in the last 10 weeks, we have added an element of risk and run to our game and that has made us an overall better team- and that has shown in our results- with a win over top 8 teams hawthorn, adelaide and north melbourne, as well has a handy 108 point win which never would've been achieved under the game plan of last year.
another interesting point is our tackle count. it seems that since ross lyon called us 'mentally and physically soft' we have been tackling left right and centre, which is an incredible feat. in fact, if you look at statistics from last round, we outtackled geelong in our game compared to theirs (and we both played top 8 sides- adelaide and north melbourne). our ruckman (king and kossi) have been achieving a high tackle count for the last few weeks. if they can put their bodies on the line, why cant the other 22? collingwood beat geelong because they were hard. they tackled. they gave it their all and got the win, and our tackling has been impressive of late, so this should definately continue if we expect a win.
i believe the key to us beating geelong is all in the risks we take. when we beat hawthorn, the players said that ross told the boys at half time to "lower their eyes", adding run and allowing them to get get the ball into the 50. in numerous interviews they stated this as their turn around in the game- so why not emulate that game plan against geelong. afterall, geelong beat hawthorn by 10 a week after we beat hawthorn by 30.
i think i must be one of the few people here who think we have a legit chance of beat the cats and then, hopefully, make the grand final. we just need to keep playing the way we've been playing, but hopefully make a 4QTR effort.
when we last played the cats, we were not nearly as good as we are now. and, to be fair, though we only lost by 40 points- we kept the score high, meaning that our fowards got plenty of the ball all game. nobody thinks we can win, mike sheahan said last night on the couch that we were a chance, but that chance was only because we were turning up to play (as all teams have a chance if they are out on the ground). we've made it there for a reason and i think if we play our best football, we can get close
