Dr. Gonzo

I don't know what to think. This site is bipolar and I find myself agreeing with both sides. Like Nasher I'll never mourn a loss but I also see why people aren't happy giving up a 42 point lead. It's not because it's one game it's because it's a pattern that indicates minimal improvement since last year We still need to find a way to grind these teams down with 4 quarter efforts and I'm hoping that comes over the course of the season. Teams rarely rock up in round 1 completely altered from the year before it's often a process of development across a season and I'm hoping/expecting that's what will happen with us. We won by 4-5 goals which is about par if you were topping pregame. The bookies had us at -20.5 which is a pretty good indicator because they're often within a goal or so of the margin. The way we got the result is what is driving people crazy but the result is probably right. Conditions looked terrible out there, we ran ourselves ragged in the first half, our tackling chasing etc was top level. The second half seemed a lot treasure (rain?) and we couldn't seem to buy a centre clearances. The umpires were pretty one sided I felt as well several cheap frees right in front of goal and not a hell of a lot of 50/50s going our way. Hogan and Oliver were superb, Hogan really does love playing the Lions. I thought Hibberd did well too and Garlett hit beast mode in the last. Good result, let's move on to next week and get the kangaroos bogey of our backs.

They're not hopeless, they have some good kids coming through but I'm expecting us to come away with a 5 goal win

My thoughts precisely TU

Do you think it's possible some of our players may develop over the course of the season? Petracca, Oliver, Hogan, TMac, Viney, Lever etc Even if they're not at the very elite level yet they've shown that they have the tools just need to put it together with experience. Let's support them, never know what they might achieve.

Yep you're right, bottom 4 finish coming up for sure FMD

I don't have a problem with the balance of the side but those guys need to apply pressure, tackles and retain the ball in our forward half. Last week they didn't and when you have 3 or 4 guys doing that it hurts the side. Garlett wasn't great last week either, had an almost identical game to Hannan but has more runs on the board. Their positioning in marking contests was terrible too, looking for the low percentage pack mark or hanging out the back looking for cheapies instead of being front and centre and looking to apply pressure on the Cats rebounding defenders.

He has been rotating through the middle, maybe not a large percentage but he does get a run in there.

Yeah you're right, I was going off his stats last week and the feeling that he goes in and out of games. Averaging 12.4 possessions isn't great but it's not diabolical - of course as an average that means there would've been a handful of games where he only got 6-8 touches. Edit - just looking at his stats across his 21 game career he's had 8 games with 10 or fewer disposals. Again not diabolical but not great, if he doesn't get the touches he needs to be applying the pressure which I felt was missing last week. He'll probably get another go but it wouldn't surprise me if he was dropped for Bugg. I like Bugg and what he brings to the side even if his goalkicking does let him down too often.

Harmes was significant in getting us back into the game last week, his 3rd quarter was very good. You want him dropped???

Yes but while we were scoring as well it wasn't a big deal. We were unlucky with a couple of posters and then conceded two goals in the last 2 minutes of the half. Otherwise we didn't play terribly. We didn't play perfectly but it certainly wasn't bad. We need to work on our F50 entries, our ability to retain the ball inside 50 once it comes in, make sure our opponents don't take easy marks out the back within 10m of goal and don't allow them to stream forward in numbers. All that points to tightening up a bit and lowering our eyes going inside 50 (also being prepared to handball more to a player in better position rather than going with a kick as the first option). The way people have been melting down on here you'd think it was round 1 2013 we saw out there.

We didn't play that bad. We need to fix our forward 50 entries and the lapse in the last few minutes of the first half. The negative hyperbole on here is astonishing.

Having rewatched much of the game we didn't play anywhere near as bad as has been made out on here. Even the 2nd quarter wasn't that bad, the last 5-10 minutes were poor (especially allowing 2 goals in the last 90 or so seconds) but we were a tad unlucky as well with two shots from Garlett and Hunt hitting the post. We need to work on removing the high up and under kicks as well as letting the opposition take easy marks over the back of the pack in defense but when you combine some of our misses in the second half (Hannan, Harmes, Petracca, Gawn) with the posters above we really should've won the game. And Geelong didn't play too bad either, they hunted us around the packs well and ran forward which is something we need to be mindful of. As bad as our 2nd quarter (or really the second half of the second quarter) was our 3rd quarter was just as good, just need to really consolidate it on the scoreboard when we're dominating play. Also I got in about half way through the first quarter so didn't realise just how immense Petracca was in the first. Oliver not too shabby either. When Viney comes back, look out

He needs to show he can get the ball more than half a dozen times a game though.

I thought it was touched at the ground but I didn't have a good view of it. Will be interested to watch the replay.

Both sides do have a lot of room for improvement but it was also close to game of the round (Adel/Ess and WCE/Swans maybe?) It wasn't the cleanest game but was played to a pretty high standard. People are overreacting to one game, let's at least wait until we have a larger sample size.

That Saints game is irrelevant - we had our 3rd string midfield in for that 3rd quarter. Had we persisted with our normal rotation that 3rd quarter wouldn't have happened.

IN: Tyson, Brayshaw, Bugg OUT: Maynard, Wagner, Hannan

Tell that to Richmond and Bulldogs Webber. The problem isn't necessarily the plan of attack, the problem was our small forwards failing to apply pressure to keep the ball inside our 50. Poor positioning in and around marking contests and poor pressure to lock the ball in was the issue. From memory we were one of the best at scoring from stoppages last year so not getting that ball locked in for a ball-up would have had a big impact

From what I've read the opposite appears to be true, consensus being we got some dubious decisions go our way particularly late in the game.

I'll have a look when I watch the replay.

Oh cry me a river you spineless yellow bellies

Sorry but this is rubbish. The game was there for the taking, we stuffed our chances and the Cats won. But had we converted one of those last quarter opportunities we would have been deserving victors.

We really dominated the last quarter jut couldn't put the score on the board. We kept bombing it up to their loose man making it easy to repel. General play though it felt like we were all over them, Gawn kicks that goal, Hogan and Petracca make the most of their 50/50 shots, Oliver converts from 30 out (I thought both the kick he marked and his kick at goal were touched though I haven't seen a replay) and we're singing a different song today. One game does not a season make, let's hang off a bit and see how the next few weeks unfold before slagging off all and sundry and sinking the boot in to the club (this is not aimed at you @Mono just posters in general).

Champion Data did a piece on this stat (quarters lost by 30+) in the Prospectus this year. Brief summary as TU has written - good sides don't lose quarters by that much. When we do it costs us games because we invariably win the other 3 quarters.

Petracca Oliver Gawn (minus last 20 seconds)