Autopsy Lions prevail by 10

[cats_09]

NOTE - Do Not Engage With Trolls

Welcome to this the time of year when Geelong is knocked out of premiership contention - with our refusal to bottom out, when we get knocked out of finals it brings joy to opposition fans

That means we get increased incidents of trolling, both on our board and via PMs - sometimes from regular accounts and then there's those who decide to create new accounts to act as idiots

IF anyone encounters troll activity - either on this board or via PM, the best course of action is to report the content and then leave it for the mod & admin team to deal with

Do not tag trolls, quote troll posts as that increases the work for posts to be deleted, or post screenshots - anything like that will get deleted

Let's get back on track, discuss the game and even the season at hand for those who wish - though we'll try to get a season autopsy thread up in time

 

[Larry Donohue]

Hindsight is better than foresight
There is no evidence just assumption
Perhaps SDK and was still injured.
Many players played below their best.
What cost the Cats was the bye
They lost their touch, fumbled, etc
Had the Cats kicked straight...
Had Max not done a hammy...
Scott would have been a genius.

One positive is Holmes won't have to miss a second GF tilt in succession
Gutted though to lose a genuine tilt

 

[strauchnyy]

Bowes isn't going to get much better. He is what he is. He plays because we have poor depth in the area and he's the least bad of a bad bunch to round out the side. The ideal for the whole year would have seen him displaced, but we have no one to do it. Hopefully that happens in 2025. The point of getting Bowes was he was a mechanism to get a high draft pick coming off a flag year, and we pinned a lot of hope on Clark as a prospect.

I agree with you. And as sad as this sounds, I think bowes will still have the better career then Clark. Hope I’m wrong

 

[Finknottle]

Bruhn and bowes need a big 2025. Line in the sand year next year for mine. They don’t need to be superstars but either they step up as key cogs or it is proven they are just list cloggers based on potential. Harsh but indisputable to argue against this.

As if we have a choice. Bruhn and Bowes are better than any possible replacements. We have to make them work. I don't see any other players knocking them off their perch.

 

[cats_09]

I thought he was really poor. One of the worst games I've seen him play poor.

He looked like a player who hadn’t played in a month

And curious why he played predominately as a defender because there just didn’t seem the connection between him and the likes of Henry, Kolodjashnij, Guthrie etc

 

[Vdubs]

Lions best is better than most teams, including us, and they are worthy GF team. That second half was against the expected trend for a team that had a tough win last week.
They really impressed me, and I think they are a chance next week.
Either way, this is the popular GF that was hoped for., aside from us Cats fans.
Would have been horrendous next week without Holmes- was just not meant to be.
We had an excellent season, easily overachieving, and we finish 4th- better than 14 other teams, with a MF described as the worst in the comp.
In the wash up, who will retire and/or be pushed?

 

[killerspud]

Serious question from a neutral - How much do you think the loss of your midfield coach was tonight? Steven King

Steven King

Age

45

Ht

201cm

Wt

104kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.8

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.9

4star

CL

1.3

3star

HO

16.8

5star

No current season stats available

D

11.8

3star

K

6.4

3star

HB

5.4

4star

HO

8.8

5star

is the mid-field coach right? I'm guessing not having him there had some effect.

 

[cats_09]

I really feel for Tuohy tonight, up until a couple of days ago he would have been expecting to play at least 1 more game, now all of a sudden his career is over without a whimper.

Obviously it sucks for the last game your team plays for the season you’re in the stands, but for Tuohy the one kinda positive he can take away from things is that the last game in which he played was a win

 

[noclashjumpers]

I have nothing at hand to back this up, but my quick reflection is that we've played poorly in the wet all year (sans that Brisbane blizzard game). Lots of double touches, dropped marks, losing feet, etc.. when the oppo seemed to cope much better.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Drunken cloud gone. I may have alienated people. I am mature enough to regard that political/geopolitical affiliation need not separate us. We ARE Geleong!

In that nature despite my religious/political convictions being my own in a contentious reason of right versus wrong I will NOT bring it to bear in this forum.

Tequila will not bring me undone.

Sorry for all.

 

[cats_09]

I have nothing at hand to back this up, but my quick reflection is that we've played poorly in the wet all year (sans that Brisbane blizzard game). Lots of double touches, dropped marks, losing feet, etc.. when the oppo seemed to cope much better.

We beat Hawthorn in torential rain in round 3 when the game had to be stopped due to the lightning in the area

We’ve gone ok in the rain during the season

 

[Biggy_Boy]

I have nothing at hand to back this up, but my quick reflection is that we've played poorly in the wet all year (sans that Brisbane blizzard game). Lots of double touches, dropped marks, losing feet, etc.. when the oppo seemed to cope much better.

I attribute the fumbles and errors more so to struggling under the pressure of the occasion than the weather.

 

[Hirsty23]

Just popping in to say the Geelong supporters around me at the G tonight were first class. Gained a huge amount of admiration for you after meeting a couple of cats supporters who were absolute legends after the 2022 prelim. Cheers for a terrific game of footy between two really good sides. Have no doubt you'll be back giving teams hell late in september for years to come, it's what you do.

 

[CoolCat75]

Was at the game tonight and obviously disappointed to lose. But coming 2 years after a flag helps to ease the grief. So proud to barrack for this club. We tried our best and got beaten by a slightly better team. Every year we try and win the flag while introducing new players.

So 2 years after a flag, we have effectively transitioned out of the side : Hawkins, Rohan, Tuohy, Duncan and had retirements of Selwood and Izzy Smith.

Replaced with the likes of : Mannagh, OHenry, Bruin, Bowes, Humphrey, Dempsey, Mullin and Holmes. And we go within a ****teenth of rolling Brisbane, who are much stronger on paper.

And then in 2025 we can bring in B.Smith and hopefully have a fully fit SDK, Cam Guthrie and maybe Conway. Add in Clarke, COS and Knevitt as possibilities.

And that’s why I’m a proud Cats supporter.

 

[Vdubs]

I’m a huge CS fan. But once we lost Holmes and they switched to playing the middle. Game was over. Losing Holmes is bad luck. Not recognising that they were playing through the middle of the ground is bad coaching.

Losing King this week was more costly than we realise.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Honestly though its not a home Preliminary final, we will never have a true home Prelim Final

We got to play them at a place they've won 3 of their last 20 at. That's home enough

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Losing King this week was more costly than we realise.

We should have realised it was a big loss. I think he's been an immense cog in our coaching operation, leading to our resurgence, this year. Also, just having the incident happen may have been off-putting for players.

That said, the health and care for the individual and his family trumps anything to do with footy.

 

[And_ROOS]

Was at the game tonight and obviously disappointed to lose. But coming 2 years after a flag helps to ease the grief. So proud to barrack for this club. We tried our best and got beaten by a slightly better team. Every year we try and win the flag while introducing new players.

So 2 years after a flag, we have effectively transitioned out of the side : Hawkins, Rohan, Tuohy, Duncan and had retirements of Selwood and Izzy Smith.

Replaced with the likes of : Mannagh, OHenry, Bruin, Bowes, Humphrey, Dempsey, Mullin and Holmes. And we go within a ****teenth of rolling Brisbane, who are much stronger on paper.

And then in 2025 we can bring in B.Smith and hopefully have a fully fit SDK, Cam Guthrie and maybe Conway. Add in Clarke, COS and Knevitt as possibilities.

And that’s why I’m a proud Cats supporter.

Madness to rely on those two, its why I hope in the offseason we go for Smith, another top mid and a ruck.
Conway has potential but its useless when you can't get on the park, and CGuthrie would help with the midfield issues but has barely been sighted in 2 seasons.

Looking forward to seeing what Mannagh gives us with another preseason, and wonder who the next gem we find is along with who our next break out kid is. Would love to see Knevitt or Clark have a big year next year.

 

[The_Koulouriotis_Fan]

Losing King this week was more costly than we realise.

Big loss for the boys today. Will lose him next year too, been a wonderful coach. Hopefully we can find an excellent replacement

 

[noclashjumpers]

We beat Hawthorn in torential rain in round 3 when the game had to be stopped due to the lightning in the area

We’ve gone ok in the rain during the season

Fair enough. I didn't say that with any confidence. Honestly, my brain feels a little damaged from the stress of tonight. I'll blame that.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

Madness to rely on those two, its why I hope in the offseason we go for Smith, another top mid and a ruck.
Conway has potential but its useless when you can't get on the park, and CGuthrie would help with the midfield issues but has barely been sighted in 2 seasons.

Looking forward to seeing what Mannagh gives us with another preseason, and wonder who the next gem we find is along with who our next break out kid is. Would love to see Knevitt or Clark have a big year next year.

Doubt we'll get any quality mids other than Smith. We definitely need to look for a ruck. I thought Conway looked okay when he played earlier this year, but the bloke is made of glass. Until his body can withstand a season or two, we can't rely on him coming along at all.

If he stays, maybe we should focus on making SDK our starting ruck option. If he moves on, maybe we can use him as capital to get something in the area.

 

[smotherking]

Given where I thought we were at after the cats loss to the blues mid season, I think it’s a pretty decent effort.

I know it will be viewed as a missed opportunity, arguably right, but you’d have taken it at that point in time.

A lot to be happy about in terms of progress of young players and less of a reliance on the more experienced players. Add in Smith and why couldn’t we make it back?

It hurts but I’m a proud cat

 

[catters_28]

One night a couple of weeks ago when I couldn't sleep I dove deep through the bigfooty archives and read through the post match threads from the 2017 QF, 19 QF and preliminary and 21 preliminary. Not every page of course, but enough.

And I dunno, reading through all that puts it into perspective a bit. A lot of people - myself included, I came across of some of my own posts - wanted the entire place burned down after each of those losses. People thought we'd never win a premiership under Scott, that we were cooked, etc. People thought we had no good youth coming through.

But every time we kept coming. 22 we finally saluted. And then after that, honestly, looking at the list profile we should've done a Richmond by now. (Well maybe not that bad but still).

But we haven't. We were a couple of inches from another grand final. With a list that has transitioned almost half the 22 premiership side over. No way should we have even been here tonight on paper.

And our youth looks a lot brighter tonight than it did after the 2017 PF. We will be back amongst it sooner rather than later.

 

[Commando]

Serious question from a neutral - How much do you think the loss of your midfield coach was tonight? Steven King is the mid-field coach right? I'm guessing not having him there had some effect.

Obviously not ideal

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Serious question from a neutral - How much do you think the loss of your midfield coach was tonight? Steven King is the mid-field coach right? I'm guessing not having him there had some effect.

Good question and impossible to know.

 

[Commando]

Just popping in to say the Geelong supporters around me at the G tonight were first class. Gained a huge amount of admiration for you after meeting a couple of cats supporters who were absolute legends after the 2022 prelim. Cheers for a terrific game of footy between two really good sides. Have no doubt you'll be back giving teams hell late in september for years to come, it's what you do.

To be fair I only encountered one pissed Lion moron exiting the stadium too
Credit to their fans