CATS AND DOGS by George on the Outer

Well it certainly rained Cats and Dogs at Simonds Stadium or whatever the latest name for Kardinia Park is, but it was the Demons who played like Dogs, while the Cats showed why they are serious premiership contenders, regardless of the weather.

Lowest number of inside 50s since records were kept, was only more annoying than Eddie reminding us of this every 10 seconds. All we could really learn from this was that no matter what sort of forward line we might have next year a la Clark, Dawes, Hogan, Watts, Howe ... if you cant get the ball inside to them it all means nothing.

Our mids were smashed again, and highlighted the courageous efforts put in by the Jones twins yet again, and the complete lack of input by the others like Col Sylvia and Dan Nicholson.

Nicholson supposedly tagging Steve Johnson who had 38 touches on a field of slop, ensures that Jordie McKenzie wont have any trouble fitting straight back into the side. Sylvia in his 150th game played exactly like he did in the previous 149 ... 5 minutes of work and plenty of standing around doing nothing, a sharp contrast with the work rates of the Geelong mids all day.

Max Gawn showed he has plenty of upside and fought all day long. With a pre-season under his belt, he will be our first ruck come round 1 next year. Pity he just doesnt have the support around him to take advantage of his height and efforts.

And once again credit goes to the backs in Col Garland, James Frawley and Tom McDonald under intese pressure with continuous ball coming their way. It wasnt their opponents kicking goals, but the 10 goals+ that came directly from upfield turnovers.

Just think about how different the game would have been if Geelong had 10 less goals! Once we get rid of the spuds who keep doing this week after week, we could have a competitive side.

Good to see Jimmy Toumpas is getting accustomed to the pace of the game. While he has always had the skills, he was getting caught by the speed and intensity of AFL level football. Today it clicked for him, even in the wet conditions. Twenty + disposals and exhibiting the apparent time that all good players have, mean we have a genuine positive for next season. He will only get better, and more confident. If he only had some targets to give the ball to, he would have been far more damaging.

Overall, the team has stabilized since the takeover by Neil Craig. Earlier this year the scoreline would have seen a 100+ point blow-out, and while 10 goal losses are nothing to be pleased about, this was a top two side we were playing on their own dung heap.

The message now to the recruitment staff for year end is mids, mids and more mids. Not that they probably dont know that, but just pick a bucketload of them, and maybe just maybe we will get a couple of good ones.

Otherwise we will continue to play like Dogs ... when we need to play like Cats!

Melbourne 1.2.8 2.4.16 3.5.23 4.6.30

Geelong 4.5.29 7.10.52 11.12.78 13.20.98

Goals

Melbourne Byrnes 2 Dawes Howe

Geelong Caddy Hawkins Horlin-Smith Podsiadly 2 Duncan Johnson Motlop Smedts Stringer

Best

Melbourne Byrnes M Jones N Jones Garland Gawn

Geelong Johnson Selwood Kelly Caddy Podsiadly Simpson

Injuries

Melbourne Nil

Geelong Nil

Changes

Melbourne Nil

Geelong Mathew Stokes (groin) replaced in the selected side by George Horlin-Smith

Reports

Melbourne Nil

Geelong Nil

Umpires Ryan Hosking Wenn

Crowd 23,172 at Simonds Stadium

Today has shown that Neil Craig probably isn't the right guy for us going forward. He dropped Rodan on a wet day, and then proceeded to make no structural changes the entire game. Poor coaching performance.

Effort can't really be questioned, although if you were to ask who went harder today, the answer would still be Geelong, so...

That was our submission for Draft Assistance from the AFL.

30 points scored and a 50 inside 50 differential, together with the lowest inside 50 count ever recorded.

Up to you other clubs, argue against that.

Poorly selected side and poor game plan.

Why on Earth did we go tall? How handy would some big bodied mids been today. Does anyone check the forecast down on Swan St?

-33 in disposals, +19 handballs FFS!

Yes Chook, Magner and Rodan would have been handy today.

But the stats said we were close, I demand a score recount!

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:47, Redleg said:

That was our submission for Draft Assistance from the AFL.

30 points scored and a 50 inside 50 differential, together with the lowest inside 50 count ever recorded.

Up to you other clubs, argue against that.

Beat me too it 'Redleg', yet there are some on here who still argue against it. Maybe not anymore.

We should have our answer in the next week or so, whenever the commission is set to meet.

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:49, FC Melbourne said:

Poorly selected side and poor game plan.

Why on Earth did we go tall? How handy would some big bodied mids been today. Does anyone check the forecast down on Swan St?

-33 in disposals, +19 handballs FFS!

did we go tall? Which tall would you have dropped. Watts wasn't needed as an extra tall forward but you'd hardly drop him on recent performances.

I would've loved Magner and Rodan but that would've taken midfield experience for Grimes, Trengove and Matt Jones away. McKenzie over Nicho as well.

I won't criticize Craig too much for picking a team for the future rather than to minimize a loss.

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:55, stuie said:

But the stats said we were close, I demand a score recount!

No they didn't Stuie. -50 inside 50's for a start. But 100+ tackles and competitive in the contested ball indicate we were trying but outclassed. Just because you have no idea how to read them doesn't make them irrelevant.

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:55, stuie said:

But the stats said we were close, I demand a score recount!

I seem to recall that during our game against Brisbane where we were level until half-time, you bitched and moaned that the stats said we were lucky to be close. The fact is that you have an agenda, and you'll use whatever means necessary to win an argument.

All we can take from today is Jimmy Toumpas can play and that is it. Nothing negative we just weren't good enough and the class players of Geelong shone today

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:59, Chook said:

I seem to recall that during our game against Brisbane where we were level until half-time, you bitched and moaned that the stats said we were lucky to be close. The fact is that you have an agenda, and you'll use whatever means necessary to win an argument.

Agenda? What's my agenda? I'm sharing my opinion that today the stats don't truly reflect the game.

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:58, furious d said:

No they didn't Stuie. -50 inside 50's for a start. But 100+ tackles and competitive in the contested ball indicate we were trying but outclassed. Just because you have no idea how to read them doesn't make them irrelevant.

No, the closeness of the contested ball and tackles indicates it was pouring with rain all day.

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:02, stuie said:

Agenda? What's my agenda? I'm sharing my opinion that today the stats don't truly reflect the game.

You've been claiming the effort wasn't there, I disagree.

Look what was working against us today:

- Geelong are clearly best wet weather side in the comp (and IMO we are the worst)

- Skilled Stadium = massive home-ground advantage

- Umpiring (only a small point but I thought Geelong got the rub of it)

- An enormous gulf in class.

I don't think it was a good performance from us today, but all things considered - it wasn't the worst.

Toumpas will be a class act going forward. Has time when he gets it, and invariably picks the right option.

My last point is that I don't think I've ever been more infuriated with a commentator more than I was with Racist Ed today. Completely patronizing, biased and snide. He can GAGF.

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:04, furious d said:

You've been claiming the effort wasn't there, I disagree.

Yep, my opinion is that in the first half the effort was poor. Thought we showed a lack of guts and mental preparedness given the conditions. Second half was a bit better in that area.

Deemons are not physically tough enough,not mentally strong enough and are not fit enough. Sounds like we trained hard before xmas but not afterwards perhaps too much pudding !!!!!!, We still can't chase.

Get rid of co captains.TRENGOVE and GRIMES. and get rid of leadership group. Make DAWES or GARLAND or FRAWLEY captain.

Forget CRAIG as next year's coach, same belief's as NEELD. At 400 K a waste of money.

We must get BOYD, trade Jamar and or Bail plus pick N0.2 for pick NO.1. .................. WATTS should be used constantly as a ruck rover............. Mids should be better next year.

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:05, stuie said:

Yep, my opinion is that in the first half the effort was poor. Thought we showed a lack of guts and mental preparedness given the conditions. Second half was a bit better in that area.

Fair enough, I just think we were massively outclassed. Our glaring weaknesses are our 3rd rate disposal and our inability to win a centre clearance.

  On 13/07/2013 at 06:55, stuie said:

But the stats said we were close, I demand a score recount!

The stats didn't say we were close. 70 Inside 50s to 19 is a slaughtering.

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:07, furious d said:

Fair enough, I just think we were massively outclassed. Our glaring weaknesses are our 3rd rate disposal and our inability to win a centre clearance.

Agree there mate, no doubt.

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:08, Nasher said:

The stats didn't say we were close. 70 Inside 50s to 19 is a slaughtering.

I was just talking about the disposal and tackle counts that keep being thrown around.

Told by a club official Clark to train with the main group this week and could play at Casey in two weeks. Game after is GWS so who knows.

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:10, stuie said:

I was just talking about the disposal and tackle counts that keep being thrown around.

Which are indicative of effort. I don't reckon anyone in the world would reckon we were close.

1 down 7 to go

  On 13/07/2013 at 07:10, The Yarra said:

Told by a club official Clark to train with the main group this week and could play at Casey in two weeks. Game after is GWS so who knows.

It would be fitting for him to return against GWS.