I think my dad said it best tonight after the game, "There is obvious improvement this year".

51 minutes ago, A F said:

I think it's fair to say our defenders struggled today. Geelong looked like marking or scoring every time they went inside 50. Our defence was superb last week. It was pretty ordinary this week. Fancy letting Hawkins mark uncontested on the goal line and that wasn't the only defensive oversight.

I thought our defence was immense today, repelled everything and shut down a lot of Geelong's rebound attempts. We let then score easy goals when they got out the back or around the edge of our zone but they did the job well were just let down by our forwards who couldn't capitalise on our mid/defence dominance. 

Giving up goals at the very end of quarters is also a problem. Q1 and end of Q3, 2 goals.

3 hours ago, Deestroy All said:

Josh Kelly... We got Tyson and Salem. So half of it was good. 

We also upgraded our third round pick which was Jayden Hunt. Pies were keen with their third rounder, so the trade may have allowed us to secure him too.

How bad was ANB's last quarter 30m backward pass to the Cats goal square when he had Jetta clear to the side of him and it resulted in a goal? Worst play of the year so far. But anyway. 

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by DominatrixTyson

4 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

Thats what it looks like to throw 4 points in the bin.  Infuriating. 

No, no, not a throw, that was a legal disposal, play on.

After today im starting to think that we are really missing Aaron VandenBerg. His hardness and tackling pressure up forward makes a huge difference plus also his ability to mark up forward and kick goals.

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

In the 1st quarter we kept bombing it in and their spare man just swept across taking easy marks. After that we lowered our eyes and and played on our terms and we killed them. Our forward line worked well, we spread it around and remained unpredictable. If we have converted even half our easy missed set shots we would've been up by 5 goals at 3/4 time and likely win the game 

Hogan was a big miss though he usually plays well at Docklands and his presence was sorely missed, especially after Gawn went down and Watts had to play 1st ruck.

Watts was fantastic today, that goal he kicked from the centre square was immense and his work in the ruck was really good. He just ran out of puff in the end like a lot of our guys 

Yep, agreed, mate.

I do find it slightly staggering though that our guys had to be told not to kick it on top of the small Melbourne forwards' heads, to the advantage of KPBs from Geelong. Surely, our strategy going into the game was to ensure we lowered our eyes and kicked to space for our zippy small forwards to run into? 

It wasn't to be, but I was strangely confident at quarter time that we were bossing the game to that point and that if we cleaned up our frankly stupid forward entries, we'd start to turn things our way. I was right, but unfortunately that goalkicking of ours never improved.

2 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

It has all the hallmarks of a tough game to watch - we will be the better side but Freo will look to choke the game and go defensive, much like Carlton did, and it will make things difficult for us.  Not looking forward to that at all.

It's because they make the odd mistake.  ANB made a pretty bad error in the last, yet he was sensational prior to that... but some will focus on that one mistake, as if it erases all of the good work he had done prior.  

I think Freo will attack us. They played a good brand of footy against the Dogs and got the job done. We'll have to play well next week to beat them.

And ANB came off the back of the centre square a couple of times uncontested and his poor ball-handling meant he couldn't gather and keep the ball moving. The backwards kick at the start of the last quarter that completely swung the momentum and cost us a goal, was the right option, but poorly executed.

2 hours ago, Skin D said:

Taller, faster, more skilled. Geelong won. Surprise, surprise. Let's hope Gawn hasn't done his reconstructed knee.

Just a really ordinary post this. Did you watch the game or are you trolling?

55 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I thought our defence was immense today, repelled everything and shut down a lot of Geelong's rebound attempts. We let then score easy goals when they got out the back or around the edge of our zone but they did the job well were just let down by our forwards who couldn't capitalise on our mid/defence dominance. 

It's very rare that I disagree with you, mate, but I'll agree to disagree on this point.

I do concur on being let down by our forwards' inability to finish though. Jetta and Hunt both kicked great goals too. Perhaps, they should show our forwards how to do it at training this week?

33 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

After today im starting to think that we are really missing Aaron VandenBerg. His hardness and tackling pressure up forward makes a huge difference plus also his ability to mark up forward and kick goals.

Disagree. We don't need another guy who can't kick.

3 hours ago, DemonOX said:

Who is Simon??

Simon says? (that would have been a good win ... )

Yes we played well, but it's not 2014 and honourable losses mean sweet fuuck all to us. At the end of the day this is a game we deserved to win but didn't and only have ourselves to blame. Probably the most promising thing is that the gameplan allows the team to perform even without key players, which makes me feel a bit better about Maxy's injury

Hopefully this isn't a result we look back on at the end of the year having it cost us a spot

Just got home"Bloody long drive"  One point. That is the last time the Cats will beat Melbourne for a long long time. 

I think I wore out my four-letter-words by three-quarter time. When Bernie fluffed what should have been a certain goal at the end, the Geelong supporters nearby could only look on in sympathy. The best bits today were really good (Watts' goal from the centre square, Jones to Watts to Tim Smith for his first goal, long kick to Kent for his goal on the run, Hunt repelling Selwood's clearing kick by belting a goal back over his head), but the worst was cringeworthy. I take comfort in the idea that the Cats won't get much better (and surely can't ever again pull goals from their arse and the arse of the horse they rode in on as well like that), but that we had a few passengers, and couldn't buy a goal for love or money. Losing anyone, let alone Gawn, put us down a rotation for the second half, which seems to be a factor in our high-energy style, which should have seen us up by about ten goals at three-quarter time. All coulda, woulda, shoulda, but having thrown away a game, it seems we can only improve next week.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned so far is the set up. We again started with 8 in defense, but during the second and third quarters (and maybe the last, but I was swearing too much by then to notice), we seemed to set up with only one wing. It seemed that we regularly had 5 in the forward line, one on the left wing, but no-one on the right. Was it because with Max dominating early nothing was heading to that side? Or what? Not sure if it worked, but if we had kicked even vaguely straight in the second and third quarters, we would probably say yes.

4 hours ago, Bates Mate said:

I hate head first, fall over ducking Selwood more

He has spent a career riding these free kicks and his name shall forever be tarnished for doing so...

Last year he raked up almost twice as many free kicks as anyone else in the league. So far this year he is in the top 3.

its time for coaches and the media to call him out on it 

 

43 minutes ago, A F said:

It's very rare that I disagree with you, mate, but I'll agree to disagree on this point.

I do concur on being let down by our forwards' inability to finish though. Jetta and Hunt both kicked great goals too. Perhaps, they should show our forwards how to do it at training this week?

Disagree. We don't need another guy who can't kick.

We have worse offenders than Vanders in front of goal Af. Having said that I'm not saying Vanders is a great kick either but the guy is at least a competitive beast and provides a decent marking option i50 and can stick a tackle. A mile ahead of Hannan at this point, which he should be given the number of games played. Can also rotate him through the mid field in very limited doses.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by Rusty Nails

14 minutes ago, Red and Bluebeard said:

 We again started with 8 in defense, but during the second and third quarters (and maybe the last, but I was swearing too much by then to notice), we seemed to set up with only one wing. It seemed that we regularly had 5 in the forward line, one on the left wing, but no-one on the right. Was it because with Max dominating early nothing was heading to that side? Or what? Not sure if it worked, but if we had kicked even vaguely straight in the second and third quarters, we would probably say yes.

We set up behind the ball anticipating Selwood and Danger to get first use and bomb long. So we put numbers down back to repel. When it looked like we would get first hands on the ball or create a maul we streamed forward to create numbers around the contest or have a wall approaching Geelong as they tried to clear their defensive 50. Good and innovative coaching. Really like the way Goodwin changes tactics during the game and responds to what he sees happening

2 hours ago, Skin D said:

Taller, faster, more skilled. Geelong won. Surprise, surprise. Let's hope Gawn hasn't done his reconstructed knee.

What??? Were you watching the game. If it wasn't for Gawn going down we would have rolled them by 30 points.

no team would have been able to cope a whole half without a ruckman 

5 hours ago, Danelska said:

Dissapointing as clearly we could have won. Tired and put the cue in the rack in the final 20, sure I can wear that, considering where we have been the last decade. I am super super impressed with our midfield, and super super content with where we are headed, considering the 3/4 effort and the intent and energy we displayed. We will be a juggernaut.

Didn't see the team put the que in the rack at all really.  Up until the last 10mins or so, we were still in a position where winning was possible.  Those two goals last in the third really hurt us (allong with all our misses).

Haven't watched the team loose, but be almost happy with the teams performance in a long time - tonight was one.  Don't get me wrong I hate loosing, but was satisfied that we put in close to the best showing that we could in the circumstances.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

RELEASE THE SPENCIL!

6 hours ago, Demonland said:

There are days when you can't hit the side of a barn door and days when you can't miss. Each of the team's had one of those days today.

That's exactly it, we played all over them for 2 and half quarters, should have been 30+ points up at 3/4 time, we blew it with bad kicking! Its a game we threw away and we would beat them any other day

1 hour ago, Rusty Nails said:

We have worse offenders than Vanders in front of goal Af. Having said that I'm not saying Vanders is a great kick either but the guy is at least a competitive beast and provides a decent marking option i50 and can stick a tackle. A mile ahead of Hannan at this point, which he should be given the number of games played. Can also rotate him through the mid field in very limited doses.

Didn't think the tackle numbers were that bad today from our half forwards. It was kicking it through the big sticks that we had the greatest trouble with.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by A F

Some random comments:

-I thought Gawn's discipline was poor.  He gave away 3 silly free kicks in their forward half which became immediate goals.  I think there was another in the middle which became a goal after a bit of fumbling by Geelong.  The behinds we kicked aside, those goals alone kept Geelong in the game. 

-The slick pick up by Watts in the middle was a joy to watch finished off by that fabulous goal.

-Our mid-field was superb keeping the ball in forward half after kick-ins and lets face it we gave Geelong a lot of practice at kick ins...made the job easier for our defenders.

-Another salute to Watts - he had only two 3 minute rests in the second half.  A Herculean effort on his part.  He showed immense determination - like he knew it was up to him and he did it!  I hope the coaches and the players who took him to task in the media in the preseason give Jack a lot of love this week.  He deserves it.

-Petracca had 2 players on him a lot of the time and he usually won the ball!  Opposition already see him as a  dangerous player (especially in Hogan's absence).

-Too many players went missing.  But that bodes well for when we have 22 contributors.

-We took our eye off the ball: the two junk time goals at the end of the 3rd cost us big time and after the break they kicked two more so 4 goals in 5 minutes.  Shows the need to be switched on for every minute.

-The Eithad hoodoo has been put to rest! 

-A terrific game.  We fought and fought and fought.  It could have so easily been our W. 

-So proud!

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by Lucifer's Hero

3 hours ago, A F said:

Didn't think the tackle numbers were that bad today from our half forwards. It was kicking it through the big sticks that we had the greatest trouble with.

Overall I agree AF but always room for improvement. Won that count against the Blues. Equaled the cats today but lost it against the Saints. There's a few forwards bringing the heat inside 50 when we haven't got it and there's a few that haven't  so far.

Also agree it was also a horrible day in front from most. This,  the loss of Big M, and some sub par performances from a few individuals, cost us the match today.

37 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Some random comments:

-I thought Gawn's discipline was poor.  He gave away 3 silly free kicks in their forward half which became immediate goals.  I think there was another in the middle which became a goal after a bit of fumbling by Geelong.  The behinds we kicked aside, those goals alone kept Geelong in the game. 

-The slick pick up by Watts in the middle was a joy to watch finished off by that fabulous goal.

-Our mid-field was superb keeping the ball in forward half after kick-ins and lets face it we gave Geelong a lot of practice at kick ins...made the job easier for our defenders.

-Another salute to Watts - he had only two 3 minute rests in the second half.  A Herculean effort on his part.  He showed immense determination - like he knew it was up to him and he did it!  I hope the coaches and the players who took him to task in the media in the preseason give Jack a lot of love this week.  He deserves it.

-Petracca had 2 players on him a lot of the time and he usually won the ball!  Opposition already see him as a  dangerous player (especially in Hogan's absence).

-Too many players went missing.  But that bodes well for when we have 22 contributors.

-We took our eye off the ball: the two junk time goals at the end of the 3rd cost us big time and after the break they kicked two more so 4 goals in 5 minutes.  Shows the need to be switched on for every minute.

-The Eithad hoodoo has been put to rest! 

-A terrific game.  We fought and fought and fought.  It could have so easily been our W. 

-So proud!

Some good points Lucifer. Just on Trac he did reasonably well but would just like to see him grab the high bouncing ball more often when it's his to do so rather than so many attempted clever netball spikes. Some of his spikes today resulted in another disputed ball under pressure and occasionally a turnover where we were punished.

Sometimes the best option is  to take possession, even if you're gonna be tackled immediately. Other times the occasional spike or bunt to advantage might work but depends on the where/when and who is around. A split decision I realise and very hard to always make the right one under heat of a match and easy for me to say from the cheap seats but needs to play the percentages here and go for the stoppage if in doubt. Especially when the loose ball's in a risky part of the ground in congestion.

Edited April 8, 20178 yr by Rusty Nails