Review Cats take THE RIVALRY from the Hawks again with 51 point win

[Pollywaffle]

Let’s take time out to get our heads around that weird jumper that hawks had today.
Hawks diehards should be pissed. Why didn’t they just have their normal kit?

 

[tommy2011]

Official crowd 33,180. Whatever the reason for that figure well below capacity in a supposedly sold-out game, something has to be done. Don't tell me 7000 reserved seat holders didn't turn up. The club, Ticketmaster, whoever, just fix it.

 

[And_ROOS]

Does bruhn fit straight back into this side?

I like stewart and danger in the middle.

If Bruhn was ready next week comes in for Clark and a midfield of Bruhn, Danger and Stewart is a very physically strong midfield.

 

[Gunf]

Neale showing that whilst he may never become an all time great like Hawkins he has all the tools to be a good key forward for the next 5-10 years.
Humphries continues to impress and should stay in the side unless he has 2-3 bad games in a row which i don't think he will.
SDK in the ruck i like but i still think Conway will be better once he can get continuity but SDK is proving he can be a good stopgap or emg ruck if needed.
Dempsey continues to impress me more than i thought he ever would the ceiling for him is massive.
Mannagh needs to stay in and be give a few games in a row unless he drops stinkers while Henry can go to the 2s and be told to chase and tackle.

 

[Gunf]

Does bruhn fit straight back into this side?

I like stewart and danger in the middle.

Bruhn comes in for Clark

Clark still needs more gym time before his skills will really shine

 

[Baggins15]

Hawthorn board is f’n hilarious reading right now

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Blicavs is the obvious option if we feel J. Henry is undersized. I genuinely don't understand why people are acting like COS and Jeka are all we have in reserve when we have a guy on the list who won a Carji and made the AA squad as a key defender. To me he's the self-evident "break glass in case of emergency" KPD. Re-deploying him to KPD while SDK is rucking is no more radical a positional shift than moving Stewart to midfield or SDK himself to ruck. We don't need to be gambling on unproven kids or journeyman list-cloggers, we have better alternatives available.

I agree with you as to the solution.

But the reality is hes barely been used as a kpd since 2020. Now you can interpret that two ways.
One is that they would be happy to use him as a kpd but they have been unable to because of how often our rucks have been injured or in poor form.

The other is that they have moved past the idea of him being a kpd and wont reinstate it this late in his career.

 

[Warhorse]

Does bruhn fit straight back into this side?

I like stewart and danger in the middle.

He is better than Clark but should go through the VFL first

 

[Oisin_the_Goat]

Mannagh... no more to say

Hot take - Bruhn in for O Henry.

Henry can play vfl for a while.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I have been somewhat frustrated with some of what Bowes has bring this year but in this one I felt he was composed and really kick started forward movement and moved smoothly through the stoppages.

Neale started to show some progress on his marking ability while also showing how good his ground level follow up is for a big man. No issues having him in the possession chain.

Stewart moving to the midfield has really bamboozled the opposition. They don't know where he's going to run to do he can drop back and play loose defender without an opposition tagger follow him, or he can use his physicality to attack the stoppage. I was really sceptical of playing him in the midfield but it has worked really well.

Mannaghs defensive work was intense, and that first inside 50 short on a wide angle to I think close was brilliant. I still think he's as much a midfielder as Miers is but I'm happy too keep him in. Critics of us taking a mature ager and not slotting him straight in should note the positive cultural influence of his hunger and rewarding it.

SDK is growing in capability and confidence. Expected him to get smashed and he was great. Nullified a bit of the tap advantage and was great at ground level.

Humphries is exactly what I thought he would be. He needs to play every game.

Dempsey takes 50c of his betting odds for the rising star every week.

We may be missing 1-2 top end midfielders but our worst 6 any given week are probably the best worst 6 in the league

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Oh and great to put them in their place and that loud noise you hear is them thudding back to earth.

They thought Meek and their midfield would dominate and they'd win as a result. Hubris.

To be fair, their point was logical.

Completely wrong, but logical

 

[Seeds]

Ive been massively anti neale. But he showed a bit tonight. Has a bit of pace for a player his size and certainly has physique. But needs to throw himself at the contest more.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

Great win, most complete performance of the year but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, hawthorn are not a good team. No matter what narrative the media peddle.

Think Rohan offers more then Henry. I like Henry as a sub.

Humphries stays in as a hbf.

Must keep Stewart in as a mid for large chunks when the game is in the balance. A big body with composure is a new look for our mid. Works well with danger.

I just don’t see much ceiling in Clark. Atkins 2.0. Probably the only player at risk of losing his spot.

With Bruhn and Guthrie injured I would have MOC as the next in, if form warrants. Just don’t see it in knevitt the way this board does. Otherwise guth and bruhn are the only others that I think help us outside of this 22.

Must play Mannagh going forward. Offers a new dimension in the middle, can take Clark’s role as that defensive mid link and offers more up forward. Is mercurial.

SDK has his confidence back which is the best story of the game. Let’s hope he’s recalibrated and continues on his 2022 trajectory.

Well you can extend on that by saying just like season 22 and season 23 there are very few top notch teams in the competition full stop

And because of that and also because Geel are so much better offf with Stewart in the midfield , no Hawkins , Mannagh ( who looks like a welter weight boxer he is that fit ) into the side , SDK into the ruck , Duncan and Tuohy finding a bit of good touch etc and lets not forget Phil Krakeour Mark 2

Im not advocating gambling but if Geel ( presently 5th on the ladder and only 4 pts off 2nd place ) can beat Coll ( and the Magpies allways give us a good game no matter how they are travelling ) then looking at the draw then i dont think Geel will lose another game in the home and away season and thus i think the $18 presently on offer for the Cats to win the Premiership is a fantastic price

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Most dominant and pleasing win for 24 so far imho. A team that was in form, albeit missing 2 guns, was comprehensively beaten in every quarter today.
Next week is a realistic chance of a win as well with some of the Pies outs- and they look a bit fatigued- but could they drop 3 in a row!?

I love this post. Let's smash the Pies!

 

[cats_09]

Official crowd 33,180. Whatever the reason for that figure well below capacity in a supposedly sold-out game, something has to be done. Don't tell me 7000 reserved seat holders didn't turn up. The club, Ticketmaster, whoever, just fix it.

Fix what exactly?

There was a number of tickets still for sale this afternoon - likely members who had tickets, couldn't attend and put them up for re-sale but they didn't sell

Something else to remember with stadium capacity counts is that as well as the physical seats & standing room, is that they also include the capacity of the multitude of function spaces

Now, when it comes to match days, those function spaces also have reserved seating for those in attendance and what was the count of two becomes just one individual

May need to have a level of skepticism with the official capacity versus the physical in attendance capacity, while remembering that not every ticket holder will turn up every week

 

[Seeds]

I agree with you as to the solution.

But the reality is hes barely been used as a kpd since 2020. Now you can interpret that two ways.
One is that they would be happy to use him as a kpd but they have been unable to because of how often our rucks have been injured or in poor form.

The other is that they have moved past the idea of him being a kpd and wont reinstate it this late in his career.

If he is the great utility everyone says he is it should be no problem

If we are to go deep this year we need a first ruck. Either conway to recover in time or stanley to find some form after being rested. The. The second ruck role is either SDK or Blicavs. The other plays key defence.

 

[Feline]

It was a great win but one problem - whoever was choosing the songs played after the Geelong goals needs to be fired into the sun

Along with that woman screaming on the microphone.

 

[Gunf]

Ive been massively anti neale. But he showed a bit tonight. Has a bit of pace for a player his size and certainly has physique. But needs to throw himself at the contest more.

I think he took the first step forward today in thinking the forward line is his and not Hawkins who he is temp replacing.

He made good leads, crashed packs, got involved in chains, and ground level was good just needed a bit better kicking for goal and he could have had a very good night.

Once he gets some more confidence that he belongs and gets to around 50 games we will see if he will truly make it or not , i am a firm believer that he will but i have been wrong before and will be wrong again.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Thats what worries me. We will get away with it now and even next week (no cox or mihocek for coll) but in a prelim or an SF im not sure it holds up. And we have no other options as COS isnt ready and jeka isnt that type of kpd.

Performance in finals will be a good problem to have. Let's discuss it when we are presented with it

 

[Pure_Ownage]

If he is the great utility everyone says he is it should be no problem

If we are to go deep this year we need a first ruck. Either conway to recover in time or stanley to find some form after being rested. The. The second ruck role is either SDK or Blicavs. The other plays key defence.

I dont disagree with you but i have a feeling next weeks injury report will say conway is gone for the year and im not sure how many games stanleys body has left (we can maybe nurse him through a bit) so we may have to get creative.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Henry in a key defence has not been an issue for his whole career so would be very weird if it started being an issue now.

Not sure why people keep worrying about this. Henry is a classy/versatile key defender.

The issue will come if he gets injured.

You can forget about SDK going back to key defence, that is not happening.

I wouldn't say it hasn't been a problem. We've played him 3rd tall loose mostly. He needs to run and jump at it, can't sit under it and be effective.

 

[Finknottle]

Neale was solid, he's made a big difference to the forward line, especially defensively. It's something we haven't had with our big forwards this year.

 

[Commando]

Let’s take time out to get our heads around that weird jumper that hawks had today.
Hawks diehards should be pissed. Why didn’t they just have their normal kit?

They seem to do anything to avoid wearing their actual kit...

 

[And_ROOS]

You keep clinging to this while we watch rohan stamp his spot on the third tall roll. And now mannagh add to the dangerous small foward mix of close, stengle, miers and dempsey.

There is literally no room for henry in this side.

The only role I can see for Henry based on his marking, running patterns etc, is if Neale isn't right Henry takes the Hawkins role. Body shape aside, Henry is a great kick for goal, and crashes packs which Hawkins can't do. But Henry can't take the ruck, while the best defender goes to Cameron now anyway.

Rohan anad Mannagh are better pressure players, and he isn't taking the role of Close or Stengle or Dempsey.

But play him at FF and let him leap at everything.

 

[Finknottle]

Well a few wins sure helps change my tune from a negative one post carlton (I blame the Four Pines at the G) to a positive one!

Neale looks like he’s getting more confident by the game with a few clunks and goals. Same for De Koning - influential in the middle/ruck and some classy moments on the ball. That second goal

Dempsey continues his great form. Lawson didn’t look out of place yet again and it feels like we’ve really got a gem. We really do have some really talented youngsters coming through

Dangerfield is fit and firing and when his is he’s still a massive weapon. His pairing with Stewart in the middle was effective who seems to have played himself back into form along with Cameron. Big bag and could have been bigger.

And oh…Mannagh the tackle machine…love it!

Humphries was a bit sloppy with his disposals and his decision making was on the slow side. Good game last week not so good this week. He'll get better.