Autopsy Cats lose to Demons by 8 points

[Cursed Cat]

Disagree - thought he was sh!te. Lost most clearances and did f all around the ground. Just not good enough

Fair enough you disagree - he was beaten, no doubt.

But ruck is the most unforgiving of positions; it is intensely attritional and there's nowhere to hide - we have noone on our list who would have made a better fist of battling Max Gawn in 2024 unfortunately. And Gawn will get hold of plenty of other ruckmen throughout this year.

Stanley was beaten, but I thought he gave a decent account of himself. Sometimes a club is just out-gunned in certain contests and there is F-all you can do about it - Stanley did not shirk the contest and did about as well as he could have hoped.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Mainly mad because I forgot what losing was like queue:

+1 thanks

 

[Commando]

The non-mark to Jack Henry in the 3rd quarter reminded me of Leigh Colbert in the final against Adelaide. Happened at a similar time of the match, and the scoreline was similar too (we lost 76-68 that night, and 74-66 tonight).

Except that was in our F50 iirc

 

[Finknottle]

Melbourne played more controlled football. Geelong tonight reminded me of the Bulldogs of old Kamikaze style. One handball too many, ambitious kicks that didn't come off, easy set shots that didn't go near to scoring. Melbourne deserved to win.

 

[The_Koulouriotis_Fan]

In true BigFooty post loss fashion though, we focus on the potential demise of Hawkins & Duncan over the superb promise of Henry, Holmes, Dempsey, & Clark, as well as the brilliance of Zuthrie & Stengle.

Maybe they are cooked...but it's not looking too bad in terms of the replacements.

If there's anything to take out of that shitshow, it's the promise of the kids.

In a loss, I'd take that over them showing SFA and the veterans carrying us. That's when things look truly bleak.

I love it when it’s in the young guys hands, it’s genuinely exciting. They’re not the finished product but they’re going to be exceptional.
Clark and Bruhn will be A graders, Clark did some beautiful things tonight. Dempsey could be anything, Holmes has fully arrived! Ollie Henry is a clutch forward, Zuthrie is our most reliable defender, Stengle has the potential to be our best ever small forward & that’s saying something. Miers is an artist with the ball, Close is class. The young core are the reason we only lost by 8point and to be fair they gave the ball to the old blokes to win the game for us.

If there’s one positive for me tonight it’s when Jez over kicked it and Hawk dropped it, Zuthrie ran in grabbed the ball and just kicked the goal. The young guys are believing. The vets need to make sure they keep up with them.

 

[Live in hope]

Observations-

• aside from looking tired/jaded from the beginning, Cats struggled for whole night with the dewy conditions. Demons much more sure handed.
• we rely on MOC more than most will admit. Calm, focused, physical presence in contests - would have been handy on Petracca
• not for first time this year, I’ve thought it is clear that we are one tall short in defence. I think we need to get COS into the side, maybe as a sub/utility. Another option is Knevitt as sub and Blitz to drop back when Mitch comes on.
• Hawk. A liability at moment, but as a champion rather than drop I’d try something to spark him - try at CHF with stints in the ruck.

 

[Gee Class Loco]

Hopefully Esava can play him back into form next week.

The way Tom has been playing.
Esava will get the 3 votes.

 

[Heckler]

Stanley was a liability tonight
Sure he broke even in the ruck.
Rarely taps ball to advantage.
Unfortunately made bad decisions
Had two Cats in the goals square
Spoils ball forward to the only Dee.
Competes with teammate spoils mark 15m out.
Continually takes eyes off ball.
Easy two grab mark to Gawn for 50m Goal
Gives away dumb free kicks
Does not spoil when needed
Lacks strength and has poor balance.
Fumbles and poor handball skills
Takes too long to dispose of ball
Can't take a decent pack mark
Worse: he lacks situational awareness.
Taps and toe pokes ball away from teammates.
Frustrating to watch tonight.

No coincidence Cats great with Ottens
Swans got Grundy and improved lots.
Conway needs to play a big priority.

 

[cats_09]

I remember Matty Stokes getting 4 weeks in that game for having the sheer audacity to stand his ground while a Port Adelaide player slid into his legs.

Any footage of it?

I was likely in the US or Canada at the time and don't recall any of that

Wasn't back in the country until April 2nd - I have vague recollections of a couple of early losses that season and then the craziness of round 6 and trying to comprehend what I was watching

 

[Generalissimo]

I’ve thought it is clear that we are one tall short in defence. I think we need to get COS into the side

Pains me to say it, because we've been burned in the past by playing Hawforn rejects, but I'd give Emerson Jeka a go to see if he can contribute something. Been good the last two week in the magoos, let's see how he does tomorrow.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

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.

How many weeks can hawkins go goaless without being dropped?? If next week that makes it 5..

Even if he kicks 1 goal and barely touches it is that enough??? There has to be a point dven ricky ponting get dropped...

 

[Finknottle]

SDK at 204cm sure does struggle to spoil much smaller forwards. His timing seems to be the problem and he needs to work on his closing speed. I'm still hoping he gets back to playing like he did in his first year at Geelong.

 

[catscratchfever]

I was confident going into the match, but after about 10 minutes I started shuddering and stopped watching. I had a bad, bad feeling.

Shameful, I’ll admit, but I can’t stand a loss.

I was at the ‘89, ‘92, ‘94 and ‘95 grannies but I wasn’t present at the G for any of our subsequent premierships.

I think I’ve suffered my share of pain and then some.

Well done, Dees.

 

[bombersboy]

Agree that Duncan should be managed throughout the season & as we get deeper into the season that he may not be the automatic best 23 selection as has been the case since 2011

But he's not going to play out the season in the VFL - he's a 281 game club veteran & that doesn't seem a very respectful way to approach things

He's had good games this season & then a poor effort like tonight. He could very well still have a role to play going forward this season, but it may just look different to how he expected it would at the start of the season

I would be surprised if he didn't play at least another 10 games this season

Manage Duncan tonight and play O’Connor(as long as he was ok) and I think we win.

 

[Finknottle]

How many weeks can hawkins go goaless without being dropped?? If next week that makes it 5..

Even if he kicks 1 goal and barely touches it is that enough??? There has to be a point dven ricky ponting get dropped...

Be careful with comments like that. It's borderline apostasy.

 

[Cursed Cat]

How many weeks can hawkins go goaless without being dropped?? If next week that makes it 5..

Even if he kicks 1 goal and barely touches it is that enough??? There has to be a point dven ricky ponting get dropped...

Hard to judge his evening tonight.

May is probably the best full back in the comp ahead of Weitering.

Hawkins wasn't great; but he wasn't terrible either.

Dished off some good handballs in transition and nearly made a couple of very good kicks into the F50.

A goal (or two) would have been nice.

I think next week against Esava at home will give us a really good indication of where Tom is at.

 

[Commando]

Pains me to say it, because we've been burned in the past by playing Hawforn rejects, but I'd give Emerson Jeka a go to see if he can contribute something. Been good the last two week in the magoos, let's see how he does tomorrow.

How's he gone at VFL level?

 

[geelong_crazy26]

I was confident going into the match, but after about 10 minutes i started shuddering and stopped watching. I had a bad, bad feeling.

Shameful, I’ll admit but I can’t stand a loss.

I was at the ‘89, ‘92, ‘94 and ‘95 grannies but I wasn’t present at the G for any of our subsequent premierships.

I think I’ve suffered my share of pain and then some.

Well done, Dees.

You poor bastard.

 

[Generalissimo]

SDK at 204cm sure does struggle to spoil much smaller forwards. His timing seems to be the problem and he needs to work on his closing speed. I'm still hoping he gets back to playing like he did in his first year at Geelong.

Needs the midfield to support him. He does a lot better in genuine 1-1 marking contests against tall forwards, which is what happens when your midfield is putting on enough pressure to make oppo kicks inside F50 long bombs rather than stab passes. Nobody else brings what SdK does in that situation.

I am encouraged by the improvement in his disposal efficiency though. On a night when we struggled to hit a target, I don't remember SdK stuffing it up too much, even when he was getting swarmed by Melbourne's small forwards.

 

[Finknottle]

Just needs 10 more goals to get 800.

At this rate he might need to play another season

 

[Generalissimo]

How's he gone at VFL level?

Getting a lot of touches. Quite good in the air, knows how to hit a target. The big question mark is how he goes at lock-down defending.

 

[catstorm]

We're all different.
I am calmer with nights like tonight. You're not. Nakkers overreacts.

Ultimately it makes absolutely zero difference. Nothing you or I say tonight will impact what Chris and Co do selecting the team on Thursday.

Even if we did. If we had a Mitch McGovern or Mitch Brown type player in the VFL tomorrow, and they played well.
We'd still be at 0% chance an established player makes way off 1 bad game. That was purely hyperbolic.

Stomping your feet up and down demanding actions for the sake of 'accountability' and in doing so throwing the baby out with the bathwater serves us no benefits. Parfitt was poor last week, a player I don't rate particularly highly, and whom I have praised in 2024 and I didn't get my axe out to grind that he should be dropped over that performance.

I never thought Henry would get dropped, I said I myself personally would consider it, not that it would happen.

I’m pretty sure everyone on here is well aware that none of the crap we say actually matters. And if I want to chuck a tanty on an online forum about a player who’s effort annoyed me, what does it actually matter to you?

 

[Cursed Cat]

SDK at 204cm sure does struggle to spoil much smaller forwards. His timing seems to be the problem and he needs to work on his closing speed. I'm still hoping he gets back to playing like he did in his first year at Geelong.

2022 was SDK's 2nd season of senior footy, and he may never play a better season in his entire career.

I thought he was pretty solid tonight after making two early-game blues.

The club has backed SDK as our #1 KD guy for the next 4 years at the very least; I think he's the right horse but yes there is always room for improvement.

 

[ShaunWDT]

Clark one of few positives out of the game, his best game by a country mile.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Hard to judge his evening tonight.

May is probably the best full back in the comp ahead of Weitering.

Hawkins wasn't great; but he wasn't terrible either.

Dished off some good handballs in transition and nearly made a couple of very good kicks into the F50.

A goal (or two) would have been nice.

I think next week against Esava at home will give us a really good indication of where Tom is at.

I wouldnt be shocked to see hom put his hand up to be rested soon or go into a training block to get himself right.

He just doesnt look to be moving right at the moment. Something looks off about his play personally.

His never been quick, but he seems to me to have lost his involvement in passages which could be a fitness problem. Very rarely sighted in chains