Review Cats belt Freo by 78 points.

[Hamingja]

Humphries has been a find to play on one small forward but we are needing to find another small defender for sure. Not sure whether Atkins is an option? Other than him and the aforementioned others, I’m not sure we have that player currently on our list? Maybe Retchko could play that role in time?

I think Bews will end up back in the team when he is fit. Other teams find small defenders from the state leagues all the time so it might be something we could look at in the MSD pending a list spot becoming available.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

SDK in the ruck is going to be a wild ride all year. Going to be a lot of team results based judging of his personal performance I feel.

Some of our mids couldn't get 20 touches last season yet SDK has exceeded that every time he's played ruck - the rucking will improve but he's tracking bloody well and IMO his upside is more than his 18 month older brother.
I say that because his game sense , decision making and ability below his knees is elite for a giant.
I also hope those who were potting him because he's " timid" had a good look at how he competed today - he was fantastic

 

[ShadowCat]

Some of our mids couldn't get 20 touches last season yet SDK has exceeded that every time he's played ruck - the rucking will improve but he's tracking bloody well and IMO his upside is more than his 18 month older brother.
I say that because his game sense , decision making and ability below his knees is elite for a giant.
I also hope those who were potting him because he's " timid" had a good look at how he competed today - he was fantastic

That goal he kicked in the last was chef's kiss. Baulked a very good defender in Clark, then kicked it around his body from 45 out. Was f*cking brilliant, and I get the sense that today would have done his confidence the world of good. He looked like he made that role his own, and didn't lower his colours all day.

 

[ShadowCat]

I daresay there is no forward line in the comp that can compete with ours now:

Jez
Danger
O. Henry
Close
Miers
S. Neale
Stengle
Mannagh
J. Martin (when he gets his shot)
Dempsey (sliding down from a wing)

That kind of firepower is just unheard of. We could kick some monster scores this year, if today is anything to go by.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Neales improvement is incremental. Slowly slowly he is looking like he believes he belongs. He is coltish atm..he has spring to burn and sooner or later he is going to pull down two or three for gimme goals..

A bit like Neale ..I think he will have up and down efforts. I could imagine him just losing concentration once he gets a bit tired. I would have tried Neale in the ruck for 5 in the 3rd..give Same just a bit of break…but it worked out in the end.

Liked Knevitts pressure ..his kicking is a weakness

COS had a few moments …but all good. He will learn form those

Really obvious what BSmith will mean for us

Overall I wouldnt be too critical or too pumped up with anyone today..lets see when we are a couple of games in against a club a couple of games in … playing in something a little cooler.

I agree neale has all the tools but I don't think he 'believes' yet. Listening to hawk in commentary you can hear the importance of that for a forward here's hoping he's less of a tease like vardy and he gets there (neale) I think he can.

On knevitt sometimes it's how you look at what they can do not zeroing what they can't. Yes at times he needs to Kick flatter and faster (gives it too much air) but his handballs in traffic were super today and his workmate to get to each contest and tackle was really great. Like blicavs he will be a guy that does a lot of 1 % ers that fans miss but through sheer work rate he will become a good player if we keep giving him opportunity. Not a star but a good solid player.

Smith was great-yes his kicking needs to improve (we knew that) but he looked really really fit and his burst from congestion is exactly what we need tactically.

Cos isn't ready but I can see why they like him. A couple of his intercept decisions were really smart and he has that long reach. I think ultimately he will be good in a few years once his body is more developed.

Not sure how we will manage Clark. You can see from his 1/4 how he's too good not to play afl every week but if he doesn't have the tank to run out games he can't be sub every week. Will be interesting.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I think the cost would be way too high I just can’t see how it gets done especially working with WCE who would be difficult to work with regarding recent history

West coast would ask for humphries and a lot of picks without question.
There's probably a universe in which you can keep humphries trade 2 or 3 round 1s and a couple of other decent players to get it done but the cost would be so high that it's very high risk.

 

[Boxhead_31]

Changes today from the 2022 premiership side:

In: Bowes Clark Dempsey O.Henry Holmes Humphries Knevitt Mullin Neale O'Sullivan B.Smith
Out: Bews Duncan C.Guthrie Hawkins Kolodjashnij Parfitt Rohan Selwood I.Smith Stanley Tuohy

But, the media never mentions that Geelong rebuilds.
So how could that have happened?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I think Bews will end up back in the team when he is fit. Other teams find small defenders from the state leagues all the time so it might be something we could look at in the MSD pending a list spot becoming available.

I think bews is done like how rohan fell out last year. By the time he's fit again we will have moved past him. And even if he got back in for 8 weeks this is his last year (ie delist) so we need a long term solution. I wonder if we could make clohesy into that guy (he isn't getting games anywhere else). He's got the speed and the aggression to do it-but maybe his kicking skills are too poor on the last line. This is why I would have liked bice in the draft last year FYI.

 

[Boxhead_31]

I agree neale has all the tools but I don't think he 'believes' yet. Listening to hawk in commentary you can hear the importance of that for a forward here's hoping he's less of a tease like vardy and he gets there (neale) I think he can.

On knevitt sometimes it's how you look at what they can do not zeroing what they can't. Yes at times he needs to Kick flatter and faster (gives it too much air) but his handballs in traffic were super today and his workmate to get to each contest and tackle was really great. Like blicavs he will be a guy that does a lot of 1 % ers that fans miss but through sheer work rate he will become a good player if we keep giving him opportunity. Not a star but a good solid player.

Smith was great-yes his kicking needs to improve (we knew that) but he looked really really fit and his burst from congestion is exactly what we need tactically.

Cos isn't ready but I can see why they like him. A couple of his intercept decisions were really smart and he has that long reach. I think ultimately he will be good in a few years once his body is more developed.

Not sure how we will manage Clark. You can see from his 1/4 how he's too good not to play afl every week but if he doesn't have the tank to run out games he can't be sub every week. Will be interesting.

Don't think it is just forwards who need that "I believe" moment.

Remember, before he had that blinder against us early in his career, no one had hardly heard of Max Gawn, but after the game where he touched us up, he has gone from strength to strength

 

[BORIS332]

From those currently available for selection, who would do a better job?

We'll be waiting until at least mid-season to see Jed

Ted Clohesy

 

[cats_09]

 

[crocsta]

Great win.

I was at the game. Mullin was playing on Frederick majority of the game. Frederick had an ok game but nothing special.

We can’t blame Mullin for those goals kicked by Reid, as I don’t think he was even playing on Reid except for the last of the four goals.

 

[Lana]

Only saw the second half. That collapse in the third did seem to highlight the twin weaknesses - inexperienced last line defence with Stewart in midfield and O’Sullivan and Mullin deep and a fragile midfield. Lost centre clearances, young guys couldn’t kill the ball. Be interesting to know what restored midfield parity - without wanting to be a hater, Atkins going out seemed part of it. I know he works hard, pressure etc but not sure he can be a full time mid.

Other thing - if they’re willing to put time into Mullin and SDK come he’ll or high water, they have to do the same with Knevitt. Won’t be a star but could be the workhorse we need. Just needs to build confidence and learn the little tricks.

We were running an extremely negative midfield in the 1st half, they realised it in the 3rd how much of an absence of a midfiled threat we were and just went right through us. In the 4th were loaded up more ball winners in there. We almost did what was akin to a hockey rotation in there. I think having the ability to shove fresh players in wholesale can in effect overload the oppotion even when they have an on paper advantage over us.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Don't think it is just forwards who need that "I believe" moment.

Remember, before he had that blinder against us early in his career, no one had hardly heard of Max Gawn, but after the game where he touched us up, he has gone from strength to strength

I do agree although I think it's especially important for key forward. There's a lot about protecting the space where the ball will drop/go and owning that space at all costs-which I hear when hawk talks a lot.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Freo were embarrassingly bad.

Smith great on debut.
COS was promising.
O.Henry went full Sav on the line to deny Smith a goal. Never go full Sav.

Zuthrie continues to be an underrated player externally.

13 goal win and had nearly all contributing to the win. Only 1-2 passengers today.

Just out of interest, who were your passengers?

 

[Pure_Ownage]

We were running an extremely negative midfield in the 1st half, they realised it in the 3rd how much of an absence of a midfiled threat we were and just went right through us. In the 4th were loaded up more ball winners in there. We almost did what was akin to a hockey rotation in there. I think having the ability to shove fresh players in wholesale can in effect overload the oppotion even when they have an on paper advantage over us.

There's no doubt we put the stars back in there in the 4th. But it's not just personnel our pressure rating through the middle of the ground dropped off in the third. In the first half we brought plenty of heat to force turnovers. When we do that we stop teams outrunning us into space like Richmond used to do.

 

[Lana]

On Mullin we're kind of out of options, might as well back in him in early in the season to see if he can make a go of it.

Late season we can always pull the pin on him and shove O'Connor or Atkins, down back or go back to a fresh Bews.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

On Mullin we're kind of out of options, might as well back in him in early in the season to see if he can make a go of it.

Late season we can always pull the pin on him and shove O'Connor or Atkins, down back or go back to a fresh Bews.

The option is probably oconnor back there in a couple of weeks you have bruhn mannagh (maybe Martin too) back to run through the midfield. I don't think we can wait till late season.

 

[crocsta]

Great win.

I was at the game. Mullin was playing on Frederick majority of the game. Frederick had an ok game but nothing special.

We can’t blame Mullin for those goals kicked by Reid, as I don’t think he was even playing on Reid except for the last of the four goals.

I just watched the highlights on AFL website. Mullin wasn’t playing on Frederick when he kicked his two goals.

If you watch the four goals by Reid, even the last goal definitely wasn’t Mullin’s fault as there cats defenders left their men and went to contest the high ball on the goal line. The single Freo player tapped the ball front and centre and Mullin was stuck defender three Freo players without opponents. He tackled one player by the Freo player gave the handball to Reid to kick his fourth.

The other three cats players had to knock the ball over the goal line, or at least not allow it front and centre where the Freo players were positioned.

 

[Lana]

There's no doubt we put the stars back in there in the 4th. But it's not just personnel our pressure rating through the middle of the ground dropped off in the third. In the first half we brought plenty of heat to force turnovers. When we do that we stop teams outrunning us into space like Richmond used to do.

Their domiannce all started from the centre bounces, once they broke through the first line we didn't really have much opportunity to set up the 2nd line. Once we stopped their ascendancy there suddenly the pressure came back.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Ted Clohesy

Maybe but they seem to want to play him more at HF (where we are strongest and he won't get into the team). I wonder if they would play him in defence or is it that atkins or oconnor have to go back there.

 

[Seeds]

Is neale still growing? He is an absolute monster now.

 

[Seeds]

If danger can keep playing at that level up foward and as a pinch hitting mid while Smith and holmes become A grade mids we are a big big show this year.

 

[thegerman]

Cataholic, in response to your game day post about what happened in the 3rd quarter, my impres is that we were definitely slow out of the blocks, our defenders looked a little lazy & possibly complacent at times especially early on when they kicked they few quick goals to start the quarter

Then, whether it was by design or just something that happened across the quarter with the players taking it upon themselves, we structured up differently at centre bounces than we did in the other quarters and that's where I raise the idea of experimentation

Across 3 quarters today our game seemed to be built around pressure at the contest and then spread as we bring the ball forward. We packed that pressure in the third and it did seem to start with our structuring

We weren't playing a more standard man up option at centre bounces, instead each team played with a spare and we never addressed it during the quarter:

• at one bounce, Atkins was 5m off his opponent who had clear space to their 50m arc in which to run when they got the clearance
• at the next, the two guys lined up wing sides of the circle were manned up, but we had Holmes on his own defensive side and his opponent was on his own their defensive side. It was an easy tap over the back for Jackson and plenty of space for the Freo player to work in

We get to the last quarter, and it's back to everything being really tight, manning up in the guts etc. And the positives of that pressure around the ball can then be seen with how our defenders stood up in the last and the scoreboard impact of our forwards


So it just feels that Scott & co were wanting to get a bit of a different look at things with our set up in the third, but clearly it wasn't working - so either it's something we totally scrap or spend more time on at training

I guess the issue should be how to resist that flow of the game when it’s against you and not allow 6-7 unanswered goals.

The first 8-10 minutes of the third should have seen a reset by both the players on the ground or the coaching staff.


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[Lana]

The option is probably oconnor back there in a couple of weeks you have bruhn mannagh (maybe Martin too) back to run through the midfield. I don't think we can wait till late season.

Natural attrition aside, I think it is more likely we'll see O'Connor in the VFL early we know what he can provide. It is servicable. We're waiting for the day that Mullin gets some footy IQ they clearly don't think he'll get it in the VFL, his physical attributes are too good for that level. Mullin's inclusion shouldn't be the difference in the aggregate of a home and away season compare to a single knock out game in finals.

Bruhn's finger injury might keep him out a while.