Absolutely. Could have been a lot lot worse though - Port missed many opportunities.
Preview Semi Final - Geelong vs GWS, Fri 3 Sept @ 1950 (AEST), Optus Oval
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BlakeyNoFlakey
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I find myself having little enthusiasm for this game. Maybe I'll start getting into the finals vibe when the game starts tonight. Maybe it's just lockdown getting to me. I still feel so let down by last week's performance. It wasn't just a case of a better team winning on the night. To see them play that poorly has shaken my faith in this team. Even if we win this week, I really can't see the Cats beating Melbourne in the prelim.
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I do get this, but there was also a similar vibe after the 2019 and 2020 QF losses. Yet in those semis and then prelims we put in decent performances - the Richmond prelim minus Hawkins and Duncan we simply threw a bunch of first half chances away and then capitulated second half. But the point is, there's no reason they couldn't turn things around again.
- Dec 11, 2009
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There's not, but they need to be far more composed, and prepared to work much harder, if they are to do so.
Just how bad do they want it??
We've heard the talk, now let's see if those words are hollow or fair dinkum.
Yes.I think most of us ,barring the one eyed, feel a bit the same.
Still, some sort of morbid interest though. Dahlmouse being dropped is long overdue. Too little too late though, and the usual end of year wobbles
and uncertainty.
The difference these days is that I fully expect us to lose finals, and am not really busted up if we do. Unlike the the glory days when I expected us to win everything so each finals victory is an unexpected bonus.
46,000 tickets sold, fair effort from the wa locals, whose side do we think they'll be on?
Considering all 5000 Giants fans are locked in NSW, we might even see some Cats jumpers in the crowd.
Jhye Clark 13
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I'm of the belief if we win tonight we'll beat Melbourne. I'm just not confident about tonight. GWS seem to have our measure.
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So if we win tonight you're quietly confident we can make the GF?
Idk why but I feel quite optimistic for tonights games despite our latest results.
I think we've had our s*it pushed in too often lately and we've still have some gun powder left to advance further.
Lets face it 22 players and 1 coach all will be judged tonight, That's why we will win if we don't a storm will be coming
Don’t disagree with this.
I think tonight is a much bigger hurdle than general consensus. We have lost 3 from 4.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Hawkins on his bike up around the wings. Cameron the same. Cameron has to forget about the hamstring and go flat out. Run up and get goals going back.
Rohan played very deep at full forward and given one KPI - goals. He is not suited to defensive forward role, just run out and jump at ball. He is a dumb footballer, but athletically gifted, keep it simple for him. Esava also deep.
Maxy Holmes will emerge in front of our eyes tonight.
As big a loss as Greene is for the Giants, there's a fair argument to be made that their team, even without him, is better than the one that beat us only a few weeks ago. Some big ins for them since that game.
Isaac Norm Smith
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I agree. I'm more worried about GWS than Melbourne. I think we match up well on Melbourne, and I think the bigger and wider expanses of Optus oval will really help us against the Dees. I'm quite confident we can beat Melbourne.
In terms of tonight, we really do need to lower our eyes and hit up leading targets in our F50. It's a tall forward line, so just blindly bombing it in will result in GWS mopping up and getting us on the rebound. They're really fast and that type of rebound / transition footy is what will lose us the game IMO.
Hawkins and Cameron are at their best when the ball is put out in front of them, not on top of their heads. I do expect the more open ground will assist us in delivering the ball into space so Hawk,Cameron and Rohan can do their thing. But if we bomb it in or our foot skills are off, we could be in strife..
That is true for us too though. Dangerfield went off before the Giants kicked a goal. Cameron didn’t play. We did have Stewart though.
Isaac Norm Smith
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We also have Duncan back now. One game under his belt since returning, he should be better for the run too, and I thought he was pretty good last week, especially early when the heat was on.
catempire
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Speaking of which, I’m a little bit worried about second-up blues from Duncan.
I'm almost at a point where I just want something to be different to previous years. Maybe just scrape though in a tough contested game tonight? The story of our semi-finals usually involves an opponent who is not up for the challenge and we win in a canter - a false sign of hope. The most worrying thing for me is that the changes this week tell me that the MC are just guessing at who will be able to execute the plan for finals. Don't tell me for example that Sav was just a bit sore and that's why he wasn't playing the past few weeks. Don't tell me the plan all along was to bring Holmes in for the wide wings of Optus. Clearly, they've decided to move from a forward structure they thought would work in wk1 but didn't, to another very different one in wk2 which may work maybe for one week but then likely to fall apart the next.. We needed continuity to the team and structure starting way back in rounds 17-18 or thereabouts. In short. I feel ya. Hard to get enthusiastic.
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It seems to be a significant, and sudden, shift in thinking.
Perhaps the desperation of the situation has prompted the step away from the norm?
Isaac Norm Smith
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Yes you're right, historically the second game back is not great. I did have that in the back of my mind when I wrote the post
- Mar 14, 2009
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I'd prefer Duncan further up the ground for the most part. Our midfield was smashed last week. Our i50 entries were generally pressured and misdirected and created boundless opportunities for Port to counterattack. To address this, Mitch needs to be delivering the ball directly to our forwards.
Tuohy and Henderson are most likely to be the main conduits out of defence with the occasional help from Smith, Duncan and the remaining misfits; in that order.
With Blicavs relieved of ruck duties, he will likely pickup Hogan; Henry/Kolo will go to Himmelberg/Sproule. Henderson to be 3rd man up / loose man in defence.
Yeah me too. Incidentally there is an article on the afl site ranking all our players on how they perform between week 1 and week 2 finals over the past 10 years or so. (Yeah, we've lost that many QF to do statistics on this shit!) Duncan is one of the one's who normally improves the most in second week. Who is top of the list I hear you ask? Wait for it.. Luke Dahlhaus.
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That's an indictment on the rest of them.
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Now that's what I call a - wait for it - "trend"
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