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

 

[rocker_oz33]

Think the game time was an absolute winner though
Bring on twilight GF in 2025!

Didn't might it .
Didn't get home to late .

 

[allrighty]

Strangely I am quite relaxed today.

With our clear weaknesses and no Holmes, a few down, outcoached and outplayed, under 3 mins to go we were in front.

What a great year for a great Club. We have unearthed some gems and got them invaluable experience.

Whilst I don't really care much I want the Lions to get up for one reason - Papley.

 

[rocker_oz33]

The last Q seemed short .
Would of time pressure on the cats boys .

 

[Tony Barber]

Do people genuinely believe there was nothing the Scott or the Match Committee could have done last night to win us that game? That we had no strings to pull or ways we couldn't have given ourselves a better chance? Yes, the Holmes injury made things tough, but we're the Geelong Football Club, how many times over the years has Chris Scott manufactured against the odds wins for us in situations where things looked stacked against us? Did we apply a "oh well, not much the MC could have done here" to those games? Why be accepting of poor outcomes just because the positive outcome would have been difficult to accomplish?

If any other club had just lost a home preliminary final against an interstate team we'd be calling it a choke. When the situations were reversed in 2020 and we beat Brisbane at the Gabba during that Prelim, I remember people using that word to describe them. I doubt any Cats fans would have had any reservations applied that word to them Why should we get a pass now that we've failed at the same hurdle with the exact same home ground advantage?

No one is saying that Scott is anything other than a great coach or that the club hasn't been amazingly successful over the past two decades. But it's possible to believe both those things while still acknowledging that losing 6 out of your last 8 preliminary finals, including 2 out of your last 3 home preliminary finals, is worthy of criticism.

What's happened to you recently? You used to be a positive poster.

I couldn't identify any levers that could have been pulled.
It was pretty obvious in the 3rd quarter that Brisbane were getting to contests in greater numbers than us. It was a red flag for me.

Our younger players just weren't running.
Position changes would have done bugger all.

I was surprised that we let them walk through the middle.
Maybe we could have pulled that lever and shut down the middle at all costs.

I watched a lot of analysis of the Brisbane vs GWS game.
GWS shut Brisbane down through the middle in the first half. And then Brisbane found a way through.

The same thing happened last night.

 

[Schmegg]

Watching last night I came away with the same observation. That saints game and the PF were eerily similar - even down to Duncan ineffectual sub. We don’t really have an answer for that type of game style especially as our players fatigue in the second half. I’m not sure how you defend against short 45 degree kicks and easy handball receives into another short 45 degree kick. Rips us apart.

Absolutely, and the same Duncan turnovers leading to goals to the opposition which ended up killing us.

 

[STPer18]

Good thing I'm not involved with the club because I'm still very much sated since '22. Can't remember feeling further away from a premiership than post '21 PF.

 

[joe444]

Rightly or wrongly, and for all the pleasant surprises, I think this may be "the year we learnt nothing from the loss to St Kilda".

This is all in retrospect, but I know at the time CS described what St Kilda did as "harlem globetrotters'. We gave every indication of simply moving on. I doubt Brisbane regarded it that way in preparing for the game last week.

In the first half against St Kilda, and again against Brisbane we looked like a premiership contender ... only to get alarmingly run over.

 

[Cosmic Energy]

According to the AFL app the inside 50s were 22-8 our way in the last.

We dominated the contests and got it forward but struggled to find space and be composed. On the other hand they carved us up on transition and got good looks the rare times they went forward.

Yeah I think that shows that the ‘ran out of legs’ theory is a bit bogus. More like ran out of composure. Basically we had 3 patches of real momentum - at the start of the game, in the middle of the 2nd/start of the 3rd, then the end. And didn’t capitalise enough on any of them.

They were certainly pretty composed with the ball, apart from Joe Daniher who kicked it directly to us more times than his teammates. And Bailey with some misses.

 

[Munich]

That Dempsey goal was a bit ridiculous.

 

[Munich]

As was the Miers one not long after.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Yeah I think that shows that the ‘ran out of legs’ theory is a bit bogus. More like ran out of composure. Basically we had 3 patches of real momentum - at the start of the game, in the middle of the 2nd/start of the 3rd, then the end. And didn’t capitalise enough on any of them.

They were certainly pretty composed with the ball, apart from Joe Daniher who kicked it directly to us more times than his teammates. And Bailey with some misses.

Cats backs got some good turn overs in the last 8 mins .
No run into the middle of the ground no options .
Was heaps of space ..if they had options and composed ball should of opened up chances.

IMO the short last Q they boys lost some composer..

 

[you pick one]

I'm watching the replay as I often miss stuff when at the game.

That Stewart bump free was diabolical. And Blitz saying "that was a bad call", no shit!

Of course it was that 22 umpire.

I flagged him as the momentum killer in the post match thread never lets me down.

 

[rocker_oz33]

As was the Miers one not long after.

I was behide that .
I thought it was out on the full.
LoL

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Strangely I am quite relaxed today.

With our clear weaknesses and no Holmes, a few down, outcoached and outplayed, under 3 mins to go we were in front.

What a great year for a great Club. We have unearthed some gems and got them invaluable experience.

Whilst I don't really care much I want the Lions to get up for one reason - Papley.

Unfortunately 99 %likely papley will be a premiership player.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Strangely I am quite relaxed today.

With our clear weaknesses and no Holmes, a few down, outcoached and outplayed, under 3 mins to go we were in front.

What a great year for a great Club. We have unearthed some gems and got them invaluable experience.

Whilst I don't really care much I want the Lions to get up for one reason - Papley.

Dangerous territory though. You start celebrating losses it gets hard to start qualifying the right losses as being good or bad

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Cats backs got some good turn overs in the last 8 mins .
No run into the middle of the ground no options .
Was heaps of space ..if they had options and composed ball should of opened up chances.

IMO the short last Q they boys lost some composer..

Agree we had enough inside 50s in the last to win it but no composure.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Agree we had enough inside 50s in the last to win it but no composure.

Neale almost marked a few...looks like it go arm chopped .

What could of been ...PF are hard to win.

 

[Munich]

Should have been a deliberate as well against that guy on his back.

 

[Catman]

I'm disappointed, but not devastated. As I've said before at really no point this year did we really look like a genuine contender, and the reasons why surfaced again last night.

Last night was a perfect snapshot of our season - brilliant in patches but woefully inadequate at other times. Unfortunately those weaknesses were shown up on the biggest stage.

Unlike the Port game, the little moments were won by Brisbane and those little moments added up to just enough to get them through. They'll give Sydney a real run for their money, but whether they can back up another emotional week for three weeks running is the big question.

They got the bounces we did against Port and their run and gun game off half back killed us in the second half, especially when we couldn't lock the ball in well enough, evidenced by only 7 tackles inside 50 - just not good enough. There will be moments that will probably haunt players over the off season, but the important thing is they learn from them going forward.

But having said that, we've fallen short by 10 pts of another Grand Final. For a side in transition it has been a remarkable effort and so many positives have come out of the season, like...

• Shaun Mannagh's rise. Though he'll be ruing that botched goal attempt in the third quarter.
• Lawson Humphries. The kid is a deadset gun. He'll play 200+ games.
• Ollie Henry. A middling year has once again ended with 41 goals, just like 2023. This is an outstanding return for a 4th year player, and there's no reason why he won't be better again next year.
• Max Holmes rise to becoming and elite player. No surprise we started to hit the wall once he got injured.
• Ollie Dempsey. Not great yesterday, but that doesn't sour what has been a brilliant season. Played every game and won the Rising Star. Another who should be better next year.

So much needs to go right to win a flag and luck probably deserted us at times yesterday. With the injuries we suffered also, it is probably a blessing we didn't get through, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. We just weren't good enough for long enough, which is the title of our 2024 story.

Bring on 2025!

 

[Munich]

Is anyone else concerned Holmes has more hamstring issues at the end of a season?

 

[crocsta]

I thought our season was over when Guthrie got injured in his first game back.

Overall I really enjoyed this season. A good group of young stars emerged while a few club champions faded away.

The blonde hair umpire, Williamson (no.22) must have something against Geelong as he always seems to pay free kicks against us, or doesn’t pay them to us. It’s been going on for 3/4 seasons.

 

[Seeds]

Geelong shouldn't of been clear favourites yesterday.

We have a young team and young teams are inconsistent. We lost to saints only a couple of games ago who blew us away. We smashed Eagles by 98 points in a half and then lost the second half despite percentage being potentially critical for a home final.

Plus only playing 1 game in 28 days and having not played in 16 days was always going to throw some curve balls.

Too many people pay attention to only the last game when trying to predict the next game.

 

[catsfootyfan89]

One thing that's annoying me about this game is that we kicked probably the two best goals of the year in this game, and they'll be buried for all time because we didn't win the game. That soccer goal was incredible - you'd almost say it doesn't get better than that, then Greg-Brian steps up and kicks the most insane goal we've seen this year. I'd say more insane than Cameron's boundary sausage he kicked in the Port game (close call, that goal was incredible too)

 

[rocker_oz33]

I'm not Devo just disappointed what could of been..had chances.

If win had of won...going into the GF.
With no.
Holmes .
Jack Herny.
Stanley.
Tanner.

If the reports are correct.

 

[Munich]

What are all of these injuries?

I only know about Holmes obviously.