Dee Zephyr

JH was actually one of their best yesterday alternating between forward and midfield. Almost half of his 21 disposals came in the defensive half. His general field kicking is well above average and it was evident yesterday. I thought we could cover his goals from last season, his link up play and ability to cover the ground might be a bigger loss than some thought.

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Still shaking head at the end margin. I witnessed a lot of effort from most on the night. I look at efforts like Melksham’s in the third and wonder why. The Cats were rebounding broadcast side halfback/wing in the third, our defenders all push to that side to block options leaving Parfitt alone on the outer wing and pushing in behind our defence for an easy out the back option. The Milkshake spots this and sprints 100 meters from our forward 50 to man him up. How can you knock that? The game was alive I thought 10 minutes into the third when 20 points down and playing the game on our terms. Couldn’t buy a goal when it mattered and you could sense once they went forward they would score. I lost count as to how many Geelong goals came within 25m of goal. Big problem but can be fixed hopefully. Also, we’ve allowed goals in our defensive 50 from stoppages too easily so far. Hope the coaches work overtime this week and rectify these issues quickly. All it takes is one ugly win to get back on track, please let it be Friday night.

Do that GIF thing you do and look who set up our first goal last night.

Bravo Luci, we watched him closely last night as we had a decent view from the ground. He tried his guts out last night, Trac was outnumbered numerous times and still we kicked to him. The guy never gave in even when the oppo were jabbing and shoving him behind the play. Geelong realised early Trac was a threat and reacted accordingly by throwing an extra or two around him. A spell at Casey? Please, give us a spell.

Yep they’ve started already. Long way home they are telling us.

Only Keilty mentioned so far out of the emergencies. Guesses which of the emergencies were held over?

None bigger than next Friday night Wadda

Ha ha, finally some excitement, a double fiddy!

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Gee I hope Lloyd has 50 possessions tonight just so we can hear BT with his Lllllllloooooooyyyyydddddd.

Thank you @The Chazz great detail, much appreciated.

Hopefully Jones, Viney and Melksham are better for the run although the latter was pretty good considering. May has played one JLT, KK one Casey scratch match, hopefully they have enough base behind them prior to their injuries in January. Slight concern, backing the team in to rebound regardless. By the way, can any ‘landers please shed some info re traffic, parking at Cat Park on game night? Pubs for a frothie pre game?

Richmond constantly allowed the Pies to chip the ball around half back. From the TV, the Tigers has 5-6 players in a line in the middle going across the ground and seemed happy to allow the Pies to methodically move the ball from one side of the ground to the other hoping eventually it would be turned over up the field and rebound. It felt like I was watching the round ball where a team parks the bus and waits for a counter. A poster here a while back started a thread about a basketball team that plays a full on press all game for good results. Richmond rarely pressured the controlled slow Collingwood ball movement out of defence. FWIW Hawthorn just about lost all the stats last week, possessions -73, contested -18 and uncontested - 64, inside 50s yet walked away with a 32 point win in Adelaide. Probably a bit early to determine whether the zone defence is dead, but a good talking point nonetheless.

After the initial fall, Jumping Jack kept grabbing at his wrist just about after every other contest he was involved in for the rest of the game. The guy was in obvious discomfort yet he stayed out there for the majority. Was this a similar case to our J Smith in a sense it couldn’t get any worse or they simply didn’t have a clue it was that bad?

Does Grimes get a week for the high hit on Elliott? Or, nothing to see here because Elliott is a tough cookie and got up straight away.

Big effort needed by the Tigers in the last. GWS away and Port away the next two. Could they go 1-3?

Costly banana Dusty.

Surprising to hear, good luck young man. I’m guessing Spargo out.

Interesting to see how Toiges go without Rance and Houli. I’m thinking Pies will win, just. Let’s see if Cox replicates his prelim heroics.

Bloody Watts playing the goalkeeper, why don’t we ever use a sweeper? Unlucky Sparrow, kick nearly carried.

When things are quiet, Ben Guthrie is our reporter and tweeting the players are doing a bit of top up conditioning work at the end of training. He also said Viney out there with no strapping on knee but still not 100%.

To all reporters, has Viney watch commenced?

Personally, I wouldn’t omit Hunt. To me it looked like Hunt was designated a negating role on Motlop in the back half and did well in that regard. I could be wrong, but he went to Motlop numerous times whereas our other defenders seemed to be chasing the nearest Port forward. We all long for Hunt to show the dash of 2016-17 but maybe he was instructed to play a defensive role last Saturday.

Nothing to see here folks. For all the talk about off-the-ball incidents I read no actual changes have been made to the way the Match Review interpret them. Is this correct? The clampdown on intentional punches is meant to come from the umpires by paying free kicks for behind the play hits hence the league coming out and saying the nearest ump to Cunnington was at fault for not spotting the punch. A free kick is a greater deterrent than a measly fine as per coaches suggestions for these types of hits. When does an actual suspension enter the equation as the biggest deterrent?