Preview Round 19: Geelong V Brisbane, Battle of the Cats - Sat 22nd July 4:35pm @ GABBA

[Footy_Fan2007]

Well if Rohan is out that is terribly dissappointing - and a massive out - against a quick team

Lions undefeated in 9 games this year at the Gabba - defeated Coll by 33 and Rich by 81 they were the scary ones

The problem for Geel is Bris from the 1st second of the game to the final bell will play and attempt to play - quick play on football - Geel dont like that at all . What the Cats have done consistently this year in games - is play one scintilating qtr ( or even a half against Coll ) and then just try to keep the opposition at arms length - thats not going to work against Bris

The danger players for Bris - Cameron - he has allways been quick - but he looks strong and explosive quick- Bews is underdone so i dont know which Geel player goes onto him - but they are in for a hell of a game . Fletcher a young player - he is also quick and a beautiful kick

I just keep coming back to that recent Rich game - Bolton couldnt get a kick - their normal reliable defenders - Bolton - Grimes - Vaustin - were under seige from the word go - and they got flogged by 14 goals

I dont think it will be quite as bad for Geel - a win would be fantastic - but even anything 3 goal or under loss would be a passable/ok effort

Lions will be stinging after that loss - where they played exceptionally well for 3.5 qtrs they are 9 from 9 at the Gabba - and i cant see Geel getting close to them

A margin - i reckon about 50-60 pts

Lions losing in that fashion last week might completely destroy them mentally.
They looked absolutely terrified in the final 5 minutes last week. Like deer in headlights stuff.
Sheer panic.
I’m not sure you can turn that around so quickly. It’s ok to say “oh we will just play out the game this time”. A lot of things come into play.
Teams don’t just say “ah we’ll be right, let’s just not go into our shells this time”.
It takes a lot of work to turn around mental demons. Trust me I know.

You have the reigning premiers with a sniff now. They can smell blood. - Confidence>>>>insecurity.
Brisbane will have doubt. Geelong confidence.
Losing the way they did then watching us completely destroy Essendon surely won’t fill them with confidence.

Maybe Brisbane will turn it around. Maybe they can’t.
It seems to me that they do have some kind of mental weakness.
It’s a 50/50 game for mine at the Gabba. A loss wouldn’t surprise me but I highly doubt we get hammered. We just aren’t that type of team.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

The GABBA holds no fears for us.

 

[PzBlinky]

How do you think Bowes would go?

Or for something of a left field option, how about Atkins has a shift in defence - we know he played there prior to his midfield shift, but maybe with all his learnt over the past 12 months he could bring something to a small defender role for a night

I'd probably go Bowes first, O'Connor second, and Atkins a very reluctant third.

Bowes - has the flexibility to play back and is a pretty good kick, which is always useful coming out of D50 (though I would give zero craps if he didn't get a single possession so long as he shut Cameron down)

O'Connor - not sure his best role is playing on small agile forwards. Bolton has torched him a couple of times (though he does that to a lot of players) and after last week, I almost expect him to go to Neale

Atkins - the best way to keep Cameron out of the game is to make sure the ball doesn't get down there and pushing Atkins back feels like we lose too much firepower in the middle

 

[Gee Class Loco]

Are you saying Brisbane at their best beat Geelong at their best….? That’s a unique thought process…. Hmm …. Interesting!

At the GABBA yes at the G or indeed Kardinia Park NO.
There is not much difference between us TBH.
Other than Collingwood who are seriously top notch this year.
Power Lions Dees and Us are pretty much the same.
It's not just the team you play, it is where, when and your personnel available at the time.

 

[Gee Class Loco]

The GABBA holds no fears for us.

Fear is controllable.
Lady luck, the bounce of the ball and the rub of the green is not so.
Have all 3, then we will win.
GiddyUp Catters!

 

[Sire of Claude]

Best way for us to counter Charlie is for us to win the centre clearances. This will be tough against their very strong mid-field but we can be encouraged by the form of Holmes, Atkins and Bruhn last week. And O Connor can hassle Neale throughout the game.

And straight shooting for goal will help too.

 

[D BRIDGE]

I will just lol at Brisbane if they lose this game.

It will really put a hole in their supporter's belief in the team.

We have handled them well in big games over the years, even on this ground and it just looks like they have stepped up this season and we have obviously not been great... So if they are ever going to get us it should be this year.

Thus I will laugh my head off and continue to call them pretenders if they lose it.

Surely they are due... But I'm hoping they continue to fail and really have them wonder if they just are not up to it once again.

 

[Jimmy Yamazaki]

I think O'Connor will be tagging Neale this week along with Atkins like they just did to Merrett.

IF no Bews, then I think Zuthrie should go to him.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

If Bews doesn't get up we might see Kolo on Cameron

Kolo has defended Cameron well before. But he has put on a fair few kgs since then.

 

[standupand]

I will just lol at Brisbane if they lose this game.

It will really put a hole in their supporter's belief in the team.

We have handled them well in big games over the years, even on this ground and it just looks like they have stepped up this season and we have obviously not been great... So if they are ever going to get us it should be this year.

Thus I will laugh my head off and continue to call them pretenders if they lose it.

Surely they are due... But I'm hoping they continue to fail and really have them wonder if they just are not up to it once again.

Stay with the spirit of '22. This is still about us, not them. No rubbing their noses in it.

 

[Grimoz]

King writing us off again.... the flags a given now...what a flog

Credit to the Cats, but the flag is probably out of reach says King

“I’m still not a fan of anytime that finishes outside the four.”

www.sen.com.au

 

[Chinacats]

I will just lol at Brisbane if they lose this game.

It will really put a hole in their supporter's belief in the team.

We have handled them well in big games over the years, even on this ground and it just looks like they have stepped up this season and we have obviously not been great... So if they are ever going to get us it should be this year.

Thus I will laugh my head off and continue to call them pretenders if they lose it.

Surely they are due... But I'm hoping they continue to fail and really have them wonder if they just are not up to it once again.

Yeah all it takes is 3-4 of their players to question their own credentials of winning it to have it seep through the psyche of the team… with last weeks result they could be on a downer …

 

[Chinacats]

King writing us off again.... the flags a given now...what a flog

Credit to the Cats, but the flag is probably out of reach says King

“I’m still not a fan of anytime that finishes outside the four.”

www.sen.com.au

He has been consistent all along… don’t finish top 4 can’t win it… I don’t think it’s again actually. He tipped us to win it last year and he was right.

 

[Chinacats]

Oops should have read more pages, you said what i around about implied after. Their good wins to hike them up the board were very early, but so were St Kildas.
I will add that I'm always suspicious of a side that can't win away from home. It's not like they have a cheat (sigh) shaped ground, humid conditions in winter or any other advantage that doesn't translate to opposition grounds. Surely travel in this day and age is no excuse.
I know it's been the bane of the SA teams existence, but tough luck, we all travel 6-8 gigs (Tigers travel more apparently).
Like i said too, have a look at who they have actually done in this amazing record of home wins.

Home % around 174% and away % around 104%. Geelong’s is the same.

 

[Chinacats]

That is absolute total nonsense - it is a football forum and you are allowed to give you actual opinion

In last years GF Preview - i tipped the Cats by 6 goals plus - and one poster called me an over confident idiot - or words to that affect . I thought the Cats would easily beat the Swans - i gave logical reasons and they did

The Lions ( who grow a leg in Qld ) and are 9 from 9 at the Gabba - and nothing stings like a recent loss - re Melb . I think they will annihilate Geel - and the logical reason i base that on - is that recent Rich game - where the Tigers went in with decent form and got absolutely demolished

Can give your actual opinion on a football forum??? Hmm ….interesting…

 

[Grimoz]

He has been consistent all along… don’t finish top 4 can’t win it… I don’t think it’s again actually. He tipped us to win it last year and he was right.

He does it every year, of course last year he said we would win it, we were miles ahead of anyone else but the years before that he was constantly writing us off before finals even started.

 

[standupand]

King writing us off again.... the flags a given now...what a flog

Credit to the Cats, but the flag is probably out of reach says King

“I’m still not a fan of anytime that finishes outside the four.”

www.sen.com.au

One thing's for sure - he's going to be disappointed when he turns up to see Geelong play Brisbane at the Gabba "under the Friday night lights".. The game is Saturday afternoon.

 

[BORIS332]

We've only played one top 8 (current ladder) side outside of Victoria this year, and that was Port - a game we lost by six goals. This will be a big test given the Lions haven't lost at the Gabba this season.

 

[allrighty]

How do you think Bowes would go?

Or for something of a left field option, how about Atkins has a shift in defence - we know he played there prior to his midfield shift, but maybe with all his learnt over the past 12 months he could bring something to a small defender role for a night

I like Bowes but he is too slow for CC. Atkins? I did wonder about that myself, might be robbing Peter and all of that.

Who knows the club might have been sitting on Bews to prime him for this one.

 

[Generalissimo]

Best way to deal with CC is to win the midfield. If the ball doesn't get down to their forward line he's not going to be able to cause much damage.

 

[dazbroncos]

I think we keep MOC and Atkins in the guts.
MOC / Blitz to run with Neale and negate as best as possible..

Leaving Zuthrie to go with CC - and help Zuth by limiting the supply as has been suggested - which MOC in the guts tagging Neale will help.

GO Catters

 

[moond0g]

I like Bowes but he is too slow for CC. Atkins? I did wonder about that myself, might be robbing Peter and all of that.

Who knows the club might have been sitting on Bews to prime him for this one.

Atkins also slow, and firmly entrenched in our midfield now.

Likely Zuthrie or O'Connor if Bews not fit.

 

[moond0g]

I think those hoping Esava doesn't play this game will be disappointed.

Without opening the debate of the best balance of our backline again. If he were truly 'dropped' last week, he surely would have played VFL. Based on this I'd say he's likely to come in and they'll manage someone else.

Who goes out is interesting. They'll probably continue to rotate our tall defenders. But SDK would be particularly useful against Brisbane's talls; Henry has just started to work himself into some good form; Kolo only missed the week prior.

 

[Vdubs]

I don’t mind Scott’s comments.. it’s not like he was stretching like the “mission accomplished” statement. We are top dog and should consider ourselves the danger.
To me the players believe it too now, I think previously they always liked to believe our best is good enough but always had self doubt to an extent due to the many late season failures. Last years flag changes that.

Agreed, but if we are indeed the danger, we should be winning this week. And that is going to be our biggest 23 test so far

 

[Kobe Gryant]

In a weird way I almost feel like we need to wipe the last 3-4 months of football from our minds.

The ONLY reason that this game, or any game for the rest of the year would hold any fears is if we're 2023 Geelong, not 2022 Geelong.

But what if we aren't? What if this has all been planned and the bravado coming out of the club is legitimate? What if we're heating up when it matters most and we're now our '22 selves?

With a mature list, we know that over the last few years it's never been about playing the whole season. It's been about being the best team in the last two months of the year. That's what wins you premierships, and it's been forced even more this year through injury.

Is that not exactly what we're doing? Maybe a shift of mindset is required from us as supporters, we're looking at the '22 Cats right now, and it's time to bring the swagger and belief back.