Autopsy Geelong loses to Demons by 4 points - Rd 23

[My Tilly]

I really think he’s our worst signing since Mitch Clark. I’m not saying Shaun Higgins wasn’t a good player but even keeping Gary Ablett on this year would’ve been better than recruiting Shaun.

S.Selwood, McIntosh and Steven were far worse. At least Higgins was playing regular footy the season prior.

 

[ShaunWDT]

I just think people make their minds up on certain players and fail to actually see the game holistically, Higgins has had a very good 3 weeks and that form easily has him best 22.

 

[foxdog50]

Think the absolute worst ‘in’ we could bring in next week is Higgins. Zero physical presence, zero defensive accountability and consistently misses easy chances. Comes from non-finals teams… see a disaster waiting to happen in finals like pressure in front of a hostile crowd.

Rather holmes or narkle

I would rather Narkle or Holmes but the MC will play Higgins no matter what as they don't want to look bad not playing Higgins if they recruited him for now...

 

[Baudolino]

I didn’t notice any change in game style in the second. The only difference is we won all the clearances. When we win clearances we go direct. But as soon as the ball is in open play we are all about control football.

And the control football works. It's a big part of the reason we're so high up the ladder.

 

[foxdog50]

Will the game be at Adelaide , will the crowd be at full capacity?

 

[Zuta]

If the shoe was on the other foot I bet all our doom and gloomers would be saying that we are no chance in finals and we only came back because Melbourne put the cue in the rack. Can't win sometimes.

 

[Sky]

S.Selwood, McIntosh and Steven were far worse. At least Higgins was playing regular footy the season prior.

Jack Steven was a better player than Shaun Higgins. Just not for us, and because of his mental health issues, I do not wish to discuss him because I don’t believe in dragging people down when they’re already down.

Scott Selwood did more for us than Shaun Higgins ever will & Hamish McIntosh was at least a decent ruckman who couldn’t get on the park. Even if Mitch Clark didn’t work out at least he had a purpose to serve.

 

[DangerHere]

Are you talking about Higgins or Narkle? Because that seems a good description of what we don't get from Narkle

Sorry, “get” or “don’t get” ?

Your quote and comment create a double negative

 

[r32godzilla]

So had time to calm down a bit now. As frustrating as that loss was, one of the worst tbh, I think in the end it will be a blessing in disguise. We showed that with only a 15 minute burst at our best we can virtually put other teams on the canvas. We just have to put away this mindset of playing safe footy and keep the foot down once we get into that position. At least we go into the first week of finals not drinking our own bath water and will be resolved to fix those issues we had in the last quarter and will come out firing against Port.

 

[Jimmy Willis Jawline]

 

[My Tilly]

Jack Steven was a better player than Shaun Higgins. Just not for us, and because of his mental health issues, I do not wish to discuss him because I don’t believe in dragging people down when they’re already down.

Scott Selwood did more for us than Shaun Higgins ever will & Hamish McIntosh was at least a decent ruckman who couldn’t get on the park. Even if Mitch Clark didn’t work out at least he had a purpose to serve.

Scooter averaged 18 touches, 2 clearances, 0.2 goals per game. Higgins has already bettered that and played a big part for us early in the season when he wasn't cooked.

As for better players, I think that is debatable. One bloke (Steven) won 4 B&F's while the other won 2 B&F's & made the All Australian team.

 

[The_Koulouriotis_Fan]

This is probably the biggest overreaction I've seen on any autopsy thread, in the history of my time on the Geelong BF board.

1. The stakes were very low for us, despite how the commentators were acting. Regardless of the result, we finish Top 4, and we get the double chance and play in Adelaide.

2. It was clear we completely put the cue in the rack in the second half, and everyone dropped off. We were playing with one eye on next week (as Scott alluded to), and it showed in the management of players on the bench, and the way we played risk averse footy the whole last quarter - to avoid any injury leading into finals. Rightly or wrongly, that's how it looked, that's how Sel and Scott seem to have reacted to it, and that's how it played out.

3. We didn't get smacked by 10 goals...we lost by 4 points...against the minor premiers...who were full strength and weren't missing players...after being up by as much as 44 points at one stage.

4. I would much rather this capitulation happen in Round 23, then the QF, PF or GF (historically we've been pretty good in semis). The worst thing that could have happened, is that we hold on to win the game tonight, and the players and coaching staff all go 'oh yeah, that worked, let's do that again when we're up by a lot.' This way, they get the kick up the ass BEFORE finals, rather than AFTER finals...when we've been eliminated/lost the decider - as is usually the case.

5. Guthrie made one mistake in a season, that was costly, and suddenly he's the town pariah? Jeez. Same with Close, who's been good all year, and had one bad blemish. We deserved to lose that game, from the moment we tried to hold on with 6 minutes to go.

6. Despite what many on here have said, Melbourne were the better team all night. They were inaccurate early on, and then some sheer brilliance from Paddy, Sel and Stanley, for a 15 minute period in the second, took us 39 points up at half time. If we had of played that frenetic way all night, then absolutely we would have been kicking ourselves for losing. As it stands, we played that way for 15 minutes, and the rest of the time we played conservatively.

Lastly. As every single person here knows, and as we have been lectured at ad nauseam by Tigers supporters and the like, 'flags are not won during the home and away season - they're won at the pointy end.' We've always blown our load too early, and looked a million bucks halfway through the season, before we cough and splutter our way into finals, and ultimately lose. This year, we coughed and spluttered at the start, built nicely during the middle, and have cruised through to a Top 4 position, with most players (bar Stewart) likely to play in our Qualifier. This is a far better result than previous years - and mirrors the Tiger attitude they adopted in previous years. Once you make finals and get the double chance, the home and away season means nothing - people would do well to remember that.

Peace.

Great post

 

[Sky]

Scooter averaged 18 touches, 2 clearances, 0.2 goals per game. Higgins has already bettered that and played a big part for us early in the season when he wasn't cooked.

As for better players, I think that is debatable. One bloke (Steven) won 4 B&F's while the other won 2 B&F's & made the All Australian team.

Scooter was a tagger mate and a fine one at West Coast. Hypothetically if he was as good as Ling, I wouldn’t care if he got 10 touches a game. Higgins is a half forward flank x midfield rotation and doesn’t do much.

 

[00VicWard001]

Tuohy’s only missed two - he got injured v GWS.

I think it will be very hard to beat Port if we don’t get either of them back. Duncan and Tuohy are our two players most likely to break the game oven with a pinpoint 55m pass.

Hopefully we get one of them back this week (Duncan seems more likely?) and the other for our second final.

Also worth noting that Georgiades is a big loss for Port, will place more pressure on Dixon who doesn’t have a history of standing up in finals.

Georgiades got hurt? He’s a great young player.

 

[My Tilly]

Scooter was a tagger mate and a fine one at West Coast. Hypothetically if he was as good as Ling, I wouldn’t care if he got 10 touches a game. Higgins is a half forward flank x midfield rotation and doesn’t do much.

Scooter was pretty terrible mate. He only ever managed 14 games in a season for us.
Slow, poor user but a lot tougher than Higgins.

Higgins right now, even at this stage of his career while clearly cooked, is playing at a similar level to what Scott did for us.

 

[The_Koulouriotis_Fan]

Very similar to round 18 2018. Last quarter we were down against the Dee’s by 29 points in the last and came back and won with a kick after the siren. Then in the final they got 5 goals up early in the game and won by 29 points.

 

[fpm84]

Georgiades got hurt? He’s a great young player.

Yeah hurt his hamstring on Friday night. Hinkley said 2-3 weeks so definitely out of the QF.

Agree he’s a great young player that would have kept Hendo or Henry very busy.

 

[Romeoh1]

I’m so confused by Atkins. He seems to be in the thick of it. Making contest after contest. The issue is that he always seems under pressure and making errors.

I can’t work out if he is under pressure as he initially wins the hard contest or he just doesn’t have awareness and poise of some players.


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He has really improved as a footballer and works very hard. He needed the run last night and made a couple of errors as he tired. He just needs to keep it simple- win the ball and take the first option.

 

[Live in hope]

Pies weren’t psychologically scarred by that final round loss at all. They were in the GF for 3+ quarters and lost because they have some key players injured (Jolly and Reid) and our big game clutch players stood up when it mattered. They started that GF all over us and if we didn’t move Lonergan onto Cloke he may have single handedly beaten us.

Pies were absolutely knackered in last quarter of 2011 GF (little evident half way through 3rd Qtr) largely due to huge gut running by Geelong (particularly Bartel) but mainly due to exhausting game against Hawks week before. Duncan coming on for Pods made it worse (and Pies brought on theirs way too late). Malthouse made huge mistake of not moving Tarrant on to Hawkins after that first mark in Q4 (made move 10mins later but much loo late).
Geelong talent and fitness won the 2011GF but greatly aided by Magpies tiredness and Malthouse mistakes.

 

[Catman]

Any idea when we play next week?

 

[Jimmy Yamazaki]

We've now lost 2 of the last 3 games. If the Saints were a better team, they probably would have beaten us with the start we gave them and could be 3 losses in a row at home, a place we rarely lost at in the past.

Our form going into finals is a big worry. It's the worst of the top 4. We're gonna need a big turnaround if we're going to win this.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Brisbane have lost Hipwood for the rest of the season. Port Adelaide's Butters, Duursma, Fantasia have combined for only 31 games this season.
Melbourne have had a relatively good bill of health but all the teams about to play finals have been hit hard by injuries.

Geelong are still hot favorites to win the flag in a lot of people's eyes (how the hell that is I have never known). I think we will be slight favourites against Port Adelaide despite what you think.

so port have no injuries going off your post and a perfect bill of health outside of one player if I am reading correctly, same as Melbourne and Brisbane have one player. We have 3 extremely crucial top top ten players out and arguably our best player.

I wouldn’t punt us given that to beat port away, would you??

I think port will and rightfully so will start hot favorites for this one with the bookies

 

[cats_09]

Any idea when we play next week?

Likely Friday night

Melbourne will get preference for when they want to play, and considering they've been playing of 6-day breaks recently, it's expected they'll request Saturday night

 

[Heckler]

After every close loss.. there are a hundred individual incidents that may have changed the result.
Yesterday's loss was not the fault of an individual action,
More so, why the Cats chose play defensive footy for and entire half?
Over 150 years of football has shown you can't hold on defensively, even for a full quarter.
Reading the comments it is obvious 99% of the posters here attest to that .
Surely the Coaches and players knew this.
Especially after making this exact mistake against Tigers in the 2020 Grand Final.
So, why weren't the players more desperate to win?
Answer: Because the Cats had done enough and avoiding injury is more critical than the next opponent.
Think logically: Players returning from injury need a run, before the finals.
Higgins was managed. Holmes played ahead of Narkle and Zuthrie
Cats still need to beat Power, Lions, Dogs or Demons to win the Premiership.

On a positive note:-
Human nature proves an embarrassing loss is a greater motivator that a close win. (Dogs W - Swan L)
Touhy will replace Atkins ... Higgins to replace Holmes. Duncan still to return.

I may be panglossian but I trust we have Team n Tactics to go all the way.

 

[standupand]

Yep. Higgins hasn’t stood up to the pressure of H&A footy all year and has not earned a spot in our finals 22. Should not play next week.

I was in that camp too. But he looked quite solid with his ball use in the last game against StK. Resting him this week more than likely means the MC would be looking to bring him in next week. I'd still prefer the kid Holmes retains his spot.