Autopsy Cats lose to Port by 6 points after being down by 10 goals

[Rondog]

None that are ready.
Edwards is first year and injured and osullivan isnt ready and not a proper ruck. Furphy is injured.

F@#k

 

[feelinfeline]

He's been off it for about 2 years at least mate, Conway, Edwards heck even playing Blics there and just having another player in for another position.

I don't care, Stanley should be done done. That was embarrassing, got destroyed by a 4th string Ruckman and it is entirely on match committee and Scotty with ignoring that he's passed it.

He played in a premiership in 2022, and played very well. Forgotten already?

But I think he’s done now.

 

[Reppie]

That is true. Was he an All Australian before he got to us?

its ok mate ignore the numpties

 

[Pollywaffle]

Is it possible that fortress KP will become thing of the past.
Port and (nearly) saints gave us a hard time. Both have traditionally struggled there.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Ps umps were average- how many htb did they fail to pay tonight?

On the TV they probably muted it out when the whole Geelong crowd was chanting "Bullshit, bullshit."

 

[supahoops]

I agree with that but this is precisely why mannagh needs to be tried as he has wheels wheels.

This is also why bowes should have played to get body pressure on jhf at the stoppage.

Missed a trick not starting Mullin, hopefully CS will be as ruthless at selection as he was going early on Stanley. Maybe Milburn and Mooney were easy decisions, he gets paid handsomely to make the tough calls so let’s see..

 

[D BRIDGE]

Our mids are not one touch players.
Parfitt, Atkins, Clark not clean on many passages.

I gotta say this is something that concerns me with Clark.

I can give him an out for not holding tackles or breaking through them because he is undersized... but I still want him being clean and making good plays when he gets the pill.

He probably should be playing VFL but our midfield is shocking and Bowes was rested.

I hope he has plenty of improvement in him.

I'm sure he has some... I hope it's plenty more than some though.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Resting Bowes and playing Stanley cost us the 4 pts.

Stanley is done. Duncan is effectively the same and Hawkins is too. You can tell when a player is cooked - they fail to bend down to pick up ground ball, are no longer clean, their disposal deteriorates, and they generally fail to impact the game. Their opponent takes advantage of their physical deterioration. This is happening to all 3.
Unfortunately I think hard decisions need to be made.

We have a number that could come in to play Duncan’s role and now surely it’s time for Neale to be anointed as Hawkins once was when Mooney was done.

The hard call on Hawkins absolutely worries me. Still far from convinced Neale can handle it.

 

[Mr Meow]

One very noticeable thing happened all game…the cats kept running past or over the ball. Port players always managed to pick those balls up. Hawkins did this every time. He’s struggling to pick balls up lately.

Yeah I haven't seen fumbling like that for ages (first half). Along with dropped marks and missed kicks. It still happened a bit in the second half but generally we found ways to keep the ball moving or in front until back up arrived. Our intensity lifted.

We NEED to see that Geelong from the first bounce over the next two weeks to get our season back on track. Otherwise we could easily lose the next two games. Things are back on a knife's edge.

 

[Mr Meow]

I gotta say this is something that concerns me with Clark.

I can give him an out for not holding tackles or breaking through them because he is undersized... but I still want him being clean and making good plays when he gets the pill.

He probably should be playing VFL but our midfield is shocking and Bowes was rested.

I hope he has plenty of improvement in him.

I'm sure he has some... I hope it's plenty more than some though.

He had so many chances to get a disposal in congestion, even a scrappy one, but hesitated or fumbled and Port ran it straight out.

I don't want to get stuck into a kid, but it was so costly tonight. He's not ready at this stage. I think he'd be better off getting confidence in the VFL the second Bruhn, Bowes, Dangerfield types are available. Mullin is more ready at this stage.

 

[Interdimensional Bigfoot]

Why did we get Hardie?

 

[you pick one]

Melbourne and again tonight we were caught out standing to far off our opponents in the first half and it has cost us 8 points.
Now I except we don't have the strongest mid field in the comp but we are quite dumb in there as well, with the 666 rule in place you can't have their good ball uses coming out the front of the pack at centre bounces so if you can't win the clearance at least try to create a secondary ball up that way at least we can set up the defence with the plus one,to often we scrap in that contest and blindly push the ball to the opposition advantage and it makes life difficult for our backs.

 

[Vivy]

We recruited Danger. We recruited Cameron. We have never gone after an A grade ruckman.

I'd say we've never been successful in recruiting an A grade ruckman, as opposed to never gone after one

We tried to get Goldstein in his prime more than once and tried to get in the race for Grundy when it was clear he was done at Collingwood.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Stanley is a second ruck at best. He has a confidence problem, I think. That's why he never made it as a key forward.

Second ruck needs a first position. Are you playing Stanley in the backline?

 

[supahoops]

We can't have a team full of defensive midfielders. He can play full time mid in the VFL

Every midfielder becomes defensive when we don’t get the ball first or close enough to pressure disposal, Mullin offers a point of difference as we saw tonight, Blicavs Atkins Parfitt all one paced.

 

[Commando]

Because I worked tonight I have absolutely no idea what went wrong?
SEN all over us in the third driving home then in the last we had all the play..

Obviously a game of two halves, but what I saw/heard was pretty good

 

[Strange Cat]

Is it possible that fortress KP will become thing of the past.
Port and (nearly) saints gave us a hard time. Both have traditionally struggled there.

It’s bound to happen eventually but we had our first two losses of the year it’s hardly panic station …GC game will be tough and the GWS game is 50/50 atm

 

[Pure_Ownage]

He was also one of the first to instigate us using handball chains to advance the ball or create space rather than dump kicking to Port players. It didn't always come off but whadda ya know, when Duncan starts making smart decisions the team start doing the same.

His first half was diabolical though, no doubt about it. Is no good in a situation where we are being swarmed, but remains classy when he are hunting the footy. There are no VFL alternatives that can slot into that role at this stage. Maybe Mullin or Humpries in time?

The problem is duncan only started looking ok when the speed when out of the game and everyone was fatigued. When the game was quick early he looked like he was 50. I agree on his chains but you cant carry his lack of speed.

To answer your question maybe we need to play cuthrie back there because hes not working in the midfield. Or maybe we teach it to mullin with his speed.

 

[FootyLad0]

We can't have a team full of defensive midfielders. He can play full time mid in the VFL

This this this this <3

We need to go hard this offseason for attacking mids.
Can't play a bunch of defensive stoppers with no one to actually win the footy.

Bruhn will do that when he's back in next week but Danger is pretty much done.

I would be going hard after Archie Perkins who is out of contract, i would be in Bailey Smith's ear.
I would be looking at kids from other clubs who want to come back to Vic or who can't get a gig at other clubs midfields and offer them a spot for the long term.

Time to make hard calls

 

[Reppie]

I'd say we've never been successful in recruiting an A grade ruckman, as opposed to never gone after one

We tried to get Goldstein in his prime more than once and tried to get in the race for Grundy when it was clear he was done at Collingwood.

question is why

 

[Vdubs]

We need to fix the midfield problem. Playing our best midfielders in the midfield is probably a good start.

Danger, CGuthrie, who else do you call our "best" mids? Notwithstanding their average age being 32+!
We are bereft of good mids, as said all year, and as the season goes on, it becomes more apparent, and more costly.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I don't think they anticipated just how quickly Stanley would go down-hill. I don't think anyone did. Sure, he's inconsistent - but two of his worst games have been in the last 3 weeks.

Forget about Conway, he's going to be our #1 ruck pretty damned quick. We need to be pumping games into Mitch Edwards in the VFL ASAP...but more realistically, we might have to trade in some B-grade support to help cover the next couple of seasons.

Conway barely has the tank to play 2 weeks in a row though and it will take time to fix.
Edwards is a kid and hasnt even played a vfl game yet.

We definitely need to trade/FA in some sort of ruck.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Not just Humpries...Hardie, Mannagh, and even Clohesy should be in the mix moving forward.

(Neales should be a given by now, and if he isn't our selection committe are fools.)

All of those guys need to be tested for sure. Humphries and Clohesy I have faith in. Hardie I'm happy to give them a shot at changing my mind. Mannagh needs to go past stengle and I don't see that

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

On the TV they probably muted it out when the whole Geelong crowd was chanting "Bullshit, bullshit."

I heard it loud and clear on the radio!!!

 

[terry_bright]

I love Hawkins He is my favourite player.. But I'm starting to have some doubts the game has caught up to him...
Yes his allowed to not play at A Grade as his played 300 plus magnificent games, but those marks he use to mark, those ruck taps he use to do, those goals he would kick are just starting to fade away..
Once again he is a Champion . A club legend, but I'm just starting to see what the AFL media are saying about him...

I thought he was a lot better tonight, and our forwards were the least of out concerns after that performance, but the signs are there with Hawk.
He can't get the metre seperation as easily as he used to. Still an important player this year, but I can't see him going on next year.