jnrmac

Let Geelong kick 80 points in a half.

We did play badly in that we allowed Geelong to have 20 shots on goal from 24 entries and 80 points in the first half. They were overun in the 2nd half because we tightened up and they were down on rotations.

The instructions should have been to let Hawkins wander up the ground and get cheap kicks but keep our defensive 'shape' intact.

We started the game well but the writing was on the wall with the Cats having 8 shots at goal from 9 fwd entries in the first 1/4. Our scoring disguised how poorly we were playing. We failed to quell that at qtr time despite the coaching staff knowing exactly what the issue was and the 2nd qtr was a debacle for us. At half time we had managed to repel just 4 solitary attacks from 24 Geelong inside 50s. They had 20 shots on goal. It was simply not good enough. We managed to fix it at the break but let's not kid ourselves Geelong were handicapped by rotations and yet we still couldn't beat them because of a very inefficient fwd line and the inability of our fwds to hold the ball in.. Chris Scott outcoached Goodwin with his use of Hawkins and Menzel to create the match ups they wanted and drag Lever back to the last line of defence. Similar to what clubs did to Jared Rivers who was much less effective one on one. The defensive set up needs a lot of work. Watch against brisbane to see what we have learned. We let Bris back into the game in rd 22 when leading by 40 points. They will be bouyed by that. We need to smash them and snuff out any chance of a repeat performance from them.

Largely because Hawkins was a decoy dragging OMac up the ground and leaving Lever on the last line in one on one contests. Don't get carried away...

That's not what the rules say. But its no surprise the umps make it up on the fly.

In 2017 we had 8 quarters of football where the opp'n kicked more than 30 points. It's not a stretch to say we should have won 7 of those games. It happened again on Sunday. 2nd quarter killed our game. When Roos arrived his mantra was to teach defence first. It seems like we still haven't learnt how to shut teams down. Yes it matters how fast the ball is coming into defence but our defensive structure is the thing that needs work fast....

Just watched the replay and severtal things stood out. Pederson dropped so many marks. He was often 1 on 2 but there numerous that he would normally clunk. Geelong did everything they could to drag Lever back to the goal square in a one on one. This meant OMac was often up the ground against Hawkins (who was ineffective on the day despite bustling Oscar out of the way on numerous occasions). It was Lever's first game but he got shown up and it is what other teams will do unless we can keep our defensive shape. The ball was coming in quickly but our defensive efforts were generally putrid in the first half. CLearly better in the 2nd half.

Our first move is to handball. The good players surge 3 or 4 steps to space before disposig the ball.

Don't know how many times it needs to be said that there is no such thing as 'dropping the ball'.

You contradict yourself here. We bombed the ball in and there was plenty of ground ball. We just didn't get it because a) we weren't positioned well b) we had too many fly for the mark or c) our mids failed to follow the ball in and help hold it in there. The last point makes sense because we were trying to get the ball in as quickly as possible - very hard for mids to follow the ball in.

Tyson's injury last pre-season and the supposed lack of medical facilities or attention have been mentioned in the story about the pre-season camp. So it would make sense if he was one of the ones against the camp. But can we move on from the pre-season? Its real game stuff now. Many more things to whine about.

Rd 22 we were 40 pts up in the last quarter and let the Lions get to within 6 or 7 pts from memory. The following week we got towelled up by COllingwood to miss out on finals. Until we can start winning these games by 40+ points we won't be a serious contender for anything.

Bruise free for Mitch then..

1. We're not Collingwood 2. We're not Collingwood 3. We're not Collingwood

Yeah we really made them work for their 78 possessions. That'll teach 'em.

Geelong were effectively down 2 men for a lot of the game and you are feeling for our players being a bit weary??

Rubbish. Our ability to get the ball fwd was good but our efficiency inside was terrible. You can't have a crap shoot and hope to win, You have to stop oppositions scoring. They controlled the footy for a large part of the game.

Bad decision from a senior player but Lewis in the third quarter was huge.

They controlled the ball with possession kicks and their transition from defence killed us. The defence was woeful but I won't heap all the blame on them as the mids didn't do their job properly. OMac and Wagner were terrible. Lever in the first half was terrible. Good sides don't let others control the ball like Geelong did. It was half time before we picked it up. They were effectively 2 men down on rotations and we still couldn't get over them Lack of composure going fwd really hurt us as well. A lot to like but so much to dislike.

It was the same in the 1st qtr. They waltzed into the fwd 50. 9 entries for 8 shots at goal. The same in the 2nd only we didn't kick goals to counteract it..

Geelong on paper look ordinary. A couple of superstars but a lot of average players. If we play how we can we should win.

A bit like Neeld after his first game??

Brayshaw is likely out because he had his wisdom teeth out less than a week ago........

Actually on reviewing the AFL footage he did make contact with his head. You can see it move back just before the body cannoned into Merret's body. Cotchin should have gone for 3 weeks on this basis and as usual it will be the consistency that will determine whether the rules are working or not.