1 minute ago, Hannibal Inc. said:

Should have been a 10 goal loss.

Fumble fumble fumble.

Our fringe players were hopeless.

Connection inside 50 deplorable.

That said, they can turn things around.

Agree …20 more inside 50’s ..you would say the margin was flattering,..I’d prefer to say.,we’re not that bad 

Two teams coming off 5-day breaks, they had a bye and we had a high-pressure game. I don't think it was loading they just pulled up fresher.

The number of times we kicked to the opposition in the forward line beggars belief.  We either didn't look or played dumb footy.

Too many passengers with Jordan, Bedford and Spargo clearly beaten by their opponents and had very ordinary nights. Jackson hasn't the strength to beat Blicavs and Stanley and many clearances were lost with Jacko rucking. He is only a kid and when you block his jump he loses his effectiveness. Not convinced he was 100% tonight

May I remind everyone with 8 minutes to go we were 5 points down when Picket hit the post. I have no idea how we were still in the game and got that close. After that, we had no run in the legs and got overpowered.

The ground was slippery and Geelong tackled and pressured well while we tried to break tackles unsuccessfully. We can learn from that

The inclement weather didn't arrive and we were one tall short and one short too many In retrospect Weird should have played and Bedford, who was too easily pushed aside should have been sub. He has only played a hand full of full games.

Given the way we deliver the ball upfield couldn't hit the side of a barn and even TMac would not have made a difference.

We can learn a lot from this loss

23 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

That's our entire forward line right there

Exactly. When you get smashed around the contest the forwards have no hope. This was on the midfielders not the forwards.

Not too concerned though.

2 minutes ago, Hannibal Inc. said:

Should have been a 10 goal loss.

Fumble fumble fumble.

Our fringe players were hopeless.

Connection inside 50 deplorable.

That said, they can turn things around.

Jordan is very slow with ball and Bedford very disappointing.

Fritsch poor but he will come good!

I’d have Rivers and Hunt ahead of Jordan and Bedford but just personal opinion 

Game was won and lost in the clearances. Cats went to homework on our clearance game and smashed us. Also, we just over-possessed the ball at the stoppage and ended up inviting the pressure. Players like Atkins loves a tackle more than anything. 

Tonight was one of those days when nothing really worked. Overdid it by hand early and didn’t pay enough respect to their pressure. Obliterated at stoppage. Routinely beaten in the air. Again. 

When Gawn and Jackson are well down coupled with our horrendous forward entries and our predictable love affair with kicking down the line coming out of defense, we get exposed.

Benny Brown was decent early but the gulf between their forwards and ours tonight was there for all to see. Our smalls were poor and Fritta should be read the riot act about his selfishness. It’s becoming habit. 

We will be better next time around but one thing we absolutely can’t afford to repeat is getting smashed to that degree in clearances. It’s crucial to both our game and modern footy in general.

We were pathetic. Fumbled second to the ball. Thank god the finals aren't played at that [censored] of a ground. Bedford's fumble costly cost us momentum, must be dropped.

I would drop May. There is some problem there.

Jesus so much doom and gloom. Agreed we didn’t play well but Kozzie kicks that goal to level the game and I think we win as the team had a heap of momentum at that stage. Then you’d all be singing a different tune. 

Two obvious changes to start with.

Chandler had 29 disposals and 5 goals last week. We should have rewarded his great form. He should come in for Bedford, who has had two poor games since the Lions game. 

Bowey has had no impact on games for a while now. We’ve also struggled with stopping ground balls and linking play in our defensive 50. Fine in the air, terrible otherwise. Hunt should come in for Bowey to help lockdown. Not as polished on offense, but infinitely better at defending. We’ve got Salem and Gus to rebound as is.

11 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

Their pressure was excellent and we didn’t have a plan to counter.

I do hope the club seeks clarification on the non free kick to May in the 3rd Qtr when Hawkins tackled him without looking at the ball, preventing Nay from competing for the ball. From the ensuing bounce, Hawkins kicks a goal. Total [censored].

You don’t understand- Hawkins has his own rules - breaks May jaw - nothing to see, head high tackles - nothing to see, pushes players - nothing to see!

Sorry your just a slow learner 😂😂😂😂

I hate that ground - it’s not AFL standard, and they recruit and train for a specific game style on it where they strangle sides. The games are so dull because the boundary is used far too often. 2 weeks ago Geelong played a ‘home game’ against Richmond at the G. We never get afforded that luxury and we are the premiers. Had they played tonight at the MCG another 30,000 people could have gone. They are a selfish, whinging, entitled club.

I hope every Melbourne supporter in the country shows up if we play them at the G.

6 minutes ago, Sideshow Bob said:

Jeepers jaded with your knee history - wishing that on someone else.... really states your hatred of him!

I just thought it was an embarrassing post.

Geelong were the better side tonight. They'll be right up there this season so I don't think the sky is falling. 

Anyone still blaming training loads for that one?!

1 minute ago, Lord Nev said:

Rubbish.

Sparrow was poor tonight, but his previous 3 games were good, especially the last 2.

Silly call, even by your game day standards mate.

Those performance haven't impressed me at all lol. 

Some are so easily satisfied.

2 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Silly call, even by your game day standards mate.

Bookmark this.

We SHOULD make top 4, but I'm happy to put my gonards on the line with this call. This is not even off the back of tonight's performances. 

Clayton looked really bothered by his hand injury. Hope it's nothing significant

A lot of our players were ball watching from what I saw. Felt like some players were waiting for others to attack the ball. 
 

Off night for us.

2 minutes ago, willmoy said:

I would drop May. There is some problem there.

He still owes us as far I’m concerned. 

Credit to Geelong ... they've made a noticeable change to their game style which involves a ton of pressure on whoever has the ball on the opposition

And we couldn't deal with it tonight.  For a good amount of time we couldn't get past the centre area.  Also, we played the boundary line way too much

If we are going to win away from home we have to take risks and that involves using the corridor

But there is always a next time and you'd like to think that we'll be better prepared on our next encounter

No excuses either,  we just got beaten by a better team.  We didn't give up but they were the better side

The road to the premiership is a tough one and the other teams have done their homework on us.  That's 4 losses out of our last 6 played

So we need to learn from this loss and then improve and get better

There's no point plucking out names.  As a team, we were outplayed.  Outcoached as well as tactically, the Cats knew what we were going to do once we had the ball

2 minutes ago, willmoy said:

I would drop May. There is some problem there.

Settle down. Hawkins didn’t kick a goal on him (his one goal was on Gawn). May’s intercept game relies on our territory game and we got smashed in that.

If you want to point the finger, point it at Gawn/Jackson and the mids. 

Premierships aren't won in July...

... but we really need to sort some things out quickly, against good opposition, if we're going to be good enough to win when it counts.

Imagination/connection going forward, basic skills, and some of last year's heroes really need to get back into the game. Spargo, Salem, ANB, all down on form, we need them firing. We needed less Hollywood stuff tonight. 

I hate losing to the cats. 

6 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Just once I’d like to see guys like Sparrow, Jordon, ANB, Spargo, pull us over the line in games instead of always leaving it to Oliver and Petracca 

I'll let ANB off the hook.

He was the only one that was chasing hard all tonight and applying defensive pressure.

The other 3 were non existent. 

First time since Round 10, 2018 Max hasnt taken a single mark in the game. Only the 2nd time in almost a decade.  As the best mark around the ground player in the AFL thats a pretty big hole to fill. 

 

Was sure we were going to win going into tonight. Really kills my weekend losing. Fair play to Geelong they had circled this game from a way away, got their stars right (Dangerfield looked explosive over 10m) and as was well written in the gameday thread, Geelong have come up with a better plan. I also think a short break hurt us a bit, a few players looked NQR, May won't play another bad game like that. There were also some individual acts of excellence. Trac kicking goals again is a positive, ANB had some great touches, Petty has grown all year, Viney had another ripper game.

In the grimace department, Harmes wasn't his recent damaging self. Sparrow had a bad game, but get off the kids back, he is working hard, gets another run, I felt like he got a lesson tonight he will take on board. Brown does not survive on that roving goal, was furious in the 4th with the dropped mark. If he is going to play like that then might as well blood some new players like JVR, something is not right with BBB he needs to fix it out of the team. I would rather it was kicked in front of Kozzie than Brown right now.

My temper goes through the roof when I see posters criticizing effort/heart, they all try, every last one of them, yes the execution goes wrong sometimes and can grumble about that but the stuff that goes to the integrity of a player is just wrong. 

@Demon1987 is a dead set troll, looking at his history he only turns up to bait posters, not even funny, just a mouth breather. 

FWIW I didn't think the umpires missed or gave too many, Oliver had a high shot missed and Hawkins is kissed on his bee [censored] regularly, but overall was a par performance from the baby flies. 

Have now shifted to Bowey needing a spell, swap for Rivers, Bedford gets maybe one more game but wouldn't complain if Kade got a go. Spargo has mad credits with me, he does a power of work, he stays.

Was a cracking contest though for the 1st half, sucks to be on the wrong side of the result.

 

 

 

 

Our two worst losses this year have been the Fremantle game and tonight. The Freo loss was worse on the scoreboard, but more even statistically. We just kicked inaccurately for goal. Tonight was a more comprehensive loss. The key thing both matches have in common is we lost clearances by +10. It seems when our strength is taken away from us by good teams, we struggle to find other ways to wrestle back momentum and win. Time for Yze to get to work and come up with some tactics to address the stoppages when it’s not going our way. Centre bounces are huge in todays game use to 6-6-6 rule. Our third quarter in the grand final is proof of that!