At the break of Gawn

I thought we were ok the first 3 qtrs, but that last qtr was just horrible. We had absolutely no room in our forward 50 and the repeat entries are just really inefficient entries if you can’t hit a lead up target. But the worst part was just defending their ball movement in that last qtr. We were so highly pressed up that they just got easy goals and so much space.

What about Lever’s double fist to the corridor straight to a Geelong player and then his opponent (Henry) then took the mark to let them kick the first goal?

Has anyone noticed we haven’t had one out the back opportunity tonight? They just have had a defender back there the whole night.

Tom Stewart has absolutely killed us. He’s shown no respect to his opponent.

Same thing happened last year. Got within a few points and then they blew us away with a flurry of goals.

Disgusting defence of rebound

We either run away with this or Scott pulls something out of his [censored] and we lose.

Grundy comfortably playing much better than Gawn. You’d almost consider subbing him off if he does nothing in the 3rd and put Spargo on.

We were $2.20 last weekend and the Cats were $1.80 then around the middle of the weekend it flipped and we were the favourites. Now it’s flipped again as the game got closer (potentially a lot of people saw value in Geelong). I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen our odds fluctuate that much.

Wouldn’t matter if Geelong was bottom 4, GMHBA is a fortress for them. Probably an unfair advantage on the comp as I think they’re the only team that train and play at their home ground? Anyway, with the weather forecasted I think it’ll be really close and could go either way. My biggest concern is that if Geelong get on top of clearances and trap it in their forward half, it’ll be very difficult to transition the ball out of their D50. They are also the best in the comp for lowest inside 50s against. If we don’t win the territory battle I feel it might be a bit like the Port game but unfortunately, Hawkins, Rohan, Cameron will nail their set shots.

Of course. It’s just a shame as he’s a walk up AA midfielder every day of the week but he might miss out now because of games missed.

There’s no way Petty will play forward. I think it’s as simple as they like the Smith forward setup, and Petty is in our best back 6 (while Tomlinson isn’t) and now that he’s back, he’ll play there.

Probably fair enough given we have another 10 day break after this. It’ll absolutely ensure he’s right to go. Probably harms his AA chances though missing 4 games.

Going to be a wet night it seems so I think a smaller forward line will be ok.

I just finished watching the presser, and I could be wildly inaccurate here, but I think Goody has deliberately stayed quiet on the Oliver and Petty situation as a way to get a tactical edge on Scott. We all know Goody has lost tactical battles against him so I think he wants to keep him guessing as close to the game as possible. Secondly, I think it’s a brilliant idea to train at GMHBA, no other Victorian teams do it and often the Cats will get a fast start when the opposition is still adjusting to the ground. We’ve been a good travelling side in the past so I think to treat this as an interstate game is really smart. Let’s hope it pays off!

Is it just me or do the Saints supporters sound bloody loud on the TV? Thought they’d only have about 15-20k there.

When Max was interviewed by Whateley last week before the Pies game, the topic of the short bye and 3 x 10 day breaks was brought up. Max actually said that the strength and conditioning team saw it as an advantage to the rest of the competition due to the training blocks we could get in to help with the backend of the season.

Do you remember what happened in 2021? Port are Prelim choking specialists.

Johnson has been anti-Melbourne since we embarrassed the Dogs in the ‘21 GF.

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned yet as I haven’t read the entire thread, but did you notice how happy and relaxed Goody was in the post match? I can’t recall too many times seeing him like that. It was just great to see him so happy, and even cracking jokes, after completing outcoaching the opposition. Also, just in regards to Brayshaw, his first few mins of the game were awful but to his credit he bounced back and had a solid game. My only other dig at him would be in the last centre bounce. Mitchell completely got off the chain and almost won that centre clearance. I dare say that if Oliver was there instead, there’s no way Mitchell would have got that sort of separation on someone as quick as Oliver.

Like a few on here, I thought last weeks performance spoke volumes about our clearance and contest game. We brought it again today and dismantled the Pies. Hats off to Tomlinson as well. Played his best game and could be pivotal in our defence if Petty is to remain forward.

How have we gone from one of the most accurate to the one of the worst? Just basic set shots being missed.

I think with all the other teams losing around us, it’s not essential we win for top 4. In fact a loss will still see us stay in 3rd. However if we lose, I think it’ll be very difficult to finish top 2 unless Port or the Pies have a significant stumble in the back half.

I think we win today. The media undersold our win last week because of our low score, but the fact is we were dominant in the contest, clearances and we were terribly inaccurate. Dees to be up by 2 goals at 3qtr time with BT going nuts over with the Pies are going to run over the top of us narrative, but instead we win the qtr by a couple of goals to win by 4-5 goals.

Today has been a great day for our ladder position.