cats_09
Otters United
- Jun 21, 2011
- 65,375
- 137,129
- AFL Club
- Geelong
- Moderator
- #1
Apologies, but delayed preview threads are what happens when cats_09 works all day and dazbroncos ends up in Vegas for work
What started as a lovely Saturday afternoon in the sun turned into a shitshow by 5pm, as Fremantle won their 3rd consecutive match against us including the last 2 down at KP. Unlike the previous week where we seemingly forgot to turn up until the last quarter, Saturday afternoon was full of frustration as Cameron left his kicking boots at home, Blicavs who's barely missed a game across his career with 2017 being the last time he missed consecutive weeks appears done for the season, and Stewart decided to declare his love of Prince by playing kick to kick with those in purple...
We're currently sitting in 9th, half a game out of the finals and while some are leaning towards our season being over, there's still a faint heartbeat - though to resurrect things the task doesn't get any easier this week as we face second place Port Adelaide, a team that beat us to the tune of 38 points barely 6 weeks ago. While a match at KP could be seen to be favouring us, it is a venue we have lost at twice this season already and with Port Adelaide currently on their own 3 game losing streak, we should expect they'll come out breathing fire as they try to find their earlier season form as they head into finals
We know for certain that Geelong will be without king utility Mark Blicavs and Tommy Hawkins, both of whom suffered hamstring injuries of varying grades, while there was also reports of Holmes with a potential ankle issue and Bowes with a hand/finger injury. Can imagine that this coming Thursday night, the team selection announcement will be more eagerly anticipated than in recent times we wait to see who gets the call up and what magnets get shuffled around on the whiteboard, with the main question being debated, "Who will support Rhys in the ruck" - could we see a similar situation to Saturday afternoon with Chuck to reprise that role and provide a bit of grunt & speed from the contest?
It's also now known that our opponents will be missing a couple of key players with both Aliir Aliir and Lachie Jones entering concussion protocols - reports are that neither player has actually failed their SCAT5 tests, but rather they've presented with concussion symptoms and the team is taking the cautious approach...
We all know that the Geelong Football Club will never say die, that they won't roll over and play dead for the last few weeks of the season and instead will continue to push their case for finals and put themselves in a position to compete until such time that the mathematics work against them - after a couple of shit weeks we want to see the players come out on Saturday night breathing fire, we want to see them switched on from the start, take no prisoners where as a pack we hunt not just the ball but also the opposition and make them earn every damn touch
But most of all, we want it to be fun - I know now all will agree, but when we see the players smiling and enjoying themselves out on the field is when we see them playing at their best. We've seen a bit of tension on field over recent weeks, a bit of finger pointing and waving when things aren't going so well - shit will happen, mistakes will be made and that's regardless if the team is sitting 18th & aiming to win the Harley Reid cup, or sitting at the top of the ladder where're they're assured of playing finals. We need to see an ability to move on from those mistakes & turn our focus to the next passage, we want to see encouragement & support in both the good and bad times, and we want to see the 23 guys who run our in the Hoops on Saturday night take pride in wearing the guernsey
We also want to see a win for Chris Scott in game #306 as coach as he breaks the record for longest serving coach of our great club
Bring on Saturday night and show the league that we've still got a pulse and we aren't to be taken easy over the last month of the home & away season
What started as a lovely Saturday afternoon in the sun turned into a shitshow by 5pm, as Fremantle won their 3rd consecutive match against us including the last 2 down at KP. Unlike the previous week where we seemingly forgot to turn up until the last quarter, Saturday afternoon was full of frustration as Cameron left his kicking boots at home, Blicavs who's barely missed a game across his career with 2017 being the last time he missed consecutive weeks appears done for the season, and Stewart decided to declare his love of Prince by playing kick to kick with those in purple...
We're currently sitting in 9th, half a game out of the finals and while some are leaning towards our season being over, there's still a faint heartbeat - though to resurrect things the task doesn't get any easier this week as we face second place Port Adelaide, a team that beat us to the tune of 38 points barely 6 weeks ago. While a match at KP could be seen to be favouring us, it is a venue we have lost at twice this season already and with Port Adelaide currently on their own 3 game losing streak, we should expect they'll come out breathing fire as they try to find their earlier season form as they head into finals
We know for certain that Geelong will be without king utility Mark Blicavs and Tommy Hawkins, both of whom suffered hamstring injuries of varying grades, while there was also reports of Holmes with a potential ankle issue and Bowes with a hand/finger injury. Can imagine that this coming Thursday night, the team selection announcement will be more eagerly anticipated than in recent times we wait to see who gets the call up and what magnets get shuffled around on the whiteboard, with the main question being debated, "Who will support Rhys in the ruck" - could we see a similar situation to Saturday afternoon with Chuck to reprise that role and provide a bit of grunt & speed from the contest?
It's also now known that our opponents will be missing a couple of key players with both Aliir Aliir and Lachie Jones entering concussion protocols - reports are that neither player has actually failed their SCAT5 tests, but rather they've presented with concussion symptoms and the team is taking the cautious approach...
We all know that the Geelong Football Club will never say die, that they won't roll over and play dead for the last few weeks of the season and instead will continue to push their case for finals and put themselves in a position to compete until such time that the mathematics work against them - after a couple of shit weeks we want to see the players come out on Saturday night breathing fire, we want to see them switched on from the start, take no prisoners where as a pack we hunt not just the ball but also the opposition and make them earn every damn touch
But most of all, we want it to be fun - I know now all will agree, but when we see the players smiling and enjoying themselves out on the field is when we see them playing at their best. We've seen a bit of tension on field over recent weeks, a bit of finger pointing and waving when things aren't going so well - shit will happen, mistakes will be made and that's regardless if the team is sitting 18th & aiming to win the Harley Reid cup, or sitting at the top of the ladder where're they're assured of playing finals. We need to see an ability to move on from those mistakes & turn our focus to the next passage, we want to see encouragement & support in both the good and bad times, and we want to see the 23 guys who run our in the Hoops on Saturday night take pride in wearing the guernsey
We also want to see a win for Chris Scott in game #306 as coach as he breaks the record for longest serving coach of our great club
Bring on Saturday night and show the league that we've still got a pulse and we aren't to be taken easy over the last month of the home & away season
cheers, may the best team (clearly Geelong) win.
