Autopsy Cats lose to Demons by 8 points

[Cursed Cat]

Same. Not great.
But did well to nullify Gawn to atleast not being dominant.

Gawn has one of his BOG nights and we lose that easily.

People find it hard to accept that players like Gawn, Petracca, bloody Fritsch, May - even Lever, who I tend to underrate a bit - are among the comp's elite.

We got done tonight, but I am in no way discouraged about our prospects - we can play better than that.

 

[Romeoh1]

Yeah I thought we would Nick it because we know winning so much…. We gave it a good shot!

We actually did!

 

[juzcat]

Hawkins confidence is down. Chest marks he normally vices are bobbling out.
Stengle and Pickett incredible small fowards. I panicked whenever Pickett had the pill so nice to know oppos probably feel the same when Stengle has it.

Someone in pregame said Neale would offer more then Hawk versus May. They were right.

We desperately needed someone to take a contested mark as Lever, Petty and Gawn kiled us.

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

 

[RegHickeyStand]

I can hear them laughing from here, but who cares, we're not suited to be media darlings.
Just cannot understand Jezza's 3 kicks for very gettable goals were so atrocious-even lucky to be points.

You make a big unit like Jezza run up and down the ground all night, that happens. Accurate kicking goes out the window.

 

[catempire]

Was that the worst game of Mitch Duncan's career? Hard to recall him ever being as bad as that.

Very grim. The end is coming quickly.

 

[cats_09]

16 contested marks to 8.
Our much lauded defence are ‘versatile’ but can actually be exposed for both height/strength as well as pace, both of which happened tonight. If our midfield was a bit better I’d consider throwing Blics back into defence and dropping Henry.
If Rohan was fit (as Scott said), in hindsight we could have done with him all game. I said here yesterday he should go to Lever, but instead Lever did whatever he wanted.
Good experience for Clark, but feel Touhy should have made way instead of MOC or Parfitt.

Tuohy was never missing tonight after his efforts last week, but after a quiet night tonight he could be managed again next week

 

[Cataholic]

Was that the worst game of Mitch Duncan's career? Hard to recall him ever being as bad as that.

One of his worst for a good while at least.

His trajectory of late hasn't been flash imo.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

The hyperbole of this statement is off the charts.

Players can have occasional bad games without needing to have a long walk on the beach alone to contemplate how bad his performance was. Nor should we drop him because of it.

Go outside and touch grass.

It's nothing new, it's the way it always is here.

Posters you haven't seen in months conveniently returning off a loss, while suddenly the whole list needs VFL time after hardly putting a foot wrong all year.

We sucked, and we're all disappointed...but the club as a whole has earned a mulligan, with players like Cameron (while awful) definitely deserving of some leeway.

Regroup, and we move on to next week.

 

[Skeppersap]

Was that the worst game of Mitch Duncan's career? Hard to recall him ever being as bad as that.

Yep, when he had ball in hand you absolutely knew it would be a turnover. Had a lot of mates though

 

[Cursed Cat]

Couldn’t imagine a game where we play worse. Has Cameron played a worse game than tonight? Those kicks for goal were shocking and he was fumbled like crazy, nice laser to Close but that’s about it.
Stewart also played like a man coming off concussion. Cam Guthrie with the second game blues. Jack Henry was off.

Melbourne had a full strength side and dominant performances from May and Lever, Petty clunking everything, Oliver with 31, Gawn kicking them from 60m and Fritch dribbles from the boundary, and yet they can only win by 8points.

They aren’t winning anything this year. We’ll be right, sometimes a loss is good can’t see us playing that badly again.

Felt like Clark took a big step forward tonight, he’s threatening a breakout game.

Holmes has been brilliant this season.

Bowes is stepping up big time.

Zuthrie is an absolute gun.

Love when the ball is in the hands of Miers and Dempsey, you just know it’s going to end well.

Stengle is class and Ollie Henry is our most reliable forward.

Cats will learn from this and be better. Port will be a challenge but we’ll beat them at home

Agree with a lot of this, but I think Melbourne are actually genuine challengers this year.

Loving Tyson Stengle's 2024 to date; had his issues in 2023 but he has been back in black this year, showing his true class and influence.

 

[smotherking]

Gawn seems to love a 55m bomb against us

 

[RegHickeyStand]

My biggest worry is Hawkins. He is playing like he is cooked. Like Mooney in 2011. Just can't get into it, week after week. Veteran players can go like that.

 

[feelinfeline]

People find it hard to accept that players like Gawn, Petracca, bloody Fritsch, May - even Lever, who I tend to underrate a bit - are among the comp's elite.

We got done tonight, but I am in no way discouraged about our prospects - we can play better than that.

If Hawkins and Duncan continue in their current form, I am discouraged.

Yes, we can player better but can't win a flag with an ineffectual Hawkins.

 

[Cataholic]

Very grim. The end is coming quickly.

Seen by a few of us for a while now.

 

[Romeoh1]

It's nothing new, it's the way it always is here.

Posters you haven't seen in months conveniently returning off a loss, while suddenly the whole list needs VFL time after hardly putting a foot wrong all year.

We sucked, and we're all disappointed...but the club as a whole has earned a mulligan, with players like Cameron (while awful) definitely deserving of some leeway.

Regroup, and we move on to next week.

Henry was actually ok tonight- a few blues and that game sealer mistake but he worked hard all night and did plenty of decent stuff.

 

[catstorm]

If Hawkins and Duncan continue in their current form, I am discouraged.

Yes, we can player better but can't win a flag with an ineffectual Hawkins.

Or we play Neale and he does a Hawkins circa 2011, and we have a changing of the guard.

It’s a big call for Scott to make but he did it once before.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I had a suspicion we'd lose and if we did I thought I wouldn't be angry. But I'm a bit angry because I'm not used to seeing Scott outcoached this badly.

Goodwin saw that he had the tools to take our game away and he did.

Melbourne too smart and too well drilled. Bravo to them

 

[Lana]

Tactically they were all over us. First half was a masterclass in how to stop us. They pressed high and were smart with their ball movement, fast into space to gain territory, slow once we're set up our zone inched to the F50 then tried to find a clear player, kept us hemmed in and under pressure we couldn't use the corridor which made our ball movement easy picking for their KPD. They gave us none of those fast breaks after a quick turnover. Didn't help how out gunned we were in the middle. Couldn't win it on the ground ball, couldn't move the ball foot and couldn't equalise it in the air let alone win it. How the **** did we only lose by 8 points. We could have stole it in the end. He had possession chains that looked good, where as they just controlled the game as a whole. Our aerial presence was near non-existent. Really wanted Rohan to play a full game, Cameron won't start on the wing again, we outsmarted ourselves. If Hawkins can't make himself into a target we're a player down.

Starting to feel that generation change where the oldies are letting down the younger guys.

I have to wonder if we had a shit start to the year if Hawkins would be calling it next week sharing Selwood games record.

Stanley and Duncan to get the rest next week. Give Hawkins a week off too if just to see more of what Neale can provide.

Akins good despite the late error, Z.Guthrie amazing, we need to sign him up before other clubs realise how good he is/going to be. Good first quarter for Dempsey, in 20-30 games he start to keep it up for longer. Stengle has matured so much, two years ago he would have taken the shot on those SJ style assists.

 

[Generalissimo]

Hawkins was a lot better tonight than his stats would indicate. The goals will come back soon enough.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Mitch Duncan should play next week - in the VFL

He was one who I was a little disappointed in, too.

Much like Tom Hawkins, Duncan is under the microscope moving forward - doesn't mean they can't turn it around, but once you're in your 30's and you're not producing regularly then it is the nature of the competition to start looking at your options.

Tom Hawkins actually did some nice things in transition tonight; nailed some of his decision making and execution. But he is not hitting the scoreboard.

Neale might give us a different ''look'' moving forward, and can get his arms up too.

 

[mcwilrob]

That should be the end of Stanley, comprehensively outplayed and also offered nothing around the ground.

This is so obviously the elephant in the room. He was f’in HOPELESS and not much better last week. Needs to be DROPPED!!

 

[Art Vandelay_]

But I’m not surprised you disagree you’ve always been on the no accountability bandwagon.

Wouldn't mind some examples?

Accountability is something you need to see at North Melbourne. Where effort, talent, intensity and results genuinely require change.

This club, and the players within it, have done so well for so long that they deserve opportunities to make things right. And often they do. We are very good as a team at bouncing back from bad games. And in the last 10-15 years when have we ever dropped experienced established best 22 players for a mere bad game. That's a selection policy that allows our group to perform at a high level and not freeze when it matters out of fear of failure. We always give them chances to butter up.

As for J.Henry, would love if you could rationalise dropping him based off tonight.

 

[Baudolino]

In a way it's kind of impressive that we managed to suck in literally every area that the media were praising us for during the week lol. During the build-up we were hailed for the following reasons:

• Our precision ball use and overall skill level
• Our accuracy in front of goal
• Our deadly forward line
• Cameron being the best player in the comp
• Chris Scott's tactical genius

The jinx is real apparently.

 

[cats_09]

You make a big unit like Jezza run up and down the ground all night, that happens. Accurate kicking goes out the window.

Jezza is the one who runs himself up & down the ground

I'm quite sure they'd love to have him play as more of a stay at home forward, but he'd likely get bored of that and send himself up the ground as he does now

 

[feelinfeline]

Or we play Neale and he does a Hawkins circa 2011, and we have a changing of the guard.

It’s a big call for Scott to make but he did it once before.

I think you're dreaming. Hawkins had played over 50 games at that point and was a junior star. Neale shows some promise but has nowhere near the potential of Hawkins.

And the idea of Hawkins playing VFL ... very unlikely.