Deplorable effort all round and a game to forget. 

Our forward setup seems to be lacking any sort of cohesion whatsoever, and if we are not careful, we will carry that dysfunction into our finals campaign just as we did last year - and we all know how that ended - with tears all round! 

If our strategy is to just kick long to our marking forwards, it's clearly not working. It was rinse and repeat all night and predictably we just kept getting picked off in the last by Geelong's interceptors. Sadly, the same wasn't happening in our defensive zones with poor ball use and dropped marks in our forward half creating turnovers that resulted in three easy goals in as many minutes to Geelong.  Game over.

Difficult to see how Chandler keeps his position in this side. Hasn't kicked a goal since Round 10.  Not good enough for a small forward there to kick goals.

   

Edited June 23, 20232 yr by markT

8 hours ago, Redleg said:

But how often does that happen?

It seems that someone plays their best game ever against us regularly.

Also Jack Henry has been bulk ordinary since his return, but turned it on last night.

Also Tanner Bruhn played his best game with Cats.

That’s 3 Cats players playing their best games of the year, if not career.

50 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Yep only stkilda has won. 

And they beat Sydney who also had a bye, so that doesn’t really count.

We play GWS next week off their bye so hopefully the tend continues.

On the bye theory I’d be backing in the following games for this week and next.

Sydney to beat WC 

Freo to beat Essendon 

GC to beat Hawthorn

Brisbane to beat Richmond

Adelaide to beat North

Freo to beat Bulldogs

Hawthorn to beat Carlton

Essendon to beat Port

 

geez footy is hard to figure out (for me)

beat the pies and we’re up and about. then that last Q

who needs bipolar when you support the Dees??

 

*lighthearted comment - anyone dealing with MH issues has my upmost respect 

1 hour ago, dees189227 said:

Yep only stkilda has won. 

Yes and they played Swans coming off a bye as well.!!!

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Andy, surely we don’t tolerate personal attacks on our own players (?)

The above is a horrible insult and has ZERO to do with footy.

I was gonna just report this but I feel it needs calling out publicly otherwise it will never end.

 

@Demonland

Hahahahhahahhahahahha

I was hoping that we would win but have a long memory of our trips to the Cattery, we played some very good footy in the 2nd and 3rd quarters But without nailing the goals that we really should have kicked and we really paid the penalty when they kicked those first 4 goals in the last. Frustrated, extremely but you can’t doubt our effort as Binman pointed out going from the stats we really should have gone much closer. What did surprise me was how well their medium and talls handled the ball and kicked to space in those conditions, showed us up a bit, If we hit our targets and avoid the fumbles we win. My only real beef was dropping Tomlinson and subbing out JJ.!!!

4 hours ago, layzie said:

That's a massive drop off in the last quarter for team pressure... We really needed a 2 or 3 goal lead minimum at 3QT to be a chance judging on that. It makes sense though, combined with the wet ground which couldn't have helped. 

You only had to look at the way May chased Rohan on the open goal. Rohan was always going to win it but May looked like he was running on fumes.

I'm seeing fewer coincidences than I used to in these games. Would be interesting to see how we'd go at Geelong in rounds early or late in the season, like Round 23 for instance 😉 

 

 

 

May is not known for his agility...

1 hour ago, demon3165 said:

Lets talk about the pies game, we had Oliver and Petty out, the pies had Sidebottom their biggest playmaker, De Goey, Elliot and Ginnivan out and if the rumour is true some had the flu but yes we missed a lot of fairly easy shots at goal but that's bad football.

Yes we will could still make top 4 but lets but there is a bit of work to be done.

Even with all the outs we outplayed the Pies with our all-over defensive game

The forwards kept the ball in and we functioned well all over the ground

It was our best game for an age and we proved that we've still got it.  However, the Pies didn't pressure our mids enough where as other teams have done

The margin should have been far greater, all the same

We are a bit Jeckyl & Hyde this season and that can often happen to premiership teams but usually the following season

If we can somehow sort out our forward line we are in with a big chance as we have a stellar defence along with an excellent  midfield

2 major strengths and a not so good one

The rucking and the pairing of Gawn & Grundy is still a work in progress but if we can get that working well that's another big plus

2 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Andy, surely we don’t tolerate personal attacks on our own players (?)

The above is a horrible insult and has ZERO to do with footy.

I was gonna just report this but I feel it needs calling out publicly otherwise it will never end.

 

@Demonland

Ecco.

Those that haven't read George's match report.... should do so.

Always provides a correct and clear  impression of what transpired.

Three words come to mind:

Lacklustre,  Inept and Wasteful.

We're still very Jeckle and Hyde

You can't be this way and play finals with any prospect let alone winning the big one.

But hey.... we're learning...   Yes learning a lot about those learning.   They're not that flash at learning.

 

What they are saying at Victoria Park 

“How on earth did we lose to this mob on Kings Birthday”.

That performance was a major disappointment.

e hear all the time that the team has the ability to reset during the game and work hard to get the basics right. We were not able to do that properly on Thursday night. Coaching failure? I just don't know.

What I do know is that we need the selectors to reset and get back to basics. In defence we know what works. we have a good structure to the game plan back there and we have to players to execute. For the last two weeks we had a good team within a team back there and then they drop Tomlinson and bring in Petty back there who has not played for 5 weeks. When they selected him I thought that they would play him forward and, on a wet night rely on a smaller defence to clean up the ground balls. I was wrong.

Midfield still lacks rotations and run. As far as I am concerned we need to have 12 mids in the 22 including a ruck, 2 wings and 9 rotations of mids. We do not have that. we have 2 genuine rucks and a whole bunch of small forwards that, either cannot play midfield or are not used there.

Bloody Hell! Don't get me started on the forward 50 steaming mess. I got potted by on here some weeks ago for saying that our forward line was a shambles that needed to be fixed. Nah, says a bunch of people.... we have the most points scored in the competition.... Now it is more of a mess than it was.

Back to basics.... Two talls, a medium, an inbetweener (one that can play either medium or small) and a couple of smalls.

Is that too much to ask?

 

That was an easy kill, no Dangerfield, no Guthrie, no Cameron, we should be winning that. It was a chance to end Geelong’s season and cement ourselves inside the 4 if not chase top 2 and we threw it away.

I still have belief that our best is good enough but we are the most inconsistent we’ve been for a long time. This and the Freo loss will hurt us, if only as they have kept those two teams alive.

Gutted, we better rock up and show something against GWS!

Things can change quickly, but they can easily stay in the same.

Most would know I’m not a big Goodwin fan and most def not a Stafford fan. He should have been replaced last year. 
Goodwin is stubborn to a fault and makes some baffling decisions, but then will put it all together and blow you away.

I don’t think we are that far away, but I don’t know if we will get much better than we have been all year. 
I don’t see us actually being a genuine flag threat as things stand and how they have been most if the year. 
We are no longer ruthless, we have gone back to wanting the 1 meter handball instead of protecting the player with the ball and we have lost that edge. No one fears us, but we fear others.

15 minutes ago, Macca said:

Even with all the outs we outplayed the Pies with our all-over defensive game

The forwards kept the ball in and we functioned well all over the ground

It was our best game for an age and we proved that we've still got it.  However, the Pies didn't pressure our mids enough where as other teams have done

The margin should have been far greater, all the same

We are a bit Jeckyl & Hyde this season and that can often happen to premiership teams but usually the following season

If we can somehow sort out our forward line we are in with a big chance as we have a stellar defence along with an excellent  midfield

2 major strengths and a not so good one

The rucking and the pairing of Gawn & Grundy is still a work in progress but if we can get that working well that's another big plus

Agree with you on on the backline, midfield while very good at times they allow the opposition to dictate a little to much if you watch last night many times cats players were on their own allowing an out, forward line is dysfunctional, no movement at all, even when they tried to transfer the ball they had to slow it down as no one was there to to keep the chain going and thats the problem, players with the ball kicking into the forward line kick it to the wrong side of our players that do lead, Kossie should be watching Toby Greene, knows when to fly and when to stay down and crumb I could go on but will leave it there.

Agree Gawn and Grundy is a work in progress, but I get the feeling Max is the one having trouble adjusting to it, but that's only my thought.

 

6 minutes ago, CHF said:

That performance was a major disappointment.

e hear all the time that the team has the ability to reset during the game and work hard to get the basics right. We were not able to do that properly on Thursday night. Coaching failure? I just don't know.

What I do know is that we need the selectors to reset and get back to basics. In defence we know what works. we have a good structure to the game plan back there and we have to players to execute. For the last two weeks we had a good team within a team back there and then they drop Tomlinson and bring in Petty back there who has not played for 5 weeks. When they selected him I thought that they would play him forward and, on a wet night rely on a smaller defence to clean up the ground balls. I was wrong.

Midfield still lacks rotations and run. As far as I am concerned we need to have 12 mids in the 22 including a ruck, 2 wings and 9 rotations of mids. We do not have that. we have 2 genuine rucks and a whole bunch of small forwards that, either cannot play midfield or are not used there.

Bloody Hell! Don't get me started on the forward 50 steaming mess. I got potted by on here some weeks ago for saying that our forward line was a shambles that needed to be fixed. Nah, says a bunch of people.... we have the most points scored in the competition.... Now it is more of a mess than it was.

Back to basics.... Two talls, a medium, an inbetweener (one that can play either medium or small) and a couple of smalls.

Is that too much to ask?

 

Welcome to the club on the forward issue......

19 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Ecco.

Like the shoes?

23 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Those that haven't read George's match report.... should do so.

Always provides a correct and clear  impression of what transpired.

Three words come to mind:

Lacklustre,  Inept and Wasteful.

We're still very Jeckle and Hyde

You can't be this way and play finals with any prospect let alone winning the big one.

But hey.... we're learning...   Yes learning a lot about those learning.   They're not that flash at learning.

 

I thought we were wasteful and lacked connection.

How anyone could watch the 2nd and 3rd quarter of that game and say it was ‘lacklustre’ and ‘inept’ is watching such a different game to me. We battled our hearts out, we just didn’t finish our work off when we had total control.

Edited June 23, 20232 yr by The heart beats true

6 hours ago, Kozzie4PM said:

I may have this wrong but you seem to be suggesting Petracca doesn't bring his best to the big moments. Which would be an odd criticism of a Norm Smith medallist.

Don't live in the past whilst this team is in its prime. He missed straightforward goals in comparison that were desperately needed at the time

1 minute ago, demon3165 said:

Agree with you on on the backline, midfield while very good at times they allow the opposition to dictate a little to much if you watch last night many times cats players were on their own allowing an out, forward line is dysfunctional, no movement at all, even when they tried to transfer the ball they had to slow it down as no one was there to to keep the chain going and thats the problem, players with the ball kicking into the forward line kick it to the wrong side of our players that do lead, Kossie should be watching Toby Greene, knows when to fly and when to stay down and crumb I could go on but will leave it there.

Agree Gawn and Grundy is a work in progress, but I get the feeling Max is the one having trouble adjusting to it, but that's only my thought.

 

We really missed Oliver last night after Viney was so very good against the Pies

And Oliver is a real last quarter crunch-time player ... he plays and we're at least closer

Can't have an elite player like him out for too long as when you play the better teams they will exploit his absence

The unanswered question is why Kozzie isn't being used in the middle for that x-factor or to just change things up.  Get him into the play to get his numbers up I say.  Just hands on the ball with a receive-and-go would help

9 hours ago, Macca said:

We are too reliant on our backline & midfield.

Forward line collectively is hit and miss

You don't say.

10 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

I thought we were wasteful and lacked connection.

How anyone could watch the 2nd and 3rd quarter of that game and say it was ‘lacklustre’ and ‘inept’ is watching such a different game to me. We battled our hearts out, we just didn’t finish our work off when we had total control.

Youre right ...you watched a different game....

18 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Can't see this happening while Stafford remains.

Smith showing his lack of footy nouse and being consistently outmanoeuvred by Stewart has nothing to do with Stafford.

Stop blaming the coaches, the team just isn't as good as what many here seem to think. That's why we lose matches.

5 hours ago, beelzebub said:

@binman

I only really have one reservation about the voracity of your suggestion of loading fatigue.  Had we been playing on a 5-6 day turnaround I might give it more heed.

But we weren't.  We had 10 days.

Sorry...not really buying it.

That makes no sense and you clearly do not understand the science. 10 days makes it even more likely the fatigue played a role. The fatigue from the (overtraining) training loads can last for multiple weeks after they do it.