Review Geelong defeats Lions by 1 point - Rd 2, 2021

[Cursed Cat]

Just saw that long range footage of Rohan throwing a roundhouse at Neale. has anyone seen other angles, cuz that didn't look close to clipping him on the jaw. It looked all round the shoulder. Then he's rubbing it like he took one flush. If another angle doesn't confirm contact, then he just lost a lot of respect.
But if there is evidence that Rohan got him, then he'll have to go.

Thought I saw some kind of graze or something on Neale's chin later in the game? Could be wrong ... wasn't a good look, any contact will be frowned upon.
Rohan might be due a spell anyway, he's been a negligible factor over the first two rounds.

 

[rocker_oz33]

So I.Smith won us a few games now ...

Good pick up.

 

[Live in hope]

Awful win and except for a handful of plays and exciting finish a pretty awful game.

The four points don’t disguise how stilted and frustrating to watch is our game plan. Pointless whinging - coach ain’t going to change it.

Good-

Tuohy - Amazing first half. Think tired a bit 2nd. Still one of our best.
Selwood- beast
Hawk - beast
Smith - beast like.
MOC - great close down game (more please in midfield). Scott deserves kudos for that.
(Pretty much these four won us the game)
Cuthrie - Good/reliable
Kolo - whilst not a fan, it must be said his last 40 minutes were very good
No injuries

Bad -
Game plan
Lack of risk taking and boldness
Brain fades and lack of awareness
The incredible number of times a small defender was one on one with one of their tall forwards.
7 kicks and 4 tackles from Dahl and Rohan- nearly give us nothing. Add a relatively poor effort from Meirs and you can see we’re getting very little from our small forwards. Evans only 7 kicks, but 2 goals on debut - have to give him a pass mark for that.

Ugly -
Game plan.

 

[Play it Sam]

I thought we really missed Duncan and Menegola tonight they block the defensive side exits from stoppages well and we struggled there tonight.

I think we need to replace Rohan with someone who can ruck so Blitz can stay back which i assume we will do when Sav is back.

I thought Hawk and Stewart won us the game, Smith and Selwood were immense and Tuohy was really good he needs to stay in our front half. Our small forwards need work, our ruck weakness still worries me and our ability to stop teams run ons needs to get better quick before the season gets away from us.

There are a wheelbarrow load of explanations (some call excuses) for our capitulation as the game wore on. Interesting that Tommy post game mentions adjusting to the length of the game, in front of a crowd, on limited preparation. He's impressing with the smarts in his game, especially pushing up when needed. But then, who's home?
Danger was also a big out, upsetting the structure. Pretty sure the long bomb would have been less noticeable if he was there when it hit the ground, giving it purpose and letting Rohan off the hook a tad.

The defence is a concern, with brain fades from most of them, Guthrie and Stewart providing the only confidence around the ball. O'Connor aced it. Bews and Henderson inconsistent, gumby like. Atkins must be trying too hard ending in error ridden play and expensive mistakes. Kolo in a world of his own, Clark a work in progress. Henry's every move sees him under mental pressure after being stupidly omitted. Touhey very clever and experienced. Hoping they can gel better considering the loss of Harry, the unforgivable goal over the back unlikely to happen on his watch. We press on, and the mid year team will look nothing like this one tonight.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

To be on the negative... kolo sadly needs a turn in the reserves. Got badly beaten again today. Three weeks in a row his opponent has Been BOG.
He can’t keep playing the way he is playing.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Agree on dropping Dahlhaus. Real questions on Clarke I reckon - poor decision making and gets caught a lot - looked slow last week and got caught tonight playing on. Not convinced at all.

Clark needs mores games .
Last 2 games have been high pressure games .

I'd keep Clark.
Drop Dahl.

Someone needs to go for Duncan.

 

[strauchnyy]

Absolutely concerned at our over-cautious, boring, pedestrian game style that lacks spark and energy. The most unthreatening style of all 18 clubs. Our personnel and experience wins us games in moments, our game style holds us back.

From kick ins we have zero attacking spark, 100% over cautious sideways chip kicks or down the line.

Yes we are a boring club to watch, but the real issue is we ALLOW opposition clubs into games and play well against us because we are over cautious. On the defensive. Slow and over think it.

Versus tigers: who play fast aggressive high energy that HOLDS UP in finals, rain or sunshine.

We rely on EVERYTHING GOING RIGHT.

Terrible, shocking and downright stupid game style we play they will NEVER hold up in September.

That is my real disappointment. Because we HAVE the cattle and the stars to win it, but play a style that does not align to our personnel.

We are going sideways and a different league to Richmond

 

[cats_09]

To be on the negative... kolo sadly needs a turn in the reserves. Got badly beaten again today. Three weeks in a row his opponent has Been BOG.
He can’t keep playing the way he is playing.

Charlie Cameron was BOG?

I know Cameron kicked a couple of goals, but not sure he was close to BOG and he seemed to be unsighted for good portions of the night

Listening to Krock on the way home they actually gave credit to Kolodjashnij for his game on Cameron last night

A strength of Kolodjashnij's last night was his marking - took 9 marks with only Smith taking 11 having more than him, while Guthrie & Daniher also had 9 marks

 

[catstorm]

Yeh spot on.
Cameron is going to be a game changer. His style of play will be almost as profound as having a young Dangerfield in our line up again.
Obviously no need to rush him back. Hope they are being extra cautious.

Yeah a big leading Centre half forward will be huge for link up play.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Coz he’s a defender FORCED to play midfield.

He is our Rich, our Crisp, our Daniel yet we play him out of position in live contested situations unsuitable to him.

Play him next to Stewart as that quarterback setting up the play. He’s an elite intercept marker and play maker. Yet we play him as a mid. It’s dumbfounding

See I am the total opposite; to me Clark is way too loose of a unit to play as a permanent defender.
I look at him as potentially a modern day Peter Riccardi; Ricco was awesome but hopefully Clark's ambitions go further.
I loved his long bomb goal tonight.
I nearly had a heart-attack when he took a kick-out late in the game (it ended up working out ok, heart).

 

[rocker_oz33]

.

 

[Cursed Cat]

.

Geez Neale was nearly at Diesel-levels of belligerence tonight after a bit of close attention.

O'Connor's game was instrumental to securing 4 points.

 

[catstorm]

Geez Neale was nearly at Diesel-levels of belligerence tonight after a bit of close attention.

O'Connor's game was instrumental to securing 4 points.

Now to the real question, do we play him as a dedicated tagger from now on?

 

[catstragic]

Immense effort from Selwood and Hawkins, Very scrubby game marred by shippy umpiring and periods of poor execution by both teams. Stoked we walked away with the points. I think Rohan got knocked early out in the friendly fire headclash, so im not going to be too harsh on his game. Dahlhause was poor, use was ineffective and most of the players he managed to tackle had fallen over first. Higgins use is class, Smith covered a heap of the ground. Can't wait for Duncan to come back, having him operating in tandem with Higgins feeding Cameron will add significant firepower. As others have noted we are playing without Danger/Gola/Cameron/Duncan and thats a heck of alot of cream to be missing with a weaker backline than in recent years. Very fortunate we picked up Smiggins, i'm pretty sure we are 0-2 without them and there is still plenty of exposure for those 23-28 ranked players with the injuries/suspension(s).

 

[Cursed Cat]

Now to the real question, do we play him as a dedicated tagger from now on?

Yyyyeees? I'd like to see him do it again against a variety of opponents - it threw Brisbane off for a good portion of the game - I thought the offensive side of Merrick's game got better as the game progressed and his confidence grew - tough gig though; Neale was quiet and not particularly influential and yet he still looked very threatening in the last quarter when we were under pressure.

 

[catstragic]

Miers offers more then Evan’s at This point. Miers just needs to be kept in the foward fifty arc.

I was just thinking this. He is one of our strongest runners so he gets a lot of ball downfield, but his use there recently has been average. Still a natural goal kicker though so I think that attribute alone keeps him in the team. Even if his midfield work is average its still better to have him able to impact contests upfield using his superior tank as well as kick goals.

 

[catstragic]

To be on the negative... kolo sadly needs a turn in the reserves. Got badly beaten again today. Three weeks in a row his opponent has Been BOG.
He can’t keep playing the way he is playing.

Who do you bring in for him?

 

[Shadow89]

Main board with three separate Geelong bashing threads that show how much of a dumpster fire a lot of this site has become. Mods don't enforce sh*t anymore, allow laughing emojis, baiting tactics and general belligerence, and will only whack you if you get pissed off by it.

Too many angry losers sitting behind their keyboards, with nothing better to do with their Friday nights than go absolutely ape against words on a screen from people they don't even know.

Can only imagine how they treat their own friends and family.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Oppo fans will hate this response. Can’t blame them. More deflection than a politician

 

[roz1812]

I knows he’s our coach but it’s incredibly hard to like him

 

[Generalissimo]

Oppo fans will hate this response. Can’t blame them. More deflection than a politician

What's he supposed to say?

"Yeah, it was a crap decision"? If he does, he gets fined.

"Nah, correct call, play on"? All the mouth breathers will get incandescent.

 

[Art Vandelay_]

What's he supposed to say?

"Yeah, it was a crap decision"? If he does, he gets fined.

"Nah, correct call, play on"? All the mouth breathers will get incandescent.

Probably got away with one there... and then start the spiel about how hard umpiring is.

No fine for that and everyone moves on

 

[CatRiot]

I think Smith and Higgins were good recruits considering the cost at the table. Higgins can play the GAJ forward role pretty good and chop out in the guts. Always liked the way Smith plays, gives us a bit more dash.

I missed Evans first goal, saw it on the replay. He did go missing a bit through the game, but 2 goals is handy on debut, and there could be something to work with there. He'll at least give us some depth to the Dahlhaus role.

I'll take those 4 points. Lions are a decent team.

Query, I mean I like Atkins as a playmaker in defence, but is he being scored against a lot since his move down there? I haven't taken note on that.

Was Kolo on Hipwood all night? I think Kolo can be sloppy when key forwards are on the lead, they can expose him with their forward leaning reach.

 

[CatRiot]

Oh, I think Selwood was on Zac Bailey

33

Zac Bailey

Age

24

Ht

182cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.9

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

CL

0.9

3star

D

12.9

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

5.6

3star

M

3.9

4star

T

2.4

3star

CL

0.7

3star

D

13.4

4star

K

6.6

3star

HB

6.8

5star

M

3.2

4star

T

2.8

5star

CL

0.6

3star

, and not that Bailey didn't play without flaws, I did notice he could break away with the ball quite easy from Selwood, but this isn't a new thing with Selwood. Selwood was pretty big for us in the clearances, as per usual. Actually Selwood's game was pretty good.

 

[thejester]

From HPN’s season preview on the ABC:

The Lions also won all their close games last year. That's something that bounces around randomly from year to year. Research has shown that wins in close games are more luck than skill, and tend to not continue year after year.

The Lions won all five of their close games in 2020, something that is likely not to continue into 2021. This alone could see a two- or three-win drop for the Lions.

The nerds are always right.