We had a much bigger chance then that.
A punchers chance is more what port adelaide or hawthorn had.
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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Autopsy Lions prevail by 10
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A punchers chance is more what port adelaide or hawthorn had.
It doesn't necessarily need to be the Captain, on field, but your own rep on the side with vision.The AFL are dinosaurs when it comes to technology available and solutions.
fpm84
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Not sure I agree with overachieving in 2024
We probably didn't expect to contend but final four & home finals v interstate teams I can't help but feel this was a massive opportunity lost!
Amazing how a year of work can be lost in 1.5 quarters then again in 2.5 minutes...
We probably didn't expect to contend but final four & home finals v interstate teams I can't help but feel this was a massive opportunity lost!
Amazing how a year of work can be lost in 1.5 quarters then again in 2.5 minutes...
Not with a paper-thin midfield like ours we didn't.
Combine Port's midfield with our defence and attack, and you'd have a bona fide flag winner.
catsfootyfan89
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Writing has been on the wall for a long time with Mitch. He just doesn't impact games anymore like he used to.
cats_09
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No doubt McInerney looks like being a big loss for Brisbane, but I wouldn't be surprised if they put up a better showing against Sydney compared with what we may have been able to role out - Holmes wouldn't be playing, and then there'd be questions over the availability of J. Henry, Bruhn and Stanley, while Dangerfield reportedly has a rib issue
We may have limped to the prelim final line a bit more than is being admitted and running out next Saturday may not have been the best result for us
I was discussing this with my Lions supporting partner.
Outside Big O, Lions pretty much have 29 AFL level guys they can have ready go with for Saturday, obviously Coleman and Doedee have been out all year so they don't factor but most of the guys below have consistently played AFL level footy this year
They would be able to plug and play guys like Fort (backup Ruck), Sharp, Prior, Dev Robertson, Shadeau Brain, Bruce Reville (injured) even Harry Smith if they wanted to go there for ruck (they wouldn't)
Cats looked like they were dropping like flies, most likely would have gone in with halfway done or no Holmes, JHenry, Danger, Bruhn, Stanley etc.
We would be relying heavily on SDK, Clark, 2E, Knevitt, Clohesy, Parfitt, an underdone and potentially cooked Hawk and Guthrie
Sydney would have killed us lol
Yep. Rather lose a close PF than get smashed in the big dance.
cats_09
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They're also missing McCarthy who you think would be in a lock in their 23 without his ACL injury but he's a bit more in the earlier category of having not played most of the year
We know Fort is the most likely inclusion for them, but could they instead go with Daniher as their primary ruck option and tweak their forward line a little - because if I'm honest, Daniher did shit all up forward against us but he started to have an influence when forced into the ruck and it made their forward line more unpredictable and dangerous
cats_09
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Losing a PF can hurt almost more than losing a GF - but being embarrassed in the GF can have a big impact going forward, and thinking we would have been carrying a few players who just weren't ready or up to the task had we got there
No one expected us to contend and make the final four at the start of the season so we did overachieve. That overachievement probably explains why we didn't close out the match. It was a lost opportunity but that is what every losing PF team feels when the margin is a couple of goals or less. We needed one of our star forwards to perform in the last quarter, Cameron or Stengle, but it wasn't to be.
You reckon? Today does seem like the time to do it but Bailey isn't your normal average bloke.
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In fairness it would have been 99.9% if we made it.
3/4 key players wouldn't have played, we would have been boned.
Bro it absolutely was an overachieving year.
Majority of "experts" had Cats finishing outside the 8, some had them bottom 4.
Basically no one had them top 4.
That is definition of overachieving, I wouldn't say a missed opportunity but would have absolutely stolen a flag if we won it this year with this group in this stage of transition.
Gazzathegoat
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Exactly right.
In a way, we did overachieve compared to expectations. Yet, we ultimately underacheived not making the grand final in the end.
Brisbane has a better list than us, but we had a home ground advantage with a fully fit list. Brisbane were banged up, playing at their bogey ground (MCG) after 3 weeks of travel. We had our chances to get a an early 4 goal lead, and then again should have been 5-6 goals up in the 2nd quarter. Stengle missing in the goal square when he had Dempsey on for the handball, would have put us 5 goals up.
We even got gifted with the McInerney injury, but couldn't capatilise on the scoreboard. Then our best player, Holmes, goes down to even the playing field. He was the one player we couldn't afford to lose.
We allowed their 2 best players to rack up 30+ disposals. Yet, we were leading with 4 minutes to go, then 2 costly turnovers led to 2 goals.
Stanley missing the unmissable..
Duncan getting run down in the square ..
Stengle having his worst game of the season
Brisbane and Sydney both deserve to be there.
We would have been making up the numbers next week with no Holmes.
Sydney are the best team this year. They would have got their revenge against us next week.
Although I'm gutted in the result, it saved us the ultimate heartbreak (and $600 GF tickets) next week.
Not to mention poor Max holmes, the media would have been hounding him all week with the same old "grand final heartbreak" story.
Life goes on.
Bring on 2025.
C'est la vie...
I attended the game. In fact, it was the first and only game attended so far in 2024. It has been hard with work and young kids to find the logistics to get to games, not that I've ever been a mad game attender anyhow.
Sometimes you can quite easily see teams get 'the rub of the green' in games, whether it is in favour of your team or not. Bounces just freakishly going to your way, kicks coming off that wouldn't always, stupid handballs etc etc. In the Port game I definitely felt this for the Cats, despite the Port putting in a relatively poor showing.
..but I also felt it go against us in the PF. It is just how it is, it's not an excuse, just a feeling. Aside from Miers snap and the Messi soccer, I didn't think we had a hell of a lot of 'lucky calls' throughout the game, where Brisbane got on the end of quite a few. Again, don't take this as an excuse whinge or whatever, it was just a feeling from me.
..oh and the Mannagh dribble kick. Felt like an almost sliding doors moment for me. If he had steadied up and either taken the kick or looked for a better option and we had goaled here, it could quite easily have shifted the fate of this game.
You can always live in hindsight I suppose! I felt the way that the game was played that Hawkins probably would have been a solid inclusion, assuming he was 80-90%+ fit enough to do it. It just felt like a game where a solid forward could have grabbed a few marks - which Neale threatened to do but didn't quite capitalise on.
It was a bit tricky at half time, we were up by 20pts. Was this a threat.. "I dunno", I thought. "We were also up by 20pts in the Port game at half time.. this could go anywhere!?" I felt that in H2 we should have had the fresher legs. We should have essentially run all over them in Q4 but that's how this goes sometimes, sometimes a team wants it more. I genuinely thought when we goaled to go 1pt up we were going to sneak away with it.
Alas.. not everything goes our way.
For me, as a Cats supporter, I am blessed with what we have offered the competition since 2004.
I also walked away with a sense that 25 will be another contending year, which is oddly stressing me out as we all like to write Geelong off
I attended the game. In fact, it was the first and only game attended so far in 2024. It has been hard with work and young kids to find the logistics to get to games, not that I've ever been a mad game attender anyhow.
Sometimes you can quite easily see teams get 'the rub of the green' in games, whether it is in favour of your team or not. Bounces just freakishly going to your way, kicks coming off that wouldn't always, stupid handballs etc etc. In the Port game I definitely felt this for the Cats, despite the Port putting in a relatively poor showing.
..but I also felt it go against us in the PF. It is just how it is, it's not an excuse, just a feeling. Aside from Miers snap and the Messi soccer, I didn't think we had a hell of a lot of 'lucky calls' throughout the game, where Brisbane got on the end of quite a few. Again, don't take this as an excuse whinge or whatever, it was just a feeling from me.
..oh and the Mannagh dribble kick. Felt like an almost sliding doors moment for me. If he had steadied up and either taken the kick or looked for a better option and we had goaled here, it could quite easily have shifted the fate of this game.
You can always live in hindsight I suppose! I felt the way that the game was played that Hawkins probably would have been a solid inclusion, assuming he was 80-90%+ fit enough to do it. It just felt like a game where a solid forward could have grabbed a few marks - which Neale threatened to do but didn't quite capitalise on.
It was a bit tricky at half time, we were up by 20pts. Was this a threat.. "I dunno", I thought. "We were also up by 20pts in the Port game at half time.. this could go anywhere!?" I felt that in H2 we should have had the fresher legs. We should have essentially run all over them in Q4 but that's how this goes sometimes, sometimes a team wants it more. I genuinely thought when we goaled to go 1pt up we were going to sneak away with it.
Alas.. not everything goes our way.
For me, as a Cats supporter, I am blessed with what we have offered the competition since 2004.
I also walked away with a sense that 25 will be another contending year, which is oddly stressing me out as we all like to write Geelong off
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No you have more than that. You have the best team since 2011 geelong.
Geelongs midfield this year by finals really is no different to our midfield in 2022. Danger a little poorer then 2022 version but not by much, holmes a slight improvement on guthrie. atkins and atkins same, bowes added as much as blicavs, stewart and selwood similar. Were we not a genuine flag chance in 2022 cos of our weak midfield?
Perhaps the answer is to not pay it a free kick, (indeed keep it HTB) but still have it reportable.
Would take out all incentive to milk the free from the tackled player, but still make the tackler assess duty of care.
C'est la vie...
I attended the game. In fact, it was the first and only game attended so far in 2024. It has been hard with work and young kids to find the logistics to get to games, not that I've ever been a mad game attender anyhow.
Sometimes you can quite easily see teams get 'the rub of the green' in games, whether it is in favour of your team or not. Bounces just freakishly going to your way, kicks coming off that wouldn't always, stupid handballs etc etc. In the Port game I definitely felt this for the Cats, despite the Port putting in a relatively poor showing.
..but I also felt it go against us in the PF. It is just how it is, it's not an excuse, just a feeling. Aside from Miers snap and the Messi soccer, I didn't think we had a hell of a lot of 'lucky calls' throughout the game, where Brisbane got on the end of quite a few. Again, don't take this as an excuse whinge or whatever, it was just a feeling from me.
..oh and the Mullins dribble kick. Felt like an almost sliding doors moment for me. If he had steadied up and either taken the kick or looked for a better option and we had goaled here, it could quite easily have shifted the fate of this game.
You can always live in hindsight I suppose! I felt the way that the game was played that Hawkins probably would have been a solid inclusion, assuming he was 80-90%+ fit enough to do it. It just felt like a game where a solid forward could have grabbed a few marks - which Neale threatened to do but didn't quite capitalise on.
It was a bit tricky at half time, we were up by 20pts. Was this a threat.. "I dunno", I thought. "We were also up by 20pts in the Port game at half time.. this could go anywhere!?" I felt that in H2 we should have had the fresher legs. We should have essentially run all over them in Q4 but that's how this goes sometimes, sometimes a team wants it more. I genuinely thought when we goaled to go 1pt up we were going to sneak away with it.
Alas.. not everything goes our way.
For me, as a Cats supporter, I am blessed with what we have offered the competition since 2004.
I also walked away with a sense that 25 will be another contending year, which is oddly stressing me out as we all like to write Geelong off
Mannagh did the dumb dribble kick, not *Mullin.
The one for me is Holmes. Irrespective of being a team sport, it would be beyond heartbreak for the kid to miss again. Drove us all year, B&F etc. and irreplaceable. Couldn't stand all the hoopla that would go on about Danger's tackle either.
So sunnyside up, but I have a feeling next week we'll think we could have got them (Bris/Swans) rather than it be a walkover.
Sometimes (just ask Port Adelaide), it's better not to make it than to scrape it in and get killed.
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