Gawndy the Great

6. Gawn 5. Trac 4. Viney 3.Oliver 2. Salem 1. Brown

Why oh why was I nervous all week. I should have saved it for another fortnight.

Round 23 meant nothing

Always happens. Every [censored] week

Keep it up boys. Game will be over at half time if we can. Sub May out now. Not worth the risk if he can come back in 2 weeks.

The pressure is immense. Feeling sick AF

150/90

Just had a snooze… aseither result will make it impossible to sleep tonight. Did the Henderson change get confirmed?

im not sure you can. i do think there is a fine involved but it is the typical Geelong tactics to try and fool our team. I dont think Narkle can be anything more than a medi-sub without attracting more fines.

No real surprises.

Updated weather forecast. This hasn't changed all week so we can expect some rain at some stage throughout the game. This would certainly disadvantage the Cats control game.

Q1: I would call this quarter a dead rubber 2 goals a piece. Q2: Clearly Cats albeit the damage was really done in the 2nd half of Q2 - we actually kicked the 1st goal of the quarter. Q3 3.2 to 2.1 - i'd say that Melbourne takes the chocolates with 5 to 3 scoring shots Q4: Cleary Dees.

Yeah agree re: Bont. Port should walk into the GF. Being honest though, the Doggies were gifted a PF from the umps anyway. So cant feel that this is a bit of karma.

If they bring Darcy Fort in (in addition to the Rat), then they can kiss the PF final good-bye. Simirlarly if they bring Fort in at the expense of the Rat, its still a win for us - he has little game time this year and will be off the pace against a Gawn / LG combination. Cant blame them for trying. Question marks on Miers and Tuohy fitness levels are interesting. I understand Tuohy who has just come back from injury needs to manage his loads, but cannot expect for him to be at 100% after his second game.

I get where you are coming from, but its really difficult to change a game style and be good at it immediately. The stop, start, slow & deliberate ball movement has become second nature to the Cats. To change that so late in the season, i think is just too risky for them i.e. the way Adelaide try to break through our setup. The bigger ground will be both an advantage and disadvantage for us. There will be more space for the Cats to play their game but we will be able to cover the ground more effectively with our superior fitness. The simple defensive objective of this game is to stop their forwards taking marks inside 50. They are good at set shots and a large % of their scores last week were from set shots. If we cannot intercept, then we will need to bring the ball to ground and rebound or create a stoppage.

The Goody presser was good today. I liked Goodwin's veiled insults back at Geelong saying that experience doesnt matter and ultimately experience in loosing (i.e. cats PF record) can actually be detrimental...

Hypothetically, asking for a mate- what if they offered young Brayshaw and Cerra for Jackson.. 😂

Oh boy… whoever Cerra manager is, he would be negligent in his responsibility to allow Cerra going there.

Granted the sentiment appears to be that we are expected to win but there is an emerging narrative that the Cats maybe on their last life and that would be just as much if not more pressure for the Cats. They are old, growing slower, recovery taking longer, preseasons not getting any easier etc whilst we have the best part of 5 years with the current group and probably longer if we recruit right, that should challenge again in the years to come.

I get the fairytale. But one thing not discussed is giving him another year. That way he can become games record holder and get a proper farewell. he won’t get much game time next year either but the contract would be shaped accordingly. this is all predicated on whether he would actually have another crack.

Interesting… not sure on McAsey as haven’t seen him play. But the GC leg of that trade would need a bit of sauce. Weed for Rankine is underwhelming for them.

Forecast for Friday night still looks a little wet. Bit of a gamble with 4 talls.

Cameron is a supreme runner and is not a contest orientated forward - that is Hawkins's job. He will look to work into the wings and flanks and out work his opponent. Not saying Hibbered cannot play the role, but we need somebody outside D50 to take the matchup because i dont think Hibberd can stay with him all day (if that is the matchup of course).

You have to remember, Geelong's game is slow and deliberate ball movement. This makes it difficult for Geelong forwards to isolate and get a one-on-one. This plays into our hands massively - just look at the games we lost and how we lost them... quick ball movement and arguably defensive ground balls are our weaknesses. Geelong have neither. Smith is an athlete granted, but can be exposed by a smarter forward. Hibberd is not the best athlete, but is a premier defensive unit and will outsmart his opponent. Yes he is on the wrong side of 30 and is slowing down, but we don't need super fast defenders against Geelong.

Power are definitely the least of the three I would prefer. I would actually take the Doggies before the Cats. They are still out of form, missing their key KPF , SF and Ruck and have an injured #1 player. The power will maul them this week.