Autopsy Geelong smashed by Demons in PF and its gonna be a long summer

[Chinacats]

What happened to the cue in the rack theory? Round 23 3/4 time what was the messaging from Scott? He owns this.

 

[Chinacats]

Isaac Smith

7

Isaac Smith

Age

35

Ht

188cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.3

5star

K

13.0

5star

HB

8.4

5star

M

5.5

5star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.7

4star

D

19.4

4star

K

11.1

4star

HB

8.3

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.5

3star

CL

1.3

4star

D

19.2

5star

K

10.6

4star

HB

8.6

5star

M

7.6

5star

T

2.0

4star

CL

0.6

3star

was courted by the Dees , yet chose the cats. Sliding doors …

 

[Mad_Hatter]

That moment in the centre where Joel ran over to deal with Petracca while Atkins was tackling him, showed to me how little faith Joel had in Atkins and also trying to do too much as he has done in past losing games. In that moment he really needed to stick with Oliver.

Reactionary football, there's no logical thinking in the team any more. It's all "ugh the ball is there I have to go there".
It happens ALL the time, 2/3/4 players will get sucked to the ball carrier leaving a heap of players free to receive and run because nobody thinks beyond where the ball is at that exact moment. Nobody sees where that handball could go or whatever else.
That's why we are the worst in the comp at defending forward 50 stoppages, look at Harmes goal in the third, actually look at any of the goals they kicked. Cats players standing still watching the ball, reacting to whatever the ball was doing at that exact moment and not thinking about what COULD happen next. Hence, handfuls of free melbourne players running into space.
It's the same in marking contests or skied balls, our players look around to see who is aorund instead of just attacking the ball. The Menegola "effort" in the third (IIRC?) at half forward sums that up, he stood off the drop and looked around to see what the opposition were going to do, while the melbourne player had eyes on the ball and took an uncontested mark. Proactive vs reactive.

 

[Cool Cat]

I hope you guys don't mind the intrusion. I come in peace with my thoughts.

That was a brutal result. It certainly seems from an outsiders perspective as the last hurrah for this group , (although this has been said for years now). Geelong have done well to contest as long as they have, but untimely there have been better, younger teams with a more even spread of talent stopping them. This Melbourne team remind me of the Tigers in 2017 (or the Cats of '07 if that floats your boat). The point is that the have a lot of talent and in the right parts of the ground at the right demographic. Time will tell what they do and can achieve.

It felt like the end of an era for Geelong. The club has been so stubborn the last decade refusing to go down, and to their credit has remained at the top end of the ladder and has competed for finals and Grand Finals. Tonights loss felt different. It was a bad loss anyway you spin it.

I could be completely wrong here, but to me this has a bit of a St Kilda Ross Lyon feel to it. When he departed the Saints for a better contract at Freo after almost getting the spoils with a talented, yet aging Saints team. I say this without any rumour or gossip, merely a gut vibe. Scott comes across as someone who rates his ability as coach very highly and he might just be tempted to take a job elsewhere. Carlton being an obvious choice.

What do Cat fans think of this? It seems like some fans would be fairly happy to see him gone.

all fair points. I for one would be ecstatic to see him gone. Let someone else have one last crack with this group, but get rid of the the deadwood and play 4 or 5 of the kids, people might be pleasantly surprised at what happens.

Play attacking, instinctive footy - with hawk and Cameron (and danger) forward it is a no brainer.

 

[anth_christian]

Go back a page or so.

Cheers! I’m interested to know what these mitigating factors are behind the dramatic form slump in the last 6 rounds. This was evident from watching how they played - they just hit a wall.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Isaac Smith was courted by the Dees , yet chose the cats. Sliding doors …

High chance he wanted to move to Geelong and out of the Melb metro area though.

 

[Strange Cat]

Cheers! I’m interested to know what these mitigating factors are behind the dramatic form slump in the last 6 rounds. This was evident from watching how they played - they just hit a wall.

Old age

 

[Cool Cat]

Clark still has one year left on his contract so hopefully we make him see it through and give him some game time. If we can develop Holmes and Clark they won't be calling us slow anymore.

we must do everything possible to keep clark. He may turn into a star, he may not. But he is a wildcard talent.

 

[Baudolino]

That moment in the centre where Joel ran over to deal with Petracca while Atkins was tackling him, showed to me how little faith Joel had in Atkins and also trying to do too much as he has done in past losing games. In that moment he really needed to stick with Oliver.

Really good vision. Seemed to be a lot of this last night. It's not so much lazy as just defensively unintelligent.

Sidenote: that vision by Petracca was insane.

 

[Poetic Justice]

Cheers! I’m interested to know what these mitigating factors are behind the dramatic form slump in the last 6 rounds. This was evident from watching how they played - they just hit a wall.

An attempt at controlled ball movement that was beaten by pressure and fast ball movement.

 

[Chinacats]

Scott had his pants pulled down. Basically said it himself in the presser. Cats backs didn’t sniff it. Dees first 5 minutes hitting up the leading forward. Cats zonal defence completely lost. Tactically ripped apart and exposed in brutal fashion. Clinical Dees performance.

 

[gaz love x]

That moment in the centre where Joel ran over to deal with Petracca while Atkins was tackling him, showed to me how little faith Joel had in Atkins and also trying to do too much as he has done in past losing games. In that moment he really needed to stick with Oliver.

That's horrible from the skipper but two other things:
-why is Danger so far forward of the stoppage when Stanley is going to get monstered by Gawn 9 times out of 10? IT doesn't even go as badly as it could but he has to run away from our own goal
-why is Atkins in the first centre bounce of the second half, opposed to a player bigger, faster, stronger, and more skilled than him?

That's the first play of the second half and we immediately lost any chance of coming back into the game. They drew that stoppage up at half time. That's how badly coached our clearance work is. Happens all the time too, always conceding goals at the start of quarters because of dumb shit like this.

 

[Heckler]

Emotional venting is cathartic and helpful
Criticism of players and coach is the norm.
Providing great amusement to our adversaries.
Who come to bathe in the emotional storm

I'm ready to move on
before I do a quick review.
The coaches are to blame
They should hang their heads in shame.

While the Cats attacked the ball
Demons stood their ground
When we rushed their players
They passed the ball around.

Their tactic was effective
It certainly wasn't new
Back in 2007
It's what we used to do.

 

[gaz love x]

What happened to the cue in the rack theory? Round 23 3/4 time what was the messaging from Scott? He owns this.

The point is if the Demons didn't have the cue in the rack for the first three quarters this would have been the result. Round 23 is still irrelevant to how this finals series has played out. Brisbane gave an alright showing against Melbourne in the QF, they would have murdered us as badly as Port did.

 

[Cool Cat]

Did Scott do a post match presser?I've looked ever where for it this morning.

its worth a look just to see him kick it off but warning the journos not to ask tough questions. and they didn’t. Zero accountability.

 

[hoopla]

The cats really need to go back to the drawing board for next year. I don’t believe they need to tank to hit the bottom like many teams, but they do need to focus on younger talent with the requisite skills to handle high pressure, chaos footy. Easier said than done, I know.

The cats game plan over the last decade has progressively become slower and more controlled. It really goes against the ethos of the Geelong cats of yesteryear. Geelong used to be the best team to watch in full flight for as long as I can remember. You still see glimpses but it only lasts for a quarter or even 5 minutes here or there. They need to at least restore the balance of attack and defence.

I do kind of agree with CScott about limping into finals. The wheels fell off around the time Stewart went down and then progressively got worse each week from then. Geelong were the flag favourites before this happened. In saying that though, a full strength cats would have struggled to compete with a super hot Dees last night. They were as close to perfect as can be.

 

[Chinacats]

Emotional venting is cathartic and helpful
Criticism of players and coach is the norm.
Providing great amusement to our adversaries.
Who come to bathe in the emotional storm

I'm ready to move on
before I do a quick review.
The coaches are to blame
They should hang their heads in shame.

While the Cats attacked the ball
Demons stood their ground
When we rushed their players
They passed the ball around.

Their tactic was effective
It certainly wasn't new
Back in 2007
It's what we used to do.

Wow good effort. Does the poetry come easily to you or does it take some time to come up with the rhymes?

 

[STPer18]

Henderson was good for most of the year but that's what happens with old players, it's rarely gradual, the end comes like a steam train and that's that. Put in one of the worst finals performances you'll ever see in the QF, and was dropping sitters again all night. Recruiting a 33-year old Higgins and handing him a two-year deal is beyond stupid, whoever was OK at the club with that happening needs to have a look at themselves. We pissed off players like SJ, Bartel, Chapman, Kelly, Stokes etc who are 100x more successful than this ex-Footscray/North Melbourne player ever was, it's fascinatingly bad list management.

 

[mcwilrob]

To say what happened last night is extremely disappointing would be an understatement.

Melbourne were just way too good, we were terrible.

Premierships are so hard to win, you can forgive the club for trying to do so while we great players like Selwood, Hawkins and Harry.

We now desperately need some young and talented inside midfielders, very hard to compete against guys like Oliver (pick 4) and Petracca (pick 2) when you're constantly getting picks in the late teens.

Don't read too much into the comments of Scott or Selwood, after a loss like that it's all about circling the wagons. The internal discussions will be ruthless - rest assured with SHocking at the helm that will be the case.

But will they? - Scott seems to think his "processes" are all fine and they should keep on the same basic path - I'm not convinced he's just saying that for press conference purposes - he actually seems to believe it...

 

[Play it Sam]

I'm not defending Scott's coaching but what would you expect him to say in the presser?
He hangs himself if he highlights how pisspoor we were, at the expense of praise for Dees blatant superiority.
So no excuses, but when pushed highlights how TIRED we are after two years of rolling with the environment.
And how OLD we are in comparison to traditional ages of finals winners. Newsflash eh?.

Nutbush city limits
Twenty five was the speed limit

 

[Sire of Claude]

Scott already making excuses: mitigating circumstances to be revealed. That is quintessential Scott - always good with the lingo.

He's been outcoached in a dozen or more finals in 10 years. Does anyone take responsibility? Not that I can see.

I'm happy to win 10 or so games next year if it means we'll see some new younger faces in the team to afford hope for the future.

 

[BotsMaster]

That's the first play of the second half and we immediately lost any chance of coming back into the game. They drew that stoppage up at half time. That's how badly coached our clearance work is. Happens all the time too, always conceding goals at the start of quarters because of dumb sh*t like this.

Bit like the start of the 2017 prelim where Danger was being played forward while the Adelaide midfield smashed the Cats in the middle.

 

[mcwilrob]

its worth a look just to see him kick it off but warning the journos not to ask tough questions. and they didn’t. Zero accountability.

Yep - How f'in sad is that he refuses to be accountable in ANY way. Just arrogant and pathetic

 

[mcwilrob]

Scott already making excuses: mitigating circumstances to be revealed. That is quintessential Scott - always good with the lingo.

He's been outcoached in a dozen or more finals in 10 years. Does anyone take responsibility? Not that I can see.

I'm happy to win 10 or so games next year if it means we'll see some new younger faces in the team to afford hope for the future.

100% this - always finds excuses OUTSIDE of his own clearly demonstrated inadequacies as a coach in finals

 

[Down at K Park]

100% this - always finds excuses OUTSIDE of his own clearly demonstrated inadequacies as a coach in finals

Worst finals coach in history. He did well in 2011 with a team of guns, but has molded his teams over the preceding decade to be absolute chokers. Just an appalling finals team again and again.