Review Rd 1, 2019: Geelong defeats Pies at MCG by 7 points

[ChappyUK]

I was a bit worried that he would konk out but he kept ticking and I think Grundy got tried..

Grundy's preseason was interrupted. It shows this early.

 

[ChappyUK]

Liked.

- Forward pressure
- Dahlhaus - will be a better pickup than Scully.
- Constable's goal - Instinct just like what Menegola has. Only a confident player has a ping from there in their first game.
- Flankers - Menegola such an important link man. Duncan good also.
- Defence - miserly and kept us in in when game wasn't on our terms.

 

[Cursed Cat]

Good dilemma to have.

I’ve always rated Jed highly, but on the other hand refuse to accept that any defender tonight was poor enough to be dropped. 65pts against good opposition that stretches you with height, speed and nous is hard to omit someone. I think some tonight have been too critical of defenders tonight. They were great as a unit.

I just badly want Jed in is all. We’re better with him imo.

It's a long season and I'd back him in to be in the 22 at the pointier end.

 

[ChappyUK]

As a whole we seem more rounded than last year

 

[r32godzilla]

Ripper win by the boys. Really like the team we have at the moment. Finally a decent forward structure to finish off the puzzle. Some great debutants in Miers, Clark, Atkins and Constable. Thought Stanley was really good late and battled Grundy hard all night. He even edged Grundy in supercoach

How good was Kelly. Man we need to keep him at the end of the year. His silky skills and ability to win the clearances was sublime again tonight. Love the little master up forward too, that goal on the run was vintage Ablett. Sav needs to clunk some more marks but having him and Hawkins up forward must provide the opposition with some real headaches. Having Rohan, Atkins and Dalhaus all able to lock the ball in the forward line makes a big difference too.

So good to stick it up everyone who said we couldn't beat Collingwood. Wonder what all those so called experts are thinking now. Half of them said we won't even make the top 8 this year. Yeah long way to go but we have the makings of a very good side this year I believe.

 

[feisty007]

Really impressed by Stanley's 2nd half. Was jumping all over the opposition and showed yet again what he is capable of. He was the difference in the end IMHO. Yet he was weirdly not listed in our best. I'm so hoping he lives up to his potential. Great work by the debutantes too. I was proud of all of them. We have a lot to look forward to.

Edit: can someone tell me why Cam Guthrie didn't play? I like his attempts to create play yet understand people's frustrations.....

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Kudos to the Match Committee who were poor at times last season but got it right tonight
Must keep the faith now and pick in form players , no one should be an automatic inclusion - Wearing the hoops is an honour which must be earned
We have solid depth , let’s use that to create hunger for the jumper

 

[CatRiot]

Thought Atkins was huge tonight. He’s very happy to do the hard work and doesn’t mind the odd shimmy to advantage.


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He is a strong bugger, and when on the burst he can do the don't argue... Smaller version of Rooke, plays a very similar style.

 

[ChappyUK]

He is a strong bugger, and when on the burst he can do the don't argue... Smaller version of Rooke, plays a very similar style.

The Rooke role has been the missing link. Great to have him back.

 

[CatRiot]

LOL no way... Stanley was manhandled the first 3 quarters. Collingwood mids were receiving the ball on a plate. Stanley won the last quarter - thats it. Lets call a spade a spade.

Clearance and stoppage counts were both in our favour.

Stanley gave us some really important clearances. Check his stats, DE was at 94.4% for 18 touches.

Grundy's DE was 55%, no comparison. He was under-pressure the whole game. Coughed it up a lot.

 

[Chinacats]

Unfortunately the hype will ramp up after that gutsy win. Recently we haven’t been able to handle being the hunted. How does Scott handle this?

 

[CatRiot]

If we had a fit Cockatoo. Who would you take out of the team for him?

 

[ChappyUK]

I’m usually cursing O’Connor but tonight was the first night I saw a glimmer of something. Prefer bews though. Tuohy for Kolo too.

Still hate the slow game style and don’t believe we have the skills to pull it off. I feel like we can get boxed in a bit too easily, but at least now we’ve got the cattle to put some pressure on to get us out of those sticky situations. Would like to see us take the game on a bit more and take some risks and I think Clark goes a long way to addressing that. That kick inside fifty... Wow.

Beyond rapt to finally see some intensity and hunger for the contest. Injecting some new blood can’t be underestimated on this front in the first gamers, particularly in front of some blokes that were starting to look a bit too comfortable (*cough* Guthrie *cough*)

Would’ve still been pretty bloody happy with that performance tonight, even if we didn’t get the result. The win is a massive bonus!

I don't like the slow play but with the added space keeping the ball will be massive.

Watch the Hawks go back to their kicking keepings off game.

If we had a fit Cockatoo. Who would you take out of the team for him?

Miers but not based on effort.

 

[The Casey Cat]

If we had a fit Cockatoo. Who would you take out of the team for him?

Just a fit Cockatoo? No one. A fit and in form Cockatoo after quite a few games in the twos? Don't know and don't care until it actually happens.

 

[Ray Donovan]

Kudos to the Match Committee who were poor at times last season but got it right tonight
Must keep the faith now and pick in form players , no one should be an automatic inclusion - Wearing the hoops is an honour which must be earned
We have solid depth , let’s use that to create hunger for the jumper

Yes glad they won though because it justifies the four debutants and it creates a template to work from. If you lose a couple of close ones you can easily default back to hendo, Guthrie, S.Selwood, Bews and all of those debutants are out. And we look like the 2018 version again.

Now geelong are in a position where Clark, Constable, Sav, Miers, Henry, atkins, MOC need and deserve games. You will have growing pains and your going to have to be crafty with resting them around byes finding games for them to miss. So they hit around that 15 game mark and are still running across the top of the ground in the 2nd half of the season.

Forgarty, Narkle perhaps a brownless will rotate through Abbott, Buzza & Fort will probably need to play 1-3 to fill the void.

You want a list of 30 guys who can come in and play.

Patients will be the key as well some weeks you will need to bite your bottom lip because young players are inconsistent.

And as the season grinds on it's a marathon young players get a bit sore and lose that bounce. So the management and rotation will be the key to this season.

 

[David the Cat]

I'd probs go Bews for Henry, 2E for either Kolo or Oconnor.
I'd like to keep Miers or a similar player. Role players can be important.[/QUOTE]


Absolutely.....Geelong's role players did more than the Pies role players...and we won the game. I doubt Bews will waltz into next weeks side...2e might step in....probably at O'Conners expense.

I was critical of Kolo...he makes some glaringly bad errors...but to be fair, he spent most of the night on DeGoey and kept him in check. I thought all 4 of the debutants did very well...

 

[ChappyUK]

Unfortunately the hype will ramp up after that gutsy win. Recently we haven’t been able to handle being the hunted. How does Scott handle this?

I don't subsribe to this thinking

 

[juzcat]

Structure
Best thing about tonight is that the end of season review might have actually worked.
From looking at forward line problems to midfield centre bounce clearances, game style and pressure.
The output was clear. Get rid of injury ridden forward line. McCarthy and Gregson, take out the favourite story in Menzel, and recruit ball tearing pressure speed in Miers, Rohan and Atkins.
Change up the middle with kids, moves the whole game up the ground by 30m and makes the no 1 defense even better.
So for me, major structural changes have been made to adjust to the modern game and follow the Richmond forward pressure.

For those saying we have to drop O'Connor for Bews, we don't, there is a bench. I would take out Kolo and keep more speed.

Last part of the puzzle is Sav firing and a genuine instinctive forward of the Chapman vintage. Maybe that is Miers as well.

Love the new look

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[juzcat]

If we had a fit Cockatoo. Who would you take out of the team for him?

Rohan..cocky has the same set of skills, speed, bash and crash, pressure but gets more of it and can take the game on. Rohan looks scared to use his speed. Cocky just goes

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[CatToTheFuture]

What a win. Scrappy and I think given a week the pies execution will improve, but so will ours.

I thought Rohan, while not raking up the stats, had a massive impact on keeping up forward pressure. You could visibly see some of the pies players panicking when he was closer than they expected.

I think the backline did well in a scenario that was a mismatch of height and speed. Wouldn't drop any for a player that missed preseason just yet.

Can we get that bloke from last year to do a Rohan for nothing and Dahlhaus for free vid?

Criticism of Savs game valid but missing the mark for a 10 game KPF. I would expect Stewart to move on from some of his execution errors as otherwise he was still Stewart.

It's just semi unbelievable that we beat the grand finalists, who have added Moore, Elliott, and Beams since coming so close, and that we did so at a venue we play badly, with pressure from 80k oppo fans, and a huge contingent of sub 50 gamers.

Keep the lid firmly on for now but I like the direction this is heading

Now geelong are in a position where Clark, Constable, Sav, Miers, Henry, atkins, MOC need and deserve games.

100% this. Reward the effort from tonight. I wouldn't consider dropping a player for someone who missed preseason after that. We can afford to keep the taller backline next week at Kardinia.

If Bews is available then i would consider bringing him in for a run with role on Betts in rd3, possibly for kolo bit depends on the crows fwd line

 

[DangerHere]

Forward pressure the key, amazing win.

 

[BIGANT]

Ugh please don't get me started on him. I have flat out hated the way he have needlessly shoehorned him back into our side the last could of years. Don't need him unless one or two out of Blics, Taylor or Kolo are injured or come out.

2e said pre-game on SEN he's atleast 2-3 week's away...maybe v hawks or giants.

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[thejester]

Unpopular opinions:
- Rohan good. Made heaps of contests and pressure was immense.
- Kolo not bad. Shocking in one contest (where DG broke the tackle and snapped the goal on his left) but otherwise hardly beaten. Certainly better than Stewart, for example.
- O’Connor was good. Great in the one on ones.

Thought Ratugolea and Henry were quite poor.

Rat looked like a guy not used to playing with a busted finger - he at least made stacks of contests, just couldn't grip the ball. Thought Henry was OK. Stewart had some terrible moments but it was generally a solid game.

Thought Kolo did well generally but clearly De Grey was not a great match up. Maybe he survives based on Harry having a busted eye.

 

[steady2]

Really gotta get the Kelly family & friends over to Geelong . The wife is the one they need to convince. Kelly B.O.G.

I'm definitely willing to cut Caitlin's lawn with nail scissors if necessary. Cook should do everything possible to keep that family in comfort and happiness, air tickets for their family every week if necessary, Tim is an absolute gun. Now, no more talk using the "L" word until the end of the season.

 

[Turbocat]

Paddy was huge all game but none more so than the last.


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He had 11 p to half time... a different game from him..not his most productive imo...but was more influential second half. A player of his standard ..he should have had 3 goals. Someone needs to get him to polish his technique . I think he has taken feeling relaxed to the point of now the ball contact is a roll of the dice.