on or took the game on at all. It was all about waiting, crabbing sideways, holding things up, then coughing the ball up.

Also, part of coaching is drafting, selecting and developing players. So if we really have no leg speed, that is also a coaching issue. We didn't just randomly end up with 40+ guys who are below AFL standard speed.

Finally, opposition teams always look really fast when (a) Geelong has the ball and Cats players all run to attacking positions (b) Geelong randomly coughs it up under no pressure (c) opposition can then go end to end with Cats players trailing 10m behind their opponents.

Trotted out, I was there and watched it unfold,here's what someone else reported and these bastards linked up all night exactly what I saw.
2. Speed kills
Gold Coast has been slowly but steadily improving over the season, and on Saturday night the team clicked into gear. They simply out-ran the Cats, streaming through the middle of the ground off half-back. Jarrod Harbrow (30 disposals), Aaron Hall (32 and 10 marks), Touk Miller (relatively quiet with 18) and Adam Saad were creative with their handballs and movement through the centre. They turned the Cats inside out, putting enormous pressure on their defence and causing chaos in their own forward line. Callum Ah Chee ran a slow Geelong backline in circles, kicking three goals, and was ably supported by fellow small Brandon Matera (two).
All factual.

 

[Micksy]

Finally, a thread where we can let loose in a consequence free zone and really roast the club...

 

[catempire]

From loose zone to no zone.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Scott set play - stand still

 

[kickazz]

Tackles 52 to 13.

They even have time to fumble it.

It's a long season but this game plan / effort would be smashed even harder in finals.

52 to 13

 

[The rabbi]

Tackles 52 to 13.

They even have time to fumble it.

It's a long season but this game plan / effort would be smashed even harder in finals.

52 to 13

We may not have to worry about finals.

 

[Cataholic]

We may not have to worry about finals.

On the available evidence the smart money would agree

 

[BotsMaster]

This loose zone of ours will never work without Cowan's guarding grass expertise

 

[Pollywaffle]

The zone is being sliced and diced by savvy teams. We are stuck in the past.

 

[Vdubs]

We're in for a lot of pain until Scott's contract is up.

Been there, done that.
If we are that bad this year and ongoing, we look forward to draft picks. Always something to look forward to.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

Been there, done that.
If we are that bad this year and ongoing, we look forward to draft picks. Always something to look forward to.

We've given all our good picks away. All things considered, he's put the club back around 10-12 years.

 

[dazbroncos]

We've given all our good picks away. All things considered, he's put the club back around 10-12 years.

Dont disagree that there are issues that need to be fixed 3 weeks ago and are a blight on our gamestyle - but suggesting the club has been put back 10-12 years probably gets you a top5 nomination for overreaction of the year.

Go Catters

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

but suggesting the club has been put back 10-12 years probably gets you a top5 nomination for overreaction of the year.

Go Catters

We all seen how long it took for Bomber Thompson to build the club into premiership material. The majority of those players were drafted within, let's say, 4 years of each other. We had reasonable picks and it took a clean-out of sorts for it to happen. What Scott is doing is trying to rebuild on the run whilst topping up ... It's not happening because we're still deficient in too many areas. He keeps giving away high draft picks which makes it hard from drafting elite young talent ... the same talent that the likes of St.Kilda, GWS, Melbourne and the like are utilising their high picks to draft.

We have an ageing defence with not much besides Gardner to fall back on at VFL level. We don't have any midfielders at VFL level that remotely look like they're capable of replacing both Selwood and Dangerfield who are getting on themselves, and we certainly don't have any key position forwards that I'm confident can replace Hawkins in 3 years when he retires.

We're either going to need to keep topping or cutting our losses and rebuilding. Now please tell me how we're going to find the draft picks necessary to rebuild as fast as we did under Thompson, and that took the best part of 9 years, and started before he even came to the club. We had the picks and got a bit lucky with father/son's arriving at the right time.

I'm not sure how I am overreacting unless you care to explain how we're getting out of this with our best players pushing 30 and no 'elite' young talent pushing through besides maybe Parfitt and to a lesser extent Cockatoo, and with the latter I'm still not confident he'll ever become the player people here expect him to be.

We need a cultural shift as a start and that won't occur under this regime which isn't going to cease until 2020 when the rebuild will start. It'll take a lot longer in the 18 side format.

So in summary, yes, Scott has set the club back by in my estimate, 10 years by trading away 3 years worth of draft picks for a quick fix that isn't working.

 

[catempire]

We all seen how long it took for Bomber Thompson to build the club into premiership material. The majority of those players were drafted within, let's say, 4 years of each other. We had reasonable picks and it took a clean-out of sorts for it to happen. What Scott is doing is trying to rebuild on the run whilst topping up ... It's not happening because we're still deficient in too many areas. He keeps giving away high draft picks which makes it hard from drafting elite young talent ... the same talent that the likes of St.Kilda, GWS, Melbourne and the like are utilising their high picks to draft.

We have an ageing defence with not much besides Gardner to fall back on at VFL level. We don't have any midfielders at VFL level that remotely look like they're capable of replacing both Selwood and Dangerfield who are getting on themselves, and we certainly don't have any key position forwards that I'm confident can replace Hawkins in 3 years when he retires.

We're either going to need to keep topping or cutting our losses and rebuilding. Now please tell me how we're going to find the draft picks necessary to rebuild as fast as we did under Thompson, and that took the best part of 9 years, and started before he even came to the club. We had the picks and got a bit lucky with father/son's arriving at the right time.

I'm not sure how I am overreacting unless you care to explain how we're getting out of this with our best players pushing 30 and no 'elite' young talent pushing through besides maybe Parfitt and to a lesser extent Cockatoo, and with the latter I'm still not confident he'll ever become the player people here expect him to be.

We need a cultural shift as a start and that won't occur under this regime which isn't going to cease until 2020 when the rebuild will start. It'll take a lot longer in the 18 side format.

So in summary, yes, Scott has set the club back by in my estimate, 10 years by trading away 3 years worth of draft picks for a quick fix that isn't working.

We have shown it takes just four years to turn over half your best 22. And that's replacing some older players with players in their peak years (not all 18 year olds). No team is ever 10-11 years off in principle, although with bad list management and selections a team could face that long or longer in the wilderness (see e.g. Melbourne).

 

[Mahlepi]

We

We all seen how long it took for Bomber Thompson to build the club into premiership material. The majority of those players were drafted within, let's say, 4 years of each other. We had reasonable picks and it took a clean-out of sorts for it to happen. What Scott is doing is trying to rebuild on the run whilst topping up ... It's not happening because we're still deficient in too many areas. He keeps giving away high draft picks which makes it hard from drafting elite young talent ... the same talent that the likes of St.Kilda, GWS, Melbourne and the like are utilising their high picks to draft.

We have an ageing defence with not much besides Gardner to fall back on at VFL level. We don't have any midfielders at VFL level that remotely look like they're capable of replacing both Selwood and Dangerfield who are getting on themselves, and we certainly don't have any key position forwards that I'm confident can replace Hawkins in 3 years when he retires.

We're either going to need to keep topping or cutting our losses and rebuilding. Now please tell me how we're going to find the draft picks necessary to rebuild as fast as we did under Thompson, and that took the best part of 9 years, and started before he even came to the club. We had the picks and got a bit lucky with father/son's arriving at the right time.

I'm not sure how I am overreacting unless you care to explain how we're getting out of this with our best players pushing 30 and no 'elite' young talent pushing through besides maybe Parfitt and to a lesser extent Cockatoo, and with the latter I'm still not confident he'll ever become the player people here expect him to be.

We need a cultural shift as a start and that won't occur under this regime which isn't going to cease until 2020 when the rebuild will start. It'll take a lot longer in the 18 side format.

So in summary, yes, Scott has set the club back by in my estimate, 10 years by trading away 3 years worth of draft picks for a quick fix that isn't working.

we also have not had our early draft picks do anything really
Smedts gone
Lang in the twos
Thurlow in the twos
Caddy gone

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

We have shown it takes just four years to turn over half your best 22. And that's replacing some older players with players in their peak years (not all 18 year olds). No team is ever 10-11 years off in principle, although with bad list management and selections a team could face that long or longer in the wilderness (see e.g. Melbourne).

We've made some bad choices of late. Now please tell me where we are finding key backs to replace Taylor and Lonergan? We've got Gardner and that's the extent of it.

Please tell me where we are going to pluck some elite midfielders from when both Dangerfield and Selwood return sooner rather than later given their banged up bodies.

Where are the key forwards to replace Hawkins?

Are we going to use picks we haven't got or search elsewhere ... and we all know Geelong won't throw huge money at targets to get them across the line.

I've watched the VFL of late and nobody stands out as being 'elite.'

We're in trouble in my opinion unless something gives. Do we get sudden improvement from the Guthrie's, Kolodjashnij's, Stanley's, etc, in the mould of what occurred with Ling, Kelly, Enright etc or do they continue to stagnate and remain unfulfilled talents.

We need vast improvements from those types for me to change my opinion. Under Scott I remain unconvinced it will happen. If it does and we're really contending for flags 10 years from now, I'll eat my hat.

 

[catempire]

We've made some bad choices of late. Now please tell me where we are finding key backs to replace Taylor and Lonergan? We've got Gardner and that's the extent of it.

Please tell me where we are going to pluck some elite midfielders from when both Dangerfield and Selwood return sooner rather than later given their banged up bodies.

Where are the key forwards to replace Hawkins?

Are we going to use picks we haven't got or search elsewhere ... and we all know Geelong won't throw huge money at targets to get them across the line.

I've watched the VFL of late and nobody stands out as being 'elite.'

We're in trouble in my opinion unless something gives. Do we get sudden improvement from the Guthrie's, Kolodjashnij's, Stanley's, etc, in the mould of what occurred with Ling, Kelly, Enright etc or do they continue to stagnate and remain unfulfilled talents.

We need vast improvements from those types for me to change my opinion. Under Scott I remain unconvinced it will happen. If it does and we're really contending for flags 10 years from now, I'll eat my hat.

The draft, trade and free agency.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

The draft, trade and free agency.

So we're going to mysteriously draft and trade without any picks or currency and start overpaying players to pry them away from their current sides ... because that's what It'll take to bring elite key position talent into the club.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Mr Blicavs]

Scott may very well be the first coach in the history of the game to come up with a defensive game plan that doesn't involve tackling blocking or chasing ....
Takes a special kind of special, that does!

 

[catempire]

So we're going to mysteriously draft and trade without any picks or currency and start overpaying players to pry them away from their current sides ... because that's what It'll take to bring elite key position talent into the club.

Looking forward to it.

There's no mystery to it. "Without any picks"? We have virtually a full complement of picks so not sure what you mean.

 

[dazbroncos]

We all seen how long it took for Bomber Thompson to build the club into premiership material. The majority of those players were drafted within, let's say, 4 years of each other. We had reasonable picks and it took a clean-out of sorts for it to happen. What Scott is doing is trying to rebuild on the run whilst topping up ... It's not happening because we're still deficient in too many areas. He keeps giving away high draft picks which makes it hard from drafting elite young talent ... the same talent that the likes of St.Kilda, GWS, Melbourne and the like are utilising their high picks to draft.

We have an ageing defence with not much besides Gardner to fall back on at VFL level. We don't have any midfielders at VFL level that remotely look like they're capable of replacing both Selwood and Dangerfield who are getting on themselves, and we certainly don't have any key position forwards that I'm confident can replace Hawkins in 3 years when he retires.

We're either going to need to keep topping or cutting our losses and rebuilding. Now please tell me how we're going to find the draft picks necessary to rebuild as fast as we did under Thompson, and that took the best part of 9 years, and started before he even came to the club. We had the picks and got a bit lucky with father/son's arriving at the right time.

I'm not sure how I am overreacting unless you care to explain how we're getting out of this with our best players pushing 30 and no 'elite' young talent pushing through besides maybe Parfitt and to a lesser extent Cockatoo, and with the latter I'm still not confident he'll ever become the player people here expect him to be.

We need a cultural shift as a start and that won't occur under this regime which isn't going to cease until 2020 when the rebuild will start. It'll take a lot longer in the 18 side format.

So in summary, yes, Scott has set the club back by in my estimate, 10 years by trading away 3 years worth of draft picks for a quick fix that isn't working.

All 3 of those teams had multiple Top 10.. hell even Top 5 picks.

We had one pick at 10.
And the Pick 9 we had was for PFD so ill call that reasonable.

I get what you are saying but all our picks have been about 10 picks behind them.

GO Catters

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

There's no mystery to it. "Without any picks"? We have virtually a full complement of picks so not sure what you mean.

Our first pick in the 2017 draft is dependant on where Carlton finish on the ladder. At the moment that pick will be pick 24. We'll have pick 24 and pick 32. Hardly reason for optimism.

We'll trade out our 2018 first rounder too and we aren't getting much in return for Motlop If he leaves either.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

All 3 of those teams had multiple Top 10.. hell even Top 5 picks.

We had one pick at 10.
And the Pick 9 we had was for PFD so ill call that reasonable.

I get what you are saying but all our picks have been about 10 picks behind them.

GO Catters

Exactly, so you agree that It's going to make it hard to replace that talent at the draft given that predicament?

 

[catempire]

Hardly reason for optimism.

Hardly "without any picks".

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

Hardly "without any picks".

I'm fairly certain you were aware of what my post was implying.

If not, I've just answered it.