Review Cats sink Dockers by 11 points.

[CatToTheFuture]

When they showed a replay of his match winning goal, one of the commentators said "Mannagh is never missing that" and it is true. Who else started celebrating as soon as he got it in his hands running towards goal? Such a classy player.

Also a sign of confidence building. Not second guessing

 

[00VicWard001]

Parts of the ground were slippery from the start. Presumably that wing never got sunlight and so never got dry

Incredible amount of skill errors - which made it obvious that it was very dewy. Players from both teams dropped marks, scrubbed kicks, fumbled pickups.

 

[Generalissimo]

Just when they'd get a dangerous chain going they'd drop an easy kick short and turn it over or lock it up.

A lot of that is our excellent positioning ahead of the ball. Freo had nobody to kick to besides sideways chips. Make the opposition execute half a dozen territory-neutral kicks just to maintain possession and gain no ground, and you maximise the odds that they'll stuff one of them up and give us a chance to hurt them on the rebound. We saw that numerous times yesterday. And it's our superior fitness, excellent coaching, and complete faith in the game plan that lets us pull off that kind of thing.

 

[Scottland2007]

With saints and WC to come, my ladder predictor has us finishing second and playing Brisbane at the MCG week one. September looking good.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Bloody gutsy win. So proud of the boys! Could have even won by more if we kicked straight!
Danger was massive in that last quarter!

Clark from Freo can get stuffed. Whinging flog. That showboating after his early goal was cringe. Banfield was a grub too laying the elbow into Guthries head on the ground.

Anyway great win on the road!

Yeah I've been a big fan of Banfield but seriously man wtf the f* was that

 

[Mr Meow]

They really arent good numbers even with the sub role when he does nothing else. Literally nothing else. He doesnt tackle. His chasing is poor. He doesnt help get the ball up field. He allows his opponent to intercept in marking contests all day. People really need to pay more attention to this last issue. Its been causing us real problems. Rohan is the solution to it.

3 tackles by Henry yesterday, were you even watching the game?

If a young third tall is getting 3 good shots at goal, creating 3 scores for others and having 3 tackles with a few other instances of bringing the ball to ground - personally I consider that okay. That's what he did yesterday. He was also injured mid game.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

A lot of that is our excellent positioning ahead of the ball. Freo had nobody to kick to besides sideways chips. Make the opposition execute half a dozen territory-neutral kicks just to maintain possession and gain no ground, and you maximise the odds that they'll stuff one of them up and give us a chance to hurt them on the rebound. We saw that numerous times yesterday. And it's our superior fitness, excellent coaching, and complete faith in the game plan that lets us pull off that kind of thing.

I think we pressured then into the turnovers for sure but a lot of the ones that stuck out to me were to players who definitely had the space to mark with another 2 metres on the kick.

 

[TheWoodenSlug]

Are you saying he was predicting the loss?

Bullseye!

 

[standupand]

Can I just give a bit of a pump up for Brad Close. If you look at the stats you will say he had a quiet game. But the number of times during the game I was left shaking my head with admiration at the way he was getting involved in our scoring chains while also doing a mountain of running and defensive work. He has this ability to get a deft touch that won't count on a stats sheet but will open up the defense and lead to a goal for a teammate. One of my absolute faves for that reason. Works hard. Masters his craft. Makes his teammates better.

 

[TheWoodenSlug]

I am shocked Rhys won the match up.

Is this the result of genuinely player management or the latest in a long line of Stanley's bullying the top tier rucks and getting dominated by random VFL ring ins?

Almost certainly the latter, but we'll never know for sure. Such is the duality of Rhys.

 

[Pollywaffle]

With saints and WC to come, my ladder predictor has us finishing second and playing Brisbane at the MCG week one. September looking good.

Funny old season.. let’s not count chickens yet

 

[Pollywaffle]

Can I just give a bit of a pump up for Brad Close. If you look at the stats you will say he had a quiet game. But the number of times during the game I was left shaking my head with admiration at the way he was getting involved in our scoring chains while also doing a mountain of running and defensive work. He has this ability to get a deft touch that won't count on a stats sheet but will open up the defense and lead to a goal for a teammate. One of my absolute faves for that reason. Works hard. Masters his craft. Makes his teammates better.

Works hard up and down the ground and yes, does a mountain of unheralded stuff. We are lucky to have several clever hard working ‘forwards’ who stay in the game.

 

[you pick one]

Totally agree.

I think we are barking up the wrong tree wanting him to be a defensive forward. His go is being a lethal goalkicker and to date in his career he has done that well. But he can’t be missing those chances he did yesterday.

What affect the back injury had on OHenrys set shots late in the game had we don't know, I'm prepared to overlook those he looked quite incapacitated in his movements late in the final quarter.

 

[Scottland2007]

Funny old season.. let’s not count chickens yet

Edit : Is it too early to order the herald sun premiership poster?
Edit : Sorry Generalismo, I changed it to something less culturally obscure thinking no one would get the reference just as you liked it!

 

[Generalissimo]

I think we pressured then into the turnovers for sure but a lot of the ones that stuck out to me were to players who definitely had the space to mark with another 2 metres on the kick.

Yes, I noticed the ball often dropping a bit short too, from both sides. Something to do with the conditions maybe.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Actually he did come. With the intention of playing. Not sure why club changed view but decided on team balance to have Mullin as sub instead

Interesting whether that means anything for next few rounds?

Its not scott said rohan will play next week. And id say mullin will go straight out unless we have players sore. It was just tactical.

 

[you pick one]

He is doing very poorly this year at being a lethal goalkicker. 1.4 goals a game is poor if thats all you do. Needs to be above 2.2 a game.

Neale has a better goal kicking average than Hawkins at same age give it time that will grow.Hawk will finish on about 2.6 average.

 

[witsend]

Can I just give a bit of a pump up for Brad Close. If you look at the stats you will say he had a quiet game. But the number of times during the game I was left shaking my head with admiration at the way he was getting involved in our scoring chains while also doing a mountain of running and defensive work. He has this ability to get a deft touch that won't count on a stats sheet but will open up the defense and lead to a goal for a teammate. One of my absolute faves for that reason. Works hard. Masters his craft. Makes his teammates better.

Extremely high footy IQ


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[foxdog50]

When they showed a replay of his match winning goal, one of the commentators said "Mannagh is never missing that" and it is true. Who else started celebrating as soon as he got it in his hands running towards goal? Such a classy player.

If we need a guy to win us the game, seconds to go while the game is in play. I'm backing Mannagh in every time

 

[Gavin Excell]

May have been acknowledged previously, but Cats fans made some noise at the ground yesterday.

I've heard before that we've got some strong support in the West but hadn't realised to that degree

 

[Warhorse]

Can I just give a bit of a pump up for Brad Close. If you look at the stats you will say he had a quiet game. But the number of times during the game I was left shaking my head with admiration at the way he was getting involved in our scoring chains while also doing a mountain of running and defensive work. He has this ability to get a deft touch that won't count on a stats sheet but will open up the defense and lead to a goal for a teammate. One of my absolute faves for that reason. Works hard. Masters his craft. Makes his teammates better.

Who was his direct opponent?

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Can I just give a bit of a pump up for Brad Close. If you look at the stats you will say he had a quiet game. But the number of times during the game I was left shaking my head with admiration at the way he was getting involved in our scoring chains while also doing a mountain of running and defensive work. He has this ability to get a deft touch that won't count on a stats sheet but will open up the defense and lead to a goal for a teammate. One of my absolute faves for that reason. Works hard. Masters his craft. Makes his teammates better.

Great post. My exact thoughts about close.

Can be a team barometer at times. Is one of those players that is so vital to our game plan both defensively and offensively that when he is on song he is huge.

Stat sheets won’t tell you much about a player like him, the devil is in the details of our game plan

 

[allrighty]

Can't disagree with much of this.

What I would say about Freo though - a lot of their "small ball use" was uncontested kick to kick that didn't really cut us open. It looked neat but often didn't do a lot of damage. Their decision making in congestion was actually really poor too.

With Geelong we made some very poor fundamental errors. But generally still found regular enough incisive passages of play. We won the clearances, contested possessions and tackles. You wanted to see heart from this team. You got it. We out fought them and out lasted them, running all over them in the last after jumping them in the first. A bit of rope-a-dope in the middle was handled well enough to keep us in front for the vast majority of it. A final burst let us erase the very minor lead they finally achieved.

That's what I hoped thought would happen. Good summary.

 

[catempire]

He took a pair for knocks to his legs, one in 3rd and one in 4th, and was quite sore from both when he took his shots. I don't think people wan t him to be a defensive forward but there are some non-negotiables when you're a player his size. I felt he did his role fine.

Yea there was no issue with the non-negotiable yesterday.

But the non-negotiables are a small set when you kick the goals.

 

[catempire]

I don't agree at all, in modern football youve got to be a well rounded footballer, its pretty obvious the defensive side of his game was a weakness but it was common sense to put the work in to improve it, more we lock the ball in the front half the better and it takes a team effort not passengers.

When you kick goals the score goes on the board, the ball goes back to the middle and is more important than anything else. You only need to worry about the other stuff when the goals aren’t coming.