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Animal Enclosure wrote:Geelong were a bit off today...expect them to be back gunning next week.
One thing is for sure if our midfield is as unforgivingly lazy as it was on Friday then we will get torn apart.
I hope NDS gets a job & goes head to head with Bartel & shows he is capable of stopping a champion player while influencing the game in our favour as well.
I dont think the Cats were too off today - seemed to me (without viewing stats) they had a lot of the ball - but Melbourne had a plan to play them one on one.
And it was quite entertaining - especially when 23166 of the 23566 crowd went quiet and were rubbishing the umpiring - I love that at the Cattery. A lot can be picked up at that ground, as per AAMI, about the game.
The Cats played a lot of very good quality football but were held accountable - their mids and Melbourne's lack of skilful quality disposal won the game.
They will cop a big rev-up this week, but they are beatable if played a certain way. Had they come up against the Hawks/Pies today and been manned up the same way, they would have lost. They would not have countered it by depending on the lack of skill of the opposition, whihc is what I felt they did today.
I'm more sure of beating Geelong this week than I was at beating the Dogs last week.
Teams that have 'new' gameplans have really killed us, as we haven't had the chance to analyse and adapt our gameplan to counter it.
For example, we broke down the bulldogs flood with ease, but we weren't ready at all for them going man on man, and we paniced, didn't know what to do, and crumbled under pressure.
I don't know how accurate my views are - but watching today's scores via the Game Day Live website, it seemed to me that Melbourne were keeping up with Geelong somewhat, maintaining a 10-20 point deficit until well into the fourth quarter when Geelong broke away. So my theory is, if a team like Melbourne can do it, surely we can go that one step further seeing we're a much better side. I know it's too vague and simple to think of it like that though. But if somehow we can adopt a similar type of gameplan as the Dees and just execute it with more skill, then maybe, just maybe we can pull it off.
On the other hand, sub-consciously Geelong probably walked out on the field today thinking they had an easy win so they didn't have to try. Because of receiving such a scare, next week they should come out all guns blazing so in any case it's a worry.
I can only hope that Friday night was a wakeup call for the Saints. They need to play 4 quarters rather than just 1. They need to bury teams rather than just establish a bit of a lead and defend it. Hopefully they'll realize they're playing the benchmark team and give 100% and have a real go at it.
Melbourne got away well and should have led by a couple at 1/4 time.
Their disposal is woeful though - let them down many times.
Geelong showed blitzes of brilliance which really won it for them, but the Dees kept getting back into it just by playing them 18 v 18, 1 v 1 at a time.
You never got the feel Melbourne was going to win, but they gave them a big scare. Maybe that's a real bad thing for us next week.
Also there was a breeze which may not have been picked up on TV that favoured the Cats in the 2nd and 4th Q's, so never felt like they were going to be beaten.
Match-ups are going to be most interesting this week. They have some big critters in their side. Don't worry about our height forward, they are a tall side and have some blokes who can play much taller than they are.
I always have the attitude that we can beat anybody on the day.
Its football and anything can happen. Geelong are not premiers for nothing. A great side, playing with confidence and playing as a TEAM.
Its a tough challenge for sure but like the original post I feel optimistic (but then I do EVERY game!!!! )
thejiggingsaint wrote: I always have the attitude that we can beat anybody on the day.
Its football and anything can happen. Geelong are not premiers for nothing. A great side, playing with confidence and playing as a TEAM.
Its a tough challenge for sure but like the original post I feel optimistic (but then I do EVERY game!!!! )
"I knew that Melbourne would come here to play. They would have watched us unfurling the flag and I know Dean (Bailey) would have been winding them up to come out and hit us as hard as they could, so it was always going to be a difficult day. We had no illusions about that.
"I'm glad we didn't start well and that we didn't play that well in the first half because it gave us something to work on in the second half. We certainly fixed up a lot of our game style and processes in the second half and it was a good build in to next week's game against St Kilda."
Hmmmmmm...........they definitely are psyching up for this week, also Ottens may be back, Mackie will be back...maybe Gamble also.
We better beat them or this place will go into meltdown.
People, be reasonable. Its round three. There is plenty of time to rectify things, plenty of time to turn it around,
We dont' need to sack coaches or players. We don't need to jump down each other's throats. We don't need to fret and worry about how little members we have at the moment (some people can't afford memberships, did you ever think of that?).
My gut feeling is I think we'll get thrashed next week Under 10 goals if we are lucky - Geelong are a damn good side and we are struggling - they ought ot kick us while we are down. Call me pessimistic or whatever but I know most of you have the same gut feeling - most of you feel the same way and are hence dreading next week.
But I do concede we have a chance to win. We might be able to be competitive.
But if we don't win, despite feeling sure it wasn't going to happen in the first club, imagine just imagine what this palce will be like then. Then we lose to essendon and Port and we are 2-4. More cause to worry, but still far from season over.
Fwiw, I think we will be 3-3, which is where we were the last two years and we weren't able to improve on that in either year, but this year we might.
it's way too early to start worrying and way too early to start so many thrreads demanding the coach or players be sacked.
no egan...can milburn take a player instead of running off him??? (he does it bloody well)
hunt is a weak link...he might be a decent kick but he cant get the ball if schnieder and milne have it...hunt is not quick...he might be strong/chunky but big f'ing deal
put a tag on wojo...his run and carry hurt us badly last time..although it might not be necessary as he is coming back form injury and might be regaining a bit of his speed
gram to stevie j...i think its a good match up...gram's defensive skills were quite good on friday evening (looking positively in the midst of the terror)...size they look the same...gram has the pace to burn when its safe to run off him and go for a bit of a stretch
it would be good to have goose back this week either playing forward or back...bit of a wildcard considering how long he has been out
the geelong forwards will not win it for them...their mids will...
could accountable shut down footy work???
we have to be precise with our skills when we have clear opportunities to score...because if we don't they will hurt us
we were down and out against the eagles and look what happened....
I always have the attitude that we can beat anybody on the day.
)
( God help me)
