Autopsy Doggies Woof all over Cats by 47 points.

[CatToTheFuture]

Bailey Smith doesn’t care about wins and losses. He’s much more focused on being an influencer. That’s why he’s 100% guaranteed to be a Cat next year. Cotton On have done a fantastic job over the years.

Him out of the side has created a spot for Ed Richards. Massive win for us.

I said last year by the end of this year you'd have moved on from smith

We definitely need him though. Influencer or not

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Reasonable idea but im not sure he has the tank.

I'm not sure we have the choice

 

[CatToTheFuture]

We desperately need a forward that can take a ****ing contested mark, made Lobb and Khamis look like prime Scarlett

Do you think Darcy Fogarty might HSBC taken a few Hinkley29 ....

I'll see myself out

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Nights like tonight make me wish we don't make the top 4 because we're at risk of a straight sets exit and coping a hiding. Scotty's largely put it down to an aberration and "a few guys being off." The last few weeks might have given a slight bit of hope but it feels like we're just making up the numbers. I'd love to know Scotty's assented assessment of the team and the expectation at the start of the year, during our slump and now...

Would rather a 0-2 finals series than a 0-1

Kids need to run out in finals to experience it and I would think we'd be a solid shot at winning the semi at least

 

[CatToTheFuture]

How are the Bulldogs with the salary cap? They have A grade players across the field. They make us look like a VFL team on paper and the game turned out like that.

Reportedly going to struggle with a few of them.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Bulldogs are a top 4 side on quality and their percentage is more a reflection of where they are at rather than ladder.

They have a very very good contested ball winning midfield and the weather made the gap even bigger.

Best to delete this one for the memory bank and move on

I am concerned about the manner of the loss though, mostly the consistency in which we gave away front position and how quickly older players gave up on a lost cause.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Completely outplayed

Dogs smothered any Geelong drive. In that first half especially, could rarely string together any passage of possession.

Haven't seen as limp an effort at home for years

 

[kickazz]

We are definitely a team that prefers the space of the MCG now.

KP requires that you have a decent CHF, it is harder to get isolation so you do need big guys who can compete.

We had the same problem with our long kicks forward against GWS

 

[kickazz]

Hopefully there was a lot to learn

There had better be, and it could be a good thing.

Closer losses might not attract scrutiny in the same way. We were outplayed in all facets tonight, including the basics.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

On a side note, Ed Richard’s sooking about the ground, ugle-Hagen saying “it was pretty dangerous out there”.. give us a spell

To be fair the ground was in atrocious shape. Poor drainage ?
Not good enough.

 

[calder_daddy]

Our last 5 weeks in ball winners.
Stewart 116
Holmes 114
Duncan 105
DeKoning 103
Dempsey 95

The lack of ball winners on our team is concerning.
The fun fact out of this only one of those players has hit 20 disposals or more in every one of those 5 matches.
SDK

 

[catsfootyfan89]

Sometimes you watch team sports and you can just tell from the first five minutes whether it's going to be a genuine competition or not.

The first five minutes of this game just didn't pass the eye test for me. It's not who scores or who wins contests or anything metrical. It's just the intent and compete. And it just wasn't there for me. It's not often you get a 'crystal ball' feeling in this sport with the closeness of the competition, but I just knew this one wasn't going our way.

 

[fpm84]

Got off to a shocking start at the selection table, leaving Neale out was a disaster as we had nobody to crash a pack or keep their defenders accountable. Bombing the ball on the head of Jeremy Cameron

5

Jeremy Cameron

Age

31

Ht

196cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.5

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

5.4

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.6

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

2.9

2star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

G

1.9

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.2

3star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.4

4star

G

2.0

5star

and Ollie Henry won’t win many games, and we have made Rory Lobb

7

Rory Lobb

Age

31

Ht

207cm

Wt

106kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.0

3star

K

6.7

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

0.9

4star

D

11.3

3star

K

8.0

3star

HB

3.3

2star

M

4.6

4star

T

1.4

2star

G

1.0

4star

D

7.0

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.6

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.6

3star

and Leek Aleer look like superstars with this strategy.

On paper leaving SDK to ruck was always a two fold risk - one that he might be smashed by the reigning AA ruck, and two that we would be taking our only true FB away from the likes of Darcy, JUH and Naughton. Sadly, that’s exactly how it played out.

Reading Bruhn played, and dominated, VFL is confusing - I have no idea why he wouldn’t have been straight back into the seniors particularly if Atkins was under an injury cloud during the week.

Dogs thoroughly deserved the win and the eventual margin but we did ourselves no favours.

 

[Cataholic]

I'm hoping that the headlines about Scott remaining 'cool' are as about as far off the mark as we were last night.

I'm hoping that he gave them a real lashing behind closed doors, and castigated their laziness, unwillingness to get dirty, unwillingness to work for each other, and their even lazier thought process with the ball.

What they gave last night wasn't worthy of the jumper, and they need a hardcore reality check. You don't choose when to 'play'. If you want the jumper you bloody well better be prepared to give it your all come rain, hail or shine. If not, we're not interested.

And I'm looking real hard at you Cameron.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Doritos might’ve been ok with ball in hand, and I will cut him some slack due to age and experience but his ball watching and defending around stoppages was pretty bad

He’s moved off the ball way too easily.

Horror game from Dempsey too. He’s very timid in the contest at times. Footsteps?

Not playing Neale was a mistake.
I also think Stanley would have been a better matchup on English than SDK.

A few of these performances now. First the Suns, then Carlton and now the Dogs.
Just poor pressure, little intent. Everyone besides maybe 4 players look completely disinterested.

I’d love to see our pressure rating from last night compared to the last 3 weeks.

 

[foxdog50]

You looks at Dogs Midfield and then you see guys like McRae starting at sub.. he would be easily in our starting Midfield any day of the week at Geelong

 

[winty]

Option 1: Play Hawkins, Neale and Cameron.

Option 2: Play Cameron, Henry and Rohan.

I guarantee 100% of people on here would vote Option 1 as the one to play 'Bomb long to a contest'. Playing the 2nd option and kicking it Khamis, English and Lobb all night was truly maddening.

Option 2 would've been fine if Jezza was competitive. On a night where the ball was continually dropping short, he was either behind his direct opponent or wrestling with him instead of using his biggest weapon which is his agility.

Was the worst game I've seen him play, and by some distance. Was the lowest possession count he'd had as a Cat since Round 15 last year - and that was the game when he went off injured in the first quarter after being collected by Gary Rohan, and was only 1 possession more than Round 1, 2022 when he was also off injured in the first term.

 

[Cataholic]

The side we've smashed twice this year?

Watched both games yesterday quite closely, and to be honest, they would've smashed us yesterday if we'd played them.

They tore Collingwood apart, and given the lethargic 'effort' we put in we'd have been no challenge to them......like we weren't against the Dogs.

The Hawks are putting a side together....and I've said it before, and I'll say it again (as much as I hate it) I admire their tenacity and mongrel. Year in year out, game in game out, you see them give their goddamn all.

They're a side you want in the trench with you.

Us? Well it sometimes depends what day it is.

 

[hoopla]

Glass half full attitude here. It’s a beautifully timed reality check for the cats. There is much more to learn from this loss than a win.

The bulldogs were desperate and played to their absolute best. They scrapped, scragged, tapped, threw (sometimes handballed) their way into space. They played smart finals football.

Obviously the cats were off. So many unforced errors (errors under no pressure). This became contagious very quickly. It’s obvious they’re not the wet weather team they used to be…although, the dogs played like it was a dry night.

Overall, it was great experience for the less experienced cats. Things aren’t always going to go your way and the more experienced players aren’t always going to be able to dig them out. In words inspired by w***ernomics, let’s take the learnings out of this experience and leverage them for the remainder of the season

 

[calder_daddy]

He’s moved off the ball way too easily.

Horror game from Dempsey too. He’s very timid in the contest at times. Footsteps?

Not playing Neale was a mistake.
I also think Stanley would have been a better matchup on English than SDK.

A few of these performances now. First the Suns, then Carlton and now the Dogs.
Just poor pressure, little intent. Everyone besides maybe 4 players look completely disinterested.

I’d love to see our pressure rating from last night compared to the last 3 weeks.

Our first half’s pressure rating would’ve been shocking
3rd quarter was good and the first 5 minutes of the last
Then shocking again but understandable late

I agree Neale was a mistake, before the game I thought it was a good move but it was not.

I feel like Dempsey always plays with footsteps and that’s not a knock on the bloke, some people are just built different and play differently

 

[foxdog50]

The game against North Melbourne next week. As much as I'm advocate SDK to go to defence and Stanley comes into the ruck, they won't do that as North don't have many big key forwards besides Larkey down there . They will back in Henry and Kolo to do the job..

But playing SDK down defence helps out Henry and Kolo and puts less pressure on them to, which will make them 2 play better..

 

[foxdog50]

Our first half’s pressure rating would’ve been shocking
3rd quarter was good and the first 5 minutes of the last
Then shocking again but understandable late

I agree Neale was a mistake, before the game I thought it was a good move but it was not.

I feel like Dempsey always plays with footsteps and that’s not a knock on the bloke, some people are just built different and play differently

So Neale not playing. Was it just match up or was it his throat injury?

 

[Gavin Excell]

To be fair the ground was in atrocious shape. Poor drainage ?
Not good enough.

Haven't seen mud like that since 1989

 

[Gavin Excell]

 

[Gavin Excell]

So Neale not playing. Was it just match up or was it his throat injury?

Pre match Scott said it was due to conditions
Atkins however didn't come up