Review Cats send Dogs to the pound by 13 points.

[FredLeDeux]

9 touches last night wasn’t his best effort. But at the moment the glimpses we are seeing look promising. His movement with ball in hand is very good. Those glimpses hopefully become more than that as he develops.

I agree the bye is a godsend for him. But I certainly want to see him in against WC.

Stephens has been playing less and less time each week, down to 55% last night; definitely suggests he needs a break.

 

[BotsMaster]

Did anyone else see

• the end of SDK's career when Weightman threw himself headlong at Sam's knees? (Little grub probably fishing for another free...)

Yep. It reminded me of how they won that flag in 2016.

 

[Gunf]

9 touches last night wasn’t his best effort. But at the moment the glimpses we are seeing look promising. His movement with ball in hand is very good. Those glimpses hopefully become more than that as he develops.

I agree the bye is a godsend for him. But I certainly want to see him in against WC.

Yes Cooper should stay and if we don't have room make it by rotating our senior players week after week so they are not cooked come finals

 

[BotsMaster]

How many did C.Guthrie have in the last? If there’s a barometer of our team he’s certainly one candidate. When he plays well, we generally do as well.

 

[Seeds]

Calling it now - Zac Guthrie will be a better player than his brother by the time they're both retired.

Nah. Zac guthrie womt be in the side this finals series if our injury woes disapear. zac guthrie has surpassed kolo though.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Nah. Zac guthrie womt be in the side this finals series if our injury woes disapear. zac guthrie has surpassed kolo though.

Very different type of player. I have been positive about Kolo a a medium defender and negative about him as a key but he turning the tide on that one

 

[Pure_Ownage]

He looked proper f***ed off. I cracked a mild boner

He needs to play with that aggression every week. Maybe knowing that ceglar is almost back has finally lit a fire under rhys?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

He needs to play with that aggression every week. Maybe knowing that ceglar is almost back has finally lit a fire under rhys?

Not sure how drunk I was when I wrote this but I was several stouts deep

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Nah. Zac guthrie womt be in the side this finals series if our injury woes disapear. zac guthrie has surpassed kolo though.

I agree hes still 22-28depth (i think any 28 or so deserve to be in the 22) but by gee hes playing well ihad him as a delisting at the start of the year but the way hes playing he will get a contract for sure. I feel confident now that ifwe get an injury and he needs to come in he can do a job.

 

[feelinfeline]

On current form I think you could probably add Miers to the list of potential outs, He's kind of squeezed for a role forwards with Stengle/Close/Rohan chasing up front and I'd rather have better field kick in his spot playing up the ground.

Dahlhaus playing meant that Miers was pushed up to the wing.

It was a strange decision after Miers played his best game for ages as a forward pocket last week, kicking three goals, that he was played up the ground. He had a terrible first half, with two bad turnovers. His last quarter, with lots of gut running and helping out in defence, redeemed his game.

Dahl isn't a long-term option based on last night. In fact, he may struggle to play another game when other players return.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Rhys as hard as nails when it mattered. 15 contested possessions on the night. The nonsense that Ceglar was going to offer more looks like just that at this point.

Stanley had a great game and I'll give him a pat on the back for it.... But let's not go forgetting all his extremely weak performances just because he had a decent 2nd half last night.

Seeing what he did last night almost makes me even madder at him because we see that he can do it, but he does it about three times a year and then goes back to completely underperforming.

Ceglar has always been a more consistent type.

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

Nah. Zac guthrie womt be in the side this finals series if our injury woes disapear. zac guthrie has surpassed kolo though.

Very different type of player. I have been positive about Kolo a a medium defender and negative about him as a key but he turning the tide on that one

I understand they’ve been playing slightly different roles. But I’d be keeping Guthrie in ahead of Kolo.
Kolo has been a lot better this year, minimising his mistakes.
But we’re a better team with Henry and Guthrie instead of Kolo.

It certainly didn’t concern me when I heard he was out of the team. We still have the options to negate opp forwards but with more creativity.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Narkle playing as he has the last couple of times... I see no upside in him playing. It as if he resonates not wanting to be there.

He seems like a really good kid but he just doesnt have the intensity on field and it shows. Once our injured guys come back id say he has played his last ever game for us.

 

[feelinfeline]

Nah. Zac guthrie womt be in the side this finals series if our injury woes disapear. zac guthrie has surpassed kolo though.

He was our best defender in the prelim last year. If he's in form he'll be hard to keep out of the team come September.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Dahlhaus playing meant that Miers was pushed up to the wing.

It was a strange decision after Miers played his best game for ages as a forward pocket last week, kicking three goals, that he was played up the ground. He had a terrible first half, with two bad turnovers. His last quarter, with lots of gut running and helping out in defence, redeemed his game.

Dahl isn't a long-term option based on last night. In fact, he may struggle to play another game when other players return.

This was just how we had to shuffle the magnets with injuries. Once we get to round 16 or so and the injured guys are back dahl wont play again, narkle wont play again, miers zuthrie and a few others will be in danger of losing their spots too.

 

[kickazz]

During that period where we were struggling to score, the thought crossed my mind that we need to find a way to get the mids hitting the scoreboard more.

To go to that next level, Selwood, Parfitt, Guthrie need to be a little bit more of a threat.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Dahlhaus playing meant that Miers was pushed up to the wing.

A fit and firing Menegola is the key here.

Menegola in upgrades the wing position and also means Miers (if in the side) can stay deeper + Dahl wouldn't be in the side.

Definitely will be huge for team balance when he is back after the bye...Just need him playing well (same with Henry).

There are definitely some upgrades that'll be made to the side... Danger, Henry, Menegola, and Holmes will be nice additions.

Then we can make some nice subtractions...

Stephens (go and kill it in the VFL son)
Narkle (fringe player)
Dahl (just not AFL level anymore)
MOC (not sure what's going on with him, has gone backwards)

 

[Seeds]

He was our best defender in the prelim last year. If he's in form he'll be hard to keep out of the team come September.

Who do you drop though? I cant fit him in


B henry, dekonning, bews
hb stewart, blicavs, duncan
w smith, selwood, holmes
hf close, cameron, miers
f stengle, hawkins, rohan
r stanley, dangerfield, c. Guthrie
inter. Menegola, atkins, parfitt, touhy.

emerg kolo, z.guthrie, sav/ceglar, stephens, dalhaus, higgins, narkle,

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

During that period where we were struggling to score, the thought crossed my mind that we need to find a way to get the mids hitting the scoreboard more.

To go to that next level, Selwood, Parfitt, Guthrie need to be a little bit more of a threat.

I don’t think that’s the midfielders who will be doing that. Danger, Menegola, Smith and Duncan on the other hand can be.

 

[feelinfeline]

He seems like a really good kid but he just doesnt have the intensity on field and it shows. Once our injured guys come back id say he has played his last ever game for us.

If they're not going to give Narkle decent game time even as a sub, there's not much point playing him. He was good when he came on in the second quarter, then quiet in the third quarter, but he spent half of it on the bench. Then again in the last he was quiet but he also spent long periods off the ground.

He gave away the free against English near goal in the last quarter, which wasn't really his fault because he shouldn't have been on him. Then they took him off at the 20 minute mark and he didn't come on again. Weird.

Except on rare occasions, he's too passive to play in the midfield. He wasn't near getting a clearance while he was in there.

 

[feelinfeline]

Who do you drop though? I cant fit him in


B henry, dekonning, bews
hb stewart, blicavs, duncan
w smith, selwood, holmes
hf close, cameron, miers
f stengle, hawkins, rohan
r stanley, dangerfield, c. Guthrie
inter. Menegola, atkins, parfitt, touhy.

emerg kolo, z.guthrie, sav/ceglar, stephens, dalhaus, higgins, narkle,

There will almost certainly be injuries. I'm just saying they'd like him in the team if possible, but it will depend on his form then.

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

Who do you drop though? I cant fit him in


B henry, dekonning, bews
hb stewart, blicavs, duncan
w smith, selwood, holmes
hf close, cameron, miers
f stengle, hawkins, rohan
r stanley, dangerfield, c. Guthrie
inter. Menegola, atkins, parfitt, touhy.

emerg kolo, z.guthrie, sav/ceglar, stephens, dalhaus, higgins, narkle,

That’s a good team

 

[Pure_Ownage]

My point was two fold -

1. We need to find a way to continue to get games into Stephens

2. The older guys will need to be regularly rested to be kept fresh when we hit finals time. The past few years they have limped in.

This is a way of achieving both. Yes, we clearly need to punt Narkle but there are still too many players and not enough positions when Dangerfield, Menegola and Henry return. Players will be rested when we get them all back as was the original plan before the season started.

Yep totally agree on all that. I just dont think you rest guys who are in our top 5 players (like danger and duncan) to it unless they physically need it. You rest your older guys who are lower tier players ie tuohy bews smith (as good as he is) rohan stanley (if we had a ruck) plus drop guys who are fringe like narkle and dahl etc. But i agree we willrotate a lot til round 20ish and cooper should get as many games as possible in that block.

 

[catempire]

You make the trade 100 times out of 100, it's insanity to think otherwise.

We are so far down the road of win-now, that if a player like Cameron wants to sign on, you pay the price.

Whereas the ever reliable Tom Hawkins is consistent, Jeremy Cameron is mercurial, I can see this guy being up and down, but kicking an absolute bag, that will win us a premiership.

While we have the name value, we lack the star power of the past, Cameron is one of our only genuine match winners on his day.

Had a like from me until “win-now”. Geelong is Win Always. The rest is spot on.

 

[catempire]

9 touches last night wasn’t his best effort. But at the moment the glimpses we are seeing look promising. His movement with ball in hand is very good. Those glimpses hopefully become more than that as he develops.

I agree the bye is a godsend for him. But I certainly want to see him in against WC.

I won’t complain if he stays but can’t see it with the players we have returning. His time will come.