Cat observations

[stevie]

No, its not a pet advice thread!

Went to the Suns/Geelong game on Saturday night and thought I'd put down some observations I gained first hand.

Mooney is just about gone as a player. Ok, he's still worth a game, but he seems to have none of the rage anyway. Pinch hit as a ruckman, and is used a s a decoy in the fwd line. Half the time, you wouldn't know he's out there;

Kelly has stepped in Ablett's absence. His role is just as important to the team as Selwood. They move the ball through him, via the centre when coming from defense;

Johnson and Podsiadly are the main targets up fwd - the other players seem to back Johnson's ability to mark, or at least bring the ball to ground a lot. A lot of the time he got the ball from almost nothing. Stokes is also a decoy, leading to the pocket when the corridor is blocked. Selwood and Ling also drift down to create a fwd option;

Scarlett and Milburn still don't like the quick high balls to a pack - the first qtr, the Suns young fwds were all over the place, and their mids were bombing it in. Still the best option against the Cats backline.

Overall, Geelong were under immense pressure in the first half. But the Suns tired in the third, starting making errors and that was the difference. Against a better team though, the Cats might've not kicked away.

We match up very well against the Cats, regardless of our form - its oone of those things in footy, where certain teams match up against other sides.

Anyway, forgive me the indulgence of this - i just felt like doing it! Hopefully no one will post saying ' who cares'!!

Had a great night at the footy, after the saints won! Was letting everyone around me know about it too!!

[InkerSaint]

Not a wasted effort at all - quite timely considering we face them in three weeks' time.

I'd love to think we are a chance against them. The fact is they have hit their straps since round 1 while we've been all over the map.

We'll learn a great deal about where we are at between now and then. You can't ask for better than that.

[dragit]

thanks stevie,
from watching the tellie… all i could think was…
"imagine what GC are going to be like in 2 years?"
Jesus they are already very competitive against the top side, just lacking endurance and practice, wonder how long until we see a 'GC GWS GF'?

[Thinline]

"imagine what GC are going to be like in 2 years?"

UNIVERSALLY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY DESPISED.

It's all fluff, bubble and excitement now.

In three years names like Swallow, Smith, Day, Weller and Lynch will have the same kind of bile-rising effect that names like Sumich, Worsfold, and Jakovich once did.

[dragit]

Andy D "hey guys, we want to bring in 2 new clubs, we were thinking they could…
sign up 12 of the best 17 YO's
have picks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 AFL draft
rookies 1,2,3,4,5
access to one player from every club (10)
an extra 1mil salary cap
zoning concessions

how does all that sound?"

16 clubs "yeah no worries, sounds good"

WTF - back the truck up… what has happened?

[gringo]

I would still back us for a 50/50 game against the Cats. They are not that outstanding and I would think the Pies are still going to go harder in the finals. They haven't blown us away for years. That said the pies could be vulnerable this year too. Take anyone easy this season and your gone. We could have been in a different place now if we had got over the Cats in round one and we hadn't gone into the Tigers match thinking they would just roll over again.

[stevie]

Oh, forgot to mention that Podsiadly played deep for this game. I think cos the ground is smaller.
He normally plays up the ground more at the G.

My thoughts on the Suns? I think they'll be top four in three or four years.

[White Winmar]

The vast majority of football media has written us off with the use of that tired old footy cliche, "The premiership window is shut". The cats are far worse of than us, list wise, both in the medium and long term. This year really is their last chance to win one for a long while and I'm not even convinced they will go close in 2011. How are they going to replace Scarlett, Corey, Enright, Kelly, Ling, Ottens, Mooney, Chapman, Podsiadly et al, over the next couple of years?

If there are others over 30 anyone can think of, whack them on here. They are facing a very gloomy decade. I know they have a few good kids coming through, but how will they replace the above mentioned core? Simple answer is they won't be able to.