Scragging,  face scratching, tripping, holding and verbal abuse of umpires, all by them. WTF.

Slow, flat, fumbles....poor decision making.

Too many panic 2 foot handballs to no one that drew even more pressure.

Decision making slow.

Have we not heard of knocking the ball on to keep the ball moving instead of looking for the perfect give so often.

Danger needed a Harmes tag after half time imv.

Max shouldnt have played.  Tried hard but was like playing with a man down.  Come back through the McGoos for some match fitness pls Goody.  Even the Captain isn't above basic team principles and smarts.

Outs:  Spargo (Nancy award) & Jordan

In:  Chandler & Rivers

A crap night with both Melbourne & the storm losing

2 minutes ago, CYB said:

They kicked 18 behinds, should have been at least a 40 pt drubbing tbh.

But it wasn't !!!!

We could point the finger at the small forwards like Pickett, Spargo, ANB and Bedford... but the reality is our midfield got smashed all game and had us on the back foot. Shocking disposal and decision making from a lot of players as well. Can't see us playing that badly for the rest of the year, I hope anyway.

Can't compete against the best when you are beaten in clearances 54-36. They turned that into forward half dominance, with 66 inside 50s to our 46. It's no wonder they had 31 scoring shots to our 18.

They did to us what we did to Brisbane.

For all our failures, we worked so hard to get it back to a goal difference at the start of the last, but Pickett's miss, Fritsch's miss, then Bedford fumbling when he had the entire forward half empty in front of him killed our momentum and they got their tails up.

Gawn and Jackson didn't look match fit, Bowey played his first genuinely poor game of his career, Harmes didn't learn his lessons and kept getting caught trying to break tackles, and we were too short up forward and therefore couldn't take enough get out of jail marks when we needed them.

We can't play one tall forward without having one of Gawn and Jackson playing forward as well, so either we do that or we bring Weideman back and drop one of the underperforming small forwards (Bedford was great against Brisbane but really no good since).

We don't have much wriggle room with our fixture, so it hurts to drop this one to one of our major competitors, but the swing between the Brisbane game and this game shows that we have to be on for most of our run home or we're going to drop too many games and cede ladder position.

The raising of the white flag at the end was retro Melbourne style. Inside 50s got to 52 v 46 and we gave up the last 14 insides. With an important game on the line. Just don't think we have what it takes when things aren't falling into place for us.

Gee that lot play well at Feral Park, let them have their moment, lets see how they go at the MCG in September.

That’s all Geelong have. Played well on their home ground. Selwood said post match we prepared for this period in the season and we are running on top of the ground now. We quite obviously were not. We had all the signs of a high loading period. Slow off the mark, fumbles, poor execution. The ball fell in their favour time and time again, partly because they were playing fitter and got to the drop and partly football gods. 
 

positives were we held their tall forwards well despite being very average for the night. The ground cost us, we didn’t play it well. Things look different on the mcg. They may have timed their run to peak too early. We look like we will be back week after next. 

Out worked us all night especially in the contest.

They were right up for this game on their home turf and their intensity was much higher than ours .

Much smarter going forward too.

We looked pretty flat and fumbly .

Next two weeks will be very important now , let’s get out of this hole of a ground and get back to work.

All I could think of was Beyoncé belting out Irreplaceable the last ten minutes 

‘To the left, To the left’

We just couldn’t get through them every time we kicked out to the left, change it up sometimes ffs. So predictable and frustrating. Poor Langdon must’ve froze in the last ten minutes, didn’t get a look in. 

I think we have a few things to clean up if we are serious. Their pressure was really good, their younger blokes played a greater role and our ball movement needs to be cleaned up and have more dare.

Much to think about

Stats don't tell the whole story etc etc... but here's the 10 lowest rated players on the ground.

Just how poor was Jordon tonight? Slow & got caught at least twice with sh1thouse disposal. 

The team had a virus🦠

14 minutes ago, Billy said:

Selwood a dirty little sniper, probably broken Clarrys thumb

I seriously hope you’re not trying to say that was a deliberate act. I don’t like Selwood at all, but that was just a footballing accident with no malice involved at all.

Edited July 7, 20223 yr by hardtack

We weren’t at full strength, they pretty much were (excl. Stewart).

We had too many passengers and seemingly everyone that’s recently returned from injury looked underdone, namely Max.

If we can get them on the ‘G instead of their marginal seat pork barrel BS stadium and with a full strength side we can do a number on them…and I think they know it.

But god help us if we cop an away final down there (not unrealistic).

2 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

We had a lot of players down tonight. Salem looks a mile off, Jackson the same, Max looked underdone.

Salem hasn't looked himself since returning from the long lay-off. Agree on Jackson/Gawn, both looked rusty (at least). 

At this level, that's the game right there. Geelong are a much better side than last year, hardly a weak link anywhere. Going to take some stopping.

7 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Interesting Selwood said they feel like they were running on top of the ground. Sounds like they’ve timed their loading well. Better than us, anyway…

You can’t judge it in early July.

6 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Interesting Selwood said they feel like they were running on top of the ground. Sounds like they’ve timed their loading well. Better than us, anyway…

We’re still 8 weeks away from the business end of the season so if they are peaking now they have totally stuffed their timing and should fire their fitness staff. 

The postage stamp of kardinia Park didn't suit us - we were a step to slow to react with everyone just that bit closer than we are used to.

3 minutes ago, Billy said:

Selwood a dirty little sniper, probably broken Clarrys thumb

18 games down there in 22 years

And we played poorly 

Deliberate kick to the players hand, reportable, deliberate, straight to tribunal.

Poor game all round but as long as we get a top 4 spot we will be OK, need to work out the forward line now, it's been a problem all year, we just cannot keep doing the same thing over and over.

Seems like two main stories to tell;

Rucks: Gawn, zero marks. Jackson, one mark. Got the hitouts but clearances didn't come from them.

Small forwards: All three of Pickett, Bedford and Spargo were very limited.

 

Damn those long kicks down the wing look stupid when there's nobody in place for them.

1 minute ago, DeeZee said:

Out worked us all night especially in the contest.

They were right up for this game on their home turf and their intensity was much higher than ours .

Much smarter going forward too.

We looked pretty flat and fumbly .

Next two weeks will be very important now , let’s get out of this hole of a ground and get back to work.

Top 4 very tough with run home very tough.